The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-04
0uakers Are to Observe the
Centennial of the Founding
OF the First State Monthly
Meeting.
Whitewater MEETING
ORGANIZED IN 1909
Observation Of the Event viii
Be Held in Richmond While
The Yearly Meeting Is in
Progress.

The first established monthly meet
nng Of Friends in Indiana was White
water monthly meeting of Richmond,
which was organized on September
30. 1900, and the one hundredth ami
iversary of the event will be appropri-
sately celebrated in Richmond this
month during the time that the Indi-
ana yearly meeting is in session. The
program will include addresses by
several prominent Friends in Ameri-
ca, among them being Rufus Jones, of
philadelphia, editor OF the American
Friend. one of the most widely known
sQuakers In the United States.
The anniversary exercises will be
held In North A street Friends
church. The congregation of this
church is identified with what is COM
monly called the Hicksite branch OF
Friends, a smaller body and of less
influence at this time than the ortho-
dOx wing. The separation in the
Friends church many years ago as
result Of slight doctrinal differences
has been matter of regret to leaders
In both branches and 1t has been pre-
dicted In recent years that the time is
not far distant when a reunion will be
brought about.
When ouakers Came to Indiana.
The holding of the anniversary ex-
ercises in the Hicksite church is sig
nificant, for the program will include
speakers of both Hicksite and ortho-
dox bodies. Quakerism in Wayne
county precedes the founding Of White
water monthly meeting a little more
than three years. It has been just
1O8 years ago this month Of August
that David Hoover and few other of
the real pioneers Of eastern Indiana,
who had but recently come into the
them Friends, were joined by jeremiah
Cox. As soon as he had built a cabin
for his abode he began preparing for
an organization Of q Friends meet
Ing"
In November Of that year. 1906, the
small number Of Quakers in the set
Element gathered at the home of Cox
and held services. Johr Simpson, &C
cording to recorded history of the
event, preached the initial sermon.
In the following summer. 1907,
regularly organized Friends subordi-
nate meeting was brought about and
weekly services held In q cabin on the
land of jeremiah Cox. On September
30, 1909, Miami quarterly meeting es-
tablished Whitewater monthly meeting
and the little congregation organized
three years before now became a fac
tor in the affairs OF the Friends soci-
ETY. in the middle west. In 1915. nine
years after its establishment, 1t num-
bered nine hundred members and was
composed Of the following subordinate
meetings: Whitewater, West Grove.
Silver Creek, Middle Fork, Elkhor1
and Chester.
Society's Growth Has Been Steady.
The growth OF the society in this
section Of Indiana from that time has
been steady, though In the last fifty
years the numbers have not increased
with the rapidity that marked It's pro-
gress the first half Of the century.
Richmond owes its founding to
Friends, and its development in COM
mercial lines has in a great measure
been influenced by this denomination.
There can be no denial OF the fact that
Earlham college, the Quaker seat Of
learning, has had more to do with the
advancement OF Richmond in an edu-
cational way than any other cause.
Indiana yearly meeting. now the larg-
est and most powerful body of Friends