22 chapters
4 hour read
Selected Chapters
22 chapters
INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
Fourteen years ago the author came to Quaker Hill as a resident, and has spent at least a part of each of the intervening years in interested study of the locality. For ten of those years the fascination of the social life peculiar to the place was upon him. Yet all the time, and increasingly of late, the disillusionment which affects every resident in communities of this sort was awakening questions and causing regrets. Why does not the place grow? Why do the residents leave? What is the illusi
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE SOURCES OF THIS HISTORY.
THE SOURCES OF THIS HISTORY.
The sources of the history and descriptive sociology of Quaker hill are, first, the reminiscences of the older residents of the Hill, many of whom have died in the period under direct study in this paper; and second, the written records mentioned below. At no time was Quaker Hill a civil division, and the church records available were not kept with such accuracy as to give numerical results; so that statistical material is lacking. The written sources are: 1. The records of Oblong Meeting of the
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE LOCALITY.
THE LOCALITY.
In the hill country, sixty-two miles north of New York, and twenty-eight miles east of the Hudson River at Fishkill, lies Quaker Hill. It is the eastern margin of the town of Pawling, and its eastern boundary is the state line of Connecticut. On the north and south it is bounded by the towns of Dover and Patterson respectively; on the west by a line which roughly corresponds to the western line of the Oblong, that territory which was for a century in dispute between the States of New York and Co
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ASSEMBLING OF THE QUAKERS.
THE ASSEMBLING OF THE QUAKERS.
The social mind of the Quaker Hill population was formed, at the settlement of the place, in a common response to common stimuli. The population was congregated from Long Island and Massachusetts settlements, by the tidings of the opening of this fertile land of the Oblong for settlement in 1731. I infer from the fact that settlements were previously made on both sides, at Fredericksburgh on one side, and at New Milford on the other,—at New Milford there was a Quaker Meeting established in 1729,
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
The economic activity of the early Quaker Community was varied. All they consumed they had to produce and manufacture. Though the stores sold cane sugar, the farmers made of maple sap in the spring both sugar and syrup, and in the fall they boiled down the juice of sweet apples to a syrup, which served for "sweetness" in the ordinary needs of the kitchen. Every man was in some degree a farmer, in that each household cultivated the soil. On every farm all wants had to be supplied from local resou
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AMUSEMENTS IN THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
AMUSEMENTS IN THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
The Quaker community had little time for amusements, and less patience. The discipline of the Meeting levelled its guns at the play spirit, and for a century men were threatened, visited, disowned if necessary, for "going to frollicks," and "going to places of amusement." The Meeting House records leave no room for doubt as to the opinion held by the Society of Friends upon the matter of play. An account is given elsewhere of the discipline of the Meeting in its struggle against immorality and "
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE IDEALS OF THE QUAKERS.
THE IDEALS OF THE QUAKERS.
In the Introduction to Professor Carver's "Sociology and Social Progress" is a passage of great significance to one who would understand Quaker Hill, or indeed any community, especially if it be religiously organized. The writer refers to: "a most important psychic factor, namely the power of idealization. This may be defined, not very accurately, as the power of making believe , a factor which sociologists have scarcely appreciated as yet. We have such popular expressions as 'making a virtue of
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MORALS OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
MORALS OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
From the first the members found themselves subjected to a clear, simple standard of morals. Its dominion was unbroken for one hundred years, and came to an end with the Division of the Meeting; though that event was a result as much as a cause of its termination. For one hundred years a local ethical code prevailed. While they lived apart the Quakers in their community life rejoiced in the unbroken sway of a communal code of morals, the obedience to which made for survival and economic success.
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE TOLERATION OF HOSTILE FORCES.
THE TOLERATION OF HOSTILE FORCES.
Quaker Hill has been always a place of peace. The earliest settlers came to make an asylum for the propagation of the principles of peace. I have spoken elsewhere of their consistent belief and practice of this principle. The community always acted promptly in response to the known injury of its members. The Quakers have a "Meeting of Sufferings," at which are related and recorded the persecutions from which they suffer. This community, which for one hundred years was Quaker, has always been pro
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COMMUNICATION—THE ROADS.
COMMUNICATION—THE ROADS.
The roads were originally bridle paths, and to this day many a stretch of road testifies in its steep grade to its use in the days of the pack saddle. No driver of a wheeled vehicle would have selected so abrupt a slope. In the early days the roads had a north and south direction. In the Period of Transition, with the diversion of commerce to the railroad in Pawling, the roads of an east and west direction became the principal roads, though the one great Quaker Hill highway north and south is st
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ECONOMIC CHANGES.
ECONOMIC CHANGES.
The transition from the mixed or diversified farming of the Quaker community to the special and particular farming of the mixed community is written in the growth of the dairy industry, which in the year 1900 was the one industry of the Hill. In 1800 dairy products were only beginning to emerge from a place in the list of products of the Quaker Hill lands to a single and special place as the only product of salable value. While the Hill people constituted a community dependent on itself and suff
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN TRANSITION.
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN TRANSITION.
In religion the solidarity of this country place has been best shown in the fact that, during most of its history, it has had but one church at a time. For one hundred years there was the undivided meeting. From 1828 to 1885 the Hicksite—Unitarian, branch of the Friends held the Old Meeting House, with diminishing numbers. The Orthodox had their smaller meeting house around the corner, attended by decreasing gatherings. In 1880 was organized Akin Hall, in which till 1892 were held religious serv
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION.
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION.
There are ninety-three dwellings on Quaker Hill, as defined above, and illustrated in Map II. The shaded area alone is referred to here as the area proper to the term "Quaker Hill." In these dwellings live four hundred and five persons. This gives a density of population of 26.667 per square mile. In the summer months of July and August there come to the Hill at least five hundred and nineteen more, increasing the density of population to more than 61 per square mile. There is a steady emigratio
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ECONOMY OF HOUSE AND FIELD.
THE ECONOMY OF HOUSE AND FIELD.
The hospitality of the Quakers is worthy of a treatise, not of the critical order, but poetic and imaginative. It cannot be described in mere social analysis. It has grown out of their whole order of life, and expresses their religious view, as well as their economic habits. I showed in Chapter VII, Part I, that the hospitality of the Friends acquired religious importance from their belief that in every man is the Spirit of God. With the simplicity, and direct adherence to a few truths, which ch
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
NEW IDEALS OF QUAKERISM: ASSIMILATION OF STRANGERS.
NEW IDEALS OF QUAKERISM: ASSIMILATION OF STRANGERS.
Quaker Hill has always been a community with great powers of assimilation. The losses suffered by emigration have been repaired by the genius of the community for socializing. Whoever comes becomes a loyal learner of the Quaker Hill ways. I think this is a matter of imitation. Personality has here made a solemn effort to perfect itself for a century and a half; and the characters of Richard Osborn, James J. Vanderburgh, Anne Hayes, David Irish and his daughter, Phoebe Irish Wanzer, ripened into
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE COMMON MIND.
THE COMMON MIND.
The common mind has been formed to a great degree by strong personalities; for the common mind has held an ideal of perfection in a person. The force which at the beginning assembled its elements was personal. The type represented by George Fox, as interpreted by Barclay, embodied this influence. In all the history of the place response to strong personality has been immediate and general. The past is a history of names. William Russell led the community in erecting a Meeting House, and then a s
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PRACTICAL DIFFERENCES AND RESEMBLANCES.
PRACTICAL DIFFERENCES AND RESEMBLANCES.
The prevailing type of mind among Quaker Hill folk is the Ideo-Emotional; for these folk are a gentle, social sort of persons, ready of affection, imaginative and analogical in mental process, weak and complacent in emotionality, with motor reaction rather inconstant, and of slow response. Of these I find thirty-seven families. The next category is that of the Dogmatic-Emotional, in which I observe twenty-two families. These are composed of persons in whom austere and domineering character proce
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.
THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.
The members of the community have organized themselves into associations for the carrying on of special forms of activity to a degree which is worthy of record. As one might expect, the societies of most vigor are those maintained by the women, since the men have never been able spontaneously to organize, or to maintain, any society on the Hill. Central to all this organization, through the period of the Mixed Community, has been Akin Hall Association, created by one man, and endowed by him. Und
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE SOCIAL WELFARE.
THE SOCIAL WELFARE.
Quaker Hill is an example of the working of a religious and economic system toward its inevitable results in social welfare. The results consciously sought were mainly personal. They were not seeking culture or security or equity, and not attempting to create a community, those early Quakers; but they sought with all their heart and mind after prosperity, individual and communal; after vitality, morality and that self-expression which is in the form of self-sacrifice or altruism in "the service
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Part IV. Appendices: Original Family and Church Records. APPENDIX A.
Part IV. Appendices: Original Family and Church Records. APPENDIX A.
A List of the Heads of Families in the Verge of our Monthly Meeting held on the Oblong and in the Nine-Partners Circularly taken in the 3 mo. 1760. (This date should be 1761. The Monthly Meeting directed the list to be made 4, 16, 1761. [42] ) Additional names which occur in the minutes of Oblong Meeting, in the years 1742-1780 (obviously an incomplete list of members):...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX B.
APPENDIX B.
The following are the names of those who had accounts at the store of Daniel Merritt, on Quaker Hill, in 1771, as the names appear in his Ledger:...
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PACKAGE OF DEEDS OF OBLONG M. M. PROPERTIES.
PACKAGE OF DEEDS OF OBLONG M. M. PROPERTIES.
Zebulon Ferriss, of Oblong, to Benjamin Ferriss, David Akin, Ebenezer Peaslee, David Hoag, Joseph Irish, Nehemiah Merritt and Abraham Wing, all of Beekman's Precinct, Dutchess County, 5280 square feet, being 132 feet frontage on north side of road, and 40 feet deep, east of Zebulon Ferriss' acre lot. Consideration four (4) pounds. Dated, 4.16.1764. "Recorded in the First Book of Friends' Records for Dutchess County in the Province of New York, the 24th of ye 4th Mo. 1764, in Folio 89, 90." Willi
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter