source: Pope p. 83 The Quakers One of the principal centers of Quakerism in South Carolina was in Newberry County. The first Quakers to settle in the valley of Bush River were William Coate, Samuel Kelly, John Furnas, David Jenkins, Benjamin and William Pearson, and Robert Evans. Of these, Furnas was the pre-Revolutionary justice of the peace who was removed on complaint of the Regulators in 1765. Kelly was granted the franchise to operate the Saluda ferry in 1768 after moving from Camden to Newberry County in 1762 and establishing a store at Springfield just a mile west of the present town of Newberry. William Coate was living on Bush River before 1762. (char's note: the Quaker records don't show William Coate as a member of Bush River MM - we have a plat which we believe might be his dated 1766 - and in the early 1800s at least two or three pieces of this plat were surveyed for other people - seems to me one of the names also associated with this land was Bulow - also Abernathy and one other that I don't recall off hand) Bush River Monthly Meeting was approved by Western Quarterly Meeting after a committee of visited Friends at Bush River Meeting in 1770. Bush River was one of thirty-three monthly meetings belonging to the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. Subordinate congregations or meetings reporting to Bush River Monthly Meeting were Bush River, Raburn's Creek, Tyger River, Padet's Creek, Mud Lick, Allwoods', White Lick, Edisto, Charleston, and Rocky Springs. The Friends kept meticulous records of births, marriages, and deaths. Bush River Monthly Meeting records extant consist of one volume of birth and death records, two volumes of marriage records, four volumes of men's minutes and one volume of women's minutes. Quakers were disowned if they married out of unity (married outside the Society of Friends) or if they owned slaves or went to war. Their dress was simple and distinctive. The Friends shunned ostentation, feared God, and exerted a wonderful influence on the work-habits and morals of the community. Judge O'Neall, whose parents were Quakers and who himself was born a Quaker, recounts in nostalgic and affectionate terms the last meeting held in the old meetinghouse which stood near Bush River on the road leading from Newberry to Mendenhall's (later Langford's) mill. Bush River Monthly Meeting flourished from its establishment in 1772 until 1802. Out of a desire to live in a country where slavery did not exist, more than 100 members moved from the valley of Bush River to the vicinity of Miami, Ohio, between 1802 and 1807. An itinerant Quaker minister, the Reverend Zachary Dicks, preached such dire results from slavery soon after the Santo Domingo riot that the Quakers were determined to cast their lot in free country. They sold or abandoned many of their belongings and made the long overland trip from Newberry to Ohio. The remaining members continued to worship on the bank of Bush River until 1822 when the monthly meeting was "laid down." The trustees, James Brooks, Samuel Brown, Isaac Kirk, and John O'Neall, were advised to sell or lease Bush River meetinghouse and lot, Rocky Spring meetinghouse and lot, and a meetinghouse lot at Camden. The loss of the Quakers was a severe blow to Newberry County. The moral influence of the Friends was missed, as were the frugal and tidy farmer and artisans who comprised the Society. Judge O'Neall states that, until the departure of the Quakers, Newberry sent flour, beeswax, furs, tobacco, butter, cattle, and screw-augurs to market in Charleston. Later only cotton was exported from this county; it of course was grown by lave labor. Thus the economy of this county was directly affected by the removal of the Quakers. Today only the old Quaker burying-ground remains. There hundreds of these gentle people lie, as they once lived - in peace. Through the generosity of Senator Jesse Frank Hawkins, the Hartford Grange erected a suitable historical marker at the site of old Bush River Monthly Meeting in 1867. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com