J" 
 
aPCRTi-rMMLlPMiT 
 
 :0fflCLL^Nl¥COlTT 
 
fT, ill 
 
 3 1924 076 524 218 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924076524218 
 
Production Note 
 Cornell University Library produced 
 this volume to replace the irreparably 
 deteriorated original. It was scanned 
 using Xerox software and equipment at 
 600 dots per inch resolution and 
 compressed prior to storage using 
 CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital 
 data were used to create Cornell's 
 replacement volume on paper that meets 
 the ANSI Standard Z39. 48-1992. The 
 production of this volume was 
 supported in part by the National 
 Endowment for the Humanities . Digital 
 file copyright by Cornell University 
 Library 1995. 
 
 Scanned as part of the A.R. Mann 
 Library project to preserve and 
 enhance access to the Core Historical 
 Literature of the Agricultural 
 Sciences. Titles included in this 
 collection are listed in the volumes 
 published by the Cornell University 
 Press in the series THE LITERATURE OF 
 THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, 1991-1995, 
 Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. 
 
New York ■ 
 State College of Agriculture 
 At Cornell University 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 The 
 
 Professor Dwight Sanderson 
 
 Rural Sociology 
 
 Library 
 
QUAKER HILL 
 
 A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY 
 
 BY 
 
 WARREN H. WILSON, A.M. 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE 
 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 New York 
 1907 
 
COFYKIGHT 1907, 
 BY 
 
 Waruh H. Wiuoh. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 PART. I. 
 
 THE QUAKER COMMUNITY: 
 
 From the SbttlemEnt of Quaker Hili,, 1728, ro the 
 Division of the Meeting, 1828. 
 
 FACE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Sources S 
 
 CHAP'iiiR II. 
 The Locality 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Assembling of the Quakers 16 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Economic Activities of the Quaker Community 20 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Amusements 28 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Ideals of the Quakers 32 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Morals of the Quaker Community 38 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Toleration of Hostile Forces So 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE TRANSITION 
 
 From the Division of the Meeting to the Founding 
 OF Akin Hall, 1828 to 1880. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Communication, — The Roads 63 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Economic Changes 69 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Religious Life in Transition 79 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE MIXED COMMUNITY 
 
 From thb Founding of Akin Hall to the Present 
 Time, 1880 to 1907. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Demotic Composition 88 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Economy of House and Field 98 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 New Ideals of Quakerism, Assimilation of Strangers 112 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Common Mind 118 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Practical Differences and Resemblences 130 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Social Organization 135 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Social Welfare 141 
 
 PART rv. 
 
 ORIGINAL APPENDICES 
 Family and Church Records. 
 
 Appendix A : — Heads of Families in Oblong Meeting, 1760 155 
 
 Appendix B : — Names of Customers of Daniel Merritt, 1771 158 
 
 Appendix C:— Deeds of Meeting-House Lands 167 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Fourteen years ago the author came to Quaker Hill as a 
 resident, and has spent at least a part of each of the interven- 
 ing 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 illusive unity which holds all the residents of the place 
 in affection, even in a sort of passion for the locality, yet robs 
 them of full satisfactidn in it, and drives the young and ambi- 
 tious forth to live elsewhere? 
 
 The answer to these questions is not easily to be had. It 
 is evident that on Quaker Hill life is closely organized, and 
 that for eighteen decades a continuous vital principle has given 
 character to the population. The author has attempted, by 
 use of the analysis of the material, according to the "Induc- 
 tive Sociology" of Professor Franklin H. Giddings, to study 
 patiently in detail each factor which has played its part in the 
 life of this community. 
 
 This book presents the result of that study, and the author 
 acknowledges his indebtedness to Professor Giddings for the 
 working analysis necessary to the knowledge of his prob- 
 lem, as well as for patient assistance and inspiring interest. 
 The gradual unfolding of the conclusions, the logical unity of 
 the whole, and the explanation of that which before was not 
 clear, have all been the fruit of this patient field-work. 
 
 The study of human society is at the present time little 
 more than a classifying of material. Only with great reserve 
 should any student announce ultimate results, or generalize 
 
2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 upon the whole problem. For this period of classifying and 
 analyzing the material, such study of limited populations as 
 this should have value. The author makes no apology for the 
 smallness of his field of study. Quaker Hill is not even a 
 civil division. It is a fraction of a New York town. There- 
 fore no statistical material of value is available. It is, more- 
 over, not now an economic unit, though it still may be consid- 
 ered a sociological one. This study, therefore, must be of 
 interest as an analysis of the working of purely social forces 
 in a small population, in which the whole process may be 
 observed, more closely than in the intricate and subtle evolu- 
 tion of a larger, more self-sufficient social aggregate. 
 
 The descriptive history of Quaker Hill, which it is my pur- 
 pose in this book to write, comprises three periods ; and the de- 
 scriptive sociology records two differing yet related forms of 
 social life, connected by a period of transition. This study will 
 then be made up of three parts : First, the Quaker Community ,' 
 second, the Transition ; and third, the Mixed Community. The 
 periods of time corresponding to these three are : The Period 
 of the Quaker Community, 1730 to 1830; second, the Period of 
 Transition, 1830 to 1880; and third, the Period of the Mixed 
 Community, 1880 to 1905. 
 
 The Quaker Community, which ran its course in the one 
 hundred years following the settlement of the Hill, presents 
 the social history of a homogeneous population, assembled in 
 response to common stimuli, obedient to one ideal, sharing an 
 environment limited by nature, cultivating an isolation favored 
 by the conditions of the time, intermarrying, and interlacing 
 their lelations of mutual dependence through a diversified 
 industry; knowing no government so well as the intimate 
 authority of their Monthly Meeting; and after a century suf- 
 fering absorption in the commerce and thinking of the time 
 through increased freedom of communication. 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 The Transition follows the Division of the Quaker Meet- 
 ing in 1828, the building of turnpikes, and the coming of the 
 railroad in 1849. A cultured daughter of Quaker Hill, 
 whose life has extended through some of those years, has 
 called them "the dark ages." It was the middle age of the 
 community. The economic life of the place was undergoing 
 change, under the penetrating influence of the railroad; the 
 population was undergoing radical renovation, the ambitious 
 sons of the old stock moving away, and their places being filled 
 at the bottom of the social ladder by foreigners, and by immi- 
 gration of residents and "summer boarders" of the "world's 
 people." Above all, the powerful ideal of Quakerism was shat- 
 tered. The community had lost the "make-believe" at which 
 it had played for a century in perfect unity. With it went the 
 moral and social authority of the Meeting. Two Meetings 
 mutually contradicting could never express the ideal of 
 Quakerism, that asserted the inspiration of all and every man 
 with the one divine spirit. This schism, too, was not local, 
 but the Monthly Meeting on the Hill was divided in the same 
 year as the Yearly Meeting in New York, the Quarterly 
 Meetings in the various sections, and the local Monthly Meet- 
 ings throughout the United States. 
 
 The Period of the Mixed Community, from the building 
 of Akin Hall and the Mizzen-Top Hotel in 1880 to the year 
 1905 has been studied personally by the present writer; and 
 it is his belief that during this short period, especially from 
 1890 to 1900, the Hill enjoyed as perfect a communal life as 
 in the Period of the Quaker Community. The same social 
 influence was at work. An exceptionally strong principle of 
 assimilation, to be studied in detail in this book, which made of 
 the original population a century and a half earUer a perfect 
 community, now made a mixed population of Quakers, Irish 
 Catholics and New York City residents, into a community 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 unified, no less obedient to a modified ideal, having its leaders, 
 its mode of association, its peculiar local integrity and a certain 
 moral distinction. 
 
 This period appears at the time of this writing, in 1907, 
 to be coming slowly to an end, owing to the death of many 
 of the older members of the Quaker families, and the swift 
 diminution — with their authority removed — of the Quaker in- 
 fluence, which was the chief factor in the community's power 
 of assimilation. 
 
 If one may state in condensed form what this study dis- 
 covers in Quaker Hill that is uncommon and exceptional, one 
 would say that the social peculiarity of the Hill is: first, the 
 consistent working out of an idea in a social population, with 
 the resultant social organization, and communal integrity; 
 and second, the power of this community to assimilate individ- 
 uals and make them part of itself. 
 
PART I. 
 
 The Quaker Community, from its Settlement in 1 728, to the 
 Division in 1828 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SOURCES OE 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 men- 
 tioned 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 mate- 
 rial is lacking. 
 
 The written sources are: 
 
 I. The records of Oblong Meeting of the Society of 
 Friends until 1828; of the Hicksite Meeting until 1885, when 
 it was "laid down"; and of the Orthodox Meeting until 1905, 
 when it ceased to meet.* 
 
 * The oldest records of Oblong meeting are contained in the records of Pur- 
 chase Meeting, the mother society, from the earliest date, about 1741, at which 
 Oblong is mentioned, to 1744, when it became an independent monthly meeting. 
 Most of the early settlers on the Oblong came through Purchase, married there 
 and left their names on its pages. From the year 1744 Oblong Meeting was a 
 meeting of record, but for thirteen years the minutes were written on loose 
 sheets, which have been lost. They may indeed be in existence, for in 1760 the 
 meeting directs Clerk Zebulon Ferriss to record the minutes for the time he has 
 been clerk; and appoints two to record the previous minutes from the establish- 
 ment of the meeting. If those two did as they were directed, there should be a 
 book of the oldest records of the Hill in existence; and in any case there may be 
 in some old leather bound trunk, leaves of records from 1744 to 1757, whose value 
 is beyond calculation. The minutes of the Meeting from 1757 until the division, 
 and from that date until the Hicksite Meeting was laid down in 1885, are in the 
 
6 QUAKER HII,I, 
 
 2. Records of Purchase Meeting of the Society of Friends 
 for the period antedating 1770. 
 
 3. Ledgers of the Merrit general store of dates 1771, 
 1772, 1839. 
 
 4. Daybooks and ledgers of the Toffey store of dates 1815, 
 1824, 1833. 
 
 5. The "Quaker Hill Series" of Local History, publications 
 of the Quaker Hill Conference. In particular Nos. II, III, 
 IV, VIlT VIII, IX, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI and XVIL* 
 
 6. Maps of Fredericksburgh and vicinity by Robert Erskine 
 
 possession of John Cox, Librarian of the Yearly Meeting (Hiclcsite). From 1828, 
 the year of the division, until the present year, the minutes of the Orthodox 
 Friends are in the possession of William H. Osborn. The minutes of the Women's 
 Meeting previous to 1807 are missing; one volume, from 9th Mo., 14th, iSoy, to 
 3rd Mo., i6th, 1835, is with John Cox. In the same place are three volumes of 
 the record of Births, Marriages and Deaths: one from 1745 to 1774; then, after a 
 gap, due to the absence of a volume, is the second, from 1786 to 1866; and a 
 third volume of births and deaths alone from 1828 to 1893. Volumes lacking in this 
 collection are the records of births and deaths previous to 1828: and of marriages 
 from 1774 to 1786. 
 
 The records of the present Orthodox Meeting in full, as well as the following 
 two volumes of the records of the Preparative Meeting of Ministers and Elders at 
 Oblong, are in the possession of William H. Osborn on Quaker Hill; first from 
 loth month, 12th, 1783, to ist month, 13th, 1878; and second from 1878 to present 
 time. Last of all, the record of births and deaths of the meeting, from 1810 to the 
 present day, follov/ing the line of the Orthodox society, is in the possession of 
 the Post family on Quaker Hill. 
 
 * LOCAL HISTORY SERIES. 
 
 David Irish — A Memoir, by his daughter, Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer, of Quaker 
 Hill, N. Y. 
 
 Quaker Hill in the Eighteenth Century, by Rev. Warren H. Wilson, of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Quaker Plill in the Nineteenth Century, by Rev. Warren H. Wilson, of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Hiram B. Jones and His School, by Rev. Edward L. Chichester, of Harts- 
 dale, N. Y. 
 
 Richard Osborn — A Reminiscence, by Margaret B. Monahan, of Quaker 
 Hill, N. Y. 
 
 Albert J. Akin — A Tribute, by Rev. Warren H. "Wilson, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Ancient Homes and Early Days at Quaker Hill, by Amand:i Akin Stearns, of 
 Quaker Hill, N. Y. 
 
 Thomas Taber and Edward Shove — a Reminiscence, by Rev. Benjamin Shove, 
 of New York. 
 
 Some Glimpses of the Past, by Alicia Hopkins Taber, of Pawling, N. Y. 
 
 The Purchase Meeting, by James Wood, of Mt. Kisco, N. Y. 
 
 In Loving Remembrance of Ann Hayes, by Mrs. Warren H. Wilson, of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Washington's Headquarters at Fredericksburgh, by Lewis S. Patrick, of 
 Marinette, Wis. 
 
 Historical Landmarks in the Town of Sherman, by Ruth Rogers, of Sherman, 
 Conn. 
 
THE SOURCES 7 
 
 in the De Witt Clinton Collection, in the New York Historical 
 Society Building. 
 
 7. Papers by Hon. Alfred T. Ackert, read before the 
 Dutchess County Society in the City of New York, 1898 and 
 1899. 
 
 8. An Historical Sketch. The Bi-Centennial of the New 
 York Yearly Meeting, an address delivered at Flushing, 1895, 
 by James Wood. 
 
 9. A Declaration of some of the Fundamental Principles 
 of Christian Truth, as held by the Religious Society of Friends. 
 
 10. James Smith's History of Dutchess County. 
 
 11. Phihp H. Smith's History of Dutchess County. 
 
 12. Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution." 
 
 13. Bancroft's "History of the United States." 
 
 14. Irving's "Life of Washington." 
 
 15. "Gazetteer of New York," 1812. 
 
 16. Akin and Ferris, Wing, Briggs and Hoag Family 
 Records. 
 
 17. De Chastellux's "Travels in North America." 
 
 18. Anburey's "Travels in North America." 
 
 19. Thatcher's "Military Journal of the Revolution." 
 
 20. Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power." 
 
 21. Barnum's "Enoch Crosby." 
 
 22. "The Writings of Washington," especially in Fall ol 
 1778. 
 
 23. Proceedings of the New York Historical Society, 
 1859, etc. 
 
 24. New Milford Gazette, 1858, Boardman's Letter. 
 
 25. Poughkeepsie Eagle, July, 1876, Lossing's Articles. 
 
 26. Fishkill (New York) Packet, 1776 — 1783. 
 
 27. New York Mercury, 1776 — 1783. 
 
 28. Tax-lists of the Town of Pawling, New York. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THB IvOCALITY. 
 
 In the hill country, sixty-two miles north of New York, 
 and twenty-eight miles east of the Hudson River at Fishkili, 
 lies Quaker Hill. It is the eastern margin of the town of 
 Pawling, and its eastern boundary is the state line of Con- 
 necticut. 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 Connecticut. Its length is the north 
 and south dimension of Pawling. 
 
 This area is six and a half miles long, north and south, 
 and irregularly two miles in width, east and' west. Quaker 
 Hill can scarcely be called a hamlet, because instead of a 
 cluster of houses, it is a long road running from south to 
 north by N.N.E. and intersected by four roads running from 
 east to west. The households located on this road for one 
 hundred and sixty years constituted a community of Quakers 
 dwelling near their Meeting Hotise; and until the building of 
 the Harlem Railroad in the valley below in 1849, had their 
 own stores and local industries. 
 
 Before the railroad came, Quaker Hill was obliged to go 
 to Poughkeepsie for access to the world, over the precipitous 
 sides of West Mountain, and all supplies had to be brought 
 up from the river level to this height. At present Quaker Hill, 
 in its nearest group of houses at the Mizzen-Top Hotel, is 
 three miles and three-quarters from the railroad station at 
 Pawling. Other houses are five and seven miles from Paw- 
 
THE LOCALITY 9 
 
 ling. On the east the nearest station of the New York, New 
 Haven and Hartford Railroad, New Milford, is nine miles 
 away. The "Central New England" Branch of the N. Y. N. 
 H. & H., running east and west, is at West Patterson or 
 West Pawling, seven and eight miles. 
 
 The natural obstacle which does more than miles to isolate 
 Quaker Hill is its elevation. The "Mizzen-Top Hill," as it 
 is now called, is a straightforward Quaker road, mounting 
 the face of the Hill four hundred feet in a half-mile. The 
 ancient settler on horseback laid it out ; and the modern way- 
 farer in hotel stage, carriage or motor-car has to follow. 
 Quaker Hill is conservative of change. 
 
 The mean elevation is about i,ioo feet above the sea. The 
 highest point being Tip-Top, 1,310 feet, and the lowest point 
 620 feet. The Hill is characterized by its immediate and 
 abrupt rise above surrounding localities, being from 500 to 
 830 feet above the village of Pawling, in which the waters 
 divide for the Hudson and Housatonic Rivers. On its highest 
 hill rises the brook which becomes the Croton River. From 
 almost the whole length of Quaker Hill road one looks off 
 over intervening hills to the east for twenty-five miles, and to 
 the west for forty miles to Minnewaska and Mohonk; and to 
 the north fifty and sixty miles to the Catskill Mountains. 
 
 One's first impressions are of the green of the foliage and 
 herbage. The grass is always fresh, and usually the great 
 heaving fields are mellowed with orange tints and the masses 
 of trees are of a lighter shade of green than elsewhere. The 
 qualities of the soil which have made Quaker Hill "a grass 
 country" for cattle make it a delight to the eye. Well watered 
 always, when other sections may be in drought, its natural 
 advantages take forms of beauty which delight the artist and 
 satisfy the eye of the untrained observer. 
 
lO QUAKSR HILI, 
 
 The Hill is a conspicuous plateau, very narrow, extending 
 north and south. It is "the place that is all length and no 
 breadth." Six miles long upon the crest of the height runs 
 the road which is its main thoroughfare, and was in its first 
 century the chief avenue of travel. Crossing it at right angles 
 are four roads, that now carry the wagon and carriage traffic 
 to the valleys on either side ; which since railroad days are the 
 termini of all journeys. The elevation above the surrounding 
 hills and valleys is such that one must always climb to attain 
 the hill; and one moves upon its lofty ridge in constant sight 
 of the distant conspicuous heights, the Connecticut uplands 
 east of the Housatonic on one side, and on the other, the 
 Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains, west of the Hudson, 
 all of them more than 25 miles away. 
 
 Unsheltered as it is, the locality is subject to severe 
 weather. The extreme of heat observed has been 105 degrees ■ 
 and of cold — 24 degrees. 
 
 Quaker Hill possesses natural advantages for agriculture 
 only. No minerals of commercial value are there; although 
 iron ore is found in Pawling and nearby towns. On the con- 
 fines of the Hill, in Deuell Hollow, a shaft was driven into the 
 hillside for forty feet, by some lonely prospector, and then 
 abandoned; to be later on seized upon and made the tradi- 
 tional location of a gold mine. The Quaker Hill imagination 
 is more fertile and varied than Quaker Hill land. No commer- 
 cial advantages have ever fallen upon the place, except those 
 resultant from cultivation of the fertile soil in the way of 
 stores, now passed away ; and the opportunity to keep summer 
 boarders in the heated season. 
 
 Interest which attaches to Quaker Hill is of a three-fold 
 sort: historical, scenic and climatic. The locality has a his- 
 tory of peculiarly dramatic interest. It is beautiful with a 
 rare and satisfying dignity and loveliness of scene; and it is 
 
THB LOCAI,ITY II 
 
 the choice central spot of a region bathed in a salubrious at- 
 mosphere which has had much to do with its social character 
 in the past, and is to-day very effective in making the place 
 a summer settlement of New York people. The population 
 is increased one hundred per cent, in the summer months, 
 the increase being solely due to the healthful and refreshing 
 nature of the place. 
 
 The history of the locality is associated with the quaint 
 name, "The Oblong." This was the name of a strip of land, 
 lying along the eastern boundary of New York State, now 
 part of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties, and nar- 
 rowing to the northward, which was for a century in dispute 
 between New York and Connecticut. 
 
 There had been a half century in which this was all dis- 
 puted land, between the Dutch at New York and the English 
 in New England. Then followed a half century of dispute 
 as to the boundary between sister colonies, which are now 
 New York and Connecticut. As soon as this was settled in 
 1 73 1 the immigration flowed in, and the history of Quaker Hill, 
 the first settlement in the Oblong, begins. It was granted to 
 New York; and in compensation the lands on which Stam- 
 ford and Greenwich stand were granted to Connecticut after 
 a long and bitter dispute. The end of the dispute and the first 
 settlement of the Oblong cam.e, for obvious reasons, in the 
 same year. The first considerable settlement of pioneers was 
 made at Quaker Hill in 1731, by Friends, who came from 
 Harrison's Purchase, now a part of Rye.* 
 
 The historical interest of the locality dwells in the con- 
 trast between the simple annals of Quakerism, which was prac- 
 
 * Mr. James Wood, in his Bicentennial Address in 1895, thus described the 
 oblong: 
 
 The eastern side of the country had been settled by Presbyterians from Con- 
 necticut, and the western side along the Hudson River by the Dutch. The feeling 
 between them was far from friendiv, Tl"*-r disputes ha,H been very bitter, and Rye 
 and Bedford had revolted from New York's jurisdiction. Their whipping-posts 
 stood ready for the punishment of any from the river settlements who committed 
 
J 2 QUAKER HILL 
 
 ticed there in the eighteenth century, and the military tradi- 
 tions which have fallen to the lot of peaceful Quaker Hill. 
 The "Old Meeting House," known for years officially as Ob- 
 long Meeting House, experienced in its past, full of memories 
 of men of peace, the violent seizures by men of war. That 
 storied scene, in the fall of 1778, when the Meeting Hous^ 
 was seized for the uses of the army as a hospital,* has lived 
 in the thoughts of all who have known the place, and has 
 been cherished by none more reverently than by the children 
 of Quakers, whose peace the soldiers invaded. Both the sol- 
 dier and the Quaker laid their bones in the dust of the Hill. 
 Both had faith in Hberty and equality. The history of 
 Quaker Hill in the eighteenth century is the story of these 
 two schools of idealists, who ignored each other, but were 
 moved by the same passion, obeyed the same spirit. It is said 
 that a locality never loses the impression made upon it by its 
 earliest residents. Certain it is that the roots of modern things 
 are to be traced in that earhest period, and through a con- 
 tinuous self-contained life until the present day. 
 
 In the eighteenth century Quaker Hill was the chosen asy- 
 lum of men of peace. Yet it became the rallying place of 
 periodic outbursts of the fighting spirit of that warlike age; 
 
 even slight offenses within their limits. As the two peoples naturally repelled each 
 other they had left a strip of land, comparatively unoccupied, between them. This 
 continued in nearly a north and south line, parallel with the river, and a little 
 more than midway between it and the Connecticut and Massachusetts lines, as far 
 as they extended. Into and through the strip of land the Quaker stream flowed, 
 like a liquid injected into a fissure in the rocks. £)ach Quaker home as it settled 
 became a resting place for those who followed, for it was a cardinal principle of 
 Quaker hospitality to keep open house for all fellow members, under all 
 circumstances. 
 
 * "One First Day morning, in the mellow October days of that year, the 
 worshipping stillness of the Friends' Meeting was broken by the tramp of horses, 
 and the jangling of spurs, as a band of soldiers rode up, dismounted and entered 
 the building. They remained quiet and reverent, till the handshaking of the elders 
 closed the meeting; then the commanding officer rose, and in the name of the 
 Continental Congress took possession of the building for a hospital for the troops, 
 and as such it was used all that winter. After this meetings were held in the 
 great room m the house of Paul Osborn, and were often frequented by soldiers 
 stationed in the place, who listened attentively to the speaking, and left quietly at 
 the close of the meeting." — Richard Osborn— a Reminiscence, by Margaret B. 
 Monahan, Quaker Hill Local History Series, No. VIII 
 
THE I<OCALITY 13 
 
 and it was invaded during the great struggle for national 
 independence by the camps of Washington. 
 
 There is a dignity common to Washington battling for 
 liberty, and the Quaker pioneers serenely planning seven years 
 before the Revolution for the freedom of the slave. But he 
 was a Revolutionist, they were loyal to King George; he was 
 a man of blood, brilliant in the garb of a warrior, and they 
 were men of peace, dreaming only of the kingdom of God. 
 He was fighting for a definite advance in liberty to be enjoyed 
 at once; they were set on an enfranchisement that involved 
 one hundred years; and a greater war at the end than his 
 revolution. Their records contains no mention of his pres- 
 ence here, though his soldiers seized and fortified the Meeting 
 House.* His letters never mention the Quakers, neither their 
 picturesque abode, their dreams of freedom for the slave, nor 
 their Tory loyalty. 
 
 Each cherished his ideal and staked his life and ease and 
 happiness upon it. Each, after the fashion of a narrow age, 
 ignored the other's adherence to that ideal. To us they are 
 sublime figures in bold contrast crossing that far-off stage: 
 Washington, booted, with belted sword, spurrmg his horse 
 up the western slope of the Hill, to review the soldiers of the 
 Revolution in 1778; and Paul Osborn, Joseph Irish and Abner 
 Hoag, plain men, unarmed save with faith, riding their plough 
 horses down the eastern slope in 1775, to plead for the free- 
 dom of the slave at the Yearly Meeting at Flushing. 
 
 What effect the beauty of the place had upon the pioneer 
 settlers it is, of course, impossible to say, for they have left 
 no record of their appreciation of its beauty. Probably their 
 interest in the picturesque was the same as that of a Quaker 
 elder, of fine and choice culture after the Quaker standards, 
 who said to the author, with a quiet laugh: "People all say 
 
 * In the garret of the Meeting House rifle-ports, cut through the original planks, 
 were discovered by the present writer. 
 
H 
 
 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 that the views from my house are very beautiful, and I sup- 
 pose they are; but I have lived here all my life, and I have 
 never seen it." A Quakeress confessed to the same in- 
 difference to the beauty of the Hill, until she had resided 
 for a time in another state, and had mingled with those who 
 had a lively sense of beauty of scene; returning thereafter to 
 the Hill, it appeared beautiful to her ever afterward. 
 
 The land has been for several generations under a high 
 state of cultivation. The keeping of many cattle has en- 
 riched the broad pastures; and the dairy industry has been 
 carried on with constant fertilizing of the lands ; so that the 
 great fields, heaping up one upon another, high above the 
 valley, and plunging down in steep slopes so suddenly that 
 the falling land is lost from view and the valley below seems 
 to hang unattached, are covered with a brilliancy of coloring 
 and a variety of those rich tints of green and orange which 
 spell to the eye abundance, and arouse a keen delight, Uke that 
 of possessing and enjoying. 
 
 There is also a large dignity in the outlines of every scene, 
 which constantly expands the sensations and gives, on every 
 hand, a sense of exhiliaration and a pleasurable excitement to 
 the emotions, which seems in experience to have something to 
 do with the industry and application characteristic of Quaker 
 Hill. 
 
 With this the atmosphere has had much to do, no doubt, 
 being dry and soft. The first sensation of one alighting from 
 a train in the town is one of lightness and exhilaration. This 
 sensation continues through the first hours of one's stay on 
 the Hill.* After the first day of exhilaration come a day or 
 more of drowsiness, with nights of profound sleep. In some 
 persons a heightened nervousness is experienced, but in most 
 cases the Hill has the effect upon those who reside there of a 
 steady nervous arousal, a pleasure in activity, and a keen 
 interest in life and work. 
 
THE I,OCAI,ITY 1 5 
 
 Whether the early settlers, in selecting the highest ground 
 in this region, had a sense of this excellence of the climatic 
 effect we do not know; but their descendants believe that 
 such was their reason for settling the highest arable land on 
 the Hill before the valleys or the lower slopes were cleared. 
 It is the common tradition that they settled on the Hill first, 
 and on its highest parts, in order to avoid the malaria of the 
 lowlands ; as well as because they thought the hill lands to be 
 more fertile. 
 
 The excellence of the climate is witnessed in the long lives 
 of its residents. There were living in 1903, in a population 
 of four hundred, five persons, each of whom was at least ninety 
 years of age; and fifteen, each of whom was more than sev- 
 enty-five years of age. 
 
 * "Bodily functions are facilitated by atmospheric conditions which make evap- 
 oration from the skin and lungs rapid. That weak persons whose variations of 
 health furnish good tests, are worse when the air is surcharged with water, and 
 better when the weather is tine; and that commonly such persons are enervated by 
 residence in moist localities but invigorated by residence in dry ones, are facts 
 generally recognized. And this relation of cause and elTect, manifest in individuals, 
 doubtless holds in races." — Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol I, p. 21. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ASSEMBLING OE THE QUAKERS. 
 
 The social mind of the Quaker Hill population was formed, 
 at the settlement of the place, in a common response to com- 
 mon 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 
 1 73 1. 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, fifteen years before 
 Quaker Hill— that the value of the lands in the Oblong was 
 well advertised. From the fact noted by James Wood (The 
 Purchase Meeting, p. 10) that "the first settlement in any 
 considerable numbers was upon Quaker Hill in the Oblong," 
 I infer that the uncommon promise of this hill land had been 
 made known to the Quakers then assembling at this "Pur- 
 chase in the Rye Woods," and that Quaker Hill was settled 
 in response to the stimulus of valuable, fertile lands offered for 
 occupation and ownership. 
 
 It seems to have been the desire of the first settlers to form a 
 community where they could live apart, maintain their 
 form of religion and possess land fertile and rich. The Quakers 
 are always shrewd as to economic affairs, and the business mo- 
 tive is never lost sight of in the spiritual inner light. In choosing 
 Quaker Hill soil they selected ground which after one hundred 
 and sixty-seven years is the richest in the region, sustains the 
 best dairies, and is able longer than any other in the neighbor- 
 

MAP No. II. 
 
 Quaker Hill and Vicinity. 
 
 (Based on a tracing of United States Geographical Survey.) 
 
THE ASSEMBLING 1 7 
 
 hood in time of drought to afford abundant green grass and 
 verdure. 
 
 To this place thus secluded, came Benjamin Ferriss in 
 1728, and Nathan Birdsall. They settled upon the sites 
 marked 31 and 39; which are 1,200 and 1,100 feet above the 
 sea, and very near the highest ground for many miles. There 
 was at this time, 1729, a meeting of Friends at New Milford, 
 nine miles away ; but these two men came from Purchase Meet- 
 ing in the town of Rye, forty miles directly to the South. There 
 soon followed others, bearing the names, Irish, Wing, Briggs, 
 Toffey, Akin, Taber, Russell, Osborn, Merritt, Dakin, Hoag. 
 In ten years the tide of settlement was flowing full. In 
 forty years the little community was filled with as many 
 as could profitably find a living. 
 
 Complete records of the sources of this immigration are not 
 available. John Cox, Jr., Librarian of the Yearly Meeting of 
 Friends, says "the records do not show in any direct way 
 where the members came from. A few came from Long 
 Island meetings by way of Purchase, but most of them from 
 the East, and I believe from Massachusetts. Indirectly the 
 records show that the members occasionally went on visits 
 into New England, and took certificates of clearance there 
 (to marry)." Dartmouth, Mass., a town between Fall River 
 and New Bedford, was the original home of so many of them 
 that it easily leads all localities as a source of Quaker Hill an- 
 cestry. The Akin, Taber, Briggs families came from Dart- 
 mouth, which was in a region of both temporary and permanent 
 Quaker settlement. Quaker Hill, R. I., is within fifteen 
 miles of Dartmouth. The residents of Quaker Hill, New 
 York, preserve traditions of the returns of the early Friends 
 "to Rhode Island." There is a Briggs family tradition of the 
 first pair of boots owned on the Hill, which were borrowed in 
 turn by every man who made a visit to the ancestral home at 
 Dartmouth. 
 
1 8 QUAKER HILL 
 
 It is probable also that some of the original residents came 
 from Long Island, though from what localities I do not know. 
 The minutes of Purchase Meeting at Rye, through which 
 meeting most of the Quaker Hill settlers came, indicate in only 
 a limited number of cases that the immigrant came from a far- 
 ther point; and leave the impression that the Friend so com- 
 mended to the Oblong was already a resident of "the Pur- 
 chase," or of its related meetings at Flushing on Long Island. 
 An example is the case of William Russell and his wife, notable 
 pioneers, the earliest residents of Site 25, whose letter from 
 Purchase Meeting in 1741 indicates only that they came to 
 Oblong from Purchase. 
 
 The settlement of the Hill continued from the early years, 
 1728-1731, at which it began, until 1770, when the community 
 may be said to have been complete. The land was supporting 
 by that time all it would bear. Since that time the number of 
 houses on the Hill has remained about the same, as will be 
 seen from a comparison of the Maps i and 2, the one made 
 for Washington in 1778-80 and the other being a tracing of 
 the map of the Topographical Survey of the United States 
 Government of recent date. 
 
 The extent of this population resident upon the Hill is 
 shown in the lists of persons whose names appear in Appendix 
 A, which is a census of the heads of families in the Meeting 
 in the year 1761 ; added to which is a list of names which ap- 
 pear in the minutes of the Meeting in years immediately fol- 
 lowing. These lists show the growth of the population under 
 study, in the years from 1761 to 1780, for there are whole 
 families omitted from the list of 1761, who are named in the 
 minutes in succeeding years. An instance is that of Paul and 
 Isaac Osborn, who came from Rhode Island in 1760.* 
 
 UcalSry Ws™Na vntt"""' "'' ^"'^"^' ^^ ^''""''''"- ^''^" Hill 
 
THE ASSEMBLING 1 9 
 
 As this list of members of the meeting shows the actual 
 size of the population resident upon the Hill in 1761, the other 
 list published in Appendix B, containing the names of those 
 who traded at the Merritt store in 1771, exhibits, with startling 
 vividness, the importance of Quaker Hill at that time. Little 
 as the place is now, and geographically remote and hard of 
 access always, it was evidently in the years named a center 
 of a far-reaching country trade. This list is published in full, 
 exactly as the names appear on Daniel Merritt's ledger, to 
 convey this impression; and by contrast, the impression of the 
 shrinkage in the years since the railway changed the currents 
 of trade. It is published also as a basis of this study, being 
 a numerical description, in the rough, of the problem we are 
 studying. And a third use which such a list may serve is that 
 of information to those interested in genealogy. It is a veri- 
 table mine of information, suggestion, and even color, of the 
 life of that time — as indeed are the ancient ledgers, bound in 
 calf, and kept with exquisite care, by this colonial merchant. 
 In these old records are suggested, though not described, the 
 lives of a hard-working, prosperous population, filling the 
 countryside, laying the foundations of fortunes which are 
 to-day enriching descendants. It was a community without 
 an idler, with trades and occupations so many as to be inde- 
 pendent of other communities, hopeful, aboundmg in credit, 
 laying plans for generations to come, and living bountifully, 
 heartily from day to day. 
 
 Every item in these mercantile records is of interest and 
 full of suggestion, from the names of the negro slaves, who 
 had accounts on the books, to the products brought for sale 
 by one customer after another, by which they liquidated their 
 accounts ; from the "quart of rum" bought by so many with 
 every "trading," to the Greek Testament and Latin Grammar 
 bought by solid Thomas Taber, who wrote his name in real 
 estate by his thrift and force, if he did not write it in dead 
 languages. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY. 
 
 The economic activity of the early Quaker community was 
 -varied. All they consumed they had to produce and manu- 
 facture. 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 resources, so that mixed farm-ing was 
 the rule. The land which its modern owners think unsuited 
 to anything but grass, because it is such "heavy, clay soil," 
 was made in the i8th century- to bear, in addition to the 
 grass for cattle and sheep, wheat, rye, oats and corn, flax, 
 potatoes, apples. Of whatever the farmer was to use he must 
 produce the raw material from the soil, and the manufacture 
 of it must be within the community. 
 
 Two lists which come to us from early days cast light on 
 the population and occupations of the early period. One is 
 the sheriff's list of landowners in Dutchess County in 1740, 
 on which is no name of any farmer then resident on Quaker 
 Hill. The other list is that of those who claimed exemption 
 from military duty in 1755 ; 38 are from Oblong and 21 from 
 Beekman, many of them being Quakers resident on the Oblong. 
 This list is as follows : 
 
 Joshua Shearman, Beekman Prec'nt, shoemaker; Moses 
 Shearman, Beekman Prec'nt, laborer ; Daniel Shearman, Beek- 
 man Prec'nt, laborer; Joseph Doty, Beekman Prec'nt, black- 
 
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 21 
 
 smith; John Wing, Beekman Prec'nt, farmer; Zebulon Ferris 
 (Oblong), Beekman Prec'nt, farmer; Joseph Smith, son of 
 Rich'd, Beekman Prec'nt, laborer; Robert Whiteley, Beekman 
 Prec'nt, farmer; Elijah Doty, Oblong House, carpenter; Philip 
 Allen, Oblong, weaver ; Richard Smith, Oblong, farmer ; James 
 Aiken, Oblong, blacksmith; Abrah'm Chase, son of Henry, 
 Oblong, farmer ; David Hoeg, Oblong, ; John Hoeg, Ob- 
 long, farmer; Jonathan Hoeg, Oblong, blacksmith; Amos 
 Hoeg, son of John, Oblong, laborer; William Hoeg, son of 
 David, Oblong, farmer; John Hoeg, son of John, Oblong, 
 farmer; Ezekiel Hoeg, Oblong, laborer; Judah Smith, Oblong, 
 tailor; Matthew Wing, Oblong, ; Timothy Dakin, Ob- 
 long, farmer; Jonathan Dakin, Oblong, laborer; Samuel Rus- 
 sell, Oblong, laborer ; John Fish, Oblong, farmer ; Reed Ferris, 
 Oblong, shoemaker; Benjamin Ferris, Junr., Oblong, laborer; 
 Joseph Akin, Oblong, blacksmith; Israel Rowland, Oblong, 
 farmer; Elisha Akin, Oblong, farmer; Isaac Haviland, Ob- 
 long, blacksmith; Nathan Soule, son of George, Oblong, 
 farmer; James Birdsall, Oblong, laborer; Daniel Chase, Ob- 
 long, farmer; Silas Mossher, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, 
 farmer; William Mosher, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; 
 Silvester Richmond, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer ; Jesse 
 Irish, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; David Irish, Os- 
 wego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; William Irish, Oswego in 
 Beekman Prec't, farmer; Josiah Bull, Oswego in Beekman 
 Prec't, farmer ; Josiah Bull, Junr., Oswego in Beekman Prec't, 
 farmer; Allen Moore, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; 
 Andrew Moore, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; William 
 Gifjford, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; Nathaniel Yeo- 
 mans, Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; Eliab Yeomans, 
 Oswego in Beekman Prec't, farmer; William Parks, Oswego 
 in Beekman Prec't, farmer. 
 
 This list mentions six occupations : the farmer, blacksmith, 
 tailor, shoemaker, carpenter and laborer. With these six a 
 
22 QUAKER HILL 
 
 frontier community could live, for every man of them was a 
 potential butcher, tanner, trader. There is record of others 
 in later years, when the communal life had become differen- 
 tiated. There were at various times in the Quaker century 
 stores at four places on the Hill. The Merrit store, at Site 
 28, descended to the sons of Daniel Merritt, and finally 
 to James Craft. There was a store in Deuell Hollow, kept by 
 Benjamin and Silas Deuell for several years. There is extant 
 one bill of merchandise purchased by them of Edward and 
 William Laight, merchants of New York, the amount being 
 £200 and the date Feb. 25, 1785. The Akin stores at Sites 47 
 and 46, were kept by Daniel and Albro Akin, and the store 
 at Site 53, by John Tofiey. These stores during the period of 
 the Quaker community were in trade largely by barter, taking all 
 the commodities the farmer had beyond his immediate use, and 
 selling sugar, coffee, cloth and other commodities which after 
 1815, as will be shown later, rapidly increased in number and 
 in quantity. The use of money increased at the same period. 
 The phrase still lingers in Quaker Hill speech: "I am going 
 to the store to do some trading," though the milk farmer has 
 engaged in no barter for fifty years. 
 
 In the culminating period of the Quaker Community, which 
 followed the Revolutionary War, the following were some of 
 the occupations practiced on the Hill, the record or remem- 
 brance of which is preserved :* 
 
 Abram Thomas was a blacksmith, at Site I4,t and is said 
 to have made the nails used in building the Meeting House. 
 George Kirby, at Site 99 J4, had a blacksmith shop; there was 
 another at Site xioo, now abandoned on Burch Hill, kept by 
 Joel Winter Church, where Washington's charger was shod, 
 and the bill was paid at the close of the war. 
 
 But the most notable smithy was at Site 41, where now 
 
 „.„* i=«. "Some Glimpses of the Past," by Alicia Hopkins Taber, 1906; Quaker 
 Hill benes. 
 
 t See Map 2. 
 
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 
 
 23 
 
 Stands one of the oldest houses on the Hill. Here Davis 
 Marsh wrought in iron, and the sound of his trip-hammer 
 audible for miles smote its own remembered impression upon 
 the ears of those ancient generations. Doubtless the favored 
 location of Marsh's shop in the neighborhood most central, 
 as is shown in Chapter HI, Part IH, gave it greater use. 
 There was at one time a forge in the Glen at Site 66, to which 
 magnetic ore was hauled from Brewster to be worked. 
 
 A "smith shop" is also noted on Erskine's map for Wash- 
 ington in 1778 at Site xiii. The most important manufac- 
 turing business of the community, however, was the wagon- 
 worker's shop at Site 45, kept by Hiram Sherman. Under 
 the general title of wagon maker he manufactured all mov- 
 ables in wood and iron, from fancy wagons to coffins. 
 
 Other trades were of increasing variety as the century of 
 isolation proceeded. Shoemakers went from house to house 
 to make shoes for the family, of the leather from the backs 
 of the farmer's own cattle, tanned on the farm or not far 
 away. Reed Ferris was a shoemaker, in whose residence at 
 Site 99 Washington was entertained in September, 1778, until 
 he took up Headquarters at John Kane's. Stephen Riggs was 
 a shoemaker. Three tanneries were maintained on the Hill 
 in the bloom of the Quaker community by Ransom Aldrich 
 about Site 13; Amos Asborn, at Site X2i, who also made 
 pottery there; and Isaac Ingersoll, at Site 134. 
 
 Albro Akin had a sawmill in the Glen, and a gristmill was 
 also located there in an early period. William Taber had a 
 gristmill and also a cloth mill, consisting of carding machine, 
 fulling mill, and apparatus for pressing, coloring and dressing 
 cloth. John Toffey, at Site 53, and Joseph Seeley, at Site 15, 
 and some of the Arnolds, near Site 12, were hatters. Jephtha 
 Sabin, at Site 74, and Joseph Hungerford were saddlers and 
 harnessmakers. 
 
24 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 Every farmer and indeed every householder raised hogs. 
 Pork was salted, as it is to-day, for winter use, in barrels of 
 brine. Hogs also were extensively raised and butchered for 
 market, at a year and a half old, the meat being taken to 
 Poughkeepsie by wagon, and thence to New York. Many 
 who raised more pork than their own use demanded ex- 
 changed it at the stores. Fields of peas were raised to feed 
 the hogs. 
 
 Sheep also were raised for their wool; their meat afforded 
 an acceptable variety in farmer's fare and their hides had 
 many uses. David Irish, Daniel and David Merritt, Jonathan 
 A. Taber and George P. Taber were farmers whose product 
 of wool was notably fine and abundant. Jonathan Akin 
 Taber "kept about eleven hundred sheep, some merino and some 
 saxony." 
 
 Butter and cheese making were an important part of the 
 business and income of the farmer's family, the butter being 
 packed and sent weekly to the Hudson River boats for New 
 York markets, or to Bridgeport or New Haven — a two-days' 
 journey in either case. The cheese was ripened, or cured, 
 being rubbed and turned every day, and kept until the dealers 
 came around to inspect and purchase. On every farm was 
 kept a flock of geese, which were picked once in six weeks to 
 keep up the supply of feather beds and to furnish the requisite 
 number for the outfit of each daughter of the family. 
 
 In the year 1767, Oblong Meeting took action which re- 
 sulted, after seven years of agitation, in the clear declaration 
 by the Yearly Meeting of New York, earliest of such acts, 
 in favor of the freeing of slaves. This was one hundred years 
 before the Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
 Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America" 
 says that "Members of the Society of Friends took the lead in 
 the opposition to slavery." There had been action taken in 
 
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 25 
 
 1688 by a small body of Germantown Quakers, in the form of 
 a petition to their Yearly Meeting against "buying, selling and 
 holding men in slavery." But to this the Yearly Meeting, 
 after eight years of delay, replied only that "the members 
 should discourage the introduction of slavery, and be careful 
 of the moral and intellectual training of such as they held in 
 servitude." 
 
 Meantime the Quaker Meetings on Long Island, in New 
 York and Philadelphia took action recognizing slavery, with 
 only a gradual tendency to regard the institution of slavery 
 with disfavor. Now the time had come for putting the denom- 
 ination in array against the institution. 
 
 There was a preacher of the Quakers who traveled much 
 from 1746 to 1767 through the colonies, proclaiming that 
 "the practice of continuing slavery is not right;" and that 
 liberty is the natural right equally of all men." In the last 
 year of his propaganda occurred the event notable in local 
 history. This was thirteen years before the action of the 
 State of Pennsylvania, which initiated the lawmaking for 
 emancipation among the northern colonies. It was "twenty 
 years before V/ilberforce took the first step in England 
 against the slave-trade." The record of this action is as 
 follows : 
 
 "At a (Yearly) Meeting at the Meeting House at Flushing 
 the 30th day of the 5th month, 1767, a Querie from the Quar- 
 terly Meeting of the Oblong in Relation to buying and Selling 
 Negroes was Read in this meeting and it was concluded to be 
 left for consideration on the minds of friends until the Next 
 Yearly Meeting. The Query is as follows: If is not con- 
 sistant with Christianity to buy and Sell our Fellowmen for 
 Slaves during their Lives, & their Posterities after them, then 
 whether it is consistant with a Christian Spirit to keep those 
 in Slavery that we have already in possession by Purchase, 
 Gift or any otherways." 
 
26 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 The year after, not without due hesitation, a committee 
 was appointed which "drew an Essay on that subject which 
 was read and approved and is as follows : We are of the mind 
 that it is not convenient (considering the circumstances of 
 things amongst us) to give an Answer to this Querie, at least 
 at this time, as the answering of it in direct terms manifestly 
 tends to cause divisions and may Introduce heart burnings 
 and Strife amongst us, which ought to be Avoided, and Char- 
 ity exercised, and persuasive methods pursued and that which 
 makes for peace. We are however fully of the mind that 
 Negroes as Rational Creatures are by nature born free, and 
 where the way opens liberty ought to be extended to them, 
 and they not held in Bondage for Self ends. But to turn 
 them out at large Indiscriminately — which seems to be the 
 tendency of the Querie, will, we Apprehend, be attended with 
 great Inconveniency, as some are too young and some too old 
 to obtain a livelyhood for themselves." 
 
 Here, then, is the first action in a legislative body in New 
 York State, upon the freeing of slaves. The "Querie from 
 Oblong" had secured a clear deliverance in favor of the essen- 
 tial right of the negro as a man, in favor of his being freed 
 "where the way opened," and against the holding of man for 
 the service of another. The only hesitation of the meeting was 
 frankly stated; emancipation was not to be pushed to the 
 point of division among Christians, and was not to be accom- 
 plished to the impoverishment of the negro. 
 
 Yet if this action seems to any one like "trimming," it was 
 followed by other deliverances increasingly clear and em- 
 phatic. Three years later Friends were forbidden to sell their 
 slaves, except under conditions controlled by the Meeting. 
 Throughout the communities of Friends the agitation was being 
 carried on, and the meetings were anxious to purge themselves 
 of the evil. 
 
 Finally in 1775 came the clear utterance of the Yearly 
 
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES 2? 
 
 Meeting in favor of emancipation without conditions : "it 
 being our solid judgment that all in profession with us who 
 hold Negroes ought to restore to them their natural right to 
 liberty as soon as they arrive at a suitable age for freedom." 
 At this meeting the Oblong was represented by Joseph Irish, 
 Abner Hoag and Paul Osborn. 
 
 It only remains to picture the rest of the process by which 
 slavery was purged away on Quaker Hill. In 1775 the prac- 
 tice of buying and selling slaves had come to an end, and no 
 public abuse was noted by the Meeting in the treatment ac- 
 corded to slaves by their masters. The next year there was 
 but one slave owned by a member of the Meeting ; and the day 
 he was freed in the fall of 1777 was counted by the Meeting 
 so notable that the clerk was directed to make a minute of the 
 event. The owner had been Samuel Field, and the slave was 
 called Philips. Another manumission in 1779 is recorded, but 
 it was doubtless in the case of a new resident of the Hill, for 
 it is recorded without signs of the joy exhibited in the freedom 
 of Philips. 
 
 In the years 1782-3 the final act in emancipating the local 
 slaves was taken, in the investigation by a committee of the 
 Meeting into the condition of the freed slaves, and the obliga- 
 tions of their old masters to them. It was not very cordially 
 received at first, but in the third year of the life and labors of 
 the committee it was reported by them that "the negroes ap- 
 pear to be satisfied without further settlement." So the first 
 American community to free herself from slavery required but 
 sixteen years of agitation fully to complete the process. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS IN THE QUAKER COMMUNITY. 
 
 The Quaker community had little time for amuse- 
 ments, 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 frol- 
 licks," 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 "froUicking." 
 The following quotation from James Woods' "The Purchase 
 Meeting," vividly depicts the confused elements of the social 
 life of that time: "On great occasions such as the holding 
 of a Quarterly Meeting, the population turned out en masse. 
 Piety and worldliness both observed the day. The latter class 
 gathered about the meeting house, had wrestling matches and 
 various athletic sports in the neighboring fields, and horse 
 races on the adjacent roads. The meetings regularly ap- 
 pointed committees as a police force to keep order about the 
 meeting house during the time of worship and business." 
 
 The stories told by old Quaker Hill residents of the gather- 
 ings about the meeting house, even on First Day, or Sunday, 
 confirm the above quotation. The field opposite the meeting 
 house, for years after 1769, when the earliest meeting house 
 was moved away from that site, was used as a burial 
 ground, 'and later, no headstones being placed in those early 
 days, as a space for tethering horses. An old resident tells 
 me that crowds of men were always about the meeting house 
 before and after meeting, and even during meeting, and that in 
 
AMUSEMENTS 29 
 
 later years the resident of Site No. 32, who owned valuable 
 horses, used to exhibit a blooded stallion on a tether, leading 
 him up and down to the admiration of the horse-owners pres- 
 ent, and to their probable interest. 
 
 These conditions seem to have continued through that 
 whole century. The play spirit had no permitted or au- 
 thorized occasions. It had to exercise itself with the other 
 instincts, in the common gatherings. It was, as far as we 
 can see, a time of asceticism. Men were forbidden rather than 
 invited, in those days. 
 
 The Meeting not only provided no play opportunities, but 
 it forbade the attendance of its members upon the "frollicks," 
 which then were held, as nowadays they are held, in the 
 country side. A gathering with plenty to eat, and in those 
 days a free indulgence in drink on the part of the men, with 
 music of the fiddler, and dancing, this was a 'frollick" — that 
 horror of the meeting house elders. Indeed, it was of inci- 
 dental moral detriment; for it was outlawed amusement, and 
 being under the ban, was controlled by men beyond the influ- 
 ence or control of the meeting. The young people of the 
 Quaker families, and sometimes their elders, yielded to the 
 fascinations of these gatherings. The unwonted excitement 
 of meeting, the sound of music, playing upon the capacity for 
 motor reactions in a people living and laboring outdoors, in- 
 flamed beyond control by rum and hard cidei', soon led to 
 lively, impulsive activities and physical exertions, both in 
 immioderate excess and in disregard of all the inhibitions of 
 tradition and of conscience. That there was a close relation of 
 these "frollicks" with the sexual immorality of the period is 
 probable. 
 
 Of more concern to us here is the observation, which is 
 made with caution, that the attitude of the community to 
 amusements was not conducive to moral betterment, because 
 amusement was not specialized. The repression of the play 
 
30 QUAKER HII.L 
 
 spirit, offering it no occasions, recognizing no times and places 
 as appropriate for it, disturbed the equilibrium of life, forced 
 the normal animal spirits of the population to impulsive and 
 explosive expressions and deprived them of the regulative 
 control of the community. 
 
 It is probable that that early period had modes of amuse- 
 ment the record of which is wholly lost. There are few sources 
 existing to inform us of the amusements of laboring classes. 
 Hints occur in such records as that of the sale of powder and 
 shot, of iishhooks and a quart of rum, at the Merritt store, 
 in 1771, to the Vaughns. Seven years later the Vaughns were 
 the Tory "cowboys," who robbed the defenceless neighborhood, 
 until their leader was killed by Captain Pearce, during the 
 Revolution. 
 
 It is probable that then the community wore the aspect 
 which now it wears, of industry without play; and that mem- 
 bers went elsewhere for their amusement, the acknowledged 
 leaders in which were resident in other neighborhoods and 
 communities. 
 
 The recreation of the body of working population of the 
 Hill was incidental to the religious assemblies. In these 
 meetings they took an intense and a very human pleasure. 
 Their solitary, outdoor labor was performed in an intense at- 
 mosphere of communal interaction. He who raised hogs was 
 to sell them, not to a distant market, but to Daniel Merritt, 
 or John Toffey, the storekeepers. He who made shoes went 
 from house to house, full of news, always talking, always 
 hearing. He who wove heard not his creaking loom, but the 
 voice of the storekeeper or of the neighbor to whom he would 
 sell. The cheeses a woman pressed and wiped in a morning 
 were to be sold, not far away to persons unseen, but to neigh- 
 bors known, whose tastes were nicely ascertained and regarded. 
 
 The result was that meetings on First Day and Fourth 
 Day were times of intense pleasure, occasions of all-around 
 
AMUSEMENTS 31 
 
 interest: not mere business interest, but incidentally a large 
 satisfaction of the play instinct, especially for the working 
 and mature persons. The young, too, had their happiness and 
 enjoyment of one another in a multitude of ways, in addi- 
 tion to those boisterous games described above by Mr. James 
 Wood. Their intense friendships and lively enterprises wert 
 probably not so easy to confine to the bounds of sober, staiB 
 meetings, but no less did their merry good spirits fill those 
 assemblies. The galleries of the old Meeting House were 
 built in 1800 for the young, who were expected to sit there 
 during meeting. The wooden curtains between the "men's 
 part" and the "women's part" are especially thorough in their 
 exclusion of even an eyeshot from one side to the other. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THB 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, es- 
 pecially if it be religiously organized. The writer refers to: 
 "a most important psychic factor, namely the power of idealiz- 
 ation. 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 necessity," which indicates that there is 
 a certain popular appreciation of the real significance of this 
 power, but we have very little in the way of a scientific appre- 
 ciation of it. 
 
 "One of the greatest resources of the hum?n mind is its 
 ability to persuade itself that what is necessary is noble or 
 dignified or honorable or pleasant. For example, the greater 
 part of the human race has been found to live under conditions 
 of almost incessant warfare. War being a necessity from 
 which there was no escape, it was a great advantage to be 
 able to glorify it, to persuade ourselves that it was a noble 
 calling — in other words, a good in itself. 
 
 "Another example is found in the case of work. Work is 
 a necessity as imperious as war ever was. Looked at frankly 
 and truthfully, work is a disagreeable necessity and not a good 
 in itself. Yet by persuading ourselves that v/ork is a blessing, 
 that it is dignified and honorable, our willingness to work is 
 materially increased, and therefore the process of adaptation 
 is facilitated — in other woids, progress is accelerated. Among 
 the m.ost effective agencies for the promotion of progress. 
 
IDEALS OF THE QUAKERS 33 
 
 therefore, must be included those which stimulate this power 
 of idealization. In short, he who in any age helps to idealize 
 those factors and forces upon which the progress of his age 
 depends, is perhaps the most useful man, the most powerful 
 agent in the promotion of human well-being, even though 
 from the strictly realistic pomt of view he only succeeds in 
 making things appear other than they really are. From the 
 sociologist's point of view this is the mission of art and 
 preaching of all kinds." 
 
 The quotation from Professor Carver bears the impression 
 of incompleteness, or rather of suggestiveness. If "making a 
 virtue of necessity" is idealization, is not symbolism also a 
 form of "make believe." If the "ability to persuade oneself 
 that what is necessary is noble or dignified or honorable or 
 pleasant," is exhibited on Quaker Hill as a "most important 
 psychic factor," so is also the idealization of the commonplace 
 the "making beUeve" that peace and plainness, that simple, 
 old-fashioned dressy and seventeenth century forms of speech 
 are spiritual and are serviceable to the believing mind. The 
 power of ideaUzation is nowhere exhibited as a social force 
 more clearly than in a Quaker community. Professor Carver's 
 word, "make believe," is most accurate. Quakers act with all 
 sincerity the drama of life, using costume and artificial speech, 
 and attaching to all conduct peculiar mannerisms; casting 
 over all action a special veil of complacent serenity ; all which 
 are parts in their realization of the ideal of life. Their funda- 
 mental principle is that the divine spirit dwells and acts in the 
 heart of every man; not in a chosen few, not in the elect 
 only, but in all hearts. Quaker Hill to this day acts this out, 
 in that every person in the community is known, thought upon, 
 reckoned and estimated by every other. Towns on either side 
 have a neglected population area, but Quaker Hill has none. 
 Pawling in its other neighborhoods has forgotten roads, de- 
 spised cabins, in which dwell persons for whom nobody cares, 
 
34 QUAKER HILL 
 
 dniilkards, ill-doers, whom others forget and ignore. Quaket 
 ffill ignores no one. There are, indeed, rich and poor, but 
 the former employ the latter, know their state, enjoy their 
 peculiarities, relish their humor. It has apparently always 
 been so. Elsewhere I have described the measures taken by 
 popular subscription to replace the losses suffered by the 
 humbler members of the community, in the tools of life (see 
 Chapter VII). It need not be said that the poorer members 
 bear the rich in mind. Every person resident on the Hill has 
 come to partake in this sense of the community, this practice 
 of new Quakerism. No one is out of sight and yet there is 
 no dream of equality behind this communal sense. It is as 
 far from a communistic, as from a charitable state of mind. 
 It is the result of years of behef in common men and common 
 things. 
 
 This "make believe" that commonplace things are the spir- 
 itual things was a corrolary of George Fox's life as much as 
 of his doctrine. He opposed pomp and ritual, salaried priests, 
 ordinations and consecrations ; he disblieved in "the imposition 
 of hands." His followers therefore went so far as to find in 
 plainness a new sanctity. They adapted at once the "plain 
 garb" of the period of William Penn and Robert Barclay, and 
 the generations of men who followed felt themselves morally 
 bettered by a drab coat and breeches, a white neck-cloth, and 
 a broad-brimmed brown hat; the women by dresses of simple 
 lines, low tones of color, bonnets of peculiar shape, shielding 
 the eyes on either side. 
 
 Of course in time this exceptional garb by its uniqueness 
 defeated the very desire George Fox had for "plainness." It 
 was not commonplace but extraordinary. Roby Osborn's garb 
 is thus described by her biographer: "Her wedding gown 
 was a thick, lustreless silk, of a dehghtful yellowish olive, her 
 bonnet white. Beneath it her dark hair was smoothly banded, 
 and from its demure shelter her eyes looked gravely out. Her 
 
IDEAtS OP THE QUAKERS 35 
 
 vest was a fine tawny brown, of a sprigged pattern, both gown 
 and vest as artistically harmonious as the product of an East- 
 ern loom. Pieces of both were sewn into a patchwork quih, 
 now a family heirloom."* 
 
 For more than a century now "plainness in dress" has been 
 extravagance in dress. A proper Quaker hat for man or 
 woman costs twice or thrice what plain people of the same 
 station in life would pay. But be it so. In its day, which is 
 now gone — for only one person now wears "plain dress" on 
 Quaker Hill — it was a true expression of the "make believe" 
 of sanctity in plainness. The quiet colors, the prescribed un- 
 worldliness involved a daily discipUne, and infused into the 
 wearer an emotional experience which mere economy and real 
 commonness would never so continuously have effected. 
 
 The "plain speech" has the same effect. It is part of the 
 same dramatic celebration of an ideal. It is a use of quaint 
 and antique forms, not grammatically correct nor scriptural, 
 in which "thee" takes the place of "thou" and you in the 
 singular, both in the nominative and objective cases. It is 
 not used with the forms of the verb of solemn style, but with 
 common forms, as "thee has" instead of "thou hast." An- 
 other element of the "plain speech" is the use of such terms as 
 "farewell" for "good day" — which is declared to be untruthful 
 on bad days ! The Quakers also address one another by their 
 first names, and the old-fashioned Friends addressed everybody 
 so, refusing to use such titles as "Mr.," "Mrs.," or "Miss." 
 
 Of late years the younger members of the Meeting, while 
 maintaining their standing there, have used with persons not 
 in the Meeting the ordinary forms of speech, as they have re- 
 fused to assume the Quaker plain garb. With fellow-Quakers 
 and with members of their own families they say "thee." 
 
 Before the period of the mixed community this power of 
 
 * "Richard Osborn — a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monahan; Quaker Hill 
 Series, 1903. 
 
36 QUAKER HILL 
 
 idealization, of "making believe," had wrought its greatest 
 efiEects, but it still has full course and power without the 
 highest direction. The minds of the residents of the Hill are 
 very suggestible; but the persons who have the power to im- 
 plant the suggestion are no longer inspired as of old, with a 
 sublime and unearthly ideal. They are only animated with 
 an economic one. But the result is the same. It is social, 
 rather than religious. It was one thing for the early Friends 
 to cement together a community through the feeling that in 
 every man was the Spirit of God. A wonderful appetite was 
 that for the assimilation of new members coming into the 
 community. It was a doctrine that made all the children birth- 
 right members of the Meeting and so of the community. 
 
 But in our later time, between 1895 and 1905, this power 
 of "making believe" had suffered the strain of a division of the 
 meeting. It was harder to believe that the Spirit of God was 
 in all men, when half the community was set off as "unortho- 
 dox." It had suffered the strain of seeing the wide social 
 difference caused by money. Yet it bravely played the game. 
 Children are not more adapt at "making believe" than were 
 these old Friends. They deceived even themselves; and their 
 "pretending" assimilated into the communal life every new- 
 comer. For it created underneath all differences a sense of 
 oneness ; it kept alive, in all divisions, many of the operations 
 of unity. It compelled strangers and doctrinal enemies to 
 "make believe" to be friends. 
 
 I find it difficult to describe this elusive force of the com- 
 munal spirit in the place, just as the communal character of 
 the place is itself evanescent, while always powerful. I know 
 clearly only this, that it proceeded, and still on Quaker Hill 
 proceeds from the old religious inheritance, and from the 
 present religious character of the place ; that it tends directly 
 to the creation of the community of all men, of all different 
 groups, and that it is ready at hand at all time, to be called 
 
IDEALS OF THE QUAKERS 37 
 
 to the assistance of anyone who knows how to appeal to that 
 communal unity ; and that it is a power of idealization, mean- 
 ing by that "a power oi making believe." In this power, I 
 recognize this community as being more expert and better 
 versed than any I have ever known. 
 
 The dramatic expression of an ideal has had great social 
 power. Upon the casual observer or visitor it has wrought 
 with the effect of a charm to impress upon them in a subtle 
 way the ideal of Quakerism. Expressed in words, it would 
 have no interest : acted out so quaintly, it awakens admiration, 
 interest, and imitation, not of the forms, but always in some 
 degree of the substance of the Quaker ideal. 
 
 Thus the Quaker ideal has given authority to the Friends, 
 especially to the older and more conservative of them; has 
 furnished a subtle machinery for assimilating new members - 
 into the community and thus has been an organizing power. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MORALS OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY. 
 
 From the first the members found themselves subjected to 
 a clear, simple standard of morals. Its dominion was un- 
 broken 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. When, with better 
 roads to Poughkeepsie and to Fredericksburg, newcomers 
 began to invade the community; when in 1849 the railroad 
 came to the neighborhood, immersing the Quakers in the 
 world economy, the Quaker code was insufficient, retarded 
 rather than assisted survival, and rather forbade than encour- 
 aged success. It therefore lost its force. Only in a few indi- 
 viduals has it survived. 
 
 The residents of the Hill, from their earliest settlement in 
 1728 to the time of the Division in 1828, knew no other 
 government than that of the Meeting. They accepted no other 
 authority, hoped for public good through no other agency, 
 even read no other literature, than that of the Quaker Monthly 
 Meeting of the Oblong. The religious Meeting House was 
 also the City Hall, State House, and Legislature for the 
 patriotism, as it was the focus of the worship and doctrinal 
 activity of this population. This cannot be stated too strongly, 
 for there was no limit to its effect. It explains many things 
 otherwise diverse and unexplained. 
 
 During all the periods of war the Quakers showed their 
 
MORAI<S ■7g 
 
 separateness by refusing to pay taxes, lest they contribute to 
 the support of armies. In the Revolution, the Meeting exer- 
 cised unflinching discipline, for the purpose of keeping mem- 
 bers out of the patriot armies, and punished with equal vigor 
 those who paid for the privilege of exemption from military 
 duty and those who enlisted in the ranks. In every act of 
 the discipline of the Quaker Community appears the purpose 
 of the Meeting, namely, to keep its members to itself and away 
 from all other moral and spiritual control. This will appear 
 in definite illustrations below. 
 
 The standard of morals which the Meeting thus upheld 
 with jealous care was a simple one, and logically derived from 
 the distinctive doctrine of the Society of Friends. That the 
 Spirit of God dwells in every man was their belief,* and from 
 1650, when Fox was called "a Quaker" before Justice Bennett 
 at Derby, England, to the Division in 1830, they applied this 
 doctrine in practical, rather than in metaphysical ways. They 
 were a moral, rather than a theological people. It will appear in 
 this chapter that only when the moral grip of the Meeting 
 was broken in a division did doctrinal questions come to dis- 
 cussion on the Hill. 
 
 The moral bearing of the one cardinal doctrine of Quaker- 
 ism is well expressed in the following quotation from a Friend 
 qualified to speak with authority: 
 
 "The Friends have been consistent in all their peculiarities 
 with one central principle, the presence a,nd inspiration of the 
 
 * Francis B. Gommere of Haverford College says of George Fox, the founder 
 of the Society of Friends: "The central point of his doctrine is the direct respon- 
 sibility of each soul to God, without mediation of priest or form, because of the 
 presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every human being." Johnson's Uni- 
 versal Cyclopedia, 1894. 
 
 The following is authoritative for the Society: "We believe in no principle of 
 life, light or holiness, but the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, bestowed on 
 mankind, in various measures and degrees, through Jesus Christ our Z*ord. It is 
 the capacity to receive this blessed influence, which, in an especial manner, gives 
 man pre-eminence above the beasts that perish; which distinguishes him, in every 
 nation and in every clime, as an object of the redeeming love of God; as a being 
 not only intelligent but responsible; . . . — "A Declaration of Some of the 
 Fundamental Doctrines of Christian Truth, as held by the Religious Society of 
 Friends." 
 
40 QUAKER HILL 
 
 Divine Spirit in the human soul. This has been the reason for 
 their opposition to slavery. They felt, You cannot hold in 
 slavery god! And God is in this black man's life, therefore 
 you cannot enslave God in him. So you must not inflict 
 capital punishment upon this man in whom is God. 
 
 "The same argument dignified woman, who was made the 
 equal of man. The same argument applies to the impos- 
 sibility of war. You cannot think of God fighting against 
 God. The Quaker had no sentimental idea of suffering; but 
 he believed that you cannot take life, in which is God. 
 
 "The same argument applied to weights and measures ; the 
 Quakers early demanded that they be officially sealed. So 
 they believed in only one standard of truth, rather than one 
 for conversation and one for a court of justice. No oaths 
 were necessary for those who spoke for God all the time."* 
 
 In this beUef one sees the principle on which were selected 
 the reforms in which the Quaker Preacher was interested. 
 "He appears to have had ... his mind strongly influenced 
 to an active protest against the evils of slavery, war, capital 
 punishment and intemperance."t Each of these reforms was 
 inspired by reverence for human life, which was thought to 
 be desecrated or abused. 
 
 This simple code expressed itself in abstinence from prac- 
 tices believed to defile the body. Members of the Meeting 
 early adopted a strict rule against the use of intoxicating 
 liquors. It is said of the ancestors of Richard Osborn that: 
 "Of these six generations not a man has ever been known 
 to use spirituous liquors, or tobacco, to indulge in profanity, 
 or to be guilty of a hisronest action.''^ 
 
 A sense of personal degradation underlay their opposition 
 to poverty among members. There is record of an order of the 
 
 *Mr. James Wood, in an address at Quaker Hill Conference, 1907. 
 
 T "David Irish, A Memoir," by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer. 
 
 } "Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monaban. 
 
MORALS 41 
 
 Meeting, in 1775, for the purchase of a cow "to loan to 
 
 Joseph ." The practice thus early observed has since 
 
 then been unbroken. The member of the community who 
 comes to want, is at this day taken care of by popular sub- 
 scription. Through the early century the Meeting accom- 
 plished this end, sometimes by formal, sometimes by informal 
 methods. In the later years of the nineteenth century it was 
 accomplished by special funds to which everybody gave. Thus 
 simply was poverty forestalled. The family assisted soon came 
 to self-support again. No debt was incurred, and no obliga- 
 tion remained to be discharged; but every member of the 
 Meeting and of the community felt obliged to give and was 
 glad to give to this anti-poverty fund. The basis of it seems 
 to have been respect for human embodiments of the Divine 
 Spirit. 
 
 This ideal of personality, divinely indwelt, created a sense 
 of personal duty, even in opposition to all men. In the years 
 of anti-slavery agitation David Irish and his sister "made 
 their protest against slavery by abstaining as far as possible 
 from slave-made products; and together they made maple, to 
 take the place of cane sugar, and used nothing but linen and 
 woolen clothing (largely homespun)."* This later Quaker, 
 possessed of the spirit of the community of his fathers, shows 
 his inner conflict with the ideals of a competitive age in the 
 expression "so far as possible." It was not as practicable in 
 1855 to "abstain from slave-made products," as it would 
 have been in the year 1755. 
 
 The hospitality of the neighborhood expressed this simple 
 code. It was the custom to entertain the traveler in any house 
 to which he might come. It would have been wrong to ex- 
 clude him; he was welcomed with a dignified and formal 
 respect by these old Friends, because entertainment of guests 
 
 * "David Irish, A Memoir,'- by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer. 
 
42 QUAKER Hltl, 
 
 in those days was a vital reality, as well as a religious prac- 
 tice. These settlers in the wild forests believed that in every 
 wayfarer was a divine voice, a possible message from heaven. 
 They also treated every traveler as a possible object of their 
 "preachments," and spared not to "testify" to him of their 
 peculiar beliefs and "leadings." It was the Friends' method 
 of propagating their gospel to send men and women on 
 journeys, without pay, to distant states and provinces. This 
 religious touring was not peculiar to them, but it was made 
 by them an official agency of great power in evangelizing the 
 Colonies. 
 
 As an itinerant Friend, Woolman, the anti-slavery apostle, 
 came to the Hill in 176 — . So Paul Osborn joined himself 
 to a party of Friends "travelHng on truth's account," and 
 with them visited the Carolinas, in the years before the 
 Revolution. The same pioneer left in his will directions for 
 the entertainment of such travellers upon his estate forever.* 
 This religious itinerating was a part of the economic life 
 of those days as well; for the Friends never separated the 
 one from the other. Wherever they went they "testified," 
 and to every place they came with shrewd appreciation of its 
 value as a place of settlement. Says James Wood: "Each 
 Quaker home as it was settled became a resting-place for those 
 who followed, for it was a cardinal principle of Quaker hos- 
 pitality to keep open house for all fellow-members, under all 
 circumstances.! 
 
 * To "friends travelling on truth's account" the doors of the old house always 
 swung wide. Paul Osborn kept open house for "his friends, the people called 
 Quakers," during his lifetime, and his will provides in the most minute and careful 
 manner for his wife "the better to qualifye her to keep a house of entertainment 
 for friends." . . . The "littel meadow in lot 29" he gave to Isaac Osborn, that 
 "he shall keep well all horses of friends my wife shall send him;" and should 
 Isaac "neglect the injunctions herein enjoined," and cease to keep such house of 
 entertainment for friends then his right to certain legacies "shall descend and 
 revolve to them, him or her that shall truly fulfill them." All his lands in the 
 latter case Paul gives to the "Yearly Meeting for Friends, the people called 
 
 guakers, of Philadelphia." — "Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. 
 ionahan. 
 t "The Bi-Centennial of the New York Yearly Meeting, An Historical Sketch," 
 by James Wood, 1895. 
 
MORALS 43 
 
 The development of the hospitality that was a part of the 
 religion of the Quakers would be itself a sufficient study. It 
 has furnished some of the most interesting chapters of the 
 history of the Hill. It is now completely transformed, through 
 the pressure of competitive economic life; and, with un- 
 diminished activities, has become a means of revenue in "the 
 keeping of boarders." Seven of the old Quaker homes, in the 
 period of the Mixed Community, took on the aspect of small 
 hotels. For this business the Quakers have a preparation in 
 their history and traditions. They have an inbred genius 
 for hospitality. They have also a thrift and capacity for 
 "management" which have made their efforts successful. One 
 is impressed in their houses by a union of abundance with 
 economy, impossible to imitate. 
 
 Like other American pioneer neighborhoods, of a religious 
 t)rpe, the Quaker community at Oblong had a history in the 
 matter of sexual morality. The relations of the sexes offered to 
 the Friends a field in which their favorite doctrine of the in- 
 dwelling divine spirit produced moral harvests. The records 
 of Oblong Meeting are filled with cases of moral discipline. 
 There is scarcely a meeting in whose minutes some case is 
 not mentioned, either its initial, intermediate or final stages. 
 No family was exempt from this experience. The best families 
 furnished the culprits as often as they supplied the committees 
 to investigate and to condemn. 
 
 The regular method of procedure in marriage will best 
 exhibit the moral standards of the time. When a couple would 
 marry, they indicated to the Meeting their intention; and a 
 committee was at once appointed to investigate their "clear- 
 ness." That is, these two must be free of other engagements, 
 and must be free of debt or other incumbrance of such sort as 
 would render marriage impossible or unadvisable. At the 
 next monthly meeting the report of the committee advanced 
 the case one stage; and if they were found "clear of all 
 
44 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 Others," another committee was appointed "to see that the 
 marriage was orderly performed." 
 
 The parties on the day set appeared before the Meeting,* 
 and in its regular course, stood up and said the words of 
 mutual agreement which made them man and wife. A cer- 
 tificate was used, and to it the guests signed their names. 
 But no minister had official part in the ceremony. It was 
 their belief, to which they adhered with logical strictness, that 
 the divine spirit in each of the parties to a marriage made it 
 sacred, and that in marrying they spoke the will of the Spirit. 
 
 Entire continence was expected of every unmarried person,, 
 and the strictest marital faithfulness of man and wife, because 
 of the sacredness of personal life. But in a pioneer society, 
 through those rough early decades, when for long times war 
 was disturbing the serenity of social Hfe, the conduct of men 
 and women, not mindful of propriety, was determined by the 
 strong, masterful passions of ah out of door people. Besides, 
 the government of the Meeting was contrary to the general 
 opinion of the countryside, and the Meeting House members 
 were immersed in a population whose standards were looser, 
 as well as sanctioned by authorities not recognized by the 
 Meeting. The result was that in the first century of the Hill, 
 1728 — 1828, there were many instances of sexual immorality, 
 many accusations of married persons untrue to their vows, 
 and a resulting attention of the whole community to this 
 theme which we do not know to-day. Frankness of discus- 
 sioji of these matters prevailed. The punishments inflicted, 
 
 * "It was Wednesday, the day of the regular mid-week meeting, and the house 
 was crowded. The young people took their places upon the facing seats, and the 
 meeting began. Daniel Haviland was minister and he spoke at length. Then, after 
 a short pause, Richard Osborn and Roby Hoag arose, and clasping hands, spoke 
 alternately the solemn sentences of the Friends' marriage ceremony, which have 
 united them for sixty years. Then was brought forth the marriage certificate, 
 fairly engrossed in the bridegroom's own hand, and many names of those present 
 were affixed, after which it was read aloud. This being done, and kindly greet- 
 ings offered, Richard and Roby Osborn drove back to their home. The wedding 
 was well furnished with guests, and four fat turkeys graced the board that day." 
 — "Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monahan. Quaker Hill 
 Series. 
 
MORALS 45 
 
 the public confessions demanded, the condemnation of specific 
 and detailed offences read from the steps of the Meeting 
 Houses, were all as far from present day approval as the 
 offences themselves from modern experience. The writer is 
 sure that, comparing the records of the Quaker Community 
 with his own knowledge of the annals of the Mixed Com- 
 munity, there were more offences of this kind considered 
 by the Monthly Meeting of Oblong in any one year, 1728 — 
 1828, than were publicly known in a population of the same 
 extent in the ten years 1890 — 1900. The commonest of these 
 offences were simple cases of illicit relations between un- 
 married persons, or between persons, one of whom was mar- 
 ried; the offence often being associated in the minds of the 
 accusers with "going to frollicks." In these, as in all cases, 
 the Meeting received the complaint and appointed a committee 
 to investigate and to labor with the accused. On receiving its 
 report, if guilt was evidenced, the Meeting pressed the matter, 
 often increasing the size of the committee. It always 
 demanded an expression of repentance, and the restor- 
 ation of right conduct, without which no satisfaction was to 
 be had. If the accused persons, being found guilty, did not 
 repent, they were in the end "disowned." The disownment 
 by the Meeting was a serious penalty. It diminished a man's 
 business opportunities, it shut the door of social life to him, 
 and it effectually forbade his marriage within the Meeting. 
 
 Its power is shown in a number of cases recorded in the 
 minutes, in which the ban of the Meeting had been laid upon 
 some one, who was compelled later to come to the Meeting, 
 make a tardy acknowledgement, and be restored, before he 
 could proceed freely in some of the communal activities con- 
 trolled by the Meeting. Often the committee appointed by 
 the Meeting reported that they were not satisfied with the 
 lepentance offered, seeing in it evidently more of policy than 
 penitence. Usually they received, in later visitations of the 
 
46 QUAKER HILL 
 
 accused, sufficient tokens of submission, and the Meeting was 
 satisfied ; but not always. 
 
 The most curious instance of the working out of this con- 
 trol exercised by the Meeting, especially over the sexual rela- 
 tions, is in the marriage of Joseph with Elizabeth . 
 
 The first act in the little drama was the formal written state- 
 •ment of Joseph that he was sorry for "having been familiar 
 with his wife before his marriage to her." The Monthly 
 Meeting appointed a committee, as usual, after making record 
 of this "acknowledgment." After a month the committee re- 
 ported that they had visited Joseph, and found his repentance 
 sincere; and another committee was appointed to draw up a 
 testimony against his former misconduct, to which Joseph was 
 required to subscribe ; and in a later month to hear it read 
 from the steps of the Preparative Meeting in the neighborhood 
 where he lived — or perhaps in that in which the oifence was 
 best known. After this had all been done, with patient detail, 
 and reported and recorded, a further month elapsed, and then 
 announcement was made at the Meeting of the intention ot 
 Joseph and Elizabeth to marry. The reader is astonished, think- 
 ing that Joseph has already evidenced his loyalty to his wife. 
 A closer re-reading of the stages of the incident shows 
 that the wife mentioned in the original offence was now dead ; 
 but that the offence was not dead. Joseph had to be restored 
 to the Meeting before he could marry Elizabeth, who was very 
 evidently a devoted member. To win his new wife, he had to 
 make acknowledgment of the offence which preceded his 
 former marriage. 
 
 This incident illustrates the whole attitude of that com- 
 munity toward these moralities. They were thought to be 
 defilements of the body, the temple of God. No change of 
 outward condition could eliminate the offence, which must be 
 wiped out by repentance, public acknowledgment and formal 
 restoration. 
 
MORALS 47 
 
 It is evident from the foregoing that the Meeting main- 
 tained control over the community, at least of its own 
 members, by possessing an effective power to approve or to 
 disapprove of the economic and the marital condition of each 
 individual. 
 
 The code of morals practiced in this community required 
 strict business honesty. The Quaker has moral discretion in 
 economic affairs. He "expects to get what he pays for, and 
 he expects to give what he has agreed." The honesty of 
 "stroke-measure," by which bushels are topped off, the faith- 
 ful performance of contracts and payment of debts were incul- 
 cated by the Meeting and enforced by its discipline. 
 
 This chapter may fitly close with a statement of the ana- 
 thema of Quakerism, pronounced many times in a year, during, 
 the century. The offence selected shall be a moral one : 
 
 "Whereas, Jonathan Osgood hath had a right of mem- 
 bership among us, the people called Quakers, but not taking 
 heed to the dictates of truth, hath so far deviated from the 
 good order established among Friends as to neglect attend- 
 ance of our religious meetings for worship and discipline, to 
 deviate from the plain scripture language, and to refuse to 
 settle with his creditors, and pay his just debts ; and hath shut 
 himself up concealed from the civil authorities, therefore for 
 the clearing of truth and our Religious Society we do testify 
 against his misconduct, and disown him, the said Jonathan 
 Osgood, from being any longer a member of our Society, until 
 he shall from a true sight and sense of his misconduct con- 
 demn the same to the satisfaction of the Meeting. Which 
 that he may is our desire for him. Signed, in and on behalf 
 of Purchase Monthly Meeting this th day of the th 
 month." 
 
 The above wording except the name is taken from the 
 minutes of Purchase Meeting ; and some of the offences men- 
 tioned in a few pages of those minutes, for which men were 
 
48 QUAKER HILL 
 
 disowned, or for acknowledgment pardoned and restored, are 
 the following: "deviating from plainness of speech and ap- 
 parel" — "not keeping to the plain scripture language ;" "going 
 to FroUicks," "going to places of amusement," "attending a 
 horserace;" "frequenting a tavern, being frequently intoxi- 
 sated with strong liquor;" "placing his son out apprentice 
 with one not of our Society;" "leaving his habitation in a 
 manner disagreeable to his friends ;" "to use profane language 
 and carry a pistol, in an unbecoming manner;" "bearing 
 arms;" "to challenge a person to fight;" "to marry with a 
 first cousin;" "to keep company with a young woman not of 
 our Society on account of marriage;" "to be married by a 
 magistrate;" "to marry with one not of our Society before a 
 hireling priest;" "to join principles and practice with another 
 society of people;" "to be guilty of fornication;" "to be un- 
 chaste with her who is now my wife" (the person afterward 
 married by the accused). Oblong minutes: "to have bought 
 a negro slave," "to have bought a negro wench and to be 
 familiar with her." 
 
 It was the operation of this code of morals, and of its 
 ecclesiastical checks and curbs, that made the Quaker Hill 
 man and the Quaker Hill sentiment what they are. And hav- 
 ing done its work this code at the last tended to weaken the 
 Meeting, as it had strengthened the public conscience. In 
 talking recently with a sweet old lady past eighty, I asked her, 
 "Did you ever hear anyone disowned in meeting?" "No," 
 she never had, and "doubted if there had been many." Later, 
 her daughter said, "Why, Grandmother, you married out of 
 meeting yourself!" Whereupon I asked again, "Well, what 
 did they do with you then?" "Oh," she replied, not at all 
 embarrassed, "they turned me out !" 
 
 "But what was the outcome of it all?" asks James Wood, 
 in the closing sentences of his monograph, "The Purchase 
 Meeting." He continues: "As a church the Quakers here 
 
MORALS 49 
 
 missed their great opportunity. As settlers came among them 
 in increasing numbers, the Friends became solicitious to pre- 
 serve the strictest moral observance among their members. 
 They withdrew from contact and association with the world 
 about them and confined their religious influence and effort to 
 themselves. The strictest watch was maintained over the de- 
 portment of old and young. Members were dismissed for 
 comparatively slight offences. Immigration further reduced 
 their numbers. Hypercriticism produced disagreements among 
 themselves. Finally, doctrinal differences arose which re- 
 sulted in a disastrous separation into two bodies in 1828." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TOLERATION OE 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 con- 
 sistent 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 
 prompt to act "solidly and judiciously" in support of the in- 
 jured. An illustration is the riot in opposition to Surgeon 
 Fallon, who in January, 1779, was left here with convalescent 
 soldiers in the Meeting House. It is very interesting as 
 showing the length to which men will go in the interest of 
 peace, even to the use of violence. It illustrates also the fact 
 that kindness to the sick and wounded, simply because they 
 are helpless and needy, is modern, a humanitarian not a dog- 
 matic development. 
 
 To superior power the Quakers of this place have always 
 submitted. Their forefathers were loyalists in England, and 
 they in America, till far into the Revolution. But see the 
 resolutions passed in April, 1778 : 
 
 "The answering of the 14th Query Respecting the De- 
 frauding of the King of his dues is omitted by reason of the 
 Difiiiculty of the times therefore this meeting desires the 
 Quarterly meeting to Consider whether it would not be well 
 to omit the answering that part of the Query in futur until 
 the way may appear more Clear." This action was taken by 
 
HOSTILE FORCES 51 
 
 the meeting five months before the coming of Washington to 
 the Hill, immediately after the heroic winter of Valley Forge 
 and just before the British retreated from Philadelphia. An 
 official body which could speak of dues to the king at. that 
 time, after their country had been separated from him for 
 three years, surely represented a community in which the great 
 majority were Loyalists, and the disorderly and violent were 
 Tories. 
 
 But the non-resistant character of the neighborhood, perched 
 between the Connecticut Yankees, who took ardent interest in 
 the Revolution, and the aggressive settlements of Pawling, 
 Fredericksburgh and Beekman, rendered the Hill at times an 
 asylum, strange to say, of the most adventurous forces. When- 
 ever in Colonial days an adventurer or soldier sought a peace- 
 ful region in which to recruit his forces, he thought upon 
 Quaker Hill; and in four memorable instances used the Hill 
 as a place of safe refuge. There no one would by force resist 
 his enjoyment of a time for recruiting. 
 
 The first instance of this is" the so-called "Anti-Rent War," 
 which in 1766 excited the inhabitants of Dutchess and Col- 
 umbia Counties. Its sources were in the land grants made 
 by the Crown, and in the independent character of the settlers 
 in this state. The series of disturbances so caused continued 
 until well into the years of the nineteenth century. They 
 concern the local history only in one year, 1766. 
 
 The Anti-Rent War of 1766 is a forgotten event. But in 
 that time it aroused the Indians and the white settlers to 
 revolt. Bodies of armed men assembled, British troopers 
 marched from Poughkeepsie to Quaker Hill, to seize a leader 
 of rebellion; and at the time of his trial at Poughkeepsie in 
 August, 1766, a company of regulars with three field-pieces 
 was brought up from New York.* 
 
 ♦"Dutchess County in Colonial Days," 1898, and "Dutchess County," 1899. 
 oaoers read before the Dutchess County Society, in the City of New York, by Hon. 
 Alfred T. Ackert. Also, "History of Dutchess County," by James H. bmith. 
 
52 QUAKER HILL 
 
 The prime cause of this insurrection was the granting of 
 the land in great areas at the beginning of the century to 
 favored proprietors, so that the actual settlers could not be- 
 come owners but only tenants. Fragments of such great 
 estates remain in the hands of certain families till our time. 
 The ownership of Hammersley Lake by the family of that 
 name is an example. The exercise of authority by these mon- 
 opolists of natural opportunities drove the actual tillers of the 
 soil, who had given it its value, to desperation. I have shown 
 that in 1740 no land owners were enrolled on Quaker Hill, and 
 that the list of its most representative citizens in 1755 con- 
 tained few landowners.* A further cause of this conflict may 
 have been that, in the year of the settlement of the boundaries 
 of the Oblong it was granted to one company by the British 
 Crown, and to another by the Colony of New York. This 
 brought the title of all the lands on the Oblong into dispute. 
 Moreover, boundaries were carelessly indicated and loosely 
 described, a pile of stones or a conspicuous tree serving for a 
 landmark. All this worked great confusion, for the settle- 
 ment of which in a crude community courts were ineffective. 
 Finally the popular discontent broke out to the north in 
 armed refusal of settlers to pay the rents exacted. The movement 
 spread from Dutchess to Columbia County. William Prender- 
 gast, who is said to have lived in a house standing on the 
 ground now part of the golf links in Pawling, was the leader 
 of the insurgents in this county. He assembled a band on 
 Quaker Hill so formidable that the grenadiers at Poughkeepsie 
 waited for reinforcements of two hundred troopers and two 
 field pieces from New York before proceeding against him. 
 The sight of the red coats was enough. Prendergast sur- 
 rendered. But so great was the local excitement that, to fore- 
 stall an attempt to rescue, he was taken a prisoner to New 
 York. In July he was brought back for trial; and on the 
 
 * See pp. 20 and 21. 
 
HOSTHE FORCES 53 
 
 same boat with the King's counsel, judges, lawyers and pris- 
 oner came a company of soldiers to put down the continued 
 disturbance in Columbia County.* 
 
 The trial occurred the first fortnight of August. Prender- 
 gast was assisted in his defense by his wife, who made a 
 strong impression on the jury, proving that her husband, be- 
 fore the acts of which he was accused, was "esteemed a sober, 
 honest and industrious farmer, much beloved by his neighbors, 
 but stirred up to act as he did by one Munro, who is ab- 
 sconded.'' So ardent was this woman advocate that the State's 
 attorney forgot himself and moved that she be excluded from 
 the court room. The motion was denied, and the mover of it 
 emphatically rebuked. But there was not lacking proof of 
 the fact of treason, and Prendergast was convicted and sen- 
 tenced to be hanged in six weeks. Then this valiant woman's 
 energy and perseverance rose to their highest. She set off 
 for an audience with the Governor, Sir Henry Moore, Bart., 
 and returned about the first of September with a reprieve. 
 Just in time she arrived, for a company of fifty mounted men 
 had ridden the whole length of the county to rescue her 
 husband from the jail. She convinced them of the folly of 
 such action as they proposed, and sent them home, while she 
 turned to the task of obtaining a pardon from the King. 
 Here, too, she was successful; for, six months later, George 
 HI, who required six years to be subdued by a Washington, 
 released her husband. They arrived home amid great popular 
 rejoicings. 
 
 William Prendergast and Mehitabel Wing, whose descend- 
 ants settled later about Chautauqua Lake, New York, were 
 bound to the Quaker Community by ties of marriage and of 
 trade. William was not, so far as I can learn, a member of the 
 Meeting; but Mehitabel was a daughter of Jedidiah Wing, 
 
 * See "New York Mercury," July 28, 1766, August 18 and 25, 1766, September 
 15, 1766. See also "Dutchess County," by Alfred T. Ackert, 1899, p. S- 
 
54 QUAKER HILL 
 
 whose family was devoted to the Society from 1744 until the 
 "laying down" of the Meeting in 1885. WiUiam Prendergast 
 was, however, a member of the community. His name heads 
 an account in the ledgers of the Merritt store, in 1771 and 
 1772, and his purchases indicate that he was a substantial 
 farmer whose trading center was Quaker Hill.* Prendergast 
 was an Irishman. 
 
 Before the Revolution he with his family and possessions, 
 a caravan of seventeen vehicles and thirty horses, emigrated 
 westward, going as far south as Kentucky, then north through 
 Ohio and New York. A part of the family company proceeded 
 to Canada. His son James settled, with other Prendergasts, 
 on Chautauqua Lake, and became the founder of Jamestown, 
 where his family, now extinct there, has given the city a 
 library. When William Prendergast and Mehitabel Wing, his 
 resolute wife, died, is not known. None of that name is 
 later found on or near Quaker Hill. 
 
 The motive of their hegira appears to have been chagrin 
 and a sense of humiliation at the sentence of death pronounced 
 upon the head of the family. In the Prendergast Library at 
 Jamestown is a book containing family histories, which came 
 from the Prendergast private library. From this book two 
 pages had been cleanly cut away. The Librarians set themselves 
 to replace the lost material, and after patient efforts in many 
 quarters, discovered another copy, and had typewritten pages 
 made and pasted in. Upon the missing pages, thus replaced 
 after the extinction of James Prendergast's family, was found 
 the account of William Prendergast's sentence to be hanged. 
 His descendants, had they lived longer, might have been more 
 proud than ashamed of his rebellion against injustice. 
 
 The Quakers, because they would passively tolerate an 
 intrusion, were forced to harbor another rendezvous of tur- 
 bulent men. It is said that Enoch Crosby, the famous spy 
 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
■ ^ -si 
 
 td E 
 
 H Pi 
 
 o 
 z 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 O 
 
 b. 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 w 
 (- 
 z 
 
 o 
 
 OS 
 
hostile; forces 55 
 
 of the Revolution, who is believed to have been Cooper's 
 model for the hero of the novel, "The Spy," came to Quaker 
 Hill during the Revolution, in pursuance of a plan he was 
 at that time following, and got together a band of Tory volun- 
 teers, who were planning to join the British army; and de- 
 livered them to the Continental authorities, as prisoners. In 
 this he was assisted by Col. Moorehouse, who kept a tavern 
 on a site in South Dover, opposite the brick house which now 
 stands one-half mile south of the Methodist Church. 
 
 I have spoken above of the sullen loyalty of the 
 Quakers to the British Crown during the Revolution. It 
 may have been in part owing to their loyalty that their neigh- 
 borhood became more congenial for the Tories who during 
 that period harried the country-side. The Quakers were 
 Tories, and are so called in the letters of the period; but 
 the word "Tories" remains in the speech of Quaker Hill as 
 a name of opprobrium. It describes a species of guerillas 
 who infested parts of New York and Connecticut. 
 
 The "Tories" of the Revolutionary days furnish the sub- 
 stance of the stories of violence that are told about the fire- 
 side to Quaker Hill boys and girls. It is difficult, however, 
 to persuade those who have heard these tales to relate them. 
 Those who know them best are the very ones who cannot 
 recall them in systematic or orderly form. I mention only 
 one more of the free lances of the time. The chiefest of all 
 bandit-leaders of those turbulent times was Waite Vaughn. 
 It is related that this fellow was the head of a band of Tories, 
 which means locally the same that the term "Cowboys" or 
 "Skinners" means in the history of Westchester County. The 
 latter were lawless bands who infested the regions in which 
 the armies made civil life insecure, and subsisted by stealing 
 cattle, plundering houses, robbing and often murdering citi- 
 zens. "They seemed," says a writer, "like the savages to enjoy 
 the sight of the sufferings they inflicted. Oftentimes they 
 
56 QUAKER HII,I< 
 
 left their wretched victims from whom they had plundered 
 their all, hung up by their arms, and sometimes by their 
 thumbs, on barndoors, enduring the agony of wounds that had 
 been inflicted to wrest from them their property. These miser- 
 able beings were frequently relieved by the American patrol."* 
 Waite Vaughn lived in Connecticut in the part of New Fair- 
 field known as Vaughn's Neck. Under the house, recently 
 demolished, in which "Dr. Vaughn," his brother, is said to 
 have lived during the Revolution, was found rotted linen 
 below the cellar floor. Behind the great heap of the chimney 
 also was found a secret cellar, for years forgotten, in which, 
 among other rubbish of no significance, are said to have been 
 found counterfeit coins of the Revolutionary period and other 
 evidences of outlaw practices in that time.f 
 
 Vaughn used to ride at night with his troop to Quaker 
 Hill, through Connecticut neighborhoods, which knew the 
 sound of his passing. The Pepper family still relate the tra- 
 dition of his riding up "Stony Hill," past the point where 
 stands Cobum Meeting House, in the night, while they and 
 their neighbors stayed discreetly indoors. This rendezvous 
 was a place in the woods on Irish land, about half way between 
 Sites 96 and 120, now known as "The Robber Rocks." Here 
 the Vaughns are said to have concealed booty at times, and 
 from this point they made forages upon farmhouses in the rich- 
 est neighborhoods of this vicinity. Probably they spared the 
 Quakers. I will speak later of the fact that Quakers have 
 ways of their own for protecting themselves against intruders. 
 Moreover, their men were not gone to the war. 
 
 The record of these years, on the pages of the clerk's 
 minute-book, are a disappointment. One searches in vain for 
 even the slightest trace of the presence in the Meeting House 
 of the troops. There is no record of the presence in the Meet- 
 
 2 Thacher's "Military Journal of the Revolution." 
 
 „' « J'J'T?*',?^ ,°* Vaughn is gleaned from old residents, Almira Briggs Tread- 
 well, Archibald Dodge, Jane Crane, and others. 
 
HOSTILE FORCES 57 
 
 ing House of the "Tories" or guerillas of the Revolution ; and 
 not a word about the makers of the rifle-ports in the gables 
 of this building which the present writer discovered there, 
 unless it be the unruffled and serene utterance, under date of 
 8th Month, 9th, 1781, the very period at which the "Tories" 
 must have been at their worst : "Samuel Hoag is appointed to 
 take care of the Meeting House, and to keep the door locked 
 and windows fastened, and to nail up the hole that goes up 
 into the Garratt." The "Tories" robbed the store on Site 28. 
 They had hidden for that purpose in the loft of the Meeting 
 House and were discovered by some young Quakers who 
 were skylarking in the Meeting House under pretense of clean- 
 ing it. The story is that one of the young men, being dared — 
 of course by a maiden — to open the trap-door into the garret, 
 and look for the Tories, found them hiding there. The bandits, 
 being discovered, tumbled down the hole from the garret, and 
 compelled their discoverers to go with them to the store; and 
 proceeded at once to plunder it, relying no doubt on the non- 
 resistant character of the people of the Hill. They stacked 
 their arms at the door and went about their business in a 
 thorough manner. But there was that in the blood of some 
 Quakers there that could not contain itself within the bounds 
 of non-resistance, and one of them, Benjamin Ferris, cried 
 out, "Seize the rascals." In the scrimmage that resulted from 
 the excitement of this remark, the leader of the Tories was 
 recognized by the young lady who had by her challenge to 
 the young man discovered them, and being taunted by her was 
 so incensed that he stabbed her. It is only said in closing the 
 story that the blood of both the fair and adventurous young 
 Quakeress whose abounding spirit brought on all the trouble, 
 and that of the leader of the "Tories," flows in the veins, 
 of some who live on the Hill in the twentieth century. 
 
 Samuel Towner, a relative of Vaughn, resident in the 
 region of Fredericksburgh (now Patterson), returning from 
 
58 QUAKER HILL 
 
 a trip, once found Vaughn at his home, and urged him at 
 once to leave, as his property would be confiscated, if Vaughn's 
 presence there were tolerated. 
 
 Vaughn was once pursued by farmers near Little Rest, and 
 was sighted and surrounded in a lonely road. He turned 
 upon his pursuers coolly and said : "Now, gentlemen, you can 
 arrest me, or kill me, but you must take the consequences; 
 for I will kill some of you." Daunted by his resolution, they 
 stood motionless while he crossed a fence and a field, and dis- 
 appeared among the trees of a wooded hill. 
 
 Quaker Hill became known as Vaughn's rendezvous, and 
 here he met his end, I think about 1781. His band had robbed 
 the home of one of the Pearce family, then as now resident 
 in the valley where Pawling village stands. The victim was 
 hung up by his thumbs till life v/as almost extinct. The next 
 day, Capt. Pearce, of the Revolutionary army, returned un- 
 expectedly to his home, and set off with armed assistance for 
 the Robber Rocks on Quaker Hill. Near that spot, in the 
 fields east of Site 97, on the Wing lands, Vaughn and his men 
 were resting, some picking huckleberries, and some playing 
 cards on a flat stone. Pearce gave no warning, but opened 
 fire at once. Vaughn fell mortally wounded. He was car- 
 ried to John Toffey's residence. Site 53, where he soon died. 
 He is buried under the trees outside the "Tofley Burying 
 Ground," beside the brook, in the very heart of Quaker Hill, 
 into which he had intruded because in that peaceful neighbor- 
 hood he had for a time a safe asylum. With his death it is 
 believed that his band dispersed, and their depredations ceased. 
 
 A peaceful people like the Quakers must find means of 
 their own to protect themselves against intruders. No one 
 can live long on Quaker Hill without knowing that they have 
 done so. One may brusquely intrude once, but he will be a 
 violent man indeed, not to say a dull one, who continues to 
 enjoy invading the preserves of the "Friends." The fourth 
 
HOSTII<E FORCES 59 
 
 instance of a forcible invasion of the Hill was that of Wash- 
 ington's army, which encamped in the vicinity in the fall of 
 1778, the Headquarters being in John Kane's house, on a site 
 now within the borders of Pawling Village. See on Map i, 
 "HeadQrs." 
 
 On his arrival, September 19, 1778, Washington,* with his 
 bodyguard, was entertained for six days at the home of Reed 
 Ferris, in the Oblong, Site 99,t an honored guest, when 
 he moved to the place designated as his Headquarters 
 on his maps by Erskine. His letters written during his 
 residence here are all dated from "Fredericksburgh," the name 
 at that time of the western and older part of the town of 
 Patterson. Washington's general officers were quartered in 
 the homes of various residents of the neighborhood. One 
 was so entertained by Thomas Taber, at the extreme north 
 end of the Hill. It is natural to suppose that others were 
 housed in nearer places. That Lafayette was entertained at 
 the home of Russell, who lived at Site 25, now the Post-office, 
 is reliably asserted. The brick house standing at that time 
 was torn down by Richard Osborn, who erected the present 
 house. That Washington, with other officers, was entertained 
 at Reed Ferris's home is asserted by the descendants most 
 interested, and is undoubtedly true. 
 
 The Meeting House was appropriated by the army officers 
 for a hospital, because it was the largest available building. 
 The only official record, says Mr. L. S. Patrick, is that of 
 Washington's order, Oct. 20th, "No more sick to be sent to 
 the Hospital at Quaker Hill, without first inquiring of the 
 Chief Surgeon there whether they can be received, as it is 
 already full." Arguing from the date of Washington's order 
 above, Oct. 20, and from that of Surgeon Fallon below, this 
 
 •"Washington Headquarters at Fredricksburgh," by L. S. Patrick; Quaker 
 
 ^"t TWs* matter' is very fully treated in "Washington's Headquarters at Freder- 
 icksburgh," by Lewis S. Patrick. Quaker Hill Conference Local History Series. 
 XVI. 1907- 
 
6o QUAKER HILL 
 
 use of the building for a hospital continued three and perhaps 
 five months. Meantime the Friends' Meetings were held in 
 the barn at Site 21, then the residence of Paul Osborn. This 
 bam had been the first Meeting House erected on the Hill 
 in 1742. It was removed to Site 21 in 1769, when it was used 
 as a barn till 1884, when it was removed by the present 
 resident.* 
 
 There is no mention, even by inference, in the records of 
 Oblong Meeting that proves this occupation of their build- 
 ing by soldiers. It was not voluntarily surrendered; other 
 records show that the use of the building was supported by 
 force ; its surrender was grudging, not a matter to be recorded 
 in the Meeting. It is characteristic of the Friends that they 
 ignored it. 
 
 This toleration of the Hospital was never sympathetic. A 
 letter of great interest to the student of those times was written 
 to the Governor of the State of New York, Hon. George 
 Clinton,* by Dr. James Fallon, physician in charge of the sick 
 which were left on Quaker Hill, in the Meeting House, after 
 the departure of the Continental army. He could get no 
 one to draw wood for his hospital in the dead of winter, till 
 finally "old Mr. Russell, an excellent and open Whig, tho' a 
 Quaker," hired him a wagon and ox team. He could buy no 
 milk without paying in Contintental money, six for one. He 
 declared that "Old Ferris, the Quaker, pulpiteer of this place, 
 old Russell and his son, old Mr. Chace and his family, and 
 Thomas Worth and his family, are the only Quakers on or 
 about this Hill, the public stands indebted to." The two 
 pioneers of the Hill, the preacher and the builder, were patriots 
 as well. He denounces the rest as Tories all, the "Meriths," 
 Akins, Wings, Kellys, Samuel Walker, the schoolmaster, and 
 Samuel Downing, whom he declared a spurious Quaker and 
 
 * See No. Ill, Quaker Hill Series, pp. 12, 42, and No. VIII, pp. 16, 17. 
 t Letters of Governor George Clinton," New York State Library. 
 
HOSTILE FORCES 6 1 
 
 agent of the enemy ; also the preacher, Lancaster, "the Widow 
 Irish ;" and many he called "half-Quakers," who were probably 
 more zealous, and certainly more violent for Quaker and 
 Tory principles than the Quakers themselves. 
 
 The trouble culminated in Dr. Fallon's impressing the 
 wagons of Wing Kelly and "the widow Irish," to take four- 
 teen men to Danbury and Fishkill to save their lives. The 
 former impress was not resisted; but the soldiers who took 
 the Irish team had to battle with a mob, headed by Abraham 
 Wing and Benjamin Akin, who used the convalescent soldiers 
 roughly, but could not prevent the seizure. They were not the 
 first men to do violence for the sake of the principle of non- 
 resistance. One can see, too, that modern Quakerism has 
 taken a gentler tone. 
 
 The small violence done by Abraham Wing and Benjamin 
 Akin, like that of young Ferriss to prevent the robbery of the 
 Merritt store, was ineffective. But the Quaker mode of self- 
 protection was more effective than violence. They "froze 
 out" the doctors and their soldiers from the Meeting House, by 
 leaving them alone in the bitter winter, by letting them starve. 
 The bitterness of their Toryism, and the zeal of Quaker ideals, 
 the ardor of their "make-believe," carried them too far. They 
 forgot mercy for the sake of opposing the cruelty of war. 
 
 Among the soldiers who lay sick in the Meeting House 
 many are said to have died. They were buried in the grounds 
 of the resident on Site 32, in the easterly portion of the field 
 facing the Meeting House. No stones mark their place of 
 rest, as none were ever placed in the cemetery of the early 
 Quakers in the western part of the same field. Over them 
 both the horses of persons attending meeting were tethered 
 for many decades. The ploughman and the mower for years 
 traversed the ground. But it is not forgotten who were buried 
 there. 
 
 Says L. S. Patrick in his attempt to estimate the amount of 
 
62 QUAKER HILL 
 
 sickness and death of soldiers on the hill that winter :* "Of the 
 conditions existing, the prejudices prevailing, and the probable 
 number in the Hospital, Dr. Fallon's letter to Governor CUnton 
 furnishes the only account known to exist: 'Out of the loo 
 sick. Providence took but three of my people off since my 
 arrival.' On the occasion of the arrival of Col. Palfrey, the 
 Paymaster General, at Boston from Fredericksburgh, General 
 Gates writes to General Sullivan: 'I am shocked at our poor 
 fellows being still encamped, and falling sick by the hundreds.' 
 
 "The death list — out of the oblivion of the past but four 
 names have been found — ^John Morgan, Capt. James Greer's 
 Co., died at Quaker Hill Hospital, Oct. 19, 1777 ( ?) ; Alex- 
 ander Robert, Capt. George Calhoun's Co., 4th Pa., Nov. 6, 
 1778; James Tryer, Capt. James Lang's Co., 5th Pa., Oct. 22, 
 1778; Peter King, 1st Pa., enUsted 1777, Quaker Hill Hospi- 
 tal, N. J. (?) 1778 (no such hospital). 
 
 "Some doubt may exist as to two of these, but as the hos- 
 pital is named, an error may exist in copying the original 
 record." 
 
 ' "Washington Headquarters at Fredricksburgh," by L. S. Patriclc, 1907. 
 
PART II. 
 
 The Transition. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COMMUNICATION — THE ROADS. 
 
 The roads were originally bridle paths, and to this day 
 mafty 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 direc- 
 tion. In the Period of Transition, with the diversion of com- 
 merce 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 still the avenue 
 of communication on the Hill. 
 
 As the years passed wagons were used ; indeed, by the time 
 of the Revolution, in the second generation, they were bearing 
 all the transportation. The state of the roads is shown, how- 
 ever, by the fact that Daniel Merritt was accustomed to pay, 
 in 1772, ii, or $5, for carting four barrels of beef to the river; 
 that is, about 1,000 lbs. constituted a load. At the present 
 state of the country roads, a Quaker Plill employer would ex- 
 pect 2,000 lbs. to make a load. The state of the roads before 
 the turnpikes were made, that is, before 1800 to 1825, is de- 
 scribed by a resident as follows: "The road was so full of 
 stones, large and small, that people of to-day would consider 
 impassable for an empty wagon, to say nothing of drawing 
 a load over it. In the fall of the year it is said that toward 
 evening one could hear the hammering of the wheels of the 
 
64 QUAKER HltL 
 
 wagons on the stones of the road a distance of four or five 
 miles."* 
 
 I cannot learn that Quaker Hill was during the Quaker 
 Period on any main hne of country travel. Marquis De Chas- 
 telleux records in his "Travels in North America," that he 
 journeyed in 1789 to Moorehouse's Tavern (see Map i) along 
 the Ten Mile River, two or three miles from the Housatonic 
 to "several handsome houses forming part of the district 
 known as The Oblong. The inn I was going to is in the 
 Oblong, but two miles farther on. It is kept by Col. Moore- 
 house, for nothing is more common in America than to see 
 an inn kept by a colonel . . the most esteemed and most 
 creditable citizen." There was no inn on Quaker Hill and no 
 colonel. The Quaker aversion to military titles was then as 
 great as to the sale of rum. The houses referred to by the 
 French traveller were probably the northern boundary of the 
 Quaker community, at what is now Webatuck. I cannot find 
 record of any post road coming nearer than this, until in the 
 19th century a stage was maintained between Poughkeepsie 
 and New Milford, by way of Quaker Hill, making the journey 
 every other day, and stopping at John Toffey's store at Site 53. 
 
 The building of turnpikes became, in the years following 
 1800, a popular form of public spirit. Says Miss Taber: "In 
 fact, turnpikes seemed to be a fad in those days all over the 
 state and probably a necessary one. The longest one I learn 
 of in this part of the country was from Cold Spring on the 
 Hudson River to New Milford in Connecticut. The turnpike 
 in which the people of this neighborhood were most interested 
 was the one incorporated April 3, 1818, and reads. That Albro 
 Akin, John Merritt, Gideon Slocum, Job Crawford, Charles 
 Hurd, William Taber, Joseph Arnold, Egbert Carey, Gabriel 
 L. Vanderburgh, Newel Dodge, Jurs., and such other persons 
 as shall associate for the purpose of making a good and suffi- 
 
 * "Some Glimpses of the Past," by Alicia Hopkins Taber. 
 
THE ROADS 65 
 
 cent turnpike road in Dutchess Co." It was named as the 
 Pawlings and Beekman Turnpike, being a portion of what 
 is known as the Poughkeepsie road passing over the West 
 Mountain, but we do not find that anything was done until 
 after the act was revived in 1824, when Joseph C. Seeley, 
 Benoni Pearce, Samuel Allen, Benjamin Barr and George W. 
 Slocum were associated with them." 
 
 The Pawlings and Beekman Turnpike maintained a toll- 
 gate till 1905, when it was burned down; and the company, 
 which had long discussed its discontinuance, then abandoned 
 its private rights in that excellent stretch of road. The 
 turnpike which crossed Quaker Hill ended at the Jephtha 
 Sabm residence, known to the present generation as "the 
 Garry Ferris place," Site 74. The roads of the neighborhood 
 were the same in 1778-80 as at the present day, as will be seen 
 from a comparison of Map i, made by Erskine for Washing- 
 ton, and Map 2, which is a copy of the U. S. Survey; ex- 
 cept the road from Mizzen-Top Hotel to Hammersley Lake, 
 made after the hotel was erected. The comparison of maps 
 shows also, to one who knows the use of these roads, that they 
 have changed from a north and south use to an east and west 
 use; the highway on the northward slope of the Hill in 
 Dover, and on the southward slope in Patterson, being but 
 little used to-day. The road from the Meeting House and 
 cemetery westward, which was once much favored, is now 
 scarcely ever used, and being neglected by the authorities, is 
 little more than a stony gutter.. 
 
 The whole character of the neighborhood was changed by 
 a revolution in transportation. Not turnpikes effected the 
 change, but railroads. The early years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury were filled with expectation of new modes of travel. 
 Robert Fulton was building his steamboat amid the deri- 
 sion of his contemporaries, and to their amazement steaming 
 up the Hudson against the tide. At first canals seemed to 
 
66 QUAKER HIIX 
 
 country folk the solution of their problem. They occupied in the 
 dawn of the 19th century the place which trolley cars occupy 
 in the minds of promoters to-day. A canal was plaimed to 
 run through the Harlem valley, where now Pawling stands, 
 and Quaker Hill men were among the promoters of it, among 
 them Daniel Akin and Johnathan Akin Taber. 
 
 Presently, however, came the promotion of railroads, and 
 many of the same men who had favored the canals, entered 
 heartily into the new projects. The foundation of Albert 
 Akin's fortime was made when, about 1830, he began to 
 borrow money of his neighbors and invest in the rapidly g^w- 
 ing lines of steam-cars in New York State. There were those, 
 however, who foresaw dire things from the new iron high- 
 way, and old residents tell of "one man who said that whosoever 
 farm that locomotive passed through would have to give up 
 fatting cattle, as it would be impossible to keep a steer on the 
 place." 
 
 For many years the railroad came no nearer than Croton 
 Falls. Richard Osbom used to tell the story of one resi- 
 dent of the Hill who boasted that he could go to New York 
 and return the same day. This he finally attempted and ac- 
 complished by driving with a good pair of horses to Croton 
 Falls in the morning, taking an early train to New York, re- 
 turning in the evening, and driving home before night. This 
 story, which is well authenticated, proves the good con- 
 dition of some of the roads before 1849, for the drive to 
 Croton Falls is about twenty miles. Among leading Quaker 
 Hill residents who promoted railroads in the valley 
 were Jonathan Akin, Daniel D. Akin, J. Akin Taber, John and 
 Albert J. Akin. The two men who were most influential in 
 completing the last link of the road— from the local view- 
 point—were Albert Akin and Hon. John Ketcham, of Dover, 
 both recently deceased. They supplied cash for the continua- 
 tion of the road from Croton Falls to Dover Plains. To Mr. 
 
A QUAKER GENTLEMAN 
 
THE ROADS 67 
 
 Akin the promise was made that if he would supply a build- 
 ing for a station the road would place an eating house at the 
 point nearest Quaker Hill. There was then no such village 
 or hamlet as Pawling, the locality being known as "Goose- 
 town." Patterson was an old village, west of its present busi- 
 ness center one mile, and was known as Fredericksburgh. 
 Dover also was a place of distinction in the country-side. Mr. 
 Akin, with several yoke of oxen, hauled a dwelling to the 
 railroad track from the site on which Washing^n's Head- 
 quarters stood in 1778; and thus was initiated the settlement 
 of the village which is now among the most thriving on the 
 road. 
 
 At that time Quaker Hill was the most prosperous com- 
 munity for many miles around. A description of its industries 
 will be found elsewhere, in Chap. IV, Part I. The coming of the 
 railroad changed the whole aspect of things. The demand for 
 milk to be delivered by farmers at the railroad station every 
 day, and sold the next day in New York, began at once. It 
 soon became the most profitable occupation for the farmers 
 and the most profitable freight for the railroad. Eleven years 
 after the first train entered Pawling came the war, with in- 
 flated prices. The farmer found that no use of his land paid 
 him so much cash as the "making of milk," and thereafter the 
 raising of flax ceased, grain was cultivated less and less, 
 except as it was to be used in the feeding of cattle, and even 
 the fatting of cattle soon had to yield to the lowered prices 
 occasioned by the importation of beef from western grazing 
 lands. The making of butter and cheese, with the increased 
 cost of labor on the farms, was abandoned, that the milk 
 might be sold in bulk to the city middleman. The time had not 
 come, however, in which fanners or their laborers imported 
 condensed milk, or use none. Quaker Hill farmers lived too 
 generously and substantially for that; but they ceased, during 
 
68 QUAKER HILL 
 
 the Civil War, when milk was bought "at the platform" for 
 six cents a quart, to make butter or cheese. 
 
 Thus the Harlem Railroad transformed Quaker Hill from 
 a community of diversified farming, producing, manufactur- 
 ing, selling, consuming, sufficient unto itself, into a locality 
 of specialized farming. Its market had been Poughkeepsie, 
 twenty-eight miles away, over high hills and indifferent roads. 
 Its metropolis became New York City, sixty-two miles away 
 by rail and four to eight miles by wagon road. 
 
 With the railroad's coming the isolated homogeneous com- 
 mtmity scattered. The sons of the Quakers emigrated. Labor- 
 ers from Ireland and other European lands, even negroes from 
 Virginia, took their places. New Yorkers became residents 
 on the Hill, which became the farthest terminus of suburban 
 traffic. The railroad granted commuters' rates to Pawling, 
 and twice as many trains as to any station furtlier out. The 
 population of the Hill became diversified, while industries 
 became simpUfied. In the first century the people were one, 
 the industries many. In the Period of the Mixed Community, in 
 the second century, the people were many and the industries 
 but one. I speak elsewhere of these elements of the mixed 
 community. Suffice it to have traced here the simplif)ring of 
 the economic life of the Hill, by the influence of the railroad, 
 which made the neighborhood only one factor in a vaster 
 industrial community, of which New York was the center. 
 When the Meeting House and the Merritt store were for a 
 century the centers of a homogeneous Quaker community, it 
 was a solid unit, of one type, doing varied things ; when Wall 
 Street and Broadway became the social and industrial centers, 
 a varied people, no less unified, did but one thing. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 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 de- 
 pendent on itself and sufficient unto itself, the exceptional 
 fitness of the "heavy clay soil" to the production of milk, 
 butter and cheese did not assert itself, and wheat, rye, flax, 
 apples, potatoes were raised in large quantities and sold; but 
 in the period of opening communication with the world 
 in general, exactly in proportion as the Hill shared in the 
 growth of commerce, by so much did the dairy activities sup- 
 plant all other occupations. The order of this emergence is 
 a significant commentary upon the opening of roads and the 
 development of transportation. The stages are: first, cheese 
 and butter ; second, fat cattle ; and third, milk. At the end of 
 the Quaker community, when the best roads were of the east 
 and west directions, and Poughkeepsie was the market-place, 
 cheese and butter were made for a "money crop," by the 
 women, who retained the money for their own use. 
 
 There is a story told in the Taber and Shove families, 
 which prettily shows the customs in the Quaker century. 
 Anne Taber, wife of Thomas Taber, substantial pioneer at 
 the north end of the Hill, "had a fine reputation as a cheese 
 maker." Being a New England woman, she was of the few 
 who in Revolutionary days were in sympathy with the Col- 
 
•JO QUAKER HILI, 
 
 onies, and she gave forth that she would present a cheese to 
 the first general officer who should visit the neighborhood. 
 "One day, being sununoned to the door," writes one of her 
 descendants, "she was greatly surprised to find a servant of 
 General Washington, with a note from him claiming, under 
 conditions of the promise, the cheese. Of course it was sent, 
 and the General had opportunity to test her skill in that do- 
 mestic art."* 
 
 The Taber family did not preserve that note; but in the 
 Treasury Department of the United States, among Washing- 
 ton's memoranda of expenditures, is the item under date of 
 Nov. 6, 1778, "To Cash paid servant for bringing cheese from 
 Mr. Taber, 16 shillings." It would seem that the fame of 
 Anne Taber's cheeses had won her a market with the officers 
 at Headquarters, for sixteen shillings was pajrment "for bring- 
 ing cheese" in large quantity, and the date is six weeks after 
 the arrival of Washington for his stay in the vicinity. 
 
 In the ledger of the Merritt store, under date of Nov. 6, 
 1772, Thomas Taber, Esq., is credited as follows: "By 29 
 cheses wd. 484 lb. at 6d., ii2 2s." In that year Thomas Taber, 
 Esq., satisfied his account with an ox, £6 i6s.; cash, £10; three 
 pounds and nine ounces of old pewter, 4s. 6d.; seven hogs, 
 £20 IIS. 6d., and the above 29 cheeses. So that approximately 
 one-fourth of the "money crop" of this substantial farmer was 
 in the form of a dairy product. In the year 1895, the average 
 Quaker Hill farm was producing, as will be shown in Chapter 
 III, Part III, ninety per cent, of dairy product, namely milk. 
 
 The second phase of the industry proper to Quaker Hill 
 was that of raising fat cattle. This culminated at the end of the 
 period of the Quaker Community. In this industry were laid 
 the foundations of some large fortunes. It brought in its day 
 
 * "ThomM Taber and Edward Shove— a Reminiscence," by Rev. Benjamin 
 Shove; Quaker Hill Series, 1903. 
 
ECONOMIC CHANGES 7I 
 
 more money into the neighborhood than any other occupation 
 had ever brought. It disappeared with the coming of the rail- 
 road into the valley, bringing, in refregerator cars, meat from 
 western lands, and killed in Chicago. Then the cattle were 
 fattened on these hills, in the rich grass, and driven to New 
 York to be killed and sold there. 
 
 In "Some Glimpses of the Past," Miss Taber says: "But 
 the chief business of most farmers was the fatting of cattle. 
 The cattle were generally bought when from two to three 
 years old, usually in the fall, kept through the winter and the 
 following summer fattened and sold. They were the only 
 things that did not have to go to the river to reach the mar- 
 ket. From all over the country they were driven to New York 
 on foot, and the road through the valley was the main thor- 
 oughfare for them. Monday was the market day in New 
 York and all started in time to reach the city by Saturday. 
 From Pawling the cattle were started on Thursday, and those 
 from greater distances planned to reach this part of their 
 journey on that day. It used to be said that the dealers could 
 tell what the market would be in New York on the following 
 Monday by watching the cattle that passed through Pawling 
 on Thursday. The cattle were collected and taken to the city 
 by drovers ; theirs was a great business in those days. Hotels 
 or taverns were provided for their accommodation at frequent 
 intervals along the road. Ira Grifiin was a drover and Mr. 
 Archibald Dodge remembers when a boy going to New York 
 with him and his cattle, walking all the way. There were also 
 droves of cattle other than fat ones, on the road, some called 
 store cattle, and the books of Mr. Benjamin V. Haviland, who 
 kept one of the taverns, show that in the year 1847 there had 
 been kept on his place 27,784 cattle, 30,000 sheep and 700 
 mules, and it is said that occasionally there would be 2,000 
 head between his tavern and that of John Preston's in Dover. 
 When Mr. Albert J. Akin was a young man he was oonsid- 
 
72 QUAKER HILL 
 
 ered an expert judge and buyer of steers for fattening, and 
 generally had the finest herd of fat cattle." 
 
 This reference is to the business at its height and applies 
 to the years 1800-1850. In the books of John Toffey's store 
 are frequent references to the business. 
 
 Interesting material is furnished for the study of the period 
 of transition, in the records of the store kept by John Toflfey 
 at Site No. 53. These old day-books and ledgers are incom- 
 plete, but they cover spaces of time in the years 1814, 1824, 
 1833; and their account of the purchases made by John 
 Toffey's customers furnishes a record, we may suppose, of the 
 goods brought into the households on the Hill at that time, 
 from other communities; as well as the actual exchange of 
 commodities on the Hill, where at that time diversified indus- 
 tries were carried on. 
 
 The growth of trade in these respects, from the period 
 1814-1816 to the period 1824-1833 will be considered in four 
 lines, as it is exhibited in the commodities: first of Costume 
 second of Food and Medicine, and third of Tools and 
 Material for Industry, fourth, of House-furnishings. It is 
 assumed that John Tofifey kept a representative store, and 
 that the growth in his trade corresponded to the growth in 
 the commercial interchange in the community. 
 
 In 1814-1816 the imported goods kept and sold by John 
 Toffey are cloth (perhaps in part locally manufactured), in- 
 digo, thread, cambric, penknives, knitting needles, spelled 
 "nittenneedels," plaster, fine salt, molasses, tea, apple-trees, 
 nutmeg, shad and occasionally other fish. The list is brief, 
 and its proportion to the other commodities sold in the store 
 evidences the simplicity of a community dependent chiefly upon 
 itself, and living a Ufe of rudeness and content. 
 
 Among prices which change in the twenty years recorded in 
 John Toffey's books are those of molasses which was in 1814- 
 1816 $2.00 per gallon, and fell to $1.25 and in 1824 to 35c. per 
 
ECONOMIC CHANGES 
 
 73 
 
 gallon. "Tobago" was sold in 1814 at $2.75 per pound, and 
 later for 62c. Flour was sold in 1814 for $18 per barrel, or 9c. 
 per pound; wool hats at $4; fine salt loc. per pound; plaster 
 $3.25 per hundredweight; boots at $9.00; tea at $2.75 per 
 pound. 
 
 A day's work for a man in 1814-1816 was from $1.00 per 
 day for ordinary work, to $1.25 for driving oxen, or $1.50 
 for "digging a grave," or the same amount "for going after 
 the thief." 
 
 House-rent is recorded at the rate of thirty dollars a year. 
 
 One may explain the high rates of many of these com- 
 modities, and the relatively high rate paid for labor by the 
 prevalence of war prices at the time. Commodities such as 
 molasses would be expensive as a result of the stoppage of 
 sea-trade; and the labor market was exhausted to supply the 
 army with soldiers. 
 
 In 1824 Toffey imported, for Costuming, shawls, crepe at 
 $1 per yard, silk, skein-silk, twist, ribbon, velvet at 90c. per 
 yard, drab-cloth, flannel, braid, handkerchiefs, buttons and 
 button-moulds, gloves, suspenders, calico, vest patterns, pins, 
 chrome-yellow, "bearskin" at 82c. per yard, dress handker- 
 chiefs, beads, buckles, silk flags and morocco skins. 
 
 Of new foods he imported molasses at 35c. per gallon, 
 oranges at 2C. each, which he seems to have sold only one by 
 one, sugar at 6c., tobacco at 12c., alum, tea at 85c., salt at $1 
 per bushel, pepper, all-spice, raisins, salt-peter, pearlash, cas- 
 tile soap, hard soap, paregoric, ginger, logwood, vitriol, cin- 
 namon, snuff, sulphur, cloves, mustard, opium, coffee, loaf 
 sugar, watermelons, and seeds for beets, lettuce, parsnips. 
 
 Of House-furnishings, he had for sale, knives, forks — one 
 set of knives and forks selling for $13, plates, bowls, pitchers, 
 mugs, teacups, teapots, decanters, almanacs, brooms, oilcloth, 
 glass and putty, inkstands, bedsteads, spoons in sets, sugar- 
 bowls, tin pans. 
 
74 QUAKER HIH 
 
 Of Tools and Materials for Industry he sold nails by the 
 "paper," by the hundred and by the pound, files, oil at 750. a 
 gallon, lodes, slates, paper, pocket-books, pencils, turpentine, 
 raw steel and iron, spectacles at 34c., sandpaper, shovels and 
 spades, screws, gimlets. 
 
 Rum, brandy and gin appear also, with powder, shot and 
 fishhooks, as tributes to the convivial and adventurous spirit 
 But the convivial spirits were the better patrons, for there 
 was scarcely an entry in certain years in which was not an 
 item of alcoholic spirits. The sporting goods were only occa- 
 sionally purchased. 
 
 In 1833 for G)stuming, cotton-batting had appeared, and 
 canton flannel, canvas, blue jeans at 83c. per yard, brown 
 Holland, cloth at $3.64 per yard, hats at 44c. each, hooks and 
 eyes, pearl buttons at loc. a dozen, side combs, bandanna 
 handkerchiefs; while sole-leather was still sold in quantity, 
 with buckskin mittens, which were scarcely made on the Hill. 
 
 For Industry, behold the arrival of pincers, gimi arable, 
 "Pittsburgh cord" at 21c. per yard. In Housings, candles, 
 frying pans, tin pails, dippers, tin basins, wash-tubs made their 
 appearance; and in this year for the first time window-blinds 
 were sold, for 75c. 
 
 For Food and Medicines John Toffey offered at this time 
 codfish, coffee, souchong tea, crackers, castor oil, camphor 
 gum, Epsom salts. 
 
 Meantime, a day's wages had fallen from $1 and $1.50 to 
 6sc. and 7Sc. per day. 
 
 The growth of trade in John Toffey's store is summarized 
 in Table I. In this table may be seen also the growth of econ- 
 omic demand. The increase of the number of kinds of com- 
 modities in each evidences the acquirement of varid tastes by 
 this people of the Hill. 
 
ECONOMIC CHANGE 
 
 Tabi,e I. John Toffey's Store. 
 
 75 
 
 Commodities . 
 
 1814-16 
 
 1824 
 
 1833 
 
 Costume 
 
 Food and Medicine 
 Tools and Materials 
 House Furnishings . 
 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 
 25 
 29 
 18 
 18 
 
 38 
 36 
 21 
 24 
 
 Daily Wage . 
 
 »1.-$1.50 
 
 
 65c. - 75c. 
 
 The above summary of the importations to the Hill in the 
 years 1814-1833 casts light upon the social and religious his- 
 tory of the period in question ; in which occurred the greatest 
 social convulsion this community has ever known. In the 
 year 1828 the Religious Society of the Friends was divided, 
 never to be united, the integfrity of the community as a social 
 and religious unit was ended, the ties of a century were 
 severed, and instead of the "unity" of which Quakers are 
 always so conscious, came mutual criticism, recrimination, 
 and excommunication of one-half of the community by the 
 majority of the Meeting. Thus ended the communal life of 
 Quaker Hill, and began the disintegration of the community 
 which is now almost complete. 
 
 It is true that this schism was general throughout the de- 
 nomination, in all the United States ; and that it was shared 
 in its doctrinal influences by the Congregational churches, the 
 Unitarian Association having been formed in Boston in 1825. 
 But nevertheless it had roots on Quaker Hill in an economic 
 condition; and that economic condition may have been gen- 
 eral throughout the Eastern States 
 
76 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 Let the doctrinal causes of this schism be considered else- 
 where.* Economic causes are hinted at in the above para- 
 graphs. There came in many embellishments of life which 
 must have seemed to early Friends mere luxuries, and to the 
 stricter few must have appeared instruments of sin, as "beads," 
 "ribbons," velvet, silk, braid, crepe, shawls, dress handker- 
 chiefs, buckles, silk flags, pearl buttons — ^these are expressions 
 of new states of mind. The economic change underlying the 
 social convulsion is seen in the increase of varied stuffs for 
 costume, articles and materials for the food and medicine 
 cupboards of the farmhouses, and in more varied tools and 
 materials both for industry and house furnishing. 
 
 Even more influential than the exciting power of luxuries 
 would be the quieter and more pervasive stimulus of comfort. 
 Houses that are glazed and ceiled and furnished with well 
 adapted implements in every room ; tables set with all the wares 
 of leisurely and pleasurable feeding speak a new state of 
 affairs. The people so clothed and so fed begin to produce in 
 every family some members of cultured tastes, some of 
 independent thought, who are restive under the denials of 
 Quakerism. 
 
 Business and industry too become more varied; and the 
 effect of this prosperous and varied industry shows itself in. 
 active and critical minds. Importation from places beyond 
 Poughkeepsie awakened imagination and invited reflection 
 upon the state of the world." 
 
 All this time the daily wage continued to fall, from $i and 
 $1.50 in 1814 to 50c., 65c and 75c. in 1833. It is said that 
 men bitterly commented, in those days of the rapid develop- 
 ment of the country, that a farmer who paid a laborer fifty 
 cents for a day's labor in the hay-field from daybreak to dark, 
 would pay the same amount, fifty cents, for his supper on the 
 Hudson River boat, when he made his annual visit to the 
 great city of New York. 
 
 * The matter is fully treated in "Quaker Hill in the Nineteenth Century," by- 
 Rev. Warren H. Wilson; Quaker Hill Series of Local History No IV. 
 
BCONOMIC CHANGE "JJ 
 
 We have, then, in John Toffey's daybook a reflection of 
 conditions which had to do with the break-up of the com- 
 munity, as truly as did the theological difference between 
 Elias Hicks and the Orthodox. Comfortable living, diversi- 
 fied and intensified industry, importation of expensive and 
 stimulating comforts, leisure with its sources in wealth, and 
 its tendencies toward reflection, and especially a differentiation 
 of the homogeneous community into diverse classes, owing to 
 lowered wages and multiplied embellishments of life, made up 
 altogether the raw materials of discontent, criticism and 
 division. 
 
 These factors go with a state of growing discontent and 
 disintegration. The men and women possessed of leisure cul- 
 tivated a humanist state of mind, with which arose a critical 
 spirit, a nicer taste and a cultured discrimination. They were 
 offended by literalism, bored by crudeness however much in 
 earnest, and disgusted with the illogical assertions of pietists. 
 The imperative mandate of the meeting awakened in them 
 only opposition. They found many to sympathize with their 
 state of mind. 
 
 On the other side there were those who seriously feared 
 the incoming of luxurious ways. They distrusted books, re- 
 membering the values of one Book to the laborer who reads 
 it alone ; they believed in plainness, and their minds associated 
 freedom of dress with freedom of thought. They resented 
 also the new privileges conferred on some by wealth, because 
 to most had come only harder work with discontent. 
 
 The schism which rent the community was an economic 
 heresy, the belief in the use of money for embellishment of 
 life. All the Quakers regarded with favor the making of 
 money. The Liberals, however, saw ends beyond money, and 
 processes of ultimate value beyond administration and busi- 
 ness. They looked for household comforts, books, travel, and 
 the leisure with great souls who have written and have ex- 
 
78 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 pressed the greatest truths. They believed in a divinity such 
 as could have made, and regarded with favor, the whole 
 teeming world. 
 
 The Orthodox saw the values of prosperity only in plain- 
 ness of life, recognized no divinity in htunanized manners, and 
 sternly but ineffectually called the community back to ideal- 
 ized commonplaceness, and to hear the utterances of rude 
 ploughmen and cobblers in the name of Deity. 
 
 One ventures to believe, too, that there was a falling away 
 from all religious exercises at this time, and that the pious 
 of both schools were troubled about it, and accused one an- 
 other. The poor were too hard worked and too poorly paid 
 to feel anything but discontent; and the leaders of the com- 
 munity differed as to the solution of the religious problem. 
 Hence came division. 
 
 The Quakers are conscious of religious "unity," but their 
 mode of life is a true economic unity. The Quaker Com- 
 munity was re-arranging itself economically, but the members 
 felt a religious change. Class division was coming upon them, 
 and they felt it as a sectarian division. It was indeed the end 
 of the old community ruled by religion, and the formation of 
 a new neighborhood life ; a new Quakerism, ruled by economic 
 classes: the persons of influence being invariably persons of 
 means, and the dominating leaders rich. Doubtless the 
 Quakers who led in the Dmsion of 1828 hoped, in each party 
 equally, to maintain the old religious domination. The com- 
 munity has never granted that leadership to the divided Meet- 
 ing, neither to the Orthodox, nor to the Hicksites. The real 
 power has, since a period antedating the division, been in the 
 hands of those who have owned farms centrally located; who 
 in addition to owning land centrally located have been possessed 
 of large means: the "rich men" and "wealthy women" have 
 possessed a monopoly of actual leadership. If also, they have 
 been religiously inclined, their leadership has been absolute. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 REWGIOUS UFB 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 comer, attended by decreasing gath- 
 erings. In 1880 was organized Akin Hall, in which till 1892 
 were held religious services in the summer only. Since that 
 time religious services have been held there all the year round. 
 The early united meeting had a membership of probably two 
 hundred, and audiences of three hundred were not uncommon. 
 
 The church in Akin Hall, named "Christ's Church, 
 Quaker Hill," had in 1898 a membership of sixty-five, and 
 audiences of fifty to two hundred and fifty, according to the 
 occasion and the time of year. In the past the general attitude 
 of the community toward religion has been reverent and sym- 
 pathetic. It is no less so to-day. 
 
 Of religious ceremonies the Quakers claim to have none. 
 But they are fond of ceremoniousness beyond most men. The 
 very processes by which they abolish forms are made formal 
 processes. They have ceremonies the intent of which is to 
 free them from ceremony. The meeting is called to order by 
 acts ever so simple, and dismissed by two old persons shaking 
 hands ; but these are invariable and formal as a doxology and 
 a benediction. They receive a stranger in their own way. A 
 visiting minister is honored with fixed propriety. An expelled 
 member is read out of meeting with stated excommunicatory 
 maledictions. 
 
So QUAKER HII<I, 
 
 Worship has had on Quaker Hill a large place in charac- 
 terizing the social complexion of the people. By this, I mean 
 that the peculiarities of the Quaker worship, now a thing of 
 the past, have engraved themselves upon character. Those 
 peculiarities are four: the custom of silence; the non-employ- 
 ment of music, or conspicuous color or form; the separate 
 place provided for women; the assertion and practice of 
 individualism. 
 
 The silence of the Quaker meeting is far from negative. 
 It is not a mere absence of words. It is a discipline enforced 
 upon the lower elements of human nature, and a reserve upon 
 the intellectual elements, in order that God may speak. I 
 think that in this silence of the meeting we discover the work- 
 ing of the force that has moulded individual character on 
 Quaker Hill and organized the social life. For this silence is 
 a vivid experience, "a silence that may be felt." The presence 
 ^and influence of men are upon one, even if that of God be not. 
 The motionless figures about one subtly penetrate one's con- 
 sciousness, though not through the senses. They testify to 
 their belief in God when they do not speak better than they 
 could with rhetoric or eloquence. It is the influence of many, 
 not of one ; yet of certain leaders who are the organs of this 
 impression, and of the human entity made of many who in 
 communion become one. The self-control of it breathes power, 
 and principle, and courage. One would expect a Quaker meet- 
 ing to exert an imperious rule upon the community. It is an 
 expression of the majesty of an ideal. I believe that the 
 Quaker Hill meeting has been able to accomplish whatever 
 it has put its hand to do. The only pity is that the meeting 
 tried to do so little. 
 
 The original religious influence of Quakerism, carried 
 through all changes and transformation, was a pure and relent- 
 less individualism. It was the doctrine that the Spirit of God 
 is in every heart of man, absolutely every one ; resisted indeed 
 
REUGION IN TRANSITION 8l 
 
 by some, but given to each and all. With honest consistency 
 it must be said, the Quakers applied this — and this it was they 
 did apply — ^to the status of women, to the question of slavery, 
 to the civic relations of men. This it was that made Fox and 
 Penn refuse to doff their hats before judge, or titled lord, or 
 the king himself. 
 
 The character of the common mind of the community has 
 been much influenced by the fact that the Quakers made no 
 use of color, form and music either in worship or in private 
 life; that they also idealized the absence of these. They 
 made it a matter of noble devotion. In nothing do local tra- 
 ditions abound more than in stories of the stem repression of 
 the aesthetic instincts. One ancient Quakeress, coming to the 
 well-set table at a wedding, in the old days, beheld there a 
 bunch of flowers of gay colors, and would not sit down until 
 they were removed. Nor could the feast go on until the 
 change was effected. So great was the power of authority, 
 working in the grooves of "making believe," that those who 
 might have tolerated the bouquet in silence, as well as those 
 who had sensations of pleasure in it, supported her opposition. 
 
 I have spoken elsewhere of the effect of this century-long 
 repression and ignoring of the aesthetic movements of the 
 human spirit, in banking the fires of literary culture in this 
 population. The present generation, all inheriting the ex- 
 amples of ancestors ruled in such unflinching rigor, has in 
 none of its social grouping any true sense of color or of the 
 beauty of color. Neither in the garments of those who have 
 laid off the Quaker garb, nor in the decorations of the houses 
 is there a lively sense of the beauty of color. None of the 
 women of Quaker extraction has a sense of color in dress; 
 nor can any of them match or harmonize colors. I except, 
 of course, those whose clothing is directly under the control 
 of the city tailor or milliner. The general effect of costume 
 and of the decorations of a room, in the population who get 
 
82 QUAKER HILL 
 
 their living on the Hill, is that of gray tones, and drab effects ; 
 not mere severity is the effect, but poverty and want of color. 
 
 In forms of beauty they know and feel little more. I do 
 not refer to the lack of appreciation of the elevations and slopes 
 of this Hill itself — a constant delight to the artistic eye. Farm- 
 ers and laborers might fail to appreciate a scene known to 
 them since childhood. But there is in the Quaker breeding, 
 which gives on certain sides of character so true and fine a 
 culture a conspicuous lack in this one particular. 
 
 As to music, even that of simplest melody, it has come to 
 the Hill, but it "knows not Joseph." An elderly son of Quak- 
 erism said: "You will find no Quaker or son of the Quaker^ 
 who can sing ; if you do find one who can sing a little, it will 
 be a limited talent, and you will unfailingly discover that he 
 is partly descended from the world's people." 
 
 The effect of this aesthetic negation appears, it seems to the 
 present writer, in a certain rudeness or more precisely a cer- 
 tain lack in the domain of manners, outside of the interests in 
 which Quakerism has given so fine a culture. This appears to 
 be keenly felt by the descendants of Friends. Not in business 
 matters; for they are made directors of savings banks and 
 corporations, and trustees, and referees, and executors of es- 
 tates, in all which places they find themselves at home. Nor 
 is it a lack of dignity and composure in the parlor or at the 
 table. Nor is it a lack of sense of propriety in meetings of 
 worship. But it is in matters ethical, civic and deliberate, and 
 in the free and discursive meetings of men, in which new 
 and intricate questions are to arise; in positions of trust, in 
 which the highest considerations of social responsibility con- 
 stitute the trust; in these, the men and women trained in Quak- 
 erism are lacking throughout whole areas of the mind, and 
 lacking, too, in ethical standards, which can only appeal to 
 those whose experience has fed on a rich diversity of sources 
 and distinctions. 
 
REUGION IN TRANSITION 83 
 
 In this I speak only of the Quaker group and of those who 
 have been under its full influence. It does not apply to the 
 Irish Catholics, nor to the incomers from the city. The Quakers 
 and their children lack precisely those elements of aesthetic 
 breeding which would be legitimately derived from contempla- 
 tion and enjoyment of beauty aside from ethical values. Ethical 
 beauty, divorced from pure beauty, a stem, bare, grim beauty 
 they have, and their children and employees have. But they 
 have little sense of order in matters that do not proceed to the 
 ends of money-making, house-keeping and worship. They 
 do not seem to possess instinctive fertility of moral resource. 
 It may be due to other sources as well, but it seems to the 
 present writer that the moral density shown by some of these 
 birthright Quakers, upon matters outside of their wonted and 
 trodden ethical territories, is due to their long refusal to recog- 
 nize aesthetic values, and to see discriminations in the field in 
 which ethics and aesthetics are interwoven. 
 
 They made red and purple to be morally wrong, idealizing 
 the plainness of their uncultured ancestry, and sweet sounds 
 they excluded from their ears, declaring them to be evil noises, 
 because they would set up the boorishness of simple folk of 
 old time as something noble and exalted, "making believe" 
 that such aesthetic lack was real self-denial and unworldliness. 
 It is not surprising that in a riper age of the world, after life- 
 times of this ideaUzatiori of peasant states of mind, their chil- 
 dren find themselves morally and mentally unprepared for the 
 responsibilities of citizenship, of high ethical trust and of the 
 varied ways of a moral world, whose existence their fathers 
 made believe to ignore and deny. 
 
 Women have always occupied in Quakerism a place theor- 
 etically equal to that of the men, in business and religious 
 affairs. George Fox and his successors declared men and 
 women equal, inasmuch as the Divine Spirit is in every human 
 soul. 
 
84 QUAKER HILL 
 
 After the influence of the early Friends ceased, the place of 
 woman began to be circumscribed by new rules, and crystal- 
 lized in a reaction under the influence of purely social forces ; 
 so that this most sensible people made women equal to men 
 in meetings and in religious legislation through a form of 
 sexual taboo. 
 
 Following the custom of many early English meeting 
 houses, the men and women sat apart, the men on one side of 
 the middle aisle, and the women on the other, so that men and 
 women were not equals in the individualist sense, as they are 
 for instance, in the practice and theory of Socialism, but were 
 equals in separate group-life; to each sex, grouped apart from 
 the other, equal functions were supposed to be delegated. 
 Oblong Meeting House, on Quaker Hill, had seats for two 
 hundred and fifty people on the ground floor, and in the gal- 
 lery for one himdred and fifty more. The men's side was sep- 
 arated from the women's, of equal size and extent, by wooden 
 curtains, which could be raised or lowered; so that the whole 
 building could be one auditorium, with galleries ; or the cur- 
 tains could be so lowered that no man on the ground floor 
 could see any woman unless she be a speaker on the "facing 
 seats" ; nor could any young person in the gallery see any one 
 of the opposite sex ; yet a speaker could be heard in .ill parts. 
 The curtains could be so fixed, also, that two independent 
 meetings could be held, each in a separate auditorium, even 
 the speakers being separated from one another. 
 
 It was the custom for women to have delegated to them 
 certain religious functions, at Monthly Meeting and Quarterly 
 and Yearly Meetings, on which they deliberated, before sub- 
 mitting them to the whole meeting. This old Oblong Meeting 
 House is a mute record and symbol of the century-old contest 
 of the Puritan spirit among the old Quakers, striving for an 
 inflexibly right relation between the sexes. They attained 
 their ends through the creation of a community, but ts-j' until 
 the community dissolved. 
 
RELIGION IN TRANSITION 85 
 
 The position of woman among Friends is another eloquent 
 tribute to the two-fold "dealing" of Quakerism with women. She 
 is man's equal, but she is man's greatest source of danger. She 
 must be on a par with him, but she must be apart from him. 
 The relations of men and women are therefore very interesting. 
 In doctrinal matters, in discussion, in preaching and "testify- 
 ing," men and women are equal, and the respect that a man 
 has for his wife or sister or neighbor woman, in these func- 
 tions of a devout sort is like that he has for another man. 
 Generally the men of the Quaker school of influence believe 
 as a matter of course in the intellectual and juristic equality of 
 women with men ; and in the religious equality of the individual 
 woman with the individual man. But in the practical arts and 
 in business a woman is a woman and a man is a man. Here 
 the women are restricted by convention to housekeeping, which 
 on large farms is quite enough for them ; and the men have the 
 outdoor life, the "trading," and the gainful occupations — ex- 
 cept the boarding of city people. There is no especial respect 
 for the "managing woman" who "runs a farm" ; the community 
 expects such a woman to fail. 
 
 Moreover, between the sexes there is no camaraderie, no 
 companionship of an intellectual sort between husband and 
 wife, no free exchange of ideas except in circles made up of 
 the members of one sex. In any public meeting the men habit- 
 ually sit apart from their wives and from the women members 
 of their families, even though the audiences be not bilaterally 
 halved. 
 
 The orbits of man's and woman's lives are separate, though 
 each ascribes to the individuals of the other sex an ethical and 
 religious parity. The effect is seen in the diminishing of the 
 numbers of men on the Hill, in the group-life of the women, 
 and in the type of woman. It may be well to consider these 
 in reverse order. 
 
 The individual Quaker Hill woman, so far as she differs 
 
86 QUAKER HUL 
 
 from women generally, may be described as a woman almost 
 perfectly conformed to type, presenting fewer variations than 
 elsewhere, either in the form of youthful prettinesses and 
 follies, on in the strenuous opinion of mature years. She is 
 neither a flirt as a girl, nor a radical as a woman. Color has 
 not yet come into her maidenly days, nor violence of opinion 
 into her womanly years. She aflfects neither fashion nor intel- 
 lectual eccentricity. Yet she attains to a better average of rea- 
 sonable, sensible action than she could otherwise do. She knows 
 less of the impulsive, emotional prettiness of adolescence than 
 women of other country communities, and in later years gives 
 herself less to intellectual vagaries. Women's rights are estab- 
 Ushed on the Hill ; it is impossible to be strenuous about them. 
 
 The numerous groupings and associations of women are 
 especially interesting in view of the fact that the men of the 
 Hill have no associations whatever, now that the stores are 
 closed ; and are assembled in no fixed groupings. It has never 
 been possible, so far as records go, to maintain a society of 
 men on the Hill. In the early part of the period under study 
 a literary and debating society was organized, with social at- 
 tractions; but it was feeble and short-lived. There are not 
 enough leaders among the men to make such group-life pos- 
 sible. They are related by ties of labor, rather than of class- 
 fraternity ; and they have never acquired any interest common 
 to their sex to assemble them in groups and companies; 
 the discipline of the religion known to the Hill has discour- 
 aged and outlawed it. 
 
 This contrast may have something to do with the departure 
 of men from the Hill. So long as the stores were in operation, 
 at Toffey's, Akin's, and Merritt's places, the men could meet 
 there, and had in their assembUng a natural group-life, which 
 satisfied many with life in the country. But with the closing 
 of the stores after the coming of the railroad in 1849, this also 
 failed, and the men having no capacity for general association 
 
RELIGION IN TRANSITION 87 
 
 with one another, and few interests possessed in common 
 with the women, have been the more impelled to leave the Hill. 
 Economic advantage had only to be as good elsewhere, and 
 the man emigrated. I have not known those who have left 
 the place, in my knowledge of it, to give as a reason inability 
 to make a good living there; but always they have spoken 
 most emphatically of the bareness and lack of interest in the 
 social life of the Hill as their reason for emigrating to the 
 city or large town. 
 
Part III. 
 The Mixed Q>inmunity, from 1880 to the Present. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEMOTIC COMPOSITION. 
 
 There are ninety-three dwellings on Quaker Hill, as de- 
 fined 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 P^"" 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 emmigration from the Hill, due to the 
 departure of working-people and their families in search of 
 better economic opportunities. This has in ten years removed 
 thirty-nine persons. Death has removed or occasioned the 
 removal of twenty-seven more, while only three have been 
 removed by marriage. 
 
 Over against this there has been an immigration in the 
 years 1895 — 1905 of thirty persons; of whom eleven have 
 come in to labor, and nineteen for residence on their own 
 property. 
 
 There were resident in 1905 on Quaker Hill the following 
 social-economic classes : Professional men, three ; one minister, 
 two artists ; wealthy business men, three ; farmers, thirty-eight ; 
 laborers, forty (heads of houses). 
 
 There were fifty-three births in ten years, 1895-1905, of 
 which fourteen were in the families of property-owners, and 
 thirty-nine in families of tenants. There were in these ten 
 
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 89 
 
 years thirty-one deaths, of which twenty-five were in the 
 famihes of property-owners, and only six in those of tenants. 
 Thus the tenant class, bound to the community by no ties of 
 property, contributed 73 per cent, of the births and only 20 
 per cent, of the deaths, while the property holders suffered 80 
 per cent, of the deaths and were increased by only 26.4 per 
 cent, of the births. The number of persons in the families of 
 property holders in 1905 was 184, and in those of tenants 221. 
 These are as one to one and one-fifth. This difference is not 
 enough to account for the great disparity in births and deaths 
 between the two classes of famihes. For, allowing for this 
 difference, births are two and one-third times as numerous in 
 the working and landless class as among the landowners ; and 
 deaths are almost three and a half times as many among the 
 landholders as among their servants and tenants. 
 
 The present population of the Hill is of a composition which 
 is explanable by migration, and by the effect of the topography 
 of the Hill upon that population. There is every evidence 
 that before the coming of the railroad in 1849 t^^ popu- 
 lation was unified, and the community freer of neighborhood 
 groupings. The lists of customers who traded at Daniel 
 Merritt's store, given in Appendix B of this volume, indicates 
 the centering on the Hill of a wide economic life. Every 
 record and tradition of a religious sort indicates that the Ob- 
 long Meeting House was also the center of a religious com- 
 munity as wide-spread as the business of the stores. The Hill 
 was one neighborhood until 1828, when the Division of the 
 Meeting occurred; and 1849, when the railroad came to 
 Pawling. It is not now one neighborhood. Three groupings 
 of households may be discerned, roughly designated "The 
 North End," "Quaker Hill Proper," and "Wing's Corners." 
 The second of these, being the territory most under scrutiny 
 in Part IH, might again be divided into the territory "up by 
 the Meeting House," and that "down by Mizzen-Top." The 
 
go QUAKER HILL 
 
 diflSculty one experiences in naming these groupings of houses 
 is a token of the indefiniteness of these divisions. They are 
 accentuated by events occurring in the more recent history of 
 the Hill. The older history which shapes the consciousness of 
 the community does not know these neighborhood divisions. 
 Yet the change of the emphasis of travel to the roads running 
 east and west, from those north and south, has separated these 
 neighborhoods from one another. "The North End," there- 
 fore, is composed of those households between Sites i and 15, 
 who go to the village of Pawling for "trading" and "to take 
 the cars," along the road which passes Sites 16 to 18. 
 They include Hammersley I^ake and Kurd's Comers in their 
 interests. 
 
 The "Middle Distance," or as I would call it "The Meeting 
 House Neighborhood," is composed of those households from 
 Sites 21 to 41 ; "the Hotel Neighborhood," of those from Site 
 42 to 95 ; and these all, whether regarded as one or as two 
 sections, go habitually to the village by the "Mizzen-Top road," 
 past Sites 99 and 113. 
 
 "Wing's Comer" is properly the name of Site 100, but it 
 may serve for a title of the southern neighborhood from Site 
 122 to 104. From this neighborhood all travel to the valley 
 by the road westward from the "Comers." 
 
 The "North End" and "Wing's Comers" are settled ahnost 
 entirely by Americans, and until within the past two years, 
 by families derived from the original population. "Quaker 
 Hill Proper" is the place of residence of the Irish-Americans. 
 It has been also the place of residence of the last of the 
 Quakers during the period, just closed, of the Mixed Com- 
 munity. It is also the territory in which land has the highest 
 value. Here also are the residences of all the persons of ex- 
 ceptional wealth. 
 
 The community most cherishes the central territory, lying 
 upon the two miles of road between the Mizzen-Top Hotel and 
 
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 9I 
 
 the Meeting House, and extending beyond these points and 
 on either hand one-half mile. Within this area land is nomin- 
 ally held at a thousand dollars an acre. 
 
 "The proximate causes of demotic composition," says Pro- 
 fessor Giddings,* "are organic variation and migration. The 
 ultimate causes are to be looked for in the characteristics of 
 the physical enviroimient." The Quaker Hill population, 
 drawn originally from a common source, was in 1828 perfectly 
 homogeneous. The very intensity of the communal life had 
 effected the elimination of strange and other elements, and 
 preserved only the Quakers, and those who could live with the 
 Quakers. Since 1849 this population has become increasingly 
 heterogeneous. It is not yet a blended stock. There is but 
 little vital mixture of the elements entering into social and 
 economic union here. They do not generally intermarry. They 
 are related only by economic facts and by religfious sympathies, 
 so that the effect of organic variation does not yet appear 
 among them. But in this chapter the effect of immigration 
 will be indicated. 
 
 The influence of the physical environment is worthy of 
 brief notice. Between one and another of the three neighbor- 
 hoods lie stretches of land, nearly a mile wide, valued less 
 highly than that on which the clusters of houses stand. In 
 the days before the railroad, the population passed over this 
 territory to the centers of the community in the three stores 
 at Toffey's, Akin's and Muritt's places, and to the Meeting 
 House. But with the necessity of driving westward to the 
 railway, the stretches of road passing poorer land had dimin- 
 ished use, and the clusters of households, once closely related, 
 ceased to interchange reactions and services ; so a segragation 
 of neighborhoods began, which is increasing with time. 
 
 The list of members of the Meeting in Appendix A, and 
 that of customers of one of the stores in Appendix B, will 
 serve to show the extent of the community, religious and econ- 
 
 ♦Descriptive and Historicml Sociology, p. ii8. 
 
92 QUAKER HII,I< 
 
 omic, in the eighteenth century. A steady shrinkage has drawn 
 in the margins of this communal life. At this date Quaker 
 Hill receives no tribute from any outer territory; and might 
 be confined to the limits of "Quaker Hill Proper," as some in- 
 deed call the "Middle Distance." The present writer, while 
 not so limiting the Hill, has omitted both Burch Hill to the 
 south and the stretches toward Webatuck to the north, which 
 lie in other towns. 
 
 Just a word about neighborhood character. There is no 
 especial character localized in the Wing's Comers neighbor- 
 hood. The central territory has been fully described in this 
 book, and especially in the chapters on "The Common Mind," 
 and "Practical Differences and Resemblances." "The North 
 End" is the most isolated of any neighborhood included within 
 the Hill population. Its families are less directly derived from 
 Quaker stock. The older Quaker families once living there 
 have disappeared. It is a genial, kindly, chatty neighborhood, 
 without the exalted sense of past importance or of present 
 day prestige which affects the manners of "Quaker Hill 
 Proper." It has, moreover, none of the Irish-American resi- 
 dents, and until recently no New York families. The seven 
 family groups resident in these fifteen houses have been long 
 acquainted, and have become used to one another. A kindly, 
 tolerant feeling prevails. Gossip is not forbidden. Standards 
 of conduct are not stretched upon high ideals, and a preference 
 for enjoyments shows itself in a greater leisure and a laxer 
 industry than in the central portion of the Hill. 
 
 The greater distance from the railway also forbids some 
 of the activities of "Quaker Hill Proper." The milk wagon 
 which in 1893 — 1899 was driven each day from Site i to the 
 railway, gathering up the milk cans on the successive farms, 
 has been discontinued, and in winter the road between Sites 
 15 and 21 is often blocked with snow for weeks. The resident 
 at Site 3 has for about twenty years maintained a slaughter- 
 house and a wagon for the sale of meat, using his land for 
 
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 93 
 
 iatting cattle and sheep, and selling the meat along two routes. 
 The resident at Site 15 maintains a fish-wagon, buying his fish 
 at the railways and selling at the houses along selected routes, 
 through the summer. The other residents follow the diversified 
 farming, based on grazing, which in this country includes 
 iatting of calves and pigs, raising of poultry and other small 
 agricultural industries. One family only in this neighborhood 
 takes boarders in the summer. 
 
 The peculiar religious character of Quaker Hill had by 
 1880 drawn in its margins to "Quaker Hill Proper," though 
 the population in these outlying neighborhoods had a passive 
 acquiescence in it. They still respond to the activities which 
 are centered in the focal neighborhood. Of themselves, none 
 of these neighborhoods originates any religious activity. 
 
 In this connection mention should be made of the Connecti- 
 cut neighborhood known as Coburn, in which a certain relation 
 to Quaker Hill has always been maintained. It is not here 
 regarded as a Quaker Hill neighborhood. Its characteristics 
 are those of Connecticut, and its traditions are not Quaker, in 
 a pure sense; but Quaker Hill has influenced it not a little, 
 Teligiously. In Coburn remains a measurable deposit of 
 Quaker Hill population. 
 
 Among the changes wrought by the railroad was the intro- 
 -duction of new social elements into the community. The 
 Quaker population had become divided into rich and poor, 
 but all were of the same general stock. The parents of all 
 liad the same experience to relate. Their fathers had come 
 to Quaker Hill in the early or middle part of the eig^heenth 
 century, had endured together the hardships of pioneer days, 
 had known the "unity" of Quaker discipline for one hun- 
 <ired years, and had held loyally to the ideas and standards 
 •of Quakerism. 
 
 With the approach of the railroad came Irish laborers, 
 -who settled first in the valley below, generally in the limits 
 
94 QUAKER HII,!. 
 
 of Pawling village, and later came on the Hill as workers on 
 the farms in the new forms of dairy industry to which the 
 farmers were stimulated by the railroad. This immigration 
 continued from 1840 until i860. In that time, a period of 
 about twenty years, there came laborers for almost all the 
 farmers on the Hill. I am informed that in the decade fol- 
 lowing the Civil War the work on all the farms, "from 
 "Wing's comer to the North End," was done by young 
 Irishmen. 
 
 The first Irishmen of this immigration whose names appear 
 upon the tax-lists of the town of Pawling are Owen and 
 Patrick Denany, who are assessed upon one hundred acres in 
 1845, the land upon which they first settled being in the west- 
 em part of the town. These two brothers came before the 
 railroad was extended to Pawling, in 1840. In 1867 Patrick 
 moved to Quaker Hill and bought a place, midway between 
 Sites 128 and 131. Thomas Guilshan in 1858 and years fol- 
 lowing was taxed upon nine acres, the land upon which his 
 widow still lives, at Site 93. John Brady lived for years at 
 Site 71, and in a house now removed except for traces of a 
 cellar, about fifty feet southeast of the Akin Free Library, 
 lived Charles Kieraan. Among the earliest Irish Catholics 
 came James Cullom and Margaret, his wife, who acquired 
 land at Site 34. Other names of the earlier Irish generations 
 are Hugh Clark, who acquired land at Site 116, James Rooney, 
 Fergus Fahey, James Doyle, Kate Leary, James Hopper, who 
 settled in Pawling or Hurd's Comer, and David Bums, who 
 became a landowner at Site 117. 
 
 The Irish Catholics early differentiated into two classes, 
 only one of which, with their children, remains to the present 
 day. There were the "toose-footed fellows," who followed 
 the railroad, worked for seasons on the farms, drifted on with 
 the renewal of demand for railroad laborers, and disappeared 
 from the Hill. Their places were taken, in the years follow- 
 
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 95 
 
 ing 1880, by American laborers, and a very few other for- 
 eigners, of whom I will speak below. The other class of 
 Irish Catholics sought to own land. The details given above 
 indicate their promptness in acquiring interest in the soil. 
 From them has been recruited almost all the present Catholic 
 population of the Hill, which in 1905 amounted in all to 
 twenty-five households and one hundred persons. 
 
 Whereas the early immigration of Irish worked in all the 
 dairies from one end of the Hill to the other, the land owned 
 by Irish-Americans now is all in the central portion of the 
 Hill, within a radius of one mile from Mizzen-Top Hotel. 
 Within this mile also all the Irish laborers employed on 
 the Hill are at work. They are employed about the Hotel, on 
 the places of the wealthier landowners of the Hill, and in such 
 independent trades as stone-mason, blacksmith or wheelwright. 
 Only an occasional Irish-American is found among the hired 
 hands on the dairy farms. 
 
 In contrast to the indifference of the original population 
 of the town to education, it is worthy of note that the grand- 
 son of an Irish-American named above promises at this writ- 
 ing to be the first youth born in the town to graduate from a 
 higher institution of learning, being in his last year at West 
 Point. 
 
 The Irish population who have remained on the Hill are 
 singularly homogeneous, and thoroughly imbued with the 
 spirit of the place. In the chapter on "The Ideals of the New 
 Quakerism," I have commented on Irish acquisition of a char- 
 acter like that of the Quakers. The gentlenes.'' of manner, 
 the quickness of social sympathy and the industrious quiet- 
 ness of the Quakers have come to be theirs. Yet they are 
 loyal Catholics, and with very few exceptions support their 
 Church in the village regularly. Many of them who have 
 not conveyances have for years employed a stage-driver to 
 transport them on Sunday morning to St. Bernard's Church. 
 
96 QUAKER HILL 
 
 This church has been built by the Irish and Irish-Americans. 
 At the time of their coming in 1840-1850, there was no Catho- 
 lic church, and "if you wanted to hear mass said, you had to 
 drive to Poughkeepsie." Later, a tent was erected for a time, 
 for the Catholic services, then a Baptist church building was 
 purchased. This building was destroyed by fire about 1875, 
 and the present structure in the village was erected. 
 
 The Catholic population of the Hill is now equal to the 
 Quaker population, there being of each twenty-five house- 
 holds ; the old and the new. But each has gone through strik- 
 ing changes since the Catholics came, sixty years ago. "When 
 I was a boy," says a prominent Irish-American, "you could 
 hardly see the road here for the carriages and the dust, all of 
 them Quakers going to the Old Meeting House, on Sunday, 
 or to Quarterly Meeting. But now they are all gone." The 
 religious faithfulness of those Friends of two generations ago 
 has descended upon no part of the population more fully than 
 upon the handful of Catholic families, who now drive to Paw- 
 ling every Sunday in great wagon-loads, while the members 
 of the Quaker households have closed their meeting houses 
 forever. 
 
 Of the Irish-Catholic population here described only eleven 
 are Irish bom. The rest, about ninety in number, are Ameri- 
 can born of Irish parents. 
 
 The other elements who have been adopted into the Quaker 
 Hill population are small in number in comparison with the 
 Irish. They are among the working people, one Swiss, two 
 Poles, who have bought small places at Sites 42 and 75, re- 
 spectively; and two New York ladies who about 1890 pur- 
 chased places at Sites 41 and 35, who have become a strong 
 influence, being socially and religiously in sympathy with the 
 original Quaker population. Their influence is described in 
 the chapter upon "The Common Mind of the Mixed Com- 
 munity." Purchases of land have been made in the years 
 
DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 97 
 
 1905-1907, more than in the preceding decade, by persons com- 
 ing from outside the Quaker Hill population, all of the buyers 
 being from New York City. These purchases are all upon 
 the outer fringes of the Hill territory, at Sites 107, 108, iii, 
 118, in the southwestern part, and Sites 6 and 10 in the 
 "North End," and in the Cobum neighborhood. Sites 88 and 
 others near the Meeting House, Site 139. The land in the 
 central section has changed hands, in the years 1890-1907, 
 only through the increase in the holdings of those who owned 
 large estates before the period of the Mixed Community. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 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 g^wn 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 import- 
 ance from their belief that in every man is the Spirit of God. 
 With the simplicity, and direct adherence to a few truths, which 
 characterized the early Friends this belief was practiced, and 
 became one of the religious customs of the Society. They 
 entertained travellers, "especially such as were of the household 
 of faith." They made it a religious tenet to house and welcome 
 "Friends travelling on truth's account." 
 
 With equal directness they proceeded further to welcome 
 every traveller, and to endure often the intrusions of those who 
 would not be desired as guests, because they believed that such 
 might be acting by the divine impulse. 
 
 The hospitality, therefore, of such a community is very 
 beautiful. For they have their ways of asserting themselves, in 
 spite of non-resistance. They open their doors, they set their 
 table, with a religious spirit. A thoroughness characterizes all 
 their household arrangements, a grace is given to all their 
 housekeeping, which infuses an indescribable content into the 
 experiences of a guest in these homes. Their hospitality to one 
 another has been therefore a powerful enginery for continuing 
 and for extending the domains of Quakerism. 
 
 On Quaker Hill the living generations have known this 
 hospitality in two notable ways only, in the Quarterly Meetings, 
 
OF HOUSE AND FIEU) 99 
 
 and in the transformed hospitality of the boarding-house. The 
 Quarterly Meeting is now gone from the Hill. Both the Hick- 
 site Meeting, which was "laid down" in 1885, and the Orthodox 
 Meeting, which ceased to meet in 1905, brought in their day 
 to the Hill, once in the year, an inundation of guests, who 
 stayed through the latter days of a week, and then went their 
 way, to meet quarterly throughout the year, but in other places, 
 until the season came again for Quaker Hill. 
 
 The Quaker Hill Quarterly was in August, and "after 
 haying." "The roads were full of the Quakers going up to 
 the Meeting House." In every Quaker home they were wel- 
 comed, whether they had written to announce their coming, or 
 whether they had not. All through the days of the Meeting, 
 they would renew the old ties, and discuss the passing of the 
 Society, the interests of the Kingdom, as they saw it, "the 
 things of the spirit." 
 
 They meet no more. In the Quarterly Meeting, which 
 comprises the Monthly Meetings of an area comparable to 
 Dutchess County, there are still some Friends, and some meet- 
 ings which are not "laid down." But they come no more, at 
 "Quarterly Meeting time" to Quaker Hill. Many of the older 
 members are dead. Of the younger members many have only 
 a passive adherence to Quakerism, only sufficient to excuse 
 them from undesirable worldiness, and from irksome respon- 
 sibility in other religious bodies. 
 
 The hospitality of the old Quaker assemblings has passed 
 over into the business of boarding city people. The same table 
 is set, the same welcome given ; but to the paid guest. 
 
 The passing of the old hospitality of the Friends was illus- 
 trated in the years of the writer's residence on the Hill, in 
 the person of an old peddler, known as Charles Eagle. It had 
 been the ancient custom to entertain any and every wayfarer; 
 and Eagle journeyed from South to North about once a 
 month in the warmer seasons, for many years. He had en- 
 
lOO QUAKfiR HILI, 
 
 joyed the entertainment of the Quakers, following the ancient 
 line of their settlements along the Oblong, and stopping over 
 night in their ample, kindly households. He carried a pack 
 on his back and another large bundle in his hand. His pace 
 was slow, like that of an ox, but untiring and unresting, hour 
 after hour. His person, sturdy and short, was clothed in 
 overall stuff, elaborately patched and mended. At first sight 
 it seemed to be patched from use and age; but closer inspec- 
 tion showed that the patches were deliberately sewed on the 
 new material. He wore a straw hat in summer, decorated 
 with a bright ribbon, in which wei-e flowers in season. He 
 wore also a red wig, tied under his chin with a ribbon. His 
 face was like that of an Indian, with broad cheek-bones and 
 small shifting eyes. 
 
 Eagle was French, and professed to be a refugee, a person 
 of interest to foreign monarchs. On the inner wrapping of 
 his pack was written large, "Vive le Napoleon! Vive la 
 France! Vive!" He had little hesitation about speaking of 
 himself, though always with stilted courtesy, and always 
 furtively. 
 
 He made a study of astronomy, and every night would ask 
 his hostess, with much apology but firm insistence, for a 
 pitcher of water, and for the privilege that he might retire 
 early to his room, open the window and view the stars. 
 Strange to say, in this he was not merely eccentric; for his 
 reading was of the latest books on the science, and he ex- 
 changed with Akin Hall Library a Young's Astronomy for a 
 Newcomb's, in 1898. He accompanied the presentation of the 
 later book, in which was the author's name inscribed with a 
 note to Mr. Eagle, with a demonstration of a theory of the 
 Aurora Borealis. 
 
 Eagle never tried to sell his goods on the Hill, and indeed 
 it is doubtful if he carried them for any other purpose than 
 to conceal his real commodities, which were watches. Of 
 
OF HOUSE AND FIEU) lOI 
 
 these he carried a good selection of the better and of the 
 ^ cheaper sorts, all concealed in the center of his pack, among 
 impossible dry goods and varied fancy wares. 
 
 An attempt was made to rob him, or at least to annoy 
 him, by some young men; and he shot one of his assailants. 
 For this offence he was, after trial, sent to the Asylum for 
 the Criminal Insane. 
 
 His earlier journeys over the Hill found him a welcome 
 guest at the Quaker homes. But the substitution of boarding 
 for the ancient hospitality made the peddler unwelcome; and 
 he passed through without stopping in his later years. 
 
 The Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends was the 
 annual culmination of the hospitality of the Hill population. 
 Coming in August, "after haying," it was for a century and 
 a half the great assembly of the people of the Hill, and of their 
 kindred and friends ; and until the Orthodox Meeting ceased 
 to meet, in 1905, there was Quarterly Meeting in the smaller 
 Meeting House. The old hospitality was never diminished 
 by the Quakers as long as their meetings continued. Even 
 though the same house were filled with paying boarders, the 
 family retreated to the attic, the best rooms were devoted to 
 the "Friends travelling on truth's account;" and the same 
 house saw hospitality of the old sort extended for one week to 
 the religious guests, and of the new sort faithfully set forth 
 for the guests who paid for it by the week. 
 
 The Quakeress and daughter of Quakers has produced the 
 summer boarding-house; which is no more than the ample 
 Quaker home, organized to extend the thrifty hospitality con- 
 tinuously for four months, for good payment in return, which 
 has always been extended to Friends and visiting relatives for 
 longer or shorter periods in the past, as an act of household 
 grace. 
 
 The Quaker Hill woman is a good housekeeper. The sub- 
 stantial farmhouses on the Hill are outward signs of excellent 
 
102 QUAKER HII,I, 
 
 homes within. The table is well spread, with a measured 
 abundance, which satisfies but does not waste. The rooms are 
 each furnished forth in spare and and righteous daintiness, 
 over which nowadays is poured, in occasional instances, a 
 pretty modem color, timidly laid on, which does not remove 
 the prim Quakerness. Ventures in the use of decoration, how- 
 ever, have been crude in most cases, and the results, so 
 far as they have been effected by the taste of the woman of 
 the Hill, are incongruous in color, and ill-assorted in design. 
 It is in house-furnishing that the tendency of the daughter of 
 the Quakers shows the most frequent variation. Occasionally 
 one sees the outcropping of a really artistic spirit — pecuUarly 
 refreshing because so rare — which has only in a woman's 
 mature years ventured to indulge in a bit of happy color; but 
 the venture if successful is always reserved and simple; and 
 the most of such ventures are of unhappy result. 
 
 The housekeeping arts have reached a high degree of per- 
 fection on the Hill. Cooking is there done with a precision, 
 economy and tastefulness in sharp contrast to the non-aesthetic 
 manner in which the Quakers conduct most occupations. It is, 
 moreover, a kind of cooking after the Quaker manner, at once 
 frugal and abundant. For of all people, the Quakers have 
 learned to manage generously and economically. 
 
 The outcome of this housekeeping is the diversion of much 
 of the business energy of the Hill to the "keeping of boarders." 
 Seven of the old Quaker families, and one Irish Catholic 
 household are devoted to the keeping of boarders ; five of them 
 being supported in the main by this business. Of these five 
 families, however, four reside upon farms of more than one 
 hundred and fifty acres apiece. These families sell at certain 
 times in the year, a certain quantity of milk, or make butter, 
 or fatten calves, but not as their central means of support. 
 
 To these farmhouses come year after year the same paying 
 guests, each house having its own constituency, built up 
 
OF HOUS^ AND f lEU) IO3 
 
 through thirty years of patient and unbroken service. The 
 charm of the Quaker character, the excellence of the cooking 
 and the enjoyable character of the other factors of the house- 
 hold, bring patrons back; while the benefits of the elevation 
 and pure air are, to city dwellers, material returns for the 
 moneys expended. For this board, the price charged is, in the 
 Irish Catholic household, five dollars per week ; in one of the 
 oldtime Quaker houses, six dollars, and in the others from 
 eight to ten or twelve dollars per week. 
 
 The season in which boarders can be secured in pay- 
 ing numbers is a period extending from June fifteenth to 
 October first, with the houses filled only in the months of July 
 and August. For this period, which is one continued strain 
 upon the housekeepers and their aids, preparation begins as 
 early as the month of March. The housework is generally 
 done by the women of the family, with some employed help, 
 of an inferior sort. The horses and carriages on the farm 
 must be used for the transportation of guests, and for hire to 
 those who drive for pleasure. On one farm sheep are kept; 
 though most of the boarding-houses buy their meat supplies 
 of the dealers mentioned below. 
 
 Of late years the help employed in these boarding-houses, 
 in addition to members of the family, has come to be negroes 
 from Culpepper County, Virginia. These employees come 
 each spring and return in the fall. 
 
 The one Irish Catholic boarding-house is for the entertain- 
 ment of the hired men on the lower part of the Hill, near 
 the Hotel. It is maintained throughout the year, with a vary- 
 ing number of guests, by a woman ninety years of age, who 
 in addition to the management, does much of the hard work 
 herself. 
 
 The conservatism of the Hill famiHes is shown in the fact 
 that the boarding-house business has never been extended. No 
 house has ever been erected for that purpose alone; but the 
 
I04 QUAKER HILL 
 
 present business of that sort is carried on in the old Quaker 
 homes, each receiving only as many paid guests as it was used 
 to receive of its hospitable duty, when the Quarterly Meeting 
 brought Friends from afar, once in the year. 
 
 Mizzen-Top Hotel is perhaps an exception, if, indeed, a 
 large hotel, with quarters for two hundred and fifty guests, 
 and at prices ranging from three dollars per day up, be an 
 exception. It has grown out of the same conditions which 
 transformed the farmhouses into boarding-houses, save that it 
 has never been managed at a profit, and they never at a loss. 
 It is, however, an institution by itself, and will be treated in 
 another place. 
 
 The Mizzen-Top Hotel has always been a sober institution, 
 influenced thereto by the pleasureless spirit of the Hill. Base- 
 ball, tennis, and golf in their times have had vogue there, but 
 under every management it has been hard to arouse and main- 
 tain active interest in outdoor or indoor sports. The direct 
 road to Hammersley Lake, formerly called Quaker Hill Pond, 
 has made possible a moderate indulgence in carriage-driving. 
 The laying out of the golf links in 1897 set going that dignified 
 sport, just as the Way-side Path in 1880 occasioned some 
 mild pedestrianism. But the Hotel diminishes rather than in- 
 creases in its play-activities; and only games of cards retain 
 a hold upon the gfuests, who prefer the piazza, the croquet 
 ground, the tennis court, and the golf links in rapidly dimin- 
 ishing proportion. 
 
 Intemperance was common in earlier times, and drinking 
 was universal. Every household made and stored for winter 
 many barrels of cider. Rum and wine were freely bought 
 at the store. Their use in the harvest field was essential to 
 the habits of agriculture which preceded the times of the 
 mower and reaper. This free use of cider, with accompan}ring 
 intemperance, survives in only two houses on Quaker Hill. 
 
 Miss Taber's account, in "Some Glimpses of the Past," de- 
 
OF HOUSE AND FIELD lOS 
 
 scribes the drinking habits of the older period: "It was cus- 
 tomary to have cider on the table at every meal, the ladies 
 would have their tea, but most of the men drank cider largely, 
 many to excess, consequently there were great quantities made 
 in the fall and stored in the cellars during tfie winter. A 
 large farmer would lay out a great deal of work, gathering 
 from ten to twenty cartloads of apples, hooping and cleaning 
 barrels, and many ground and pressed their own cider, then 
 the large casks were drawn to and placed in the cellars. This 
 usually occupied a large part of the month of October. In 
 the spring a portion of the hard cider would be taken to a 
 distiller, and made into cider brandy to be used in the haying 
 and harvest field, at sheep washings, butchering, raisings, 
 shearings and on many occasions. Some was always on the 
 sideboard and often on the table. In most households there 
 were sideboards well furnished with spirits, brandy, home- 
 made wine, metheglin, etc., which were offered to guests. It 
 was a fashion or custom to offer a drink of some kind when- 
 ever a neighbor called. 
 
 "My grandfather being obliged to have so many men at 
 least two months each year became disgusted with the custom 
 of furnishing so much cider and spirits to the men in the 
 field, as many of them would come to the house at supper 
 time without any appetite and in a quarrelsome mood. There 
 would be wrestlings and fighting during the evening and the 
 chain in the well could be heard rattling all night long. So 
 one year, probably about 1835 or '36, he decided that he would 
 do it no longer. His brother and many of his neighbors tried 
 to dissuade him and prophesied that he would not be able 
 to get sufficient help to secure his crops, but he declared he 
 would give up farming before he would endure it any longer, 
 and announced when securing his extra help for that summer 
 that he would furnish no cider or spirits in the field, but that 
 coffee and other drinks would be carried out and that every 
 
I06 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 man should have a ration of spirits at each meal. Most of the 
 men he had had in past years came back and seemed to be glad 
 to be out of the way of temptation. The next year he dis- 
 pensed with the ration at meal times, and the custom grew 
 among his neighbors with surprising rapidity; it was but a 
 few years when it became general, with a few exceptions, 
 where the farmer himself was fond of it, until to-day such a 
 thing is not heard of, and in fact, the farmer, like the railroads 
 and other large corporations, do not care to employ a man 
 that is in the habit of using spirits at all." 
 
 In the years 1 890-1905 there were only two families on 
 the Hill which followed primitive custom in "putting in cider" 
 into the cellar in quantity for the winter. In five more a very 
 small quantity was kept. In the other cases it was regarded 
 as immoral to use the beverage. The writer was only once 
 offered a drink of alcoholic beverage in six years' residence 
 on the Hill. 
 
 In respect to the standard of living which is regarded as 
 necessary to the maintenance of respect and social position, 
 the Hill exhibits two strata of the population. The city people, 
 and the farmers and laborers. The former class, besides the 
 Hotel and its cottages, comprise seven households, who have 
 formed their ways of living upon the city standard. The 
 others, resident all the year round upon the Hill, live after a 
 standard common to American country-people generally of 
 the better class. 
 
 The economic ideas and habits are in no way peculiar to 
 the Hill. There survive in a few old persons some primitive 
 industrial habits. One old lady, now about ninety, amuses her- 
 self with spinning, knitting and weaving ; keeping alive all the 
 primitive processes from the shearing of sheep in her son's 
 field to the completed garment. Axe-helves are still made by 
 hand in the neighborhood. 
 
 The practical arts of the community are agriculture, es- 
 
OF House AND FIELD I07 
 
 pecially the cultivation of grass for hay, cooking and general 
 housekeeping, and the entertainment of paid guests, as "board- 
 ers" in farmhouse and hotel. There is in addition on one 
 farm, at Site No. 3, a slaughter-house, at which beef and 
 mutton and pork are prepared for market, the animals being 
 bought, pastured, fattened and killed on the place, and the 
 meat delivered to customers, especially in the summer months, 
 by means of a wagon, which makes its journey twice a week,, 
 over the length of the Hill and in the country eastward. 
 
 There is also a fish-wagon owned and maintained by the 
 resident at Site No. 15, which buys fish during the year and 
 maintains by means of a wagon a similar trade. These two 
 are the only food supply businesses maintained on the Hill. 
 
 Economic opportunity has always appealed strongly to 
 the Quaker Hill man and woman. In 1740 John Toffey settled 
 at the crossing of ways which is called "ToflEey's Corners," 
 and began to make hats. Other industries followed. 
 
 In recent years, in almost every Quaker house boarders 
 have been taken, and a better profit has been made than from 
 the sale of milk. For twenty-five years the Mizzen-Top Hotel, 
 accommodating two hundred and fifty guests, has represented 
 notably this response to opportunity. The beautiful scenery, 
 which the Quaker himself does not appreciate, because he has 
 educated himself out of the appreciation of color and form, has 
 offered him an opportunity of profit which he has been prompt 
 and diligent to sieze. All through the summer every one of 
 the six largest Quaker homesteads is filled with guests. The 
 fact cited above that in the summer there comes to the Hill a 
 greater transient population than dwells there through the 
 year, a population of guests, illustrates this Uvely economic 
 alertness. 
 
 The emigration from the Hill since 1840 of so many persons, 
 notably the younger and more ambitious, is in itself a token 
 of this response. The railroad brought the opportunity; the 
 
I08 QUAKER HII,!, 
 
 ambitious accepted it; many whole families have disappeared. 
 Their strong members emigrated; the weaker stock died out. 
 The Merritt, Vanderburgh, Irish, Wing, Sherman, Akin, and 
 other famiUes offer examples. In the place of those who de- 
 parted have come others, to fill the total population. There 
 were in 1905 on the Hill twenty-five old families with seventy- 
 five persons, and twenty-five Irish Catholic families with one 
 hundred persons. 
 
 The response to economic opportunity has often been too 
 keen, and the attempt too grasping. In 1891 wealthy New 
 Yorkers offered for certain farms so located as to command 
 beautiful views, prices almost double what they are worth for 
 farming. The reply was a demand in every case of one thou- 
 sand dollars more than was offered; and the result was — ^no 
 sale. 
 
 Land is valued, though few sales are made, at $1,000 per 
 acre, near the Hotel. The acre numbered 42, one mile from 
 Mizzen-Top, on Map II, was sold in 1893 to a laboring man 
 for $250. At 53, land was sold in 1903 for $700 per acre. 
 At 52, three acres were sold by sisters to a brother in 1895, 
 the asking-price being $1,000 per acre, and the price paid $800 
 per acre. For farming, this land is worth $50 and $75 
 per acre. Four miles further inland as good recently sold for 
 $10 per acre. Quaker Hill has not neglected its economic 
 opportunities. 
 
 Nearness to the soil has, under the influences of Quaker 
 ethics and economic ambition, cultivated in this population a 
 patient and steadfast industry, which expresses itself in the 
 milk dairy, a form of farming by its nature requiring early 
 hours and late, with all the day between filled by various duties. 
 I have shown above that this industry is losing its hold on 
 the farmers of the Hill, but for two generations it has been 
 the distinctive type of labor on the Hill. To rise at four or 
 even earlier in the morning and to prepare the milk, to deliver 
 
OF HOUSE AND FIELD I09 
 
 it at the station, four to eight miles away, to attend to the wants 
 of cows from twenty to one hundred in number; to prepare the 
 various food-products, either by raising from the soil, or by 
 carting from the railroad,— these activities filled, ten years 
 ago, the lives of one hundred and four of the adult males of 
 the community ; and these activities at present fill the time of 
 sixty of the adult males of the community.* 
 
 While "the milk business" is a declining industry, other 
 things are not less engrossing. The land must be tilled, and 
 is tilled. Hay is the greatest crop, and the mere round of 
 the seasons brings for a community used to agriculture a dis- 
 cipline and a course of labor, which make life regular and 
 industrious. 
 
 Farming, as stated above, is carried on with a view to the 
 production of milk for the city market. It is a laborious and 
 exacting occupation. The dairy cow, generally of the Hoi. 
 stein stock, or with a strain of Holstein in her blood, is thi 
 most common variety ; though the grass of the Hill is so good 
 that very rich milk is produced by "red cow, just plain farmer's 
 cow," as the local description runs; and the demands of the 
 middlemen have brought in some Jersey cattle, which are 
 desired, because of the greater proportion of cream they 
 produce. The largest profit from the "making of milk" is 
 secured by those farmers who keep as many cows as can be 
 fed from the land owned by them. But the more ambitious 
 farmers rent land, and in a few cases on a small farm keep so 
 many cattle that they have to buy even hay and corn. It is 
 necessary for the farmer, in order to meet the demands of the 
 city market, to feed his cattle on grains not raised on the Hill. 
 One hundred years ago the lands of the Hill were planted in 
 wheat, rye, com and other grains, but to-day the farmers buy 
 all grains, except com, of which an increasing quantity is 
 
 *Mr. E. I. Hurd is my authority for the following statement. "In the total 
 income of the farmers of Pawling, nine dollars are paid them for milk for every 
 dollar in payment for other products." 
 
no QUAKER HILL 
 
 being raised, and oats, of which they do not raise enough for 
 the use of their horses. There are no silos used on the Hill, 
 the city milkmen having a standing objection to the milk of 
 cows fed on ensilage. 
 
 The labor problem created by the milk business is an acute 
 one. One man can milk not more than twenty cows, and he 
 is a stout farm-hand who can daily milk more than twelve 
 or fifteen. As a farmer must keep between twenty and forty 
 cows to do justice to his acreage, on the average Hill farm, 
 there must be at least two men, and often there must be five 
 or six men employed on the farm. To secure this number of 
 capable men, to keep them, and to pay them are hard problems. 
 Their wages have risen in the past twelve years, from fourteen 
 dollars a month and board to twenty-three dollars and board ; 
 or for a married man, who has house rent, wood, and time 
 to cut it, garden and time to tend it, and a quart of milk a 
 day, the wages have risen from twenty-eight to thirty-five dol- 
 lars a month. 
 
 These men are recruited from a class bom in the country, 
 and of a drifting, nomadic spirit ; and from the city, the latter 
 a. sinister, dangerous element, whom the farmers fear and sus- 
 pect. On a large farm, with five men in employ, the farmer 
 may expect to replace one man each month ; and to replace his 
 whole force at least once a year. So changeable are the minds 
 of this class of laborers. 
 
 Those who are married are somewhat more stable; but of 
 the others it is asserted by the farmers that out of their wages 
 they save nothing. 
 
 There has been a rise in the price secured by the farmers 
 for their milk in the past ten years, but it has been only for 
 limited periods. The variation was from 1.9 cents and 2 cents, 
 the price in 1895-98, to 3 cents, the price paid in the winter of 
 1907. In the summer the price is always lower. The fanners 
 have no control over the price paid them for milk, nor have 
 
OP HOUSE AND FieU) III 
 
 they control over the prices to be paid for labor, though of 
 course in this matter, there is room for a certain skill in bar- 
 gaining and for the lowering of the total wages paid on the 
 farm through the skilfull employment of the cheaper kinds of 
 hands. 
 
 There is also a difference in the price paid for milk by 
 "the Milk Factory," a plant established at the railway in the 
 past ten years, in each dairy-town. This establishment takes 
 milk from the poorer dairies under conditions less exacting 
 than are laid down by some buyers, and in consequence pays 
 a price correspondingly lower than the market rates for milk 
 and the higher prices secured by the better farmers. 
 
 One energetic farmer, who has in the past five years had 
 large farms to manage, on hire, or on shares, has prepared 
 milk for hospital use in the city, meeting the exactions of in- 
 spection, and the prescribed care of stables, animals, workmen 
 and receptacles in a way intolerable to the average farmer. 
 He receives in return a price twenty per cent above the 
 market rate. 
 
 The effect of the above conditions is seen in the fact that 
 in the twelve years under study nine owners of large farms 
 have "given up the milk business," have sold their cows, or 
 keeping them have made butter and fatted calves for market. 
 The profits to be made in dairy-farming are so small, unless 
 the fanner conduct his dairy in an exceptional manner, or on 
 a very large scale, that the average man on the Hill cannot 
 continue it. Indeed, the average farmer on the Hill is unable 
 through lack of vitality or incapacity for application, to con- 
 duct any business, successfully, against competition. The state 
 of mind of such mfen, in the worst cases, is illustrated by the 
 remark of one of them who approached a successful dairy- 
 man, saying: "I am going to cease to make milk for the city 
 market, and I thought I would come to you and find out 
 something about the way to make butter— not the best butter, 
 such as you make, but a sort of second-class butter." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NEW IDEALS OP QUAKERISM : ASSIMII,ATION OP 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. Per- 
 sonality has here made a solemn effort to perfect itself for a 
 century and a half; and the characters of Richard Osbom, 
 James J. Vanderburgh, Anne Hayes, David Irish and his 
 daughter, Phoebe Irish Wanzer, ripened into possession of 
 at least amazing power of example. I must be sparing of 
 illustration here, where too rich a store is at hand. I wiU 
 offer only this striking fact, observed by all who know the 
 Hill: the Irish emigrant and his American-born children, of 
 whom there are now as many as remain of the original 
 Quakers, have come to be as good Quakers in character — 
 though still loyal Catholics in dogma — as if they said "thee 
 and thou," and wore drab. They are peaceable, gentle folk, 
 sober and inoffensive; and the transforming influence of 
 Quaker character is seen in certain of them in a marked 
 degree. 
 
 The same statement may be made of the pervasive example 
 of the Quaker character upon other areas of population ; ser- 
 vants who come from the city, summer guests, artistic people 
 who love the Hill for its beauty and suggestiveness, ministers 
 and other public teachers who come hither. 
 
 The area to the southeast, called "Coburn," settled to a 
 degree by those who have worked on the Hill in times past as 
 employees, is touched with the same manner. Its meeting 
 
ASSIMILATION OF STRANGERS II3 
 
 house, erected over sixty years ago, even retains the Quaker 
 way of seating the men and women apart. 
 
 The Quaker Hill Conference, now in its ninth year, is 
 another illustration of the charm and reach of the gentle in- 
 fluence of the Quaker Hill ideal upon personal character. 
 
 Suggestion also explains much. In such a social whole, 
 manners and customs are fixed. The newcomer is often fresh, 
 ingenuous, and sometimes intrusive. Little by little he becomes 
 socialized. Ways of action are fixed for him, and a range of 
 performance comes to be his. In harmony with this range, 
 suggestion is very fertile ; but one learns after a time that there 
 is a limit to its force beyond which individuals will not go. 
 Suggestion, to be effective upon the many, must come from 
 the sources which embody the community's religious and econ- 
 omic ideal. 
 
 Ideas, once broached, are usually, If they contemplate action, 
 opposed, at least by inertness ; but after a time they reappear 
 as if native to the minds which would have none of them by 
 leasonable approaches. This process is accelerated if the sug- 
 gestion begins to travel from mind to mind. Some individuals 
 are less slow than others; and the leaders of Quaker Hill 
 thinking have always been able to work by the plan of academic 
 proposal — ^to avoid rejection — followed by incitement of popu- 
 lar action in particular quarters. Quaker Hill cannot bear 
 to be divided; and that which comes to be successful in one 
 quarter soon comes to be universal. Things can be done by 
 social suggestion which could never be accomplished by ap- 
 peal or rational discussion. 
 
 The word that has formed the social mind of Quaker Hill 
 has been, not "the Spirit," not "the inner light," but "ortho- 
 doxy" or "plainness." For this community, it must be remem- 
 bered, had no great thinkers. It discouraged study, stiffened 
 reason in formulas and dissolved thinking in vision. To its 
 formulas the Hill has been exceedingly devoted. He who 
 
114 QUAKER HILI< 
 
 upheld them was accepted, and be who rejected them, as well 
 as he who ignored them, was to the early Quaker Hill as if 
 he did not exist. 
 
 TIhs shibboleth has indeed always been religious. Even 
 to-day the way of direct access to the common heart is a re- 
 ligious one. Catholic as well as Protestant, Quaker no more 
 and no less than "the world's people," welcome religious 
 approaches, respect confessions, and believe experiences. Noth- 
 ing can assemble them all which does not originate in religion 
 and clothe itself in religious sanction. History is religious 
 history. Business prosperity is approved when the prosperity 
 has followed religious profession. 
 
 I do not mean to say that there are not other symbols 
 than those of religion. Prosperity has spoken its shibboleths 
 as well as orthodoxy. "Business is business" on Quaker Hill. 
 Not "to save money" is an unforgiven sin — and a rare one ! 
 
 Much has been done in forming the common mind of 
 Quaker Hill by antipathies and sympathies, chiefly again of 
 a religious order modified by the economic. The community 
 is markedly divided into rich and poor, and into orthodox and 
 not-orthodox. These have no inclination one to another. Bach 
 group has its s3mibols and pass-words, and while neighborly, 
 and answering to certain appeals to which the community has 
 always responded, each resident of the Hill lives and dwells 
 in his own group and has no expectation of moving out of it. 
 So long as a man stays in his group he is, by a balancing of 
 antipathy and sympathy, respected and valued. If he venture 
 to be other than what he was born to be, he suffers all the 
 social penalties of a highly organized community. 
 
 Authority, working along the lines of belief and dogma, 
 has almost irresistible force for the Quaker Hill social mind. 
 A visitor to the Hill said "These are an obedient people." Any 
 barrenness of the Hill is to be attributed rather to the lack 
 of leaders who could speak to the beliefs and in harmony with 
 
ASSIMIi:,ATION OF STRANGERS II5 
 
 the dogmas, than to lack of willingness to obey authority. 
 From the past the families on the Hill inherit their willingness 
 respectively to command and to obey. This is true socially 
 of certain famiUes and religiously of others. That to-day some 
 are not led is due solely to the decadence of initiative in the 
 households which, by reason of wealth or dogmatic rectitude, 
 inherit and claim the first place. 
 
 It was said above that Quaker Hill has shown great power 
 of assimilating foreign material, and of causing newcomers to 
 be possessed of the communal spirit. The agency which from 
 the first accomplished this was religious idealization, em- 
 bodied in the meeting, the dress, language and manners of 
 Friends. Generally the Meeting was recruited from births, 
 and members were such by birthright. In former times the 
 community and the Meeting were one. This assimilating of 
 foreign material by social imitation to the Quaker type, and 
 into organic subjection to the Quaker Hill community, was 
 wrought by six agencies. They were language, manners,^ 
 costume, amusements, worship, and morals. In each of these 
 the Quakers were peculiar. In the use of the "plain language" 
 the Quakers had a machinery of amazing and subtle fasci- 
 nation for holding the attention, purifying the speech, and 
 disciplining the whole deportment of the young and the new- 
 comer. No one has ever been addressed with the use of his 
 first name by grave, sweet ladies and elderly saints, without 
 its beginning an influence and exerting a charm he could not 
 resist; the more so that the Quaker in so doing is guarding 
 his own soul, rather than seeking to save his hearer. 
 
 The grave manners of the Quakers, both in meeting and 
 without, are framed upon their belief that all days are holy, 
 and all places sacred. Their long and triumphant fight against 
 amusements is a tribute to the gravity of life. The contest 
 to which I have elsewhere referred for pure morals, in matters 
 of sex, of property and of speech, was a victorious battle. 
 
Il6 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 In all these matters Quaker Hill was a population social- 
 ized by religion. Central to it all was the worship of the 
 Meeting on First Day, and on other occasions ; and the great 
 solemnity of the annual Quarterly Meeting. Fascinated by 
 that "silence that can be felt," men came from far. They 
 would come as readily to-day. They went away under the 
 domination of that idea of pure and spiritual faith, which 
 kept a whole houseful! of men silent for an hour in communion. 
 
 As I have looked into this matter it has seemed to me that 
 the induction to be drawn from the history of Quaker Hill is 
 this: Religion was a true organizing power for this social 
 population. Whatever the meeting determinedly strove to do 
 it accomplished. If it had tried to do more it would have 
 succeeded. 
 
 This was a gain, moreover, without corresponding losses; 
 a total net gain in all the moralities. The whole area on which 
 this meeting exerted its influence was by it elevated to a 
 higher moral and social tone, and organized into a communal 
 whole, characterized by a loftier and cleaner standard than 
 that of surrounding populations. 
 
 Why, then, did it die out? First, because of the bareness 
 of its worship, the lack of music, color and form; through 
 which it lost in the nineteenth century some of its best 
 families. Then through dogmatic differences, of no interest 
 to human beings, it lost its primacy in the community and so 
 its authority. 
 
 In the chapter on "Ideals of the Quakers," I have dwelt 
 upon their dramatization of life. They "made believe" that 
 "plainness" was sanctity. They fixed their minds upon the 
 ojmmonplace as the ideal. It is probable that the early popu- 
 lation were men and women of no such talents as to disturb 
 this conviction ; and the variations from plainness in the direc- 
 tion of gayety were sternly denounced as immoral. Also the 
 struggle with the wilderness occupied and exhausted the 
 
ASSIMII^ATION OF STRANGERS II7 
 
 powers of the exceptional as well as of the average man. But 
 when with wealth came leisure, there were bom sons of the 
 Quakers who rebelled against the discipline of Ufe that re- 
 pressed variation, who demanded self-expression in dress, in 
 language, in tastes, and in pleasures. Gradually but surely, 
 as the outside world was brought nearer, these persons were 
 influenced in their restiveness by books and examples, by imi- 
 tation and other stimuli from new sources, until they cast ofiE 
 in their minds the Quaker ideal of plainness. To be ordinary 
 no longer seemed to them a way of goodness. They were 
 oppressed and stifled by the ban of the meeting upon vari- 
 ation. And though the ideal of plainness has subtly ruled 
 them even in their rebellion and freedom, it has done so by 
 its negative power, in that the community has never furnished 
 exceptional education. The positive dominion of the meeting 
 broken, the negative "plainness" of the community rules all 
 the children of the Hill to this day. So few are the sources 
 of individual variation furnished, in the form of books, music, 
 education, art, that no son or daughter of Quaker Hill has 
 attained a place of note even in New York State. The ideal 
 of "plainness" has been an effectual restraint. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 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 in- 
 fluence. 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 second one — ^which still 
 stands. Ferriss, the early settler, located the meeting house on 
 his land, as later Osborn located the Orthodox Meeting House, 
 at the Division, on his land. Judge Daniel Akin, in the early 
 Nineteenth Century, was a leader of the economic activities 
 of this Quaker community, then differentiating themselves 
 from the religious. So, too, his nephew, Albert Akin, in the last 
 half of that century was a leader, gathering up the money of 
 the wealthy farmers to invest in railroads, founding the Pawl- 
 ing Bank, the Mizzen-Top Hotel, and launching Akin Hall, 
 with its literary and religious basis. 
 
 David Irish, the preacher of the Hicksite Meeting in the 
 middle of the nineteenth century was leader and exponent 
 of the most representative phases of Quakerism, for at that 
 time it was still possible for the business and the religion of 
 Quakerism to be united in the minds of the majority; Uni- 
 tarian Quakerism was the result, and of this David Irish was 
 the ideal embodiment. 
 
 The respect paid by the community to leadership is shown in 
 the place assigned to Admiral John L. Worden, commander of 
 the "Monitor," who married a Quaker Hill woman, Olive 
 
THE COMMON MIND II9 
 
 Toffey, spent the summers of his life on the Hill, and is 
 buried in the Pawling Cemetery. There was universal pride 
 in his charming personality, interest in his sayings, and no 
 pious condemnation of his warlike deeds. His nautical names 
 of the high points on the Hill have been generally accepted; 
 so that the Hill rides high above all surrounding lands, her 
 heights labelled like the masts of a gallant ship: "Mizzen- 
 Top," "Main-Top," "Tip-Top." 
 
 There is indeed by contrast a corresponding unwillingness 
 to be impressed by great personality. The residence of Wash- 
 ington with his troops in the neighborhood left no impression 
 on the records of the Meeting, though he turned out the wor- 
 shippers and filled the place with sick soldiers; no impression 
 upon the devout tradition, except the story of his being seen 
 once in the woods alone on his knees in prayer ; and no impres- 
 sion upon the social tradition, except the cherished claim of 
 one family that he used their residence as his headquarters. 
 Washington was the embodiment of all that this community op- 
 posed, and he was ignored. 
 
 Another instance of grudging allegiance was the following 
 given to a New York broker, who set out to build a modem 
 schoolhouse, and was permitted only by a packed school- 
 meeting, and by paying two-thirds of the expense himself, to 
 build in 1892 the comely structure at 43, with which Quaker 
 Hill is content. 
 
 The same resident was discouraged from further acts of 
 public service, in 1894, by the declining of his offer made to 
 the town of Pawling, to build one mile of macadam for every 
 mile built by the town. He had constructed in 1893, at 113, a 
 sample piece of such road, covering at his own expense an 
 ancient sink-hole in the highway, through which during two 
 months in every year for a century and a half Quaker Hill 
 had wallowed; and he desired with this object-lesson to con- 
 vince the town, — ^to win the support of at least his neighbors, — 
 
I20 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 to the proposal to transform the highways into good roads. 
 But there was never a response, and even his neighbors on 
 the Hill, who cheerfully enjoy his smooth stretch of stone 
 road over the ancient wallow of their fathers, manifested no 
 active appreciation of his generosity. The generous resident 
 had purchased a stone-crusher and other necessaries for the 
 work; but they have been used only on private grounds. 
 
 The most conspicuous instance of following leadership in 
 recent times has been the measured devotion given by the 
 community to the activities which have centered in Akin Hall 
 and in the institution known as Hill Hope, on Site 35. The 
 leaders in this activity have been themselves under the influ- 
 ence of New York city ideas. Two of the three most con- 
 spicuous persons are of this neighborhood, but have resided 
 in New York for years, returning to the Hill for the summers. 
 The third is a New Yorker by birth, and trained in Presby- 
 terian religious experience and especially in charitable activity. 
 
 Akin Hall has in the years 1892-1905 expressed the lead- 
 ership in religious confession and worship, after the forms of 
 the Reformed Christian order, and has embodied this leader- 
 ship in the conventional activities of a vigorous country parish. 
 
 For ten years Hill Hope, supported personally by the third 
 member of this group of leaders, was, until it was closed 
 in 1904, a country home for working girls. By a liberal policy 
 it became also a center of much interest and of a pervasive 
 influence to the neighborhood. Meetings of a social and de- 
 votional character were held there, to which the residents were 
 pleased to come, and in which the young women from the city 
 met and mingled with the Protestant residents of the Hill, 
 especially with those of the Quaker stock. The influence of 
 Hill Hope was very marked, and its power in representing to 
 people of a narrow experience the ideals of a richer and 
 broader life was obvious to any one who saw 'the place it 
 held in the interests of the whole resident community. 
 
THE COMMON MIND 121 
 
 These influences, thus compounded of the humanitarian, 
 the liberal-orthodox and the devotional, but in all things con- 
 fessedly religious, exerted themselves for the ten years named, 
 unbroken. The death of one member of this group of leaders, 
 the head of one of the three households peculiarly identified 
 with its work, appreciably weakened the group. But in 
 the thirteen years of its influence, it united the whole com- 
 munity in the formation of a church, to some of whose services 
 came all the Protestant population; in whose membership 
 were representatives of all groups of the Protestant residents ; 
 and which was able at least once a year to call the Catholics also 
 together at Christmas festivities. 
 
 To this group of leaders a guarded, though at times cor- 
 dial following was given by Orthodox Friends, the Hicksite 
 group, the farmer class, laborers. Catholics and Protestants, 
 and summer people. It was generally inert and negative in 
 spirit, seldom actively loyal. At its best it was willing that 
 leaders should lead and pay the price, and be more admired 
 than upheld. At its worst it was alert to private and blind 
 to public interests, peevish of change, incapable of foresight. 
 
 I do not think that Quaker Hill people have much expecta- 
 tion of benefit from social life. They are habitually skeptical 
 of its advantages, though eager to avail themselves of those 
 advantages when proven. Almost every person on the Hill, 
 however, is a member of some secret society, to which he is 
 drawn by anticipations of economic advantage, or of moral 
 culture. 
 
 Nor can I say that there is prompt or general reaction 
 to wrongdoing, either of one or of many. I might illustrate 
 with two cases. In one a rich man perverted a public trust, 
 openly, to his own advantage; and a conspiracy of silence 
 hedged his wrong about. In the other, a youth entered in one 
 winter every house on the Hill in succession, and there was 
 no one to detect or to punish him. 
 
122 QUAKER HILL 
 
 The Hill does not exhibit the highest type of social response 
 in the recognition of impersonal evil, in the quest of knowl- 
 edge, or in free discussion. Almost two centuries of dogma- 
 worship, with its contemplation of selected facts, has made it 
 now impossible to secure from one thoroughly socialized in 
 the spirit of the place the exact truth upon any matter. It 
 seems to be reserve which conceals it, but it is rather the 
 effect of continued perversion of the sense of right and wrong, 
 and indifference to knowledge for its own sake. 
 
 The ideal of the common mind of Quaker Hill is the prac- 
 tice of inner and immaterial religion. It looks for the 
 eifects of certain dogmas, effects expressed in emotions, con- 
 victions, experiences. The ideal contains no thought of the 
 community or of its welfare. It is purely individual, internal 
 and emotional. 
 
 It was expressed in the comment of one excellent repre- 
 sentative citizen upon another, "He does not seem to me to 
 be the man he once was. He does not say in meetings the 
 things he used to say. He used to be very helpful in his 
 remarks." This was said at a time when the citizen com- 
 mented on was laboring heroically for a public improvement 
 by which the citizen speaking would chiefly be benefitted. 
 
 The Quaker Hill man and woman desire to make money. 
 They instinctively love money, though not for any other 
 purpose than saving. They cherish no illusions of an un- 
 worldly sort about it. This is true of Quaker and Catholic, 
 laborer and summer resident. It is true of the small class 
 of cultivated intellectual-aesthetes, who might be expected to 
 be less mercenary. They all value money; but not for dis- 
 play, not for luxury, scarcely for travel ; not for books or the 
 education of children. Quaker Hill men and women would 
 accumulate money, invest and manage it wisely and live in 
 respectable "plainness." This characteristic is written largely 
 over the whole social area. It is an instinct. 
 
THE COMMON MIND I23 
 
 The emotional nature of this population has been by long- 
 continued application of an accepted discipline, economic and 
 religious, restrained and schooled. More beautiful personali- 
 ties than some of the Quaker and Irish women of the Hill, 
 schooled in a discipline which produces the most charming 
 manners, the gentlest kindness, one may never see. There is 
 no cloud in the sky of these women's justice, truthfulness, 
 goodness. One may remember, even with them, a day of 
 anger, of indignation; but it was a storm restrained; the 
 lightnings were held in sure hands, and the attack was emin- 
 ently just. 
 
 But this very discipline has resulted, in other persons, in 
 an explosive emotionality. One person suffers this explosion 
 in a periodic lawsuit — a rare action for the Hill; another in 
 an almost insane family quarrel, another in an occasional 
 fury of futile violence, another in periods, increasing in fre- 
 quency as he grows older, of causeless and uncontrolled anger, 
 or extravagant grief ; and when weightier occasion is lacking, 
 in torrents of language poured forth from the treasuries of 
 an exhaustless memory. The very serenity and placidity which 
 Quaker worship and industry produce in the true Quaker 
 have resulted in the emotional ruin of some, and in the sub- 
 conscious volcanic state in others. 
 
 Strange to say, the immigrants, Irish and American, have 
 in this conformed to the better type; so that gentle manners, 
 placidity of character and restraint of emotion may be said to 
 prevail among them. 
 
 As for judgment, on economic questions and matters of 
 benevolence the judgment of Quaker Hill people is sound. 
 They use money sanely and with wisdom. They act wisely 
 in matters of poverty and need, or appeal on behalf of the de- 
 pendent. On other matters, outside the range of the social 
 discipline in which the community has been to school, not so 
 much can be said. 
 
124 QUAKER HILL 
 
 The judgment of the community is not determined by evi- 
 dence in any other matters than economic. The Quaker Hill 
 mind works subjectively on the lines of instincts and habits 
 inherited and inbred. Auto-suggestion has been a great force 
 in this community. Men and women have had an impression, 
 "a leading," believed to come from the Divine Spirit, and have 
 acted upon it and have led others with them. So that the 
 prevailing determination of the social judgment has been 
 by personal suggestion, and the appeal of inner convictions, 
 fortified by alleged divine influence. It must be said that this 
 is a disappearing habit. Even those bom Quakers, now that 
 the Hicksite Meeting has been discontinued since 1885, and 
 the Orthodox since 1903, and the Quarterly Meetings of both 
 societies have ceased to come to the Hill, do not so often see 
 visions or act upon "leadings." The influence of non-Quakers 
 in the place has been of late to quarantine such "leadings" and 
 prevent social contagion. 
 
 Frugality is universal. Almost every resident laboring 
 man has a bank account. Indeed, these laborers have done 
 more in saving than have the farmers. But the tastes of all 
 are simple. Clothing is never showy or expensive, and house- 
 keeping is carried on with the most sparing use of purchased 
 articles. 
 
 Cleanly most of the people of the Hill are, in person and 
 in their care of house and grounds, of carriages, horses 
 and other properties. The houses and bams are always 
 freshly painted, and an appearance of neatness pervades the 
 community. 
 
 For reasons which I will mention in a later paragraph the 
 men and women trained under Quakerism are not orderly, 
 either in the use of their time or in the management of their 
 labor, or in anything, save in the discipline of their religion 
 and in the economic. system to which they give themselves. 
 
 The community has grown in compassion since the days 
 
THE COMMON MIND I25 
 
 when Surgeon Fallon's soldiers were starved and neglected 
 in the Meeting House. To-day I am sure no class of men in 
 real need could appeal to the community, or to any constituent 
 group of it, in vain. The growth has been along lines which, 
 beginning in a group-compassion that has from earliest days 
 recompensed any poor member of the Meeting in his sudden 
 losses of property, have widened first to Quakers of other 
 places, then to other Christians, then to other men, and last of 
 all to Quakers of the other Quaker sect; and from Protestant 
 to CathoUc and Catholic to Protestant. 
 
 Property seems to be sacred. Doors of houses and bams 
 do not require locks, but one winter there was a series of 
 house-breakings, in which almost every summer residence on 
 the Hill was entered. Contents were inspected, but nothing 
 was stolen. But the honesty here is a passive honesty. It is 
 not the aggressively just fulfilment of obligation which one 
 finds in New England. 
 
 The Hill is a community with a high level of chastity. 
 This may be said of all classes, though not uniformly of all. 
 Yet it was not always so. The first century of the life of the 
 Quakers here is recorded in the minutes of Oblong Meeting 
 as one long struggle of Quaker discipline against unchastity. 
 There is an amazing frankness about these records, and a per- 
 sistence in the exercise of discipUne, a frequency of accusation, 
 proof, conviction, expulsion from the Meeting, which is aston- 
 ishing to the twentieth century reader. The best families fur- 
 nished the culprits almost as often as they supplied the accusers 
 and prosecuting committees. So many are the cases and so 
 frequent the expulsions, often for matters which might better 
 have been ignored, but generally for substantial offences, that 
 one wonders who was left in the Meeting. But men often 
 confessed and were received again, and the Meeting held its 
 ground. In general it may be said that often in the eighteenth 
 century there were more cases of unchastity dealt with in a 
 
126 QUAKER HILL 
 
 year by the Meeting, in a population no larger than the pres- 
 sent, than have come to public knowledge in the past ten years 
 in this community. The change shows also in a reserve of 
 speech upon these matters. 
 
 The characteristic pleasures of the community, as a whole, 
 are few. There is a group of women of leisure, of course, 
 devoted to bridge-whist, who come in the summer and do not 
 go far from the Hotel. Young men go hunting, and a few 
 grown men are fond of fishing. The typical person provides 
 himself with no pleasures outside of his family and home. 
 Men and women are too busy to play, and the Quakers edu- 
 cated themselves out of a playful mind. 
 
 There are a few pleasures which are native and general. 
 One of these is public assembly, with an entertaining speaker 
 as a central pleasure. Quaker Hill audiences are alert and 
 keen hearers, and indulgent critics of a public speaker. There 
 are only two other forms of public entertainment more pleas- 
 ing to them. The first is a dramatic presentation. Many of 
 the Quakers are excellent actors, and the Irish are quite their 
 equals, while the other newcomers are equally appreciative. 
 The Christmas play in Akin Hall is a great annual event, as- 
 sembling all the people on the Hill of all classes and groups, 
 for it embodies very many of the appeals to characteristic 
 pleasure. Only one other attraction is more generally re- 
 sponded to; I refer to a dinner. Something good to eat, in 
 common with one's neighbors, in a place hallowed by historic 
 associations, under religious auspices — here you have the call 
 that brings Quaker Hill all together. On such a day there 
 will be none left behind. 
 
 Of all these sorts is the attraction the Quaker Hill Confer- 
 ence has for the people of the neighborhood. It is a universal 
 appeal to the capacity for pleasure in the community. It pre- 
 sents famous and eloquent speakers through the days of the 
 week. Matters of religion, fanning, morals, literature, are 
 
OBLONG MEETING HOUSE 
 
 MEMORIAL STONE 
 
THE COMMON MIND 127 
 
 discussed, by men of taste and culture; and the ctosing day is 
 Quaker Hill Day. On this day, after an assembly in the old 
 Oblong Meeting House, erected in 1764, at which the neigh- 
 borhood has listened to papers descriptive of the past of the 
 Hill, all adjourn for a generous dinner under the trees of Akin 
 Hall, or latterly under a tent beside the Meeting House, 
 partaken of by four hundred people, of all groups and 
 classes, and followed by brisk, happy speeches by visitors 
 present. This, after almost two centuries of keen interest in 
 the question of amusements, is the last and most perfect ex- 
 pression of the capacity for amusement in the community. 
 
 Of active pleasure-taking, Quaker Hill, purely considered, 
 is incapable. 
 
 It should be said that the Roman Catholic Church in Pawl- 
 ing provides its people with a yearly feast, parallel with the 
 Conference, which was for years held in a grove on the bor- 
 ders of Quaker Hill. 
 
 Traits of character which are general or even common 
 among Quaker Hill people are worthy of mention under the 
 heads of regular industry, frugality, cleanliness, temperance, 
 chastity, honesty as to property, and compassion. 
 
 Politically the Hill was until the year 1896 inclined to be 
 Democratic. For years a number of the Protestants on the 
 Hill have been Prohibitionists. 
 
 Primitive notions of morals survive in spite of what has 
 been said earlier, in isolated instances, or tend to recur in 
 certain families. Until twelve years ago members of certain 
 families maintained the right to catch fish with a net in 
 Hammersley Lake. Over the line in Connecticut this prac- 
 tice, and that of taking fish with a spear, survive in spite of 
 law. But this primitive method was forcibly ended by the 
 attempt to arrest the chief offender. He made his escape 
 from the officers, but has never returned, and the practice has 
 not till this date, 1905, been resumed on Quaker Hill. 
 
128 QUAKER HIIvI, 
 
 Primitive moralities of sex appear in certain families^ 
 in which in each generation there appears one illegitimate 
 child, at least; as it were a reminder of their disorderly past. 
 The chari-vari survives among the better class of working 
 people, a strange, noisy outbreak for a Quaker community, 
 with which a newly married pair are usually serenaded. 
 
 I find also no animistic ideas, or practices; no folk-lore 
 and no magic. The Quaker Hill imagination has been 
 disciplined. 
 
 The preferred attainment in this community is neither 
 power, splendor, pleasure, nor ceremonial purity ; nor yet jus- 
 tice, liberty or enlightenment; but rather, first of all, pros- 
 perity, a well-being in which one's good fortune sheds its 
 favors on others; secondly, righteousness, to be enjoyed in 
 religious complacency; and thirdly, equality. This last is one 
 of the few elements of a social ideal actually realized. Even 
 among the women of the place there is a simple and unaffected 
 democracy in the religious and communal societies, which is 
 quite unusual in such a place. 
 
 Of sacred places there are avowedly none. But the his- 
 toric sense of the community is reverent, almost religious, in 
 its regard for the past; so that the Oblong Meeting House, 
 cradle of the community, and for over a century its home and 
 house of government, is chief in the aflfections of all. In the 
 summer of 1904 this place was marked for all time by the 
 placing there of a boulder of white feldspar, bearing a bronze 
 tablet inscribed with the important facts of the history of 
 that spot. 
 
 Quaker Hill does not desire to expand. The type of com- 
 munity preferred is the simple, small, and exclusive. In this 
 all agree, whether they confess it or not. No expansion will 
 ever come by native forces or conscious purpose. 
 
 Quaker Hill reveres leaders, not heroes; and not saints, 
 for men have been cherished for their leadership in dogmatic 
 
THE COMMON MIND. I29 
 
 activities, rather than for their abstract goodness or human 
 value. The type of the social mind that has been most es- 
 teemed is the dogmatic-emotional. Even Albert J. Akin, 
 whose dogma was the union of all Christians, had no patience 
 with any divergence in religious experience from this, his 
 dogma. 
 
 The forms of complex activity that are chiefly cherished 
 are, first, the economic arts; second, religion; third, morals; 
 and fourth, things pertaining to costume. The institutions 
 chiefly prized are the family and marriage, the economic sys- 
 tem and the cultural system, especially the church. 
 
 Social welfare is conceived of under forms of peace, the 
 increase and diffusion of wealth, industry, and by a minority, 
 culture. High morality is most valued as an element in the 
 social personality. Next after it is a highly developed sociality. 
 Social policies would be favored on the Hill as they represented 
 authority and individualism. Conversion is the accepted means 
 of modifying type. 
 
 Practical politics may be said to be foreign to Quaker Hill, 
 for reasons drawn from its isolation and religious offishness. 
 An exception was in the early part of the nineteenth century, 
 when Daniel Akin, apparently in consequence of mercantile 
 position, was elected County Judge. After him, his brother 
 Albro was appointed to the office. 
 
 The consciousness of kind on Quaker Hill is stronger in 
 the group than in the community. Yet the general sense of 
 "imity" is very strong and it often comes into play. 
 
 The chief social bonds which unite the whole community 
 are, first of all, imitation, in which process it seems to me the 
 Quakers are a peculiarly subtle people. Second, a goo jjvill 
 which pervades the Hill like a genial atmosphere; Third, 
 kindness, which on certain occasions draws the whole com- 
 munity together in unusual acts of helpfulness to some member 
 in need. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 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 men- 
 tal 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 domineeringg character pro- 
 ceeds from a dogmatic fixity of mind, and expresses itself in 
 the same inconstant application shown by the former class. 
 
 A few of the more notable of the personalities produced by 
 Quaker birth and breeding belong, I think, in the Ideo-Motor 
 class. I find only seven families of that type, but the forceful 
 character, of aggfressive bent, moderate intellect and strong but 
 well-controlled emotion, is distinctly present ; and this class has 
 furnished some of the most successful of the sons of Quaker 
 Hill. 
 
 I have known only six persons resident on the Hill in the 
 twelve years under study who could be described as Critically- 
 Intellectual. Of these, four have been bred in the larger 
 school of the city, and only two have lived their lives upon 
 the Hill. Of these six, five are women. 
 
 There is, of course, only one language spoken n Quaker 
 Hill. Indeed only one or two persons have any other than Eng- 
 lish as their native tongue.* And very few have acquired any 
 other as a matter of culture. The vocabulary used is limited. 
 An intelligent observer says: "The vocabulary of the native 
 community is the meagerest I have ever known, except that of 
 
 * In 1905-7 six Swedes and Poles also have come, as laborers. 
 
DIFFERENCES AND RESEMBLANCES. I3I 
 
 the immigrant." There are, however, very few illiterates; 
 none, indeed, in the literal meaning of the term. 
 
 Manners on the whole are uniform for the resident popu- 
 lation. Of course the summer people have the conventional 
 manners, or lack of manners, of the city. So far as religion 
 has shaped the manners of the old Quaker group, they are 
 often gentle and refined; but as often blunt and imperious. 
 The Irish have the best manners, I observe, and the more 
 transient summer people and farm-hands the worst. In both 
 the last two classes there is too often a pride in rudeness and 
 vulgarity which the native of mature years never exhibits. 
 The Quaker and the Catholic are equally ceremonious in in- 
 cUnation. The latter always desires to please. The Quaker, 
 when he desires to please, is capable of very fine courtesy; 
 but he does not always desire, and he has less insight into the 
 essence of a social situation. 
 
 The community has had a history, of course, in the matter 
 of costume. The Meeting House law made costume a matter 
 of ethics for a century. But to-day there is great diversity. 
 Probably this is a sign of the transition from the Quaker to the 
 broader human order. But all one can say upon costume is 
 that there is now no dress prescribed for any occasion. At 
 one extreme there are a few, in 1905 only three, in 1907 only 
 one, who wear the Quaker garb. At the other extreme are 
 outsiders who dress as the city tailor and milliner clothe them. 
 And between these there is liberty. 
 
 The dispositions again are varied. One finds the aggres- 
 siveness of five stirring men and three capable women suffi- 
 cient to give character to the place. Many functions of the 
 community are still vigorously upheld, yet the number of ag- 
 gressive spirits is diminishing. The instigative type is present 
 in three, and its processes give pleasure to all who behold. 
 The domineering type is present in eight members, especially 
 in those families which claim by right of inheritance either 
 
132 QUAKER HII,I, 
 
 social or religious leadership. And, as to others, as I quoted 
 an observer above, "They are an obedient people." I do not 
 know any creative minds, much less any class with original 
 initiative. If there had been any such, Quaker Hill would have 
 produced artists, great and small, and writers, not a few. 
 There is a consciousness of material for creation, and in cer- 
 tain families the culture which creation presupposes ; but some- 
 thing in Quakerism has quieted the muse and banked the fires. 
 
 As to types of character, there are forceful persons, a very 
 few, nine at the utmost being of this type. Austere persons, 
 who have in the past given to the Hill much of its character, 
 have almost disappeared, not more than four being within 
 that category, among the population under study in this part 
 of the book. 
 
 The number of the rationally conscientious is as small as is 
 that of the convivial. The Meeting, which was for over a 
 century the organ of conscience for the community, denied to 
 the convivial their license, and released the conscientious from 
 any obligation to be rational. The Meeting has now but re- 
 cently passed away, and its standards of character speak as 
 loudly as ever. I find three women who may be called ration- 
 ally conscientious, one a Quakeress, one a New Yorker, and 
 one of Quaker birth and worldly breeding. I find also three 
 who are truly convivial in type, one a son of Quakers, and 
 two who are Irish Catholics; while to these might be added 
 two whose designation ought to be Industrious-Convivial, 
 hard-working men who are fond of social pleasure as an end 
 of life. 
 
 A few in certain households, three in number, are intel- 
 lectually aesthetic in a passive way, fond of art and books, but 
 creating nothing. Two artists of note have in the past twelve 
 years come to the Hill, bought places and made it at least a 
 summer home. 
 
 It must not be inferred from the foregoing that there is 
 
DIFFERENCES AND RESEMBI,ANCES. I33 
 
 not a wide range of mental difference among Quaker Hill 
 men and women. In the matter of quickness and slowness 
 of action this variation appears even among the members of 
 any one group. In the same family are two brothers, both 
 farmers, both tenants. One is able to farm a thousand acres 
 more successfully than the other can cultivate two hundred. 
 The one is instant in judgment, swift in action, able to com- 
 press into an hour heavy physical labor and also the control 
 of many other men. The other is leisurely, indolent in move- 
 ment, though a diligent man, and is as much burdened by 
 increase of responsibilities as the former is stimulated. These 
 two men are not exceptional, but typical. The extreme of 
 slowness is indeed represented in one man whose tortoise pace 
 in all matters dependent on the mind and will is oddly con- 
 trasted with his vigor and energy of manner. His movements 
 are a provocation of delighted comments by his neighbors; 
 I think partly because they are felt to be representative of 
 what is latent in other men, and partly because he is sur- 
 rounded by others more alert. Such men are the outcrop- 
 ping of a vein of degenerate will. It is not immoral degener- 
 acy, but its weakness is incapacity for action of any kind, 
 inability to see and do the specific task. This degenerate will 
 does not extend to traditional morals, and does not always 
 affect whole families. But its pervasive effects are seen in 
 almost all the representatives of three large families of the 
 old Quaker stock. Contrasted to these are some of the old 
 stock, who though slow of thought and barren of mental 
 initiative, are swift of action, sure in synthesis of a situation, 
 and instant in performance of precisely the requisite deed. 
 
 One finds on the Hill many examples of native administra- 
 tive ability of a high order— for a farm is as complicated a 
 property as a railway is. There are fully as many others who 
 would be burdened with the cares of a ticket-chopper. 
 
 Not a few on the Hill are like the farmer who, sent on an 
 
134 QUAKER HII,I, 
 
 errand to bring some guests from a train to a certain house, 
 spent half an hour after meeting the guests in conversation 
 with them in the railway station before mentioning his errand ; 
 and would have made it an hour had they not inquired of him 
 for a conveyance. Yet a neighbor of his, in the same social 
 group, closely related, has unusual capacity for affairs. 
 
 The instincts of the people of the Hill are not, I think, 
 so varied. They involuntarily respect religion, when ex- 
 pressed with sincerity, and incarnated in strength of character. 
 It must have the authority, however, of strength, at least 
 passive strength, to appeal to local instinct. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SOCIAI, 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 tiie 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. Under its shelter a church 
 and library live, and a yearly Conference is maintained for 
 five days in the month of September. In this chapter we 
 will consider first the incorporated, then the unincorporated 
 societies. 
 
 The chief incorporated institution on Quaker Hill is Akin 
 Hall Association, founded in 1880 by Albert J. Akin. It was 
 his intention to create an institution of the broadest purpose, 
 through which could be carried on activities of a religious, 
 literary, educational, benevolent and generally helpful order. 
 "Albert Akin endowed," said a visitor, "not a college or a 
 hospital, but a community!" The charter of the Association, 
 which was from time to time, on advice, amended, up to the 
 time of Mr. Akin's death in 1903, provided for the most 
 catholic endowment of Quaker Hill, in every possible need of 
 its population. 
 
 The particular directions in which this endowment has been 
 used are two. A library and a church are in active use by the 
 neighborhood, the former since 1883, and the latter since 1895, 
 of which I will speak in detail hereafter. 
 
 Akin Hall Association is a corporation consisting of five. 
 
136 QUAKER HILt 
 
 trustees, a self-perpetuating body, and eleven other "members." 
 The number of trustees was originally sixteen, but Mr. Akin 
 early yielded to legal advice in concentrating authority in five 
 persons; while continuing the remaining eleven as a quasi- 
 public to whom the five report their doings, and with whom 
 they regularly confer. The annual meeting of the Association 
 is upon the birthday of the founder, August 14th. At that 
 time the trustees assemble at two p. m. for the transaction of 
 business, election of members and of officers; and at 3 p. m. 
 the members' meeting is called to order, the officers of the 
 trustees being officers of the whole body. Members are per- 
 mitted and expected to inquire as to activities of the Associa- 
 tion, its funds and its work in general, and to vote on all mat- 
 ters coming before the body for its action. Only no action in- 
 volving the expenditure of money, or the election of -trustees, 
 shall be valid without the concurrence in majority opinion of 
 a majority of the trustees. 
 
 The chief interest of the trustees has always been the care 
 of the property of the Association, which includes invested 
 funds, and the following buildings, with about thirty acres of 
 land: a hotel, having rooms for two hundred guests, a stone 
 library, a chapel, and seven cottages. The hotel is usually 
 rented to a "proprietor," and the duties of the library and 
 church are laid upon a minister, the earliest of whom, Mr. 
 Chas. Ryder, was called the "Agent." 
 
 The Akin Free Library, consisting of about three thousand 
 books, selected with uncommon wisdom by committees of ladies 
 through about twenty-five years, was originally established 
 by the ladies of the Hill, in the early eighties, through a popular 
 fund. It has ever since been funded by the Akin Hall Associa- 
 tion, who have also given it quarters, and care, in the Chapel 
 known as Akin Hall. It will soon be moved into the stone 
 Library, erected in 1898, but only finished in 1906, and it is 
 reasonable to suppose that it will there have a wider scope 
 and an increasing use. 
 
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION I37 
 
 The Library has been managed primarily for the use of 
 "'the Summer people," and the books have the excellence of 
 their selection, as well as the proportion of certain kinds of 
 books, determined by the preferences of the Summer residents. 
 No adequate records are kept of the books used ; so that it is 
 impossible to give statistics of the specific utility of the library. 
 But it occupies a real place in the community, and is drawn 
 upon by families from every section of the population. 
 
 The fact that it was originally assembled by popular sub- 
 scription, and only later sustained by the Akin endowment is 
 a token of the exceptional latent interest in literature, and the 
 passive culture, to which tribute has been paid in this study 
 of the Quaker Hill population. It is fair to say, however, that 
 such interest has been confined to a small group of the popu- 
 lation, now fast disappearing. 
 
 There is a small corporation, formed for the purpose of 
 holding and caring for the "Old Meeting House." It is known 
 as Oblong Meeting House, Incorporated. To this corporation, 
 consisting of three trustees, a self-perpetuating body, the 
 Yearly Meeting of Friends* handed over in 1902 the building 
 and grounds known as the "Old Meeting House," at Site 28. 
 This ancient building, erected in 1764, is probably the oldest 
 edifice on the Hill, and is the embodiment of the religious and 
 historical traditions of the community. These trustees attend 
 to the repair of the Meeting House, which is maintained in 
 exactly the condition in which it was used for over a century. 
 No meeting of worship is held now in this building, the 
 "monthly meeting" having been "laid down" in 1885. The 
 building is, however, the center of frequent pilgrimages during 
 the summer, by the visitors to the Hill and boarders, who 
 delight in its quaint interior. It is used for occasional "sales" 
 for the "benefit" of some public interest. Once a year at the 
 
 * The "Hieksite or Unitarian bodjr held possession of the Meeting House in 
 i8a8, and until the above action. 
 
138 QUAKER HILL 
 
 dose of Quaker Hill Conference, it is the place of "Quaker Hill 
 Day" exercises, at which addresses and papers are presented, in 
 celebration and commemoration of the past history of the 
 community. 
 
 The Hill has record of few revivals. Quaker ways pre- 
 clude surprises, and revivals usually arise from new things. 
 There was, however, during five years, 1892 — 1897, a religious 
 awakening, prolonged month after month, for five years with 
 undiminished force. The cause of it seems to have been the 
 study of the Bible in the historic method; a new mode of 
 awakening traditional religious interest. During that time the 
 whole community was keenly alive, old and young; and in 
 certain cases a change of life became permanent. In many 
 young persons a definite religious impulse was the result. 
 
 This quickened religious interest involved all the Quaker 
 influence, both Orthodox and Hicksite, and it was reinforced 
 by several strong personalities from outside the Hill, persons 
 trained in church work in New York and elsewhere. It crys- 
 tallized in the organization of "Christ's Church, Quaker Hill," 
 in the Spring of 1895, which received at the beginning ad- 
 herents of all the religious groups represented on the Hill. 
 Within three years it had grown to a membership of sixty- 
 five, among whom were members or adherents of the follow- 
 ing religious bodies, Protestant Episcopal Church, Anglican 
 and Roman Catholic Churches, Quakers, Hicksite and Ortho- 
 dox, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, Congrega- 
 tional, Disciples and Lutheran. 
 
 This church is served by the minister employed in Akin 
 Hall, and it has therefore a pecuHar place. Its membership 
 is drawn from the population resident on the Hill. Its doc- 
 trinal truths are simple, namely the Apostles' Creed. Its 
 ordnances are elastic, baptism being waived in the case of 
 those who, being trained as Quakers, do not believe in water 
 baptism; and by the conditions affixed to Mr. Akin's endow- 
 
SOCIAI, ORGANIZATION 1 39 
 
 ment, that no denominational use should ever be made of Akin 
 Hall, it is without sectarian connections. 
 
 The religious services in Akin Hall have in Summer been 
 attended since 1880 by numbers of "summer people," from 
 Mizzen-Top Hotel and the boarding-houses. A Sunday School 
 was maintained from 1890 to 1905, a Christian Endeavor So- 
 ciety from 1894 to 1903. Both have been discontinued, owing 
 to lack of members. 
 
 The church has also a diminished membership, especially 
 since 1903, owing in part to mere removal of population; and 
 even more to the death and removal from the Hill of persons 
 of forceful, aggressive type, and the impoverishment of the 
 population in respect of initiative and coherence. 
 
 The other agency carried on under the patronage of Akin 
 Hall Association is the Quaker Hill Conference. Founded in 
 1899 by Mr. Akin, entertained by Miss Monahan, this assembly 
 has made September of each year a focal point in local interest. 
 For five days of public meetings, Bible study, addresses upon 
 religion, social and economic topics, culminating in a great 
 dinner, of which four hundred partake, it is the modern suc- 
 cessor of the now extinct Quaker Quarterly meetings. It ex- 
 pended in 1907 about $1,400, of which about half was con- 
 tributed by Akin Hall Association, and the remainder by 
 individuals. 
 
 The groups in which the women of the Hill are associated 
 are of great interest. The Roman Catholic women have only 
 their kinship associations, and no voluntary associations, being 
 generally in the employ of Protestants, and having their church 
 center away from the Hill in Pawling village. 
 
 The King's Daughters is the largest association, and most 
 representative of the Hill, both in its numbers, frequency of 
 meetings and variety of interests; though it is not the oldest. 
 It has a membership of forty, and is actively devotional, chari- 
 table and benevolent. It serves also a useful purpose in pro- 
 
I40 QUAKER HILI, 
 
 viding social meetings, bazaars, sales and other occasions 
 throughout the year which bring neighbors together ; and uses 
 their assembling for the assisting of the poor, ignorant or 
 needy. 
 
 This society, as well as the one to be mentioned next, ex- 
 emplifies the real democracy in which the women of the Hill 
 meet and plan for common local interests; a fine spirit and 
 practical efficiency characterizing their meetings, and each 
 woman, however, humble, having a part with the best in the 
 general result. 
 
 The Wayside Path Association is smaller in number of 
 members, as well as older than the King^s Daughters ; indeed, 
 it has perhaps no fixed membership, but is an assembling of 
 the women of the place about a small group as a working 
 center for a yearly duty. Its purpose is to maintain a dirt 
 sidewalk, over three miles in length, which follows the road 
 northward and southward, from the Glen to the Post Office, 
 with branches. Once a year the Association meets, gathers 
 funds by a "sale" or by subscription, hires a laborer to repair 
 the Wayside Path ; then for a year lies dormant. In 1898 there 
 was a general effort made to transform this association into 
 a general Village Improvement Society, with diversified inter- 
 ests, into which men would come, but it failed, and no such 
 society exists. 
 
 The West Mountain Mission is an association of ladies of 
 the Hill, who through sales and bazaars, supplemented by 
 gifts, contribute to the support of a chapel of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, two miles west of Pawling. This associa- 
 tion draws its membership from the hotel guests and from 
 residents in the cottages; and but little from the essential 
 Quaker Hill households. 
 
 The same may be said of whist clubs maintained in the 
 summer at the hotel and cottages. 
 
'■Viif^ 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SOCIAL WEt^ARB. 
 
 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 mt 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 altru- 
 ism in "the service of others." The conscious mind of the 
 Quaker fathers of this community was other-worldly, except 
 in the matters of business — of which more later. That "spir- 
 itual" state of mind was intensely individual. All the interests 
 it regarded were of the self, conceived as an inner, immaterial 
 duplicate of the body, destined for heaven after death, and 
 now enjoying interchanges of experience, especially of emotion 
 and intelligence, with the Deity, during life. 
 
 It was a mind consciously framed to serve personal devel- 
 opment, with no thought of public or common interests. Yet 
 subconsciously the Quaker was acutely aware of common in- 
 terests. A Quaker frequently uses the expression "I feel 
 myself in unity with them." Their doctrine of the indwelling 
 of the divine in every man made them quick to feel common 
 emotion. Their gfroup-s)rmpathy was lively and strong. They 
 felt the community, though they never thought upon it. Sub- 
 consciously, though not consciously, they were public-spirited. 
 They acted upon a fine social spirit, thought they taught no 
 social gospel. 
 
 "The supreme result of efficient organization,"* says Pro- 
 
 * Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. S4i- 
 
142 QUAKER HII^L 
 
 fessor F. H. Giddings, "and the supreme test of efficiency is 
 the development of the personality of the social man. If the 
 man himself becomes less social, less rational, less manly; if 
 he falls from the highest type, wliich seeks self-realization 
 through a critical intelligence and emotional control, to one 
 of those lower types which manifest only the primitive virtues 
 of power ; if he becomes unsocial, the social organization, what- 
 ever its apparent merits, is failing to achieve its supreme ob- 
 ject. If, on the contrary, the man is becoming ever better as 
 a human being, more rational, more sympathetic, with an ever 
 broadening consciousness of kind, then, whatever its apparent 
 defects, the social organization is sound and efficient." Let 
 us consider whether Quaker Hill has met this test. It has 
 been well organized. It has had definite purposes. What has 
 been the type of welfare enjoyed as a result? What kind of 
 man has emerged from almost two centuries of cultivation of 
 a religious and economic ideal? 
 
 In economic operations the Quakers dwelt in this world. 
 They sought a living and they sought wealth — ^not for the ser- 
 vices wealth can render in culture and education, but to 
 accumulate it, possess it, invest and manage it, and to live "in 
 plainness." 
 
 Yet they subconsciously did also seek after a prosperity 
 that should be general. Not closely, not in any declarations 
 or definite teachings of their code, but still in a real way, as 
 a by-product of their code of life, they acted so that none in 
 their community should be in want. This they did with pro- 
 found wisdom — for they taught no communal doctrine — and 
 the details of their action toward weaker members of the 
 neighborhood were uncommonly shrewd and sensible. I will 
 show later the effects of this in the fact that the population 
 under our study shows the absense of defective classes in a 
 significant degree. There are no idiots, no defective, no crim- 
 inal, no pauper classes among the Quaker Hill population. 
 
SOCIAL WELFARE 
 
 143 
 
 The mind of the community had, indeed, an active interest 
 in liberty and the contribution noted above (see Ch. IV. Part I) 
 in the agitation for the abolition of slavery in this state was 
 an act of public spirit along the Hnes of a great national expe- 
 rience. The fact that the meeting of Friends in 1767 was held 
 on Quaker Hill, which initiated effective action against slave- 
 holding, is much cherished on the Hill, and is commemorated 
 in a stone and bronze memorial at the Meeting House. 
 
 Equality of suffrage and universal suffrage are jealously 
 believed in, owing to the Quaker teaching as to woman's 
 parity with man. Yet in the school-meeting, in which women 
 have the same right to vote that men have, there are seldom 
 any women present. Indeed, except for a packed meeting once 
 in a decade, to decide some agitated question, few men attend 
 school-meetings. 
 
 The size of the holdings of land on the Hill, and the curve 
 of increase and decrease for seventy years, are exhibited in 
 Table II. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 Land-Holdings on Quaker Hill: Acreages on which Owners 
 
 are taxed. 
 
 Years 1835 1845 1865 1875 1890 1900 1906 
 
 No. Owners 31 26 39 51 48 53 42 
 
 HighestAcreage6io 540 445 420 540 540 540 
 
 Higher Quartile 378 260 225 225 183.5 222.5 265 
 
 Average 222 206 150.5 147.8 137.8 154 184.2 
 
 Median 187 150 131 120 104 120 155.5 
 
 Lower Quartile 80 100 59 52 43.5 57 90 
 
 Lowest Acerage i 42 3 6 5 i 6 
 
 The above table gives in a graphic manner the tendency 
 of wealth to increase, on the Hill, so far as wealth is repre- 
 sented in land. It is to be noted that these figures, taken from 
 
144 QUAKER HILL 
 
 the Tax-Lists of the town of PawHng, are not precisely accur- 
 ate, especially in the lower ranges. There is an evident inac- 
 curacy in the reporting of the smaller places. Yet from them 
 the following may be inferred : First, that from the beginning 
 of the repords, which was about the end of the period of the 
 Quaker Community, there was a shrinkage in the size of the 
 land-holdings on the Hill; and from the beginning of the 
 period of the Mixed Community a rise in the general averages, 
 the lowest of the curve is about 1890, in the Median, the aver- 
 age and in each of the quartiles. Second, the incoming of the 
 Irish immigrants, who began to be land-holders about 1850, 
 multipUed the number of small holdings of land. 
 
 Just what cause has operated in the years 1890-1906 to 
 increase the size of the holdings of land it is hard to say, unless 
 it be the expectation that land would have a value, which is 
 aroused by the presence on the Hill every summer of visitors 
 to a number equal to the numbers of the resident population. 
 It is evident at the present time, when the "milk business" 
 has been reduced to half in the past five years, that the farmers 
 are holding their lands with a hope of selling. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the tax-list of the town furnish 
 no other data of reliable value, or even of suggestion, being 
 obviously inaccurate and uneven in their reports of the values 
 of land, and of the holdings of personal property. 
 
 The fact that is not recorded in the above statistics is this : 
 that certain owners, associated in close family ties, own all the 
 land of greatest value. Seven family groups possess, in the 
 names of eleven of the above owners, all the land near the 
 Hotel, all the land for which any one has ever thought of 
 charging more than fifty dollars an acre. These eleven owners 
 of all the land of greatest value possess probably nine-tenths 
 of the personal property. 
 
 Holdings of property on Quaker Hill are very unequal. 
 The smallest owner of real estate has an acre, and the largest 
 
SOCIAL WELFARE 145 
 
 about six hundred acres. Contrasts here are sharp and per- 
 manent. The same famihes have possessed certain properties 
 for many decades, often for two centuries; and generally 
 Quaker Hill families do not sell till they all die or move away. 
 
 Wealth is increasing on Quaker Hill in the slow course 
 of years, and probably along the lines of present growth, will 
 increase. It is distributed with marked inequality. The tend- 
 ency, especially in central territory, is toward increasing 
 inequality. There is "a small group at a high degree." 
 
 Yet the community is generally prosperous and well-to-do. 
 There are none poor. Indeed, the wealthy women who began 
 to come to Mizzen-Top Hotel in 1880, looking about for some 
 poor to assist, were obliged to go off the Hill to the south, 
 and lay hold of a lonely female with a curious nervous malady 
 but self-respecting withal, and deliberately pauperize her. To 
 this process, after some initial struggles, she has submitted 
 through these intervening years. She has now tor years been 
 pensioned by the church in Akin Hall through the year, visited 
 in summer by people in carriages, has maintained an extensive 
 begging correspondence through the mails all winter, and has 
 been generally despised by her neighbors. But she has repre- 
 sented to interested clergymen and charity workers on their 
 summer vacations the fascinating and mysterious problem of 
 poverty.* 
 
 Very few indeed have been the defectives. I know of none 
 in ten years. The prevaiUng vitality of the community is high. 
 There were living two years ago five persons past ninety; 
 and one of them died in his hundredth year. Octogenarians 
 drive the roads every day, and manage their estates with ripe 
 discretion and unabated interest in affairs. The religious re- 
 vival referred to (see Chapter VI) brought into the church 
 an active man of great wealth of ninety-five years of age. 
 
 There are no blind persons. One old man, who suffered 
 
 * S. p. died 1906. 
 
146 QUAKER HIH 
 
 from cataract, lost an eye in an operation at eighty-five years 
 of age ; and refused to submit the other eye-ball to the surgeon. 
 There are no deaf and dumb. 
 
 People on Quaker Hill are well-born. I suppose this may 
 be in part due to the high morality of their fathers. I attribute 
 it, in view of the contrast in this respect to the contiguous 
 population in Sherman, Conn., to the highly organic com- 
 munal life of Quaker Hill. Connecticut people, some of them 
 of the same original Quaker stock, have settled on small hold- 
 ings of lands, and held them till isolation and poverty have 
 driven them to suicide, insanity or other miseries. Quaker 
 Hill was from the beginning di£ferentiated into a healthier 
 diversity, and it has been the better for her people. 
 
 There are few mentally abnormal persons in the com- 
 munity. One may designate three persons as unbalanced, two 
 of them unmarried women ; and another such as probably in- 
 sane, though residing at home. But even the aged do not die 
 first in the head. There are no idiotic persons. 
 
 The prevailing morality is high. Very few would be 
 classified as immoral, by the public disapproval of their con- 
 duct. Individuals have committed theft, or an act of cruelty, 
 or adultery, in the years 1895-1905. They do not constitute 
 classes. 
 
 The sociality of Quaker Hill seems to the writer relatively 
 high. Response to a case of real need is prompt, wise and 
 abundant ; and common action for others is heartily begun and 
 completed. There are no unsocialized persons ; neither paupers, 
 criminals, nor degraded, in the community; at least no class 
 or classes of such. There is a man who perhaps drinks too 
 much and too often ; but even he is too far from the saloon to 
 attain to the dignity of neighborhood drunkard. 
 
 Quaker Hill has not been of a mind to contribute insti- 
 tutions or resources to the public. Toward war hostile, toward 
 
SOCIAI, WELFARE 147 
 
 the state always impassive, sometimes actively disloyal in times 
 of war, Quaker Hill has lived a Ufe apart. 
 
 Common school privileges are oifered to all in the three 
 school houses at Sites 12, 43 and 101 (school districts No. 
 I. 3. 4) and the advantages offered are generally studiously 
 appropriated by the young. In the ten years imder study two 
 families alone have been unwilling to take full advantage of 
 the school opportunities. 
 
 In the school at Site 43, for which alone an improved, 
 modem building has been erected, there was, beginning in 
 1893, a determined effort made to provide a school better than 
 the ordinary country school. By the co-operation of certain 
 farmers with children in school, and through contributions of 
 citizens of means who had no children, better teachers were 
 employed, at increased expense, for the space of twelve years. 
 During two years the school was graded, employing two 
 teachers. But the effort in this direction seems to have ceased 
 with the close of the year 1905-1906. This school has had, 
 for the years 1904-6, only one Protestant child, in an enroll- 
 ment of twenty to thirty. 
 
 The other school-districts are maintained "in the old back- 
 country way," their attendance is small and no effort is made 
 to raise the standard of teaching. 
 
 It has been accepted for generations among the authorita- 
 tive leaders on Quaker Hill that "higher education was not 
 good for the poor." Of this doctrine, Albert Akin, generally 
 progressive, was a firm believer. He insisted, and other repre- 
 sentatives of the leading families have done the same, that "to 
 offer them higher education only makes them discontented"; 
 "they won't work if you get them to studying— and somebody 
 must do the work." 
 
 It seems in strict harmony with this opinion, which I never 
 heard opposed on the Hill, that Quaker Hill has never until 
 1904 sent a young man or woman through the college or tmi- 
 
148 QUAKER HII,I, 
 
 versity. Albert J. Akin, 2d, was a member of class of 1904 
 of Columbia University, but he was not born on the Hill, and 
 never long resided there. Indeed, the town of Pawling has 
 not another college graduate among its sons. There have, 
 been, however, a few who have gone to school to the grade 
 of high school and no normal schools. In the past ten years 
 ten young men and women have done so. One youth all but 
 completed a college course in 1906. Two young women are 
 just completing courses as nurses. 
 
 Personality is the field in which the conscious purpose 
 cherished on Quaker Hill would have wrought its best 
 efforts. But personaUty was always on Quaker Hill inhibited, 
 restrained and schooled into mediocrity. Variation was re- 
 pressed. Spontaneity was forbidden. Ingenuous spirits were 
 firmly and effectively directed into channels believed to be 
 harmless. 
 
 The result has been that mediocre people have both lived 
 on the Hill, and gone away from it, in voluntary exile from 
 its beautiful scenes, but not in exile from its spirit of plain- 
 ness. No person of brilliant mind or of uncommon talents 
 has ever come of the Quaker Hill population. There is not 
 among the sons or daughters of this place one whose name is 
 of lasting interest to any beyond the limits of Pawling. No 
 artist or poet has ever ventured to express the intense feeling 
 of the aesthetic which pervades the place, but has always been 
 hushed from singing, restrained from picturing. 
 
 I think the end for which the Quaker Hill population have 
 lived could be called Individual-Social. They are consciously 
 individual, and unconsciously, inevitably social. These people 
 have sought generation after generation for personal salvation 
 and personal gain. "And that," says a resident, "that is why 
 the place is dying." Yet the common interest was a logical 
 correllary of the Quaker doctrine of God in every man, and 
 therefore a community was formed, a community indeed 
 which was no one's conscious care. In the chapter upon 
 
SOCIAL WELFARE I49 
 
 "The Common Mind," above, I have showed that all the 
 leaders of the community as a whole, save one, have been 
 outsiders, who came to see the integrity of the community 
 with eyes of "the world's people," and these leaders in com- 
 munal service have been grudgingly followed. 
 
 That one, Albert J. Akin, who founded Akin Hall Asso- 
 ciation, lived away from Quaker Hill, in New York City, the 
 most of the months of fifty years, 1830-1880, and fell under 
 the influence of outsiders.* 
 
 Indeed, a rare beauty characterizes these children of the old 
 Quaker Community; and a fine harmony blends the members 
 of the Mixed Community into one another. The type of 
 country gentleman and lady was perfectly embodied in James 
 
 * An analysis of the sources of Mr. Akin's leadership, written for the Memo- 
 rial Service auer his death in 1903, is of interest here, as showing the influence of 
 persons upon him who were not 01 Quaker Hill ancestry or of Quaker breeding: 
 
 "In all the years he lived on the Hill he had to do with every movement and 
 was in touch with every person on the Hill. He made himself a party to every 
 public interest, v/hen the building of the Hotel was suggested, he put himself at 
 the head of the movement, invested the most mony in it, and later obtaining entire 
 control, deeded it to liis Akin Hall foundation. When the library enterprise was 
 broached, which has grown into Akin Free Library, he organized and incorporated 
 the institution required, endowed it generously; later reorganized it, upon legal 
 advice; thus accepting ideas from Admiral Worden, William B. Wheeler, Cyrus 
 Swan, Judge Barnard, and others of his neighbors, and contributing his own patient 
 and unflagging executive faculty. When it was thought best, in 1892, to continue 
 the church services throughout the winter under the leadership of Mrs. Wheeler 
 and of Miss Monohan, and the growth of the Sunday school and permanent con- 
 gregation seemed to require the employment of a resident pastor, Mr. Alan ac- 
 auiesced; at first as a follower, but steadily and increasingly as a leader, he "denti- 
 ed himself more and more every year until his death, with the religious life of 
 Akin Hall and Christ's Church. He was a good leader, for he confessed himself 
 a follower in the enterprise which he was in a position absolutely to control. He 
 eagerly availed himself of the suggestions of others, took a qmet and lowly place 
 with entire dignity, and exerted without arbitrariness a determming influence. 
 
 "When Mr. Akn was about sixty years of age, he bought a residence in New 
 York, and went there to live in the winters. He had as a neighbor a Quaker 
 nreacher named Wright, who was accustomed to come to Oblong Meeting in the 
 course of the year. With him Mr. Akin had many conversations on matters of 
 
 "'''"He began also to attend the Oblong Meeting in the summer, though the Sun- 
 day meetings were not at that time largely attended. .,. r . 
 
 •Xater when his residence was at Fifty-sixth Street he became the fast 
 friend and devoted admirer of Dr. John Hall, who used often to call upon him. 
 For years Mr. Akin was carried into Dr. Hall's Church; but after Dr. Hall died, 
 and even before, he had ceasd from that custom. t , j t. ^ ■»» j 
 
 "The growth of the church on Quaker Hill, under the leadership of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Willifm B. Wheeler and Miss Margaret B. Mpnahan took strong hold on Mr. 
 Akin's heart and exerted over no one a more viUl influence than on th^ old man. 
 ^"bert J ASn-^A Tribute, by Rev. Warren H. Wilson, Quaker HiU Confer- 
 ence, 190 3' 
 
150 QUAKER HILL 
 
 J. Vanderburgh, who died about 1889, in his residence at Site 
 30. He was a good man, hospitable, large-minded, well read, 
 humane; he was sufficiently reverent to be good neighbor to 
 the Orthodox; and he was sufficiently wealthy to express the 
 Quaker economic ideal. He had the Quaker genius of thrift 
 expressing itself in bounty. 
 
 Mrs. Zayde Akin Bancroft, resident at Site 32, who died 
 in 1896, was an example of the ideal Quaker Hill lady. A 
 woman of leisure and culture, accustomed to the possession of 
 wealth, and enjoying it in books and travel, she surrounded 
 herself for several of her last years with an atmosphere, and 
 secured for herself enjojrment, of the highest aspirations of the 
 Quaker Hill economic ideal. 
 
 No one quite so much embodied that ideal as Albert J. 
 Akin, who died in his hundredth year, in January, 1903. His 
 fortune, which amounted at his death to more than two million 
 dollars, was the culmination of the wealth of his family, ac- 
 quired since his great-great-grandfather, David Akin, the 
 pioneer, came to Quaker Hill about 1730. He was a far- 
 seeing and brilliant investor, and through his long business 
 Ufe, which lasted until 1901, he followed the growth of rail- 
 roads in the United States with steady optimism, and almost 
 unvarying profit. After the year 1880 he came to live on 
 Quaker Hill, in the interest of his health, more constantly 
 than he had in the preceding fifty years. He at once interested 
 himself in local enterprises, and Akin Hall Association and 
 Mizzen-Top Hotel were at that time founded by him and 
 others. Until his death, twenty-three years later, he was the 
 leading citizen and the most interesting personality among this 
 social population. Such was his place and so masterful as well 
 as constructive his influence that it was a true expression of 
 the feeling of all which one resident wrote at that time to 
 another: "The king is dead, the man on whom we uncon- 
 sciously leaned and whom none of us thought of disobeying. 
 
ALBERT JOHN AKIN 
 
 BORN 1803, DIED 1903 
 
SOCIAI, WEL^ASE 151 
 
 though only his personality held us to allegiance, is gone from 
 us. And I for one feel that I have lost a dear friend." 
 
 These three illustrations will serve to indicate both the 
 kind of persons who have come of the Quaker Hill community, 
 and one of its tendencies. They illustrate also the spirit of the 
 community toward its leaders. 
 
 Personalities of the austere type, nwn and women of the 
 devotional side of Quakerism, may be cited in the cases of 
 *David Irish and tRichard T. Osbom. The former was the 
 last minister of the Hicksite Society of Friends on the Hill. 
 His preaching covered the years of its separate existence, for 
 he was made a minister in 183 1, three years after the Divi- 
 sion, and he died in 1884, at the age of ninety-two. One 
 year after his death the Meeting was formally "laid down," 
 in Oblong Meeting House, and from a place of worship it 
 became a house of memories. 
 
 David Irish was austere. Believing that slavery was 
 wrong, "he made his protest against slavery by abstaining, so 
 far as possible, from the use of slave-products . . . made 
 maple to take the place of cane sugar, and used nothing but 
 linen and woolen clothing (largely home-spun). This ab- 
 staining he continued for himself and family until slavery 
 was abolished." Yet "he never felt free," continues his 
 daughter and biographer, "to join with anti-slavery societies 
 outside his own, believing that by so doing he might com- 
 promise some of his testimonies." He welcomed in his home 
 the fugitive slave fleeing from the South, and "there must 
 never be any distinction made in the family on account of his 
 color ; he sat at the same table and was treated as an equal." 
 David Irish was equally opposed to war, and to capital 
 
 • David IriBh— A Memoir, by Un. Phoebe T. Warner, Quaker Hill Confer- 
 *"% I^chird Osbom-A Reminiscence, by Margaret B. Monakan. Qualcer Hffl 
 Conference, 190a. 
 
152 QUAKER mill, 
 
 punishment. He wrote, "testified" and "suffered" for these 
 principles. "In the tune of the Civil War he allowed his cattle 
 to be sold by the tax-collector, not feeling free to pay the 
 direct war-tax." His biographer enumerates further his hos- 
 pitality, his fondness for books, his humor, and mentions with 
 a pride characteristic of the Quaker that he "was often en- 
 trusted with the settlement of estates, showing the esteem in 
 which his business capacity and integrity were held by the 
 community." 
 
 Richard T. Osborn was the Elder of the Orthodox branch 
 of the Friends during the same period, subsequent to the 
 Division, as that covered by David Irish's life. Bom in 1816, 
 he was conversant as a child with the period of the Division. 
 The seceding members of the Meeting met in his father's 
 house and barn until the Orthodox Meeting House could be 
 erected on the land upon which, at his marriage in 1842, he 
 erected his house. Richard Osborn was "the head of his 
 family." Strong of will, austere, convinced, he lived in the 
 world of Robert Barclay and William Penn, and for years 
 never hesitated to rebuke young or old Quakers or "world's 
 people," whom he found violating "the principles of truth." A 
 summer boarder who played a violin upon his premises was 
 silenced, and the singing of a hymn in the Meeting House of 
 which he was Clerk was once sternly "testified against." 
 
 But Richard Osborn was kindly. He had a gentle and 
 appreciative humor; and about 1890 there come influences in 
 the presence of neighbors to whom he was strongly drawn, 
 as well as the constant presence in his house of boarders from 
 New York; so that his later years were spent in a mellower 
 interest in dogma, and an ever keener interest in the history 
 of Quakerism and of the community in which he lived. His 
 wife, Roby, was a Quakeress of rare sweetness and exquisite 
 gentleness of character. Together this strong, dominating 
 man and his gentle wife constituted an influence, while they 
 
SOCIAL WELFAKE 
 
 153 
 
 lived, which held the community together, and disseminated 
 their principles more successfully than if he had been eloquent, 
 instead of terse, and she an evangelist instead of a meek and 
 demure Quakeress. 
 
 These persons were conspicuous examples of the best social 
 product of Quaker Hill. They were not famous, nor great. 
 Their philosophy was one of self-repression and required them 
 to reduce their lives and those of other men to mediocrity. 
 Quaker Hill taught and practiced the prevention of pauperism 
 — and the prevention of genius ! The ideals of the place dis- 
 couraged higher education. The leading personages distinctly 
 opposed the offer of higher education to the young. 
 
 Therefore this community, which has been exceptionally 
 wealthy for one hundred and fifty years, has done nothing for 
 general education; and has not educated its own sons. As 
 noted above, no person bom on Quaker Hill ever completed 
 the courses for a degree in college or university, and though 
 the community has had for a century families with aesthetic 
 and literary tastes, no member of the community has painted 
 a picture, written a song, or published a book. 
 
 The personages briefly described above are named for an- 
 other reason. Their deaths, with the deaths of certain others 
 whom they represent, have brought to an end the period of 
 Quaker Hill's history which I have called "The Mixed Com- 
 munity." The others who with them made up this group were 
 Jedediah and Phoebe Irish Wanzer, Anne Hayes, Olive Toffey 
 Worden, and six other persons still living, of whom four are 
 past eighty years and two are very near one hundred years of 
 age. This group of persons were the center of that Mixed 
 Community. They possessed the actual authority which this 
 population always has required m its leaders. The piety, the 
 austerity, the forcefulness, the ownership of the land of great- 
 est value, and even the available wealth of the community, 
 were so largely possessed by this group that in the years 
 
154 QUAKER Hm 
 
 1890-1900, in which this group was still intact, its leadership 
 was such as to unite the community and consolidate the whole 
 population for whatever interests the leaders of this group 
 approved. Of that period it was said : "Everybody on Quaker 
 Hill goes to everything!" 
 
 With the death of those who have passed away in the 
 latter part of the period under study the power of initiative 
 has gone. New proposals are hushed. Variation is discour- 
 aged; the rut of custom and convention is preferred. And a 
 subtle stifling air of the impossibility of all active purposes 
 pervades social and religious and business activity on the Hill. 
 
 Religiously speaking, attendance upon public services have 
 decreased by twenty per cent., while the Protestant population 
 has only decreased five per cent. 
 
 In business activity reference is made above to the fact that 
 the number of milk dairies has decreased from eighteen to 
 nine, a decrease of fifty per cent. At the same time the largest 
 dairy on the Hill which in the decade 1890-1900 "was milking 
 one hundred cows," has for the years 1903-1907 "made milk" 
 from only forty and fifty cows, although the owner has more 
 land than his predecessor. 
 
 The population which now remains on Quaker Hill con- 
 tains only a few persons of force and leadership, and they 
 are no longer so grouped as to command. The majority have 
 no ability to follow unless authority be an element in the lead- 
 ership; and authority to command the whole community has 
 not existed since 1903. "The king is dead." 
 
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.*) 
 
 1st At New Milford 
 
 Dobson Wheeler and his Wife 
 Aaron Benedick and his Wife 
 Joseph Ferriss 
 Gains Talcott 
 James McKenney 
 Lydia Norton 
 ^na Philips 
 
 2d At Oblong 
 
 John Bull and his Wife 
 Wing Kelley and his Wife 
 Oliver Tyron and his Wife 
 John Wing and his Wife 
 John Hoag ye 2d and Wife 
 Benjam Hoag and his Wife 
 Abner Hoag and Wife 
 Philip Allen and Wife 
 Moses Hoag and Wife 
 George Soule and Wife 
 Wm. Russell and Wife 
 David Hoag and Wife 
 Ebenezer Peaslee and Wife 
 Nehemiah Merritt and Wife 
 Nehemiah Merritt Jur. and Wife 
 Elijah Doty and Wife 
 Henry Chase and Wife 
 Abraham Chase and Wife 
 Benjam Ferriss and Wife 
 Timothy Dakin and Wife 
 Elisha Akin's Children 
 Reed Ferriss and Wife 
 Zebulon Ferriss and Wife 
 John Hoag, Senr. and Wife 
 John Hoag, Jur. and Wife 
 Jedidiah Wing and Wife 
 Josiah Akin and Wife 
 
 Stephen Hoag and Wife 
 James Hunt and Wife 
 Prince Howland and Wife 
 Isaac Haviland and Wife 
 Nathn. Birdsall and Wife 
 Nathn. Birdsall, Jun. and Wife 
 Daniel Chase and Wife 
 Edward Wing and Wife 
 Abraham Wing and Wife 
 Israel Howland and Wife 
 David Akin and Wife 
 Jonathan Akin and Wife 
 Joseph Jinnins and Wife 
 Robert Whitely and Wife 
 Nathanael Stevenson 
 Joseph Hoag 
 Abraham Thomas 
 Isaac Bull 
 Patience Akin 
 Desire Chase 
 Mary Allen, Widdow 
 Mersey Fish _ 
 Margaret Akin 
 Margery Woolman 
 Dinah Gifford, Widdow 
 Elizab Hunt, Widdow 
 Abigail Gifford 
 Phebe Boudy 
 Ann Hepbem 
 Sarah Davis 
 Ann Corban 
 Hannah Birdsall 
 
 3dly At Nine Partners 
 
 Peter Hallock and Wife 
 Moses Haight and Wife 
 Aaron Haight and Wife 
 
 * Correction of date is by John Cox, Jr., the Librarian of the Yearly 
 Meeting of the Society of Friends, 31S Rutherford Place; in whose 
 charge is the original. 
 
156 
 
 QUAKER HILL 
 
 Joshua Haight and Wife 
 George Sonle and Wife 
 William Palmer and Wife 
 Reuben Palmer and Wife 
 Nehemiah Re3molds and Wife 
 Peter Palmer and Wife 
 Aaron Vail and Wife 
 Joseph Haight and Wife 
 John Lapham and Wife 
 Jonathan Holmes and Wife 
 Jonathan Hoag and Wife 
 Israel Devil and his Wife 
 John Kees and Wife 
 Nathaniel Brown and Wife 
 Anthony Arnold and Wife 
 Caleb Norton and Wife 
 Micah Griffin and Wife 
 Jacob Haight and Wife 
 John Haight and Wife 
 Stephen Haight and Wife 
 Micah Palmer and Wife 
 Andrew White and Wife 
 Stephen Hicks and Wife 
 Daniel Tobias and Wife 
 Kzekiel Hoag and Wife 
 William Haight 
 Joseph Reynolds 
 Obadiah Griffin 
 Solomon Haight 
 Ben jam White 
 John Hallock 
 David Arnold 
 Nathan Bull 
 Hannah Thorn 
 Hannah Tripp 
 Margaret Allen 
 Rose Barton 
 Sarah Collins 
 Eersheba Southerlin 
 Sarah Jacocks 
 
 Additional names which occur in the minutes of Oblong Meeting, 
 in the years 1742-1780 (obviously an incomplete list of members) : 
 
 Ruth Mabbit 
 
 Patience Green 
 
 4thly At Oswegoe 
 
 Samuel Dorland and Wife 
 
 Richard Smith and Wife 
 
 Joseph Smith and Wife 
 
 Samuel Hall and Wife 
 
 Allen Moore and Wife 
 
 John Thomas and Wife 
 
 Lot Tripp and Wife 
 
 Ebenezer Shearman and Wife 
 
 Joshua Sherman and Wife 
 
 Daniel Shepherd and Wife 
 
 John Thomas and Wife 
 
 Josiah Bull 
 
 Zebulon Hoxsie 
 
 Ichabod Bowerman 
 
 David Irish 
 
 Andrew Moore 
 
 Joseph Waters 
 
 Eliah Youmans 
 
 Othniel Allen 
 
 John Carman 
 
 Jesse Irish 
 
 Deborah Reed 
 
 Martha GiflFord 
 
 Abigail Adams 
 
 Mary Moore 
 
 Catharine Leaven 
 
 Mary Youman 
 
 Mehetable Devil 
 
 Sthly At Peach Ponds 
 
 Samuel Field and Wife 
 Elias Palmer and Wife 
 David Palmer and Wife 
 Samuel Coe and wife 
 Stephen Field and Wife 
 Solomon Field and Wife 
 
 Akin, Nathan Fields 
 Akin, James 
 Akin, Timothy 
 Birdsall, Timothy 
 Briggs, Zebedy 
 Brundige, Edward 
 Bunker, Annie 
 
 Chase, Johnan 
 Chase, Phynehas 
 Clement, James 
 Comstock, Thomas 
 Dakin, Preserved 
 Dickerson, Isaac 
 Dickerson, Henry 
 
HEADS OF FAMILIES 
 
 157 
 
 Mehitable Devil, Devill, Duvall 
 
 or Deuell 
 Franklin, Thomas 
 Falyer, Abraham 
 Haviland, Daniel 
 Haviland, Benjamin 
 Hoag, Enoch 
 Hoag, Samuel 
 Hall, Joseph 
 Hunt, Josiah 
 Irish, Joseph 
 Irish, Jessee 
 Jenkns, Volunteer 
 Lancester, Aaron 
 Lester, Murray 
 Laurelson, Aaron 
 Mosher, Wm. 
 Moore, Allen 
 Norton, Robert 
 
 Osbom, Paul 
 Osbom, Isaac 
 Peckham, Jos. 
 Sherman, Joshua 
 Smith, Denten 
 Shove, Edward 
 Stedwell, Roger 
 Sweet, Elnathan 
 Benony Sweet 
 Taber, Jeremiah, 
 
 married Delilah Russell 
 Wanzer, Moses 
 Wing, William 
 Wing, Elisabeth 
 Wing, Daniel 
 Whiteley, Pardon 
 Wood, Drusilla, 
 
 married Israel Howland of 
 Purchase. 
 
158 
 
 QUAKER HII,!, 
 
 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 : 
 
 Akin, John, Esq. 
 Akin, David, Jr. 
 Akin, Thomas 
 Allen, Mary 
 
 George's mother 
 Akin, James 
 Akin, Josiah 
 Akin, EUsha 
 Akin, Stephen 
 Akin, Jonathan 
 Akin, Abraham 
 Akin, Timothy 
 Allen, Ephraim 
 Allen, Alexander 
 Allen, Moses 
 Allen, Samuel 
 Allen, Thomas 
 Allen, George 
 Allen, Daniel 
 Allen John, Elisha's son 
 Allen, John Taylor 
 Allen, Elizabeth, widow 
 Allen, Mary 
 
 Elisha's mother 
 Allen, Mary 
 
 Elisha's daughter 
 Allen, Elisha 
 
 Allen, Sarah, George's wife 
 Ashby, Anthony 
 Arnold, Joseph 
 Arle, Nath., II 
 Ackley, David 
 Arle, Rebecca 
 Andras, Thaddeus 
 Alderman, Elisha 
 Arnold, Nathaniel 
 Briggs, Edward 
 Briggs, Jeremiah 
 Briggs, William 
 Briggs, Henry 
 Briggs, Elkanah 
 Briggs, Phoebe_, widow 
 Briggs, Zepheniah 
 Briggs, Edward, Junr. 
 
 Briggs, Jeremiah 
 Briggs, Thomas, Senr. 
 Briggs, Prince 
 Briggs, Thoms, Junr. 
 Briggs, Anthony 
 Briggs, John 
 Birdsall, Nathan 
 Birdsall, Nathan, Junr. 
 Birdsall, James 
 Birdsall, Thomas 
 Birdsall, Benjamin 
 Birdsall, Lemuel 
 Bennet, Benj., of Patent 
 Brownson, Libe 
 Bostwick, Daniel. 
 Boult, John, Senr. 
 Bamum, Timothy 
 Benedic, Aron 
 Bowdish, Nathaniel 
 Buck, Lydeal, Junr. 
 Bostwick, Daniel, Junr. 
 Brown, John 
 Bennel^ Benjamin 
 Barnum, David 
 Buck, David 
 Betts, William 
 Birdsley, Johiel. 
 Beardsley, Josiah 
 Bamum, Zadoc 
 Burret, Daniel 
 Barley, Abigail 
 Boult, John, Junr. 
 Billings, Increase 
 Brush, Thos., Esq. 
 Bosworth, Nathanael 
 Beach, David 
 Bump, Stephen 
 Bowdy, Nathanael 
 Bennet, Henry 
 Brush, Thomas, Junr. 
 Beardsley, Nehemiah 
 Boom, Sarah 
 Burdick, Ephraim 
 Brown, Joseph 
 
EESIDENTS, I77O-I771 
 
 159 
 
 Burtch, Nathanael 
 
 Bull, Abraham 
 
 Brownell, William 
 
 Barlow, David 
 
 Bass, Thomas 
 
 Burrett, Israel 
 
 Burtch, Increase 
 
 Birchard, Jonathan 
 
 Beers, James 
 
 Brayton, Gideon 
 
 Burdick, Nathan 
 
 Brady, William 
 
 Bostwick, Ichabod 
 
 Botheford, Joel 
 
 Bowdy, Moses, Junr. 
 
 Bennet, Richard 
 
 Bush, John Newfair 
 
 Bostwick, Amos' 
 
 Benson, Benj. 
 
 Bull, Isaac, junr. 
 
 Barley, Daniel 
 
 Brownson, Peter 
 
 Bennet, Amos 
 
 Birdsall, Lemuel 
 
 Brown, Wm., schoolmaster 
 
 Burdick, Jessee 
 
 Brownin, Benj. 
 
 Benedic, Abner 
 
 Bracket, John 
 
 Bull, Thomas 
 
 Butler, Nathanael 
 
 Butler, Truelove 
 
 Buck, John. 
 
 Bacon, Wm. 
 
 Bradshaw, James H. 
 
 Beardsley, Elihu 
 
 Brownen, Wm. 
 
 Batchford, Jonathan 
 
 Batchford, Joel 
 
 Brown, Wm. (Dover) 
 
 Buck, Isaac 
 
 Buck, Lydeal 
 
 Burten, Oliver 
 
 Bump, George 
 
 Bowdy, Moses, Junr. 
 
 Barnes, James 
 
 Burteh, Jonathan 
 
 Bennet, David 
 
 Beemus, Thomas 
 
 Brownson, Sarah 
 
 Burtch, Jonathan, 2nd 
 
 constable 
 Burtch, Isaiah 
 Bostwick, Robert 
 Burdick, Robert 
 Burdick, Ephraim 
 Bangs, John 
 Bruce, James 
 Chase, Daniel, Senr. 
 Chase, Daniel, Junr. 
 Calkin, Elijah 
 Close, Reuben, Senr. 
 Close, Reuben, Junr. 
 Church, Ebenezer 
 
 hat maker 
 Congo, Joseph 
 Chase, Henry 
 Chase, Benjamin 
 Corbin, Peter 
 Covel, Micajah 
 Cook, Thomas, laborer 
 Camp, Enos 
 Croch, Widow 
 Campbell, Archabel 
 Chase, Joseph 
 Chase, John 
 Chase, Nathan 
 Caswell, John 
 Clarke, Richard 
 Conger, Jesste 
 Conger, Joel 
 Campbell, Dunkin 
 Corbin, Sarah 
 Conger, Joel 
 Close, Gideon 
 Corbin, Thomas, Junr. 
 Cary, Rhoda 
 Chase, Benj., Junr. 
 Caswell, Reuben 
 Collins, Amos 
 Covel, Zacheus 
 Caswell, Amey 
 Carey, Lucy 
 Caswell, Robert, Senr. 
 Caswell, Robert, Jimr. 
 Cary, Nathan 
 Cary, Rhoda 
 Crowfoot, Gideon 
 Covel, Seth 
 Chase, Stephen 
 
i6o 
 
 QUAKER HILL 
 
 Coller, Elisha 
 
 Calkin, David 
 
 Chase, Phinehas, Junr. 
 
 Curtis, John 
 
 Ccx>k, Abial 
 
 Chamberlin, John 
 
 Chase, Elizabeth, widow 
 
 Cummins', Isaac 
 
 Calkin, John Doet, doctor 
 
 Caniield, Zarobabel 
 
 Crouch, William 
 
 Churchel, Joseph 
 
 Collins, Caleb 
 
 Calkin, Simon 
 
 Calkin, Nathaniel 
 
 Cary, Lemuel 
 
 Corbin, Thomas, Senr. 
 
 Corbin, Sarah, widow 
 
 Cummins, John 
 
 Caswell, Robert 
 
 Crane, Daniel 
 
 Caswell, Nathan 
 
 Coon, Matthew 
 
 Chase, Abner 
 
 Cummins, John 
 
 Ten Mile Hills 
 Calkin, James 
 Dakin, Thomas 
 Deaveal, Joseph 
 Dakin, Ruth 
 Dakin, Timothy 
 Dakin, Preserved 
 Dakin, Wooster 
 Dakin, Mercy 
 Dakin, Simon 
 Deaveal, Phillip 
 Deaveal, George 
 Deaveal, Hannah 
 Deaveal, Benj., Junr. 
 Deavil, Jonathan 
 Deaveal, Abigail 
 Deaveal, Michael 
 Deaveal, Benj., Senr. 
 Deaveal, John 
 Deaveal, Abraham 
 Doty, Elijah 
 Dunk, Thomas 
 Darling, Ebenezer, Junr. 
 Dutton, Joel 
 Dowglass, Thomas, Senr. 
 
 Dowglass, Thomas, Junr. 
 Dowglass, Jonathan 
 Daviss, Paul 
 Dowgleess, Dominy 
 Daviss, Henry 
 Daviss, Deliverance 
 Daviss, Wm. 
 Daviss, Benjamin 
 Deen, Samuel 
 Drinkwater, George 
 Dolph, Edward 
 Dwalfe, Ezra 
 Dubois, Matthew 
 Evens, John 
 Elliott, David, Senr. 
 Elliott, David 
 
 Newfairfield 
 Elliott, Benj., Senr. 
 Eliott, Benj., Junr. 
 Elliott, John 
 Elliott, David, Junr. 
 Elliott, Jonathan 
 Elliott, Daniel 
 Edwards, Talmage 
 Eastman, Joseph 
 Eastman, Benjamin 
 Eastman, Azariah 
 Eastman, Azariah 
 Eldeston, Joseph 
 Eastman, Hezekiah 
 Evens, Thomas 
 Eady, Joshua 
 EUwell, Sam. Sen 
 Eldridge, Elisha 
 Ferriss, Benj., Senr. 
 Ferriss, Benj., Junr. 
 Ferriss, Benj., 3rd 
 Ferriss, Zebulon 
 Ferriss, Joseph, Junr. 
 Ferriss, Matthew 
 Ferriss, Zachariah 
 Ferriss, Zebulon 
 Ferriss, Gilbert 
 Ferriss, Reed 
 Ferriss, David 
 Field, John 
 Field, Samuel 
 Finch, Reed 
 Finch, Ebenezer 
 Flint, Asa 
 
RESIDENTS, lyyo-iyyi 
 
 i6i 
 
 Franklin, Walter 
 Franklin, John 
 Fisher, Nathaniel 
 Foster, Josiah 
 Fuller, Jonathan 
 Fairchild, Eleazer 
 Fairchild, Alexander 
 Giddings, Joseph 
 Giddings, Jonathan 
 Giddings, Zebulon 
 Gregory, Samuel 
 Gregory, Ralph 
 Gregory, Rivevias 
 Gregory, Jeremiah 
 Graves, Jedediah 
 Graves, Russell 
 Gifford, Benj., Senr. 
 GiflFord, Benj., Junr. 
 Gififord, Gideon 
 Gifford, Joseph 
 Gaylord, Ebenezer 
 Gaylord, Benjamin 
 Gaylard, William 
 Gaylard, Aaron 
 Gaylard, Phebe 
 Griffin, Phillip 
 Gillet, Hezekiah 
 Gourham, Ichabod 
 Garlick, Reed 
 Gray, William 
 Garrett, Thomas 
 Green, David 
 Halaway, John 
 Halaway, William 
 Howland, Azariah 
 Rowland, William 
 Howland, Israel 
 Howland, Prince 
 Howland, Nathaniel 
 Howland, Sarah 
 Howland, Charles 
 Howland, Cook 
 Howland, Nathaniel, Junr. 
 Howland, Peleg 
 Howland, Samuel 
 Howland, John 
 Howland, Silvey 
 Howland, Anne 
 Hunt, William 
 Hunt, Samuel, farmer 
 
 Hunt, Stephen 
 Hunt, Elizabeth 
 Hunt, Abel 
 Hunt, Daniel, Junr. 
 Hunt, Timothy 
 Hunt, Daniel, Senr. 
 Hall, James 
 Hall, Lewis 
 Hitchcock, John 
 Herrington, Moses 
 Hatch, Maltier 
 Hatch, Benj. 
 Holister, Nathaniel 
 HoHster, Abel 
 Holister, Jonathan 
 Howard, Edward 
 Howard, Edward, Junr. 
 Howard, Stephen 
 Howard, John 
 Hoag, Lydia 
 
 Benj. daughter 
 Hoag, Amos 
 
 Hoag, David, Junr., carter 
 Hoag, Abner, 2 
 Hoag, Samuel 
 Hoag, John, merchant 
 Hoag, Abner, i 
 Hoag, William, carter 
 Hoag, Timothy 
 Hoag, Elijah 
 Hoag, Abigail 
 Hoag, Stephen 
 Hoag, Joseph 
 Hoag, John, merchant 
 Hoag, John, 1st 
 Hoag, John, 2nd 
 Hoag, John, Sth 
 Hoag, Ruth S., daughter 
 Hoag, Enoch 
 Hoag, Peter 
 Hoag, Elisha 
 Hoag, Sarah N. 
 
 Benj. daughter 
 Hoag, Ebenezer 
 Hoag, Abbigail 
 Hoag, Wm., Joseph's son 
 Hoag, David, Senr. 
 Hoag, John, D. son 
 Hoag, Daniel 
 Hoag, Paul 
 
l62 
 
 QUAKSR HIU 
 
 Hoag, Tabithy 
 Hammond, Jonathan 
 Hammond, William 
 Hammond, Samuel 
 Hammond, Jonathan, Junr. 
 Hammond, Benj., cooper 
 Hammond, Mary 
 Hammond, Elizabeth 
 Happem, Anne 
 Happem, George 
 Hubbell, Gaylard 
 Hubbell, Dennis 
 Hubbell, Shadrick 
 Hubbell, John 
 Hubbell, Ephraim 
 Hubbell, Eleazer 
 Hubbell, Gideon 
 Holdridge, Thomas 
 Hungerford, Josiah 
 Hungerford, Thomas 
 Hungerford, Samuel 
 Hungerford, Miriam 
 Hurd, David, tailor 
 Hurd, George, doctor 
 Hurd, William 
 Howard, Ruth 
 Hill, Anne 
 Hill, George 
 Hill, Henry 
 Hill. John 
 Hill, Stephen 
 Haviland, Dan 
 Hill, Caleb, carter 
 Haviland, Isaac 
 Haviland, Susannah 
 Havjland, Solomon 
 Haviland, Mary 
 Havjland, Joseph 
 Haviland, John 
 Haviland, Stephen 
 Haviland, James 
 Holaway, Joseph 
 Haviland, Roger 
 Haviland, Benj. 
 Haviland, Jacob 
 Hull, Daniel 
 Hains, Sotomon 
 Hadden, Bartholemew 
 Hendrick, John 
 Haws, Edmund 
 
 Hilks, Edmund 
 Holmes, Thadford 
 Hollister, Joseph 
 Halms', Thadford 
 Hart, Lydia 
 Hatfield, Bams 
 Hicks, John 
 Hicks, Benjamin 
 Hawley, Isaac 
 Hillerd, Nathan 
 Handy, Jude 
 Irish, Joseph, farmer 
 Irish, Isaac 
 Irish, John 
 Irish, Jedediah, Senr. 
 Irish, Jedediah, Junr. 
 Ingersol, Daniel 
 Ingersoll, Josiah 
 Jewett, Jedediah 
 Jewit, Aaron 
 Jewit, Isaac 
 Johnson, John 
 Johnson, Sabin 
 Jeffers, Robert 
 John, June, Jr. 
 Joyce, John 
 Kelly, Wing 
 Keeler, Ezra, carter 
 Kaysson, James, 
 
 wheelwright 
 Kane, John, merchant 
 Ketcham, Elihu 
 Kent, Seth 
 Knapp, Moses 
 Knapp, Moses 
 Lake, Thomas 
 Lake, Judah 
 Lake, Thomas, Junr. 
 Loveless, Joseph 
 Lee, John 
 Lee, Asahel 
 Lee, John, jr. 
 Leach, Ebenezer 
 Leach, Ephraim 
 Leach, John 
 Leach, James 
 Leach, Ichabod 
 Leach, Miriam 
 Lee, Catherine 
 Leach, Simeon 
 
RESIDENTS, I77O-I771 
 
 163 
 
 Leach, Amos 
 Leonard, Moses 
 Leonard, Isaac 
 Leonard, David 
 Luddington, Henry 
 Langdon, John 
 Lester, Murray 
 Lewis, Sam. 
 Lamphire, Jessee 
 Lamphire, Elisha 
 Lamphere, John 
 Lowrey, John 
 Lancaster, Aaron 
 Liim, Samuel 
 Lacey, Seth 
 Loveless, Joseph 
 Martin, Aggrippa 
 Martin, Ephraim 
 Marten, Manasah 
 Martin, James 
 Mosher, Benj. 
 Mosher, Daniel 
 Mosher, Lavinia 
 Mosher, Jonathan 
 Mosher, Hannah 
 Mosher, Mary 
 Millerd, Phebe 
 Millerd, Joshua 
 Millard, Joshua 
 Millerd, Jonathan 
 Millerd, John Phillips 
 Millerd, Robert, Jr. 
 Millerd, Jacob 
 Menzies, Thomas 
 Morgan, Joseph 
 Menzies, Alexander 
 Menzies, Thomas 
 Morgan, Consider 
 Miles, Sam. 
 Marsh, John 
 Marsh, Elihu 
 Marsh, Eunice 
 Morison, Malcum 
 Marsh, Samuel 
 Munroe, Sam., Jr 
 Munroe, Nathan 
 Mead, Daniel, Jr. 
 Mead, Jessee 
 Man, Sam. 
 Man, Dependence 
 
 Merritt, Nehemiah, Jr. 
 Millerd, Benajah 
 Munroe, Daniel 
 Morehouse, John 
 Mead, Daniel, Senr. 
 Malary, Caleb 
 McHerty, Mancey 
 Marsey, Ebenezer 
 Milk, Job 
 McMan, Cornelius 
 Noble, Asahel 
 Northrop, Amos 
 Northrop, Abraham 
 Northrop, Salmon 
 Northrop, Amos, Jr. 
 Northrop, Johannah 
 Northrop, Moses 
 Northrop, Thomas 
 Northrop, David 
 Noble, Zadoc 
 Noble, Thaddeus 
 Noble, Stephen 
 Noble, Morgan 
 Noble, David 
 Noble, Gideon 
 Negro, Sip, slave 
 Negro, Tone, slave 
 Negro, Kajah, slave 
 Negro, Jethro, slave 
 Nicholas, Rowland 
 Nicholas, John 
 Nicherson, Seth 
 Nickerson, Seth, Jr. 
 Norton, Rowland 
 Norton, Lydia 
 Neerings, John 
 Odle, Daniel 
 Osbom, Jonathan, Senr. 
 Osbom, Paul, potter 
 Osbom, Isaac 
 Osbom, Jonathan, Jr. 
 Osbom, Amos, potter 
 Osborn, Aaron 
 Osbom, Stephen 
 Price, John 
 Peasely, Ebenezer 
 Picket, Benjamin 
 Pickett, Ebenezer 
 Peasely, John 
 Peasely, Isaac 
 
164 
 
 QUAKER HILL 
 
 Potter, James 
 Potter, William 
 Potter, Judah 
 Pepper, Stephen 
 Parce, Jonathan 
 Perce, Wm. 
 Pepper, John, Jr. 
 Pepper, John 
 Page, Jonathan, Senr. 
 Page, John 
 Page, William 
 Page, Lydia 
 Page, Sarah 
 Prindle, Aaron 
 Prindle, David 
 Prindle, John 
 Prindle, Gideon 
 Prince, Job 
 Parks, Whiten 
 Parks, Richard 
 Pendegrass, William 
 Perry, Sam. 
 Perry, Rowland 
 Prindle, Dan, Jr. 
 Peasely, John 
 Prindle, Samuel 
 Pourham, John 
 Perry, John 
 Perry, George 
 Parks, Daniel 
 Penfield, Peter 
 Piatt, Samuel 
 Penny, Ammial 
 Phillips, Samuel 
 Patterson, James 
 Patterson, Andrew 
 Penny, William 
 Phillips, Miflford, Jr. 
 Pennen, Wright 
 Patterson, Alexander 
 Palmer, Phinehas 
 Putnicholos, Nathan 
 Porter, Joshua 
 Phelps, Barney 
 Phelps, William 
 Peek, Phinehas 
 Peek, Samuel 
 Prosper, Ichabod 
 Palmeter, Silvenus 
 Pearce, Nathan, Esq. 
 
 Precinct by 
 
 Andrew Morehouse 
 Quinby, Ephraim 
 Russell, Elihu 
 Russell, William 
 Russell, Margaret 
 Russell, Samuel 
 Russell, Elizabeth 
 Ross, Zebulon 
 Ross, Daniel 
 Ross, Zebulon, Jr. 
 Ross, Matthias 
 Ross, Hugh 
 Richardson, William 
 Rennolds, Jeremiah 
 Ruggals, Lois 
 Ruggals, Joseph 
 Rundle, Jos-eph, Senr. 
 Stephens, Thomas 
 Stevens, Benj. 
 Stephens, Joseph 
 Shaw, Phallice 
 Shaw, Joseph 
 Shaw, Benannuel, farmer 
 Shaw, Benj. 
 Stewart, Lemuel 
 Stewart, James, Jr. 
 Stewart, James, Senr. 
 Stewart, Alexander 
 Stewart, Alexander, 2nd 
 Stewart, Samuel 
 Stewart, Nathaniel 
 Sweet, Ezekiel 
 Sweet, Charles 
 Sweet, Benedic 
 Scribner, Abel 
 Scribner, Abraham 
 Springer, Richard 
 Springer, John 
 Scribner, Zadoc 
 Springer, Elizabeth 
 Sherwood, Daniel 
 Stephens, William 
 Sherwood, Nathan 
 Stevens, William, Jr. 
 
 carter 
 Stillson, Nathan 
 Stillson, Enoch 
 Stillson, Moses 
 Stillson, John 
 
RESIDENTS, 1770-1 771 
 
 165 
 
 Smith, Mary 
 Smith, John 
 Smith, Daniel 
 Sprague, John 
 Stevens, Peter 
 Smith, Richard 
 Soule, George 
 Soule, Nathan, Jr. 
 Soule, John 
 Soule, Elizabeth 
 Soule, Nathan 
 Soule, Joseph 
 Shearman, Benj., farmer 
 Shearman, Jabez 
 Shearman, Justin 
 Shearman, Mary W. 
 Shearman, Job 
 Shearman, Joshua 
 Stephenson, Nathaniel 
 Stephenson, Nathaniel, Jr. 
 Shelden, Isaac 
 Shelden, George 
 Shelden, John 
 Shelden, Joseph 
 Shelden, Gideon 
 Shelden, Benj. 
 Sheldon, Thomas 
 Sheldon, Potter 
 Sheldon, Sarah 
 Seelye, Nathaniel 
 Seelye, Benj., Senr. 
 Seelye, Ebenezer 
 Seelye, Eleanor 
 Seelye, Abel 
 Seelye, Bradley 
 Seelye, Elizabeth 
 Spaulden, Nathan 
 Spalden, Samuel 
 Spaulding, Abijah 
 Sill, Elijah 
 Starke, William 
 Shannon, George 
 Slocum, Abraham 
 SiU, Uriah 
 Slocum, Elizabeth 
 Sill, & Bangs 
 Slocum, Benj. 
 Stephenson, James 
 Shove, Edward 
 Sturdevant, Jonathan 
 
 Sturdevant, Nathan 
 Sturdevant, John 
 Sturdevant Esther 
 Smith, Noah 
 Smith, Gains 
 Starke, James 
 Starke, Christopher, Jr. 
 Slone, Sam. 
 Salsbury, Sarah 
 Salmon, Hannah 
 Storker, Seth 
 Seamen, Stephen 
 Stedwell, James 
 Stedwell, Gilbert 
 Salmon, John 
 Sweet, Benedic 
 Sabin, Jeremiah 
 
 blacksmith 
 Seaman, Moses 
 Stone, Eathael 
 Starke, Aaron 
 Shed, Martha 
 Sabin, Jeremiah, Senr. 
 Shapparoon, Peter 
 Stone, Ebenezer 
 Thomas', John 
 Thomas, Benj. 
 Thomas, Abraham 
 Thomas, Lewis 
 Tripp. John 
 Tripp, Experience 
 Tallcott, Gains 
 Tripp, Lott 
 Towner, Dan 
 Towner, David 
 Towner, Lois 
 Towner, Sam, Senr. 
 Towner, Mary 
 Towner, Zacheus 
 Thatcher, Partridge 
 Taber, Job 
 Taber, Hannah 
 Taber, Thomas, Esq. 
 Tuttle, Ebenezer 
 Truman, Jonathan 
 Tryon, James 
 Tryon, Asahel 
 Trowbridge, Seth 
 Trowbridge, Billey 
 Trowbridge, Caleb 
 
i66 
 
 QUAKER HIU 
 
 Towner, Sam, Jr. 
 
 Trim, Moses 
 
 Thornton, John 
 
 Tayler, Nathaniel 
 
 Tyler, Bezaleel 
 
 Tryon, Elisabeth 
 
 Ter Boss, Daniel 
 
 Toffey, John, hat maker 
 
 Terry, Peter 
 
 Vaughn, William 
 
 Vaughn, Joseph, weaver 
 
 Vaughn, Benjamin 
 
 Veal, Michael 
 
 Wing, Elisabeth 
 
 Wing, Elihu 
 
 Wing, Thomas 
 
 Wing, Gershom 
 
 Wing, Edward 
 
 Wing, Elisha 
 
 Wing, John 
 
 Wing, William 
 
 Wing, Abram Thomas 
 
 Wing, Prince 
 
 Wing, Russell 
 
 Wing, Daniel 
 
 Willcox, Louis, laborer 
 
 Willcox, Thomas 
 
 Willcox, Eunice 
 
 Willcox, Joshua 
 
 Willcox, Stephen 
 
 Willcox, Rebecca 
 
 Willcox, Rebecca 
 
 Willcox, Jeffrey 
 
 Willcox, Handy 
 
 Willcox, Isaac 
 
 West, Mary 
 
 West, Elijah 
 
 West, Delight 
 
 West, Aaron 
 
 West, Clement 
 
 West, Sarah, Clement's wife 
 
 West, Benajah 
 
 Welch, Paul 
 
 Willcox, Mary 
 
 Willcox, Antras 
 
 Willcox, Sarah 
 
 Willcox, Amos 
 
 Wheeler, Enoch 
 
 Wheeler, Joseph 
 
 Wheeler, Samuel 
 
 Wright, Samuel 
 Wright, Kent 
 Wright, Dennis 
 Wright, Deborah 
 Wright, Mary 
 Wright, Uriah 
 Wright, Abigail 
 Wright, Samuel, Jr. 
 Weed, Jacob 
 Weed, Judah 
 Wanzar, Moses 
 Wanzar, Abraham 
 Wanzar, Anthony 
 Wanzar, Abigail 
 Wanzar, Abraham, Jr. 
 Wanzer, Chester 
 Wanzer, Darkis 
 Wanzer, Elizabeth 
 Warner, Lemuel 
 Warner, Oliver 
 Warner, Orange 
 Wood, Wilber 
 Wickham, David 
 Wickham, Phebe 
 Wilkinson, Ebenezer 
 Wickham, Gideon 
 Whitely, Robert 
 Wickham, John, weaver 
 Woodward, Jonathan 
 Whitely, Martha 
 Weed, Jacob 
 Woodard, Joseph 
 Woodard, John 
 Woodard, Elisabeth 
 Woodard, Ephraim 
 Williams, Daviss 
 Wallace, Nathaniel 
 Walsworth, William 
 Wade, Jonathan 
 Wallups, Jonathan 
 Wheeler, Hezekiah 
 Washburn, Joseph 
 Woolman, Hannah 
 Waldo, Jonathan 
 Welch, John 
 Wilkerson, Robert 
 Williams, Marke 
 Willmut, Lemuel 
 Yates, Paul 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 PACKAGE OF DEEDS OF OBLONG M. M. PROPERTIES. 
 
 Discovered 1906 by Wiuiam Rydbr, of Brewster, N. Y. , 
 
 DEED. 
 
 Zebulon Ferriss, of Oblong, to Benjamin Ferriss, David Akin, 
 Ebenezer Peaslee, David Hoag, Joseph Irish, Nehemijih 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, go." 
 
 DEED. 
 
 William Russell of Oblong, to same grantees, 40 square rods, being 
 S rods frontage on north side of road, opposite Friends' old meeting 
 house, and 8 rods deep. Consideration 8 pounds. (These two deeds 
 seem to conflict as to direction and area.) 
 
 Recorded 4.24.1764 in same volume, page 87 and 88. 
 
 WARRANTY DEED. 
 
 Joseph Ferriss and Nathan Gaylor, both of Town of New Milford, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., to Dobson Wheeler, and Gaius Talcott of same 
 town, Benjamin Ferriss, David Akins, Henry Chase, Timothy Dakins, 
 George Soule, Abraham Wing, Reed Ferriss and Zebulon Ferriss, of 
 York Government, land in New Milford "in the Common Field, by 
 the side of the Great River at the south end of the Indian Field lots, 
 a top of the hill East of the road, as goes to Danbury. "The Meeting 
 House of the People called Quakers' Stands, on the said land. We 
 had it of Benjamin Ferriss and David Noble the quantity to be seen 
 on the records and it all the Land we ^re possessed of on the East 
 Side of that Road bounded North and West on the road that goes to 
 Danbury, East on the River." Dated July 6th, 1762. 
 
 CONSIDERATION RECEIVED. 
 
 Acknowledged before John Hitchcock, J. P. Recorded July 7, 1762, 
 in New Milford, 9th Book of Records, page 667. 
 
 DEED. 
 
 Nicholas Wanzer of New Fairfield, Fairfield Co., Conn., to "the 
 society of people called Quakers," one acre m New Milford, with 
 Meeting House, etc. thereon. Consideration 2 pounds, 10 shillings. 
 Dated 11 21 1788. Recorded in New Milford, i6th Book of Records, 
 page 484 This does not seem to be the property described in above 
 
l68 QUAKER HILL 
 
 deed of Joseph Ferriss, this being on the "west side of the Grate Rode 
 that goes north and south through the plain." 
 
 Daniel Haviland of Southeast precinct, Dutchess County, to Joseph 
 Irish, Edward Shove, Reed Ferriss and Wing Kelley, of Pawling's 
 precinct and Elnathan Sweet and Joseph Lancaster, of Beekman's pre- 
 cinct and Benjamin Ferriss of New Milford, Conn., for the people 
 called "Quakers," one acre and 70 rods, in South East precinct. Con- 
 sideration, love of the Society. Dated 8. 12. 1782. Not recorded. 
 
 DEED. 
 Roger Haviland, of New Fairfield, Conn., to same grantees, one 
 acre and 30 rods in South East precinct. Consideration, love of the 
 Society. Dated 8. 12. 1782. Not recorded. This would seem to join 
 the property given by Daniel Haviland. 
 
 DSED. 
 John Hoag, of Pawling's precinct, to Nathan Soule, Edward Shove 
 and Thomas Haight, of Pawling's, 42 rods, on East Side of the high- 
 way in north end of Lot 38 of the Oblong. Consideration, love of 
 the Society. Dated, 2. 12. 1784. Recorded in Oblong M. M. minutes 
 for 2nd month, 1784. " 
 
 DEED. 
 
 Isaiah Hoag, of Pawling's precinct to Nathan Soule, Edward Shove, 
 Abner Hoag, 'Thomas Haight, Azariah Howland and Isaac Osbom, 
 of Pawling's precinct, ij4 acres in Pawling's precinct, for pasturing 
 Friends' horses, etc. Consideration 10 pounds. Dated 7.30.1786. Not 
 recorded. (Branch Meeting House.) 
 
 DEED. 
 
 Daniel Wing, of Pawling's precinct, to same grantees as above, 45 
 rods, for building a meeting house, etc. Consideration 5 pounds. Dated 
 9. 18. 1786. Not recorded. (Branch Meeting House.) 
 
 DEED. 
 
 Abner Hoag of Town of Dover, Dutchess Co., to M. M. of Ob- 
 long, 27 rods, adjoining the meeting house lot, "now called Branch 
 Meeting." Consideration $7.50. Dated 5.21.1811. Not recorded. 
 
 List of Deeds belonging to Oblong M. M. sth Mo., 1788. 
 
VITA. 
 
 The author of this dissertation was bom May i, 1867. He 
 received from Oberlin College the degree of A.B. in 1890, and 
 that of A.M. in 1894. He graduated from Union Theological 
 Seminary in 1894, and has since served as an active pastor at 
 Quaker Hill and in Brooklyn, New York. While in the 
 Seminary and also during the years 1903- 1905 he was a 
 graduate student in Columbia University, having especial 
 interest in the lectures of Professor Franklin H. Giddings; 
 to whom as to his associates on the Faculty of Political Science, 
 he owes a debt of gratitude for a conception of the common 
 lif« of men on the earth.