The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-28
LARGEST GROUP
OF QUAKERS TO
GATHER MONDAY
Indiana Yearly Meeting at
Richmond Is 100 Years
Old.

UlO.
F.H fa,s SDcci0l
RICHMOND, Ind, Sept. a.
When the Indiana Yearly Meeting
OF the Society Of Friends opens its
lO9th annual conference here Mon
day in Timothy Nicholson Memorial
church. it will follow an order Of
business which differs little from
the program set up by the founders
Of the body, organized in a log
cabin here in 1920 by Friends who
had come to Indiana from Georgia
and he Carolinas because they were
dissa tisfied with the institution Of
slavery and wanted to live on free
soil. The session will end Oct. Z.
The first Friends came to Wayne
county in 1906 and the glowing re-
ports about the fertility of the soil
and the beauty of the country,
especially those sent by David
Hoover. who called it the Promised
Land" brought many hundred from
the south to this section of Indiana.
Soon the number of Friends here
attained such proportions that the
local meeting asked separate or
ganization and by 1920 the denom-
ination was strong enough to Or
GAME its own yearly meeting.
Active in Missionary Work
Indiana Yearly Meeting has alr
ways been a strong missionary body.
A number of other yearly meetings,
western in Indiana, and those be-
yond the Mississippi river, originally
were constituent parts Of Indiana
meetings.
At present the Indiana meeting Is
made up of the following quarterly
meetings, one in Ohio, one in Wash
ington and one in Michigan: Dublin,
Eastern, Fairmount, Marion, Trav-
erse City, New Garden, Penn, Port
land, Puget Sound, Spiceland, Van
Vert, Wabash, Walnut Ridge, West
Branch, Whitewater and Winches-
ter.
Despite the formation Of other
meetings from the membership of
the Indiana lodge, it still is the
largest Quaker group body in this
country, with approximately 1900
members. who last year raised about
$685. 900 for various religious pur-
poses. Earlham college here is
jointly owned and managed by In
diana and Western Yearly Meet
ings, both in this state. Indiana
meeting also is vitality interested in
the Five Years Meeting, with which
thirteen yearly meetings in various
parts of the United States and
Canada are affiliated. The head
quarters of this body are located in
its own building here.
EarIham Instructor Aids
One of the first items of business
Of the yearly meeting will be the
selection of a presiding clerk. Pro-
fessor Arthur NJ. Charles, head of
the modern language department of
Markham college, has served in this
capacity for the last year. The
nominating committee will suggest
the officers for the year, as no con-
tests take place on the floor Of the
yearly meeting. Assisting Profess
sor Charles will be Isadore w. Kirck
of Richmond, recording clerk; Pro-
fessor E. P. Trueblood Of Richmond
and Edith j. Hunt of Charlottesville,
reading clerk, and w. P. Bond of
Wabash, announcing clerk. The
conference will be opened formally
by Professor Charles.
On the day preceding the con-
vention a meeting on ministry and
oversight is conducted. In this
session the spiritual condition of
various congregations and quarter
" meetings are discussed. and
digest Of reports and discussions is
presented to the yearly meeting.
Herman o. Miles of Richmond and
Edna R. Redick of Lynn are clerks
for this session. Charles Carpenter
of Richmond has been treasurer of
the yearly meeting more than forty
years.
All sessions will be hela in the
Nicholson church. In more than a
century's history the yearly meet
ing has met elsewhere only twice;
once in Marion in 1908, and in
Muncie a few years ago, while the
present church was in process of
construction. The yearly meeting
lists I'll ministers.
Letters From Abroad
One of the interesting features of
the meetings is the epistles which
are received from other yearly meet
ings and from those in England and
Ireland, in which progress and pres
ent problems are reported and dis
cussed.
Mission work. temperance and in
ternational peace have been ques-
lions in which the yearly meeting
has been interested for decades. The
impetus for penal reform in Indiana
was given through agitation in the
yearly meeting for more humane
treatment of prisoners, and work
Of the late Timothy Nicholson in
this direction was result Of his
association with the yearly meet
ing'S committee. Nicholson was a
presiding clerk of Indiana yearly
meeting for a number of years and
one Of the first members Of the
state board of charities.
Development of the international
peace movement probably will be
discussed at length this year, in
view Of the recent announcement
~ rreeiSe,,+ IToOvar of a desire for