Yearly Meetings
one-paragraph descriptions for each yearly meeting in North America, with links to websites
FOURTH EDITION, REVISED, and updated
Copyright © 1992-2020 Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374-4095 U.S.A.
U.S. Registrations TX 3-344-765, TX 3-501-254, TX 3-847-843, TX 4-504-621
An attempt to record basic historical information (former name, parent bodies, location, meeting genealogy, records-storage locations, records known extant) about every monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends that has ever existed in North America.
YEARLY MEETINGS INCLUDED
(The main body of the Index uses the shortened names capitalized or the abbreviations underlined below.)
Evangelical Friends International <http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/> opened in 1989 as the broader-based successor to the Evangelical Friends Alliance organized in 1965. (EFA in turn grew out of the Association of Evangelical Friends, in which individuals had membership.) EFI coordinates mission and publication work for its member yearly meetings but does not have direct oversight of yearly or monthly meetings. The current North American member yearly meetings are Alaska, ARIEA, Eastern Region, Mid-America, Northwest, Rocky Mountain and Southwest.
FRIENDS CHURCH OF NORTH CAROLINA <http://friendschurchnc.org/>, comprised of former congregations in North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM), opened 2018/08/03 to /05 as one result of the NCYM, Inc. 2017/08/05 reorganization. Its congregations' records remain at the Quaker Archives <http://library.guilford.edu/quakerrecords>, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, or at one of the local meetings.
The Friends General Conference <http://www.fgcquaker.org/> was organized 1900/08/22 by the "Hicksite" yearly meetings at that time: Baltimore, Genesee, Illinois, Indiana (now Ohio Valley), Ohio, New York and Philadelphia. Even prior to 1900, those yearly meetings had cooperated in several types of work, including a Joint Committee on Isolated Friends that supported the formation of worship and discussion groups in cities where no Hicksite yearly meeting exercised active supervision. Beginning in the 1970s, FGC's Advancement & Outreach Committee assumed the direct care of certain monthly meetings when the FWCC's Section of the Americas laid down its New Meetings Committee. The following yearly meetings and "conferences" presently belong to FGC: Baltimore, Canadian, Alaska Friends Conference, Illinois, Lake Erie, New England, New York, Northern, Ohio Valley, Philadelphia, South Central, Southeastern and Southern Appalachian. FGC treats the Piedmont Friends Fellowship (joined 1975/04/13) as a yearly meeting, but this Index treats it as a quarterly meeting of FGC itself. A few monthly meetings have in recent years taken direct membership in FGC, sometimes while concurrently members of a yearly meeting not in FGC membership. FGC has deposited its records at the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/ead/4025frge.xml>.
The Friends United Meeting <http://www.fum.org/> opened as the Five Years Meeting in 1902 with membership of most of the "Orthodox" yearly meetings in existence at that time: Baltimore, California (now E.F.C. Southwest), Canada, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas (now E.F.C. Mid-America), New England, New York, North Carolina, Oregon (now Northwest), Western and Wilmington. It changed its name to FUM in 1965, and its current North American member yearly meetings are: Baltimore, Canadian, Great Plains, Indiana, Iowa, New England, New York, North Carolina, Western and Wilmington, plus the Western Association of the Religious Society of Friends. FUM considers itself an association of yearly meetings and rarely accepts direct oversight of monthly meetings. However, one of FUM's predecessors, the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, helped coordinate missionary work in Mexico, and FUM continues sponsorship of the monthly meeting in Ciudad Victoria and had records related to some of the monthly meetings in Mexico. FUM stores some records in the Quaker Archives of the Lilly Library <http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/quaker/>, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana.
The Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, <http://www.fwccamericas.org/> was organized in 1938 as the American Section of the Friends World Committee for Consultation. It succeeded, by virtue of a merger effective 1954/01/23, the American Friends Fellowship Council, organized in 1936 more or less under the sponsorship of the American Friends Service Committee to nurture groups of Friends that were not under the care of established meetings. The Executive Committee of the Council (later the Section), on recommendation of the New Meetings Committee, "recognized" more than 60 groups as monthly meetings. Nearly all the monthly meetings so established eventually joined yearly meetings, where many have deposited their records, and FWCC laid down this function in the 1972. FWCC's records deposited in the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html> include records of the New Meetings Committee, the Executive Committee and the Fellowship Council.
GENESEE Yearly Meeting opened 1834/06, set off from the Hicksite branch of New York Yearly Meeting. The Congregational Friends (sometimes called "Progressives") in its Scipio, Farmington and Michigan Quarterly Meetings separated 1848/10/06, forming three new "yearly meetings": The Scipio Quarterly Meeting group of Congregational Friends, principally the Junius Monthly Meeting, organized 1849/06/04 as Waterloo Yearly Meeting and eventually adopted the name Friends of Human Progress; the Farmington Quarterly Meeting group, principally from Collins Monthly Meeting, met for several years as the North Collins Yearly Meeting; the Congregational Friends in Genesee's Michigan Quarterly Meeting refused to accept the discontinuance of the Quarterly Meeting in 1848 and organized the Michigan Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends 1849/02. Genesee joined in founding FGC. It "amalgamated" with the FUM and Conservative branches of Canada Yearly Meeting into Canadian Yearly Meeting 1955/06/24. Its yearly meeting and many monthly meeting records are in the Canadian Yearly Meeting Archives, Dorland Friends Historical Collection, Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario. The subordinate body records for the former Michigan and western New York meetings were deposited with the records of New York Yearly Meeting, originally at the Haviland Records Room of New York Yearly Meeting, New York, New York, but moved in 1997 to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/NYYM/NYYMindex.htm>.
GREAT PLAINS Yearly Meeting <http://www.greatplainsyearlymeeting.org/> opened 1908/06/04 as Nebraska Yearly Meeting, set off from Iowa (FUM) Yearly Meeting by action of the Five Years Meeting (now FUM) 1907/10/19, including a few meetings originally in Kansas (now Mid-America) Yearly Meeting. It adopted the name Great Plains Y.M. effective 2002/01/01. It has remained a member of FUM. It set off the majority of its quarterly meetings and 21 of its 27 monthly meetings 1957/06/21 to establish Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting. Skarstad, FRACTION: THINGS GET BROKEN -- A History of Nebraska Yearly Meeting of Friends 1947-1957 (1981), traces the 1957 separation, with focus on the Denver meetings. A few meetings store their records at Friends University, Wichita, Kansas <http://www.friends.edu/library/SpecialCollections/default.asp>, and Central City Monthly Meeting has deposited Yearly Meeting, Platte Valley Quarterly Meeting and several monthly meetings' records at the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln, Nebraska, in manuscript collection MS3639. Because several quarterly meetings transferred intact to Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting, the Rocky Mountain Archivist now holds most pre-1957 quarterly-meeting and many pre-1957 monthly-meeting records, and RMYM meetings hold the records of many local meetings that were discontinued under Nebraska Yearly Meeting prior to 1957. The Nebraska State Historical Society also holds the Heiss typescripts of Hinshaw genealogical cards for eight of the Nebraska monthly meetings. I based several of the entries herein on J. Evelyn Mott, History of Friends in Nebraska Leading Up to the Establishment of the Yearly Meeting (ms 1927), supplemented through a review of the original minutes at the Nebraska State Historical Society or in the Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting archives.
INTERMOUNTAIN Yearly Meeting <http://www.imym.org> organized itself 1974/06/08 at the fifth annual meeting of the Intermountain Friends Fellowship (begun 1970/06 at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico), and its first annual session opened 1975/06/12, including the New Mexico Quarterly Meeting and the Arizona Half-Yearly Meeting released by Pacific Yearly Meeting. Copies of its annual minutes are distributed to Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, Haverford College <http://www.haverford.edu/library/> and Guilford College <http://www.guilford.edu/library/fhc/>.
IOWA Yearly Meeting opened 1863/09/10, set off from the Orthodox branch of Indiana Yearly Meeting. [2] The CONSERVATIVE branch of IOWA Yearly Meeting <http://www.quakernet.org/> separated from the larger body beginning at a conference at Bear Creek held 1877/05/29, with further separations in Salem Quarterly Meeting in 1879 and in Springdale Monthly Meeting of Springdale Quarterly Meeting in 1883. Darius B. Cook, Memoirs of a Quaker Divide (1914) discusses the separation. In 1918, the Conservative branch accepted the transfer of Hickory Grove Quarterly Meeting from Ohio (Wilburite) Yearly Meeting <http://www.ohioyearlymeeting.org/>. [1] The larger branch <http://www.iaym.org/> (generally called "Progressive") joined in founding FUM in 1902, and FUM by action 1907/10/19 set off Great Plains (originally "Nebraska") Yearly Meeting from Iowa Yearly Meeting to open 1908/06/04. The Yearly Meeting at its extra session on 1996/09/28 allowed each monthly meeting an option to withdraw from FUM; at least one monthly meeting affiliated with EFI instead of FUM. The FUM Yearly Meeting centennial booklet, Spiritual Trails 1863-1963 (1963), and its 125th anniversary booklet, Spiritual Trails of a People Called Friends: Book II (1988), chart and map monthly and other local meetings. The FUM Yearly Meeting's vault, located in the Yearly Meeting office building in Oskaloosa, Iowa, contains most of the records of the larger branch and of the pre-separation meetings except in Bear Creek Quarterly Meeting. [2] The Conservative Yearly Meeting and most monthly meetings have stored their records at the Iowa State Historical Society, Iowa City, Iowa, or at the local meetings. The Iowa State Historical Society in Des Moines in 1980-1981 microfilmed most records of meetings in the Conservative Bear Creek and Salem Quarterly Meetings. The county historical societies working with the Genealogical Society of Utah microfilmed a few of the records from each branch, and the post-World War II meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska had most of its records microfilmed by the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln. [1] and [2] The Iowa Humanities Council in 1996 and 1998 funded microfilming of records from the Oskaloosa vault and some Conservative records, as indicated on the individual monthly-meeting entries. Researchers can obtain copies of the microfilm from Heritage Microfilm of Cedar Rapids or review the microfilm at The State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City, Earlham College <http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/quaker/>, Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, Haverford <http://www.haverford.edu/library/> College, and Guilford College <http://www.guilford.edu/library/fhc/>. The Quaker Collection ofthe Edmund Stanley Library, Friends University, Wichita, Kansas <http://www.friends.edu/library/SpecialCollections/default.asp> holds the Heiss typescripts of the Hinshaw abstracts of Iowa and other midwest monthly meetings, and the Wilcox Library of William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Iowa <http://www.wmpenn.edu/Library/library.html> holds photocopies. The most-often cited history is Louis Thomas Jones, The Quakers of Iowa (1914), now available on-line at <http://www.quakerrecords.com/databases/quakers_of_iowa/pg003.html>.
The Missouri Valley Conference has since 1955 acted (and I treat it herein) as a gathering, with its affiliates having direct membership in the Friends General Conference and/or in a yearly meeting.
Nebraska Yearly Meeting opened 1908/06/01 and changed its name 2001/06 to GREAT PLAINS Yearly Meeting.
NEW YORK Yearly Meeting <http://www.nyym.org/> opened 1696/05/29 as the Yearly Meeting at Flushing or Long Island, consisting essentially of the Flushing Quarterly Meeting set off from New England Yearly Meeting 1695/06/14. It separated into [1] Hicksite (later FGC) and [2] Orthodox (later FUM) branches 1828/05 and reunited in 1955 as a member of both FGC and FUM. [1] The Hicksite branch set off Canada and Pelham Half-Yearly Meetings and Scipio and Farmington Quarterly Meetings to open as Genesee Yearly Meeting 1834/06. The Hicksite branch suffered a Progressive separation 1846/07/08 when the larger body in Marlborough Monthly Meeting refused to accept a transfer from Cornwall to Westbury Quarterly Meeting, and that Marlborough group became the Friends of Human Progress 1854/12/19, often called "Milton" because of the location of the meeting. [1] The Hicksite branch joined in founding FGC in 1900. [2] The Scipio, Farmington and Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meetings of the Orthodox Yearly Meeting further divided in 1847 in response to the Gurneyite/Wilburite separation in New England Yearly Meeting, leading to the organization in 1853/05 of [3] New York Yearly Meeting held at Poplar Ridge (generally called PRIMITIVE). In 1859, the Primitives divided again into [4] OTISITE and [5] KINGITE branches (named after their first respective men's Clerks), whose respective branches of Scipio Quarterly Meeting reunited in 1880 and continued until 1896/05/26 as New York Yearly Meeting at Poplar Ridge. It appears that the meetings within Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meeting were laid down and its remaining members attached to Nantucket Monthly Meeting (Otisite). As to the Primitive/Kingite branches of Farmington and Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meetings, the Yearly Meeting Archives has received some records from the Kingite monthly meetings in Farmington Quarterly Meeting, and the Ferrisburgh (VT) Town Clerk and the University of Vermont Library hold some Vermont Orthodox records that may include Primitive Friends. From 1916/06/23 to 1955, the Primitive Scipio Quarterly Meeting attached itself to Canada (Conservative) Yearly Meeting, but in 1955 Canadian Yearly Meeting transferred the surviving Primitive monthly meeting to the reunited New York Yearly Meeting. [2] The Orthodox/Gurneyite branch of New York Yearly Meeting set off Pelham, West Lake and Yonge Street Quarterly Meetings to open Canada Yearly Meeting 1867/06/28. It joined in founding FUM in 1902. The Genealogical Society of Utah in 1952-53 microfilmed most of the early monthly-meeting records. The Haviland Records Room held the records of nearly all Yearly Meeting groups and other New York meetings, but the Yearly Meeting in 1997 moved all meeting records to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore <http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/NYYM/NYYMindex.htm> for further microfilming and permanent storage. One can find several partial histories of the Yearly Meeting, and Hugh Barbour, et al., eds., Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Yearly Meetings (1995), attempts to pull together the many strands of the Yearly Meetings' ministries. However, John Cox, Jr., Catalogue of the Records in the possession of, or relating to, the two New York Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends and their subordinate bodies (1940), on which I initially based these entries, contains by far the most information on monthly meetings and records prior to the 1930s. The Yearly Meeting's DIRECTORY 1993 provides succinct histories and maps for all the monthly and quarterly meetings then in existence and a few historical meetings and meetinghouses. Folks interested in genealogy will find helpful Loren V. Fay, Editor, Quaker Census of 1828: Members of the New York Yearly Meeting, the Religious Society of Friends at the Time of the Separation of 1828 (1989) and James E. Hazard's Index of all New York records, now posted on-line by the Friends Historical Library and referenced in the individual monthly-meeeting records in this Index.
NORTH CAROLINA Yearly Meeting opened 1698/09/26 as an outgrowth of the Quarterly Meeting for Pasquotank and Perquimans Counties [later Eastern Quarterly Meeting] that began meeting by 1680 (even before establishing its second monthly meeting). [1] The Yearly Meeting <http://www.ncym-fum.org/> joined in founding FUM in 1902; [2] beginning in 1903 six meetings divided or started anew after individual members' withdrawals to form the CONSERVATIVE branch <http://www.ncymc.org/>; and [3] 2017/08/05 "reorganized" as NCYM, Inc. as more of a holding company and devolved most local churches to [3A] Friends Church of North Carolina <http://friendschurchnc.org/> or [3B] North Carolina Fellowship of Friends <https://ncfriends.org/> . All branches and devolved bodies continue to store their records at the Quaker Archives <https://library.guilford.edu/archives>, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, or at one of the local meetings. The annual report of the Friends Historical Collection, published until 2007 in the Southern Friend <http://www.ncfhs.org/SouthernFr.htm>, lists the specific volumes deposited each year. The FUM branch described in some detail in its tercentenary booklet Carolina Quakers (1972) the establishment of its then-existing monthly and quarterly meetings, and Appendix III to Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery (1896) [available on-line at <http://books.google.com/books?id=2uM6AAAAIAAJ>], listed the earliest meetings. In recent years the North Carolina Friends Historical Society has published separate histories of many of the older monthly meetings that also describe their daughter meetings. In 1997 it published Damon Hickey's Sojourners No More: Friends in the New South, 1865-1920, which discusses the establishment of many monthly meetings during the revival movement beginning in the 1880s and the (related) Conservative separation beginning in 1903.
NORTH COLLINS Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends encompassed the Congregational Friends that separated from the Farmington Quarterly Meeting of Genesee Yearly Meeting 1848/10/06. The "yearly meeting" first met under this name in 1855, apparently included only scattered Friends outside Collins Monthly Meeting and continued until 1859 or 1860. The New York Yearly Meeting Archives, now stored at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/NYYM/NYYMindex.htm>, hold a few records and several epistles of this group.
OHIO Yearly Meeting opened 1813/08/14 by authority of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. It separated into [1] Orthodox and [2] Hicksite (later FGC) branches 1828/09/08; in 1850-1852 the [3] CONGREGATIONAL meetings separated from the Hicksite branch in New Garden, then Salem Quarterly Meetings; and on 1854/09/05 the Orthodox separated into [4] Gurneyite and [5] "WILBURITE" branches <http://www.ohioyearlymeeting.org/>. (I call them Wilburites because they initially and after 1880 accepted epistles and visiting ministers from the smaller branch of New England Yearly Meeting, but many others call this branch "Conservative" because the Yearly Meeting refused to correspond with the New England Wilburites for over 20 years until the Conservative separations in other yearly meetings.) [2] The Hicksite branch joined in founding FGC in 1900, but ceased holding business sessions 1919/09/03 and delegated full authority to its Representative Committee, which stored Yearly Meeting and all available quarterly and monthly meeting records at the Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania ("FHL") <http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/RG2/ohioym.xml>. Some monthly meetings continued into the 1940s. [3] The Congregational branch of Salem Monthly Meeting reportedly continued until 1874, but all reports suggest the Congregational Ohio Yearly Meeting became the Friends of Human Progress in the 1860s. [4] The Gurneyite branch in 1971 changed its name to Evangelical Friends Church, EASTERN REGION <http://www.efcer.org/>, under which name I provide details of that group. [5] Charles P. Morlan, A Brief History of Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Conservative) (1959) contains helpful monthly meeting details, and William P. Taber, Jr., The Eye of Faith (1985) provides some charts and maps for pre-separation and Orthodox meetings. In 1862-63, members of nine Wilburite particular meetings separated and formed [6] the OHIO General Meeting of Men and Women Friends (commonly referred to as MAULITE to reflect the first men's Clerk), which reestablished three monthly meetings by action 1865/06/20. William Hodgson, The Society of Friends in the Nineteenth Century: A Historical View of the Successive Convulsions and Schisms Therein During That Period (1875) discusses the Ohio divisions from the Wilburite/Otisite perspective, especially in Volume II at pp. 112-166, 191-225. [7] The majority of members separated from Salem Monthly Meeting (Maulite) in 1867 because of their desire to correspond with the Otisite branch of various yearly meetings and joined the General Meeting of Men and Women Primitive Friends for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. I call this monthly meeting Salem (Otisite), but others refer to this group as "Kollite" to reflect the leader Daniel Koll and Mary Koll, the second Clerk. [5] In 1917/09 the Wilburite branch transferred its Hickory Grove Quarterly Meeting (with four monthly meetings in Iowa and California) to Iowa Yearly Meeting of Conservative Friends. [5] The Wilburite branch stores Yearly Meeting and some subordinate meeting records in a vault at Olney Friends Boarding School, Barnesville, Ohio; some subordinate body records in the Salem Quarterly Meeting house at Salem, Ohio; and some on loan at FHL <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>. The Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio, made microfilm copies in 1991-92 (microfilm group 168 for records from Barnesville ["OHS-B"] and microfilm group 170 for records from Salem and some records returned by FHL for this project ["OHS-S"]). The OHS, the Barnesville, Ohio Public Library, FHL, Guilford College <http://www.guilford.edu/library/fhc/>, Malone University <http://www.malone.edu/1275> and Earlham College <http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/quaker/> hold copies of the OHS microfilm. [6] FHL holds the minutes of Ohio General Meeting and personal papers of Joshua Maule. The Pennsylvania (Primitive) records at Haverford College <http://www.haverford.edu/library/> and the Wilburite safe in Barnesville, Ohio each contain some records of the Maulite meetings. (In addition, the OHS microfilmed various pre-separation records of Ohio meetings while microfilming the records of the Wilburite branch.)
OHIO VALLEY Yearly Meeting <http://www.quaker.org/ovym/>opened 1821/10/08 as Indiana Yearly Meeting, set off from Ohio Yearly Meeting; became the Hicksite (later FGC) branch that first met separately 1828/09/28; and changed its name to Ohio Valley in 1975. It set off its Blue River Quarterly Meeting (with meetings in southwestern Indiana and Illinois) 1874/09/18 to constitute part of Illinois Yearly Meeting opening 1875/09/13. It joined in founding FGC in 1900. The Executive Committee has stored its records and archives in the Quaker Collection, S. Arthur Watson Library, Wilmington College of Ohio <http://www.watsonlibrary.org/SpecialCollections.htm>, and the Whitewater Monthly Meeting records in the Quaker Archives, Lilly Library <http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/quaker/>, Earlham College, with inventories of the archives published in the Yearly Meeting minutes in 1968 and 1988. The Watson Library of Wilmington College has posted some of the transcribed monthly- and quarterly-meeting minutes on its website <http://www2.wilmington.edu/academics/ThomasC.HillsAreaQuakerHistoryResources.cfm>. Many monthly meeting records were microfilmed in the 1960s by the Frederic Luther Co. (now at the Indiana Historical Society), with copies provided to Wilmington College <http://www.watsonlibrary.org/SpecialCollections.htm> and Earlham College, and in 1987-88 for the Genealogical Society of Utah by Wright State University. Seth E. Furnas, Sr., A History of Indiana Yearly Meeting (1968), charted the earliest local meetings based on Clarkson Butterworth, Account of all meetings . . . which belong, or ever have belonged . . . to Indiana Yearly Meeting (ms, delivered 1914).
Oregon Yearly Meeting changed its name in 1976 to NORTHWEST Yearly Meeting <http://www.nwfriends.org/>.
PACIFIC Yearly Meeting <http://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/> opened 1947/08/21 as an outgrowth of the Pacific Coast Association of Friends, opened 1931/04, and the College Park Association founded in San Jose, California 1889/12. Most of its early meetings (other than in the Bay Area) received their recognition as monthly meetings from the American Friends Fellowship Council, later merged into FWCC Section of the Americas. It set off its Pacific Northwest and Willamette Quarterly Meetings to open as North Pacific Yearly Meeting 1972/07/14. It released its New Mexico Quarterly Meeting and Arizona Half-Yearly Meeting to join Intermountain Yearly Meeting at its opening 1975/06/12. The Yearly Meeting has deposited its archives and many local-meeting records in the Whittier College Library <http://www.whittier.edu/library/>, Whittier, California. Chapter 7 of David C. LeShana, Quakers in California(1969), traced the Yearly Meeting's growth and establishment.
PENNSYLVANIA Yearly Meeting of PROGRESSIVE Friends opened at Old Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania 1853/05/22 as a separation from meetings in the Western Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite), moved to Hamorton in 1854/05, purchased property at Longwood Hall in time for the third annual meeting in 1855, and continued to meet until 1940 (though it stopped publishing its annual proceddings after 1906.) It did not establish quarterly or monthly meetings, and nearly all its early members rejoined their Hicksite meetings after 1860. The Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, holds its records.
The body later named the Yearly Meeting of Friends for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Eastern parts of Maryland (called PHILADELPHIA <http://www.pym.org/> because it met only there for 250 years) opened at Burlington, New Jersey 1681/08/28; first met for discipline at Philadelphia 1683/05; and agreed to meet jointly and alternately as a yearly meeting on either side of the Delaware River in 1685. The Yearly Meeting (A) began to meet only at Philadelphia after 1745; (B) in 1790 transferred Fairfax and Warrington Quarterly Meetings to Baltimore Yearly Meeting and accepted the transfer of BYM's Eastern Shore Quarterly Meeting as its new Southern Quarterly Meeting, and (C) transferred Nottingham Quarterly Meeting to Baltimore Yearly Meeting in 1819. [2] Friends from at least three monthly meetings in Philadelphia separated beginning 1781/02 due to disputes over participation in military efforts of the American Revolution and formed the "Free Quakers." Only the one monthly meeting in Philadelphia subscribed to the Free Quaker discipline, though it corresponded with the Davisites in Massachusetts as late as 1802. [3] The HICKSITE branch met separately beginning 1827/10, and the Hicksite and [4] ORTHODOX branches reunited in 1955. The united Yearly Meeting after 1955 retained the Hicksite branch's founding membership in FGC. The Friends Historical Library ("FHL") of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, and the Quaker Collection, Haverford College Library <http://www.haverford.edu/library/>, Haverford, Pennsylvania, hold numerous histories of the monthly meetings but few of the yearly meetings. John M. Moore, Ed., Friends in the Delaware Valley: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting 1681-1981 (1981) deals with the broad issues, and the local meeting histories listed in many records provide details on the local Friends. I extracted the information herein mostly from Jack Eckert, Guide to the Records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (1989), supplemented from the WPA's Inventory of Church Archives: Society of Friends in Pennsylvania (1941) [now superseded by the on-line Guide at <http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/PYMindex.htm>] and review of the microfilm or original minutes. In recent years I have used Thomas Chalkley Matlack, Brief Historical Sketches concerning Friends' Meetings of the Past and Present with Special Reference to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (ca. 1937), to fill in details Matlack collected in his extrordinary travels around the mid-Atlantic states. Haverford <http://www.haverford.edu/library/> and FHL http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html> hold the records of the Yearly Meetings and most quarterly and monthly meetings. Third Haven Monthly Meeting has stored its, Northwest Fork Monthly Meeting's, and some of Eastern Shore Half-Yearly Meeting's records in the Maryland Hall of Records in Annapolis. Beginning in the 1940s, the Genealogical Society of Utah microfilmed many volumes of vital records, and FHL and Haverford have continued that effort in recent years for minute books as well. The Maryland State Archives microfilmed many volumes of records of Maryland meetings, as documented in Phebe R. Jacobsen, Quaker Records in Maryland (1966). FHL has obtained microfilm copies of nearly all records deposited at Haverford and the Maryland Hall of Records and many volumes deposited elsewhere. The Free Quakers deposited their records at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and FHL has obtained microfilm. James E. Hazard has begun to abstract PYM records in the format used in his extraordinary New York YM abstracts, and FHL has assembled more than 20 bound volumes, providing copies to other Quaker libraries. When Hazard completes Philadelphia YM meetings, FHL will post the database on a Swarthmore website.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN Yearly Meeting of Friends Church <http://www.users.qwest.net/~lfpchild/> opened 1957/06/21, consisting of 21 of the 27 monthly meetings that had made up Nebraska (now Great Plains) Yearly Meeting. Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting joined in founding EFA in 1965 and EFI in 1989. Skarstad, FRACTION: THINGS GET BROKEN -- A History of Nebraska Yearly Meeting of Friends 1947-1957 (1981), traces the separation with focus on the Denver meetings. Because several quarterly meetings transferred intact to the new yearly meeting, Rocky Mountain meetings hold the records of many local meetings that were discontinued under Nebraska Yearly Meeting prior to 1957. The Yearly Meeting's 25th Anniversary Committee, DeLancey et al., produced Friends Ministering Together (1982), which provided the early basis for the information here. The Yearly Meeting Archivist, most recently Kevin Harrison, has stored most Yearly-Meeting, many quarterly-meeting and some local-body records at the Colorado Springs (CO) Friends Church.
SIERRA-CASCADES Yearly Meeting of Friends organized during 2017 as a separation of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Church. Its first annual sessions opened 2018/05/18 and adopted by-laws for its Oregon corporation 2018/05/19 <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59791f3537c581de3f155d87/t/5b072104f950b764cdd572e9/1527193866233/SCYMF+BYLAWS+APPROVED+5-19.pdf>. SCYMF completed its legal separation from Northwest Yearly Meeting 2018/07/01, but it continued to accept former Northwest Y.M.meetings after that date.
SOUTH CENTRAL Yearly Meeting <http://www.scym.org/> opened in 1961 as a member of FGC, growing out of the Southwest Conference that began meeting 1957/01/25. Most of its early monthly meetings were originally recognized as such by FWCC. The Yearly Meeting agreed to store its archives, including records of any discontinued meetings, at the Austin, Texas meetinghouse under the care of the Yearly Meeting's Archivist appointed by the Friends Meeting of Austin.
SOUTHEASTERN Yearly Meeting <http://www.seym.org/> arose in April, 1962 from the Southeastern Friends Conference, and its first full sessions opened Easter weekend, 1963/04/12. The Southeastern Friends Conference in 1957 grew out of the Florida (or "All-Florida") Friends Conference that began meeting in 1941 and began to hold more formal annual gatherings in 1950. The Yearly Meeting initially joined both FGC and FUM, but it decided 2010/04/04 to formally withdraw from FUM. Its official Archives and additional unofficial records are kept near or with the Archivist. It deposits copies of its minutes at several Quaker colleges and at the Florida Historical Society at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Nearly all of its constituent meetings still keep their records in the local meetings. Caroline Nicholson Jacob and Sue Greenleaf, Quakers Discover the Southeast (1981) contains the most complete history.
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN Yearly Meeting and Association <http://www.sayma.org/> opened 1970/05/02 as an outgrowth of the Southern Appalachian Association of Friends, itself formally organized 1959/05/17 at its fourth annual gathering. It joined FGC in 1977. The Yearly Meeting and most monthly meeting deposit minutes at Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and/or at the Friends Historical Collection <http://www.guilford.edu/library/fhc/>, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina.
VIRGINIA Yearly Meeting opened 1696/10 or 1702/09, after meeting half-yearly since 1682, and laid itself down 1844/05/22, attaching itself to Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) as (the new) Virginia Half-Yearly Meeting. Baltimore (FUM) Yearly Meeting in 1967 stored the Virginia records at the Quaker Collection, Haverford <http://www.haverford.edu/library/> College Library, Haverford, Pennsylvania; the Virginia State Library, Richmond, having earlier obtained photostats of many of these and other records held privately. Phebe R. Jacobsen, Quaker Records in Maryland (1966), traces the meetings and lists the records microfilmed by the Maryland State Archives before the transfer to Haverford, with microfilm stored at the Hall of Records in Annapolis and copies at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Appendix III to Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery (1896) [available on-line at <http://books.google.com/books?id=2uM6AAAAIAAJ>], listed the earliest meetings. I based many geographical references to monthly and subordinate meetings on the unpublished work of the late Willna Ann Uebrick-Pachelli, Meetings in Baltimore and Virginia Yearly Meetings (1989 revision)[PDF copy now available at most Quaker-college libraries]. Jay Worrall, Jr., The Friendly Virginians: America's First Quakers (1994), discusses all the meetings and many individual Friends in Virginia from the 1650s until about 1991.
WABASH Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends apparently consisted of a single congregation in Fountain County, Indiana, rather than a yearly meeting with constituent monthly meetings. I found it first in Willard Heiss, A List of All the Friends Meetings That Exist or Ever Have Existed in Indiana (revised 1961). Thomas D. Hamm, God's Government Begun: The Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform, 1842-1846(1996), beginning at page 139, describes the community.
WATERLOO Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends opened 1849/06/04 under the 1848/10/06 Basis of Religious Association, composed of the former Junius Monthly Meeting and other Friends separating from the Scipio Quarterly Meeting of Genesee Yearly Meeting, became the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress in 1854, and continued until approximately 1884. It maintained close correspondence but probably not a formal relationship with the Yearly Meeting in North Collins, New York, later using the name the Friends of Human Progress. A. Day Bradley, "Progressive Friends in Michigan and New York," 52 Quaker History 95 (1963), traces its history. The New York Yearly Meeting Archives, now stored at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/index.html>, holds some of its records, as do other historical libraries such as The Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
The WESTERN ASSOCIATION of the Religious Society of Friends <http://www.firstfriendswhittier.org/warsf.html> organized 1996/05/06 for individuals and meetings in Friends Church, Southwest and elsewhere that sought to maintain a tie with FUM even though their yearly meeting had withdrawn from or chosen not to join FUM. Whittier M.M. and Berkeley M.M. in California are the only monthly meetings to join so far, but Bakersfield Worship Group joined after E.F.C. Southwest laid it down. FUM granted the Association affiliation 1996/07/06.
WILMINGTON Yearly Meeting <http://www.wilmingtonyearlymeeting.org/> opened 1892/08/07, set off from Indiana Yearly Meeting (Orthodox/Progressive, later FUM), with the Friendsville Quarterly Meeting transferred from North Carolina Yearly Meeting in 1897/08. It joined in founding FUM. One of its centennial booklets, McNemar and Knight, eds., Wilmington Yearly Meeting, 1891-1991 (1991), focuses on the meetings, while the other, D. Neil Snarr, et al., Claiming Our Past: Quakers in Southwest Ohio and Eastern Tennessee (1992), focuses on individuals and key ministries. The Yearly Meeting stores its records and those of its constituent meetings in the Quaker Collection, S. Arthur Watson Library <http://www.watsonlibrary.org/collections.html>, Wilmington College of Ohio, and published an inventory of its archives in its 1988 minutes. The Watson Library of Wilmington College has posted some of the transcribed Ohio and Tennessee monthly- and quarterly-meeting minutes on its website <http://www2.wilmington.edu/academics/ThomasC.HillsAreaQuakerHistoryResources.cfm>. The Genealogical Society of Utah microfilmed the Ohio monthly-meeting records in 1966, with partial retakes in 1975 and 1980. Its Friendsville Quarterly Meeting deposited certain records of Tennessee meetings at the Friendsville [Tennessee] Meetinghouse, and the McClung Historical Collection of Knoxville-Knox County [Tennessee] Public Library <http://knoxcounty.org/library/> in 1980 microfilmed 40 of those volumes. North Carolina Yearly Meeting's Records Committee has kept at the Friends Historical Collection <http://www.guilford.edu/library/fhc/
> of Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, a few of the earliest Tennessee meeting records, with photocopies provided to the Wilmington Yearly Meeting Archives at Wilmington College and to the meetings in Tennessee.