Friends of Bush River Quakers reach 10th Year! It is hard to believe that it was 10 years ago on Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service, January 21, 2002, that our "Friends of the Bush River Quaker Cemetery" met in Newberry, South Carolina for our First Bush River Quaker Cemetery Clean Up Day. We were fed and kept warm by our local friends from the Newberry Genealogical Society and the Newberry Historic Society. What great day that was, even though we all had to make trips to Walmart for rain gear! And what a thrill it was for me to meet personally so many people that I had only talked to through email. I especially remember Ron Edmundson's enthusiasm and still miss his constant stream of great ideas. On that weekend we all, working together, managed to make the one acre cemetery more accessible than it had been in many years. Since 2002 our group has been together several more times in Newberry. We all became amateur archeologists for the 2005 Cemetery Survey Day. We had a wonderful Homecoming Weekend in 2008 and another informal gathering in 2010. Many of you have reported you've visited the Cemetery on your individual research trips, too. Even though we live all over the country, we can now keep in touch with the entire group of friends and researchers through our rootsweb sc-bushriverquakers list. We all have made good friends and research sources among our subscribers. I think that our rootsweb group must be the most informative and helpful of all the 1000s available! And coming soon, thanks to Forrest Plumstead, we will have a full fledged web site devoted to our families and research reports. The "Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery" book, published to report the findings of Survey Day, was our first and only fundraiser through the years. It completely sold out through several printings and can be found in more than 50 Quaker Research and genealogical collections throughout the country. Other than the income from book sales, we rely solely on donations from groups and individuals. The continued support of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, the Palmetto Meeting, and the Valentine Hollingsworth, Sr., Society have been very important to us through the years. Many individuals, too, have pledged a yearly amount to help out. It costs our group about $800 a year for regular monthly maintenance. We have to keep a fund in reserve, too, for emergencies like the storm that felled 7 large trees several years ago. We now have a committee involved in the oversight of Cemetery Care. But we always welcome everyone's input, especially since most of us live some distance from Newberry. If you visit the Cemetery and you see something that needs attention, please let us know. Our contact information is on the maps in the recently installed information box. For me, personally, my involvement in this group has been the most satisfying experience I could imagine. I hope that for you, too, the friendship and resource sharing among our members has made your research into the Quaker families of Newberry a special part of your life. We need the help, input, and resources of each and every one of you for our continued success in achieving the goal of having the Cemetery accessible every day of the year. What are your thoughts for the future of our project? Let us hear from you! And thank you, again, for everything you all have done for this project! Judy Russell 1051 Forrest Hills Drive Bogart, GA 30622 Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who might be interested. It is also available online at: http://askgrannyus.posterous.com/newsletter-friends-of-bush-river-10th-anniver

Judith, The 22nd Palmetto Friends Gathering will be held 1/27-29 at Camp Kinard in Batesburg-Leesville, not too far from the Bush River Cemetery. Registration info is at www.PalmettoFriends.org With your permission, I will share your comments at business meeting on Saturday evening. All are welcome to attend, and on Saturday afternoon we will be visiting the Columbia Friends Meeting. Since the Augusta Friends Meeting was laid down, and the Meetinghouse sold, there has been no permanent meetinghouse in the Palmetto Friends Gathering. The Columbia Friends Meetinghouse is now the only one and they have just recently moved in. Fine to forward to list. Grace Five Rivers Friends, Conway SC -----Original Message----- From: Judith F. Russell <jrussell2@charter.net> To: sc-bushriverquakers <sc-bushriverquakers@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sat, Jan 14, 2012 5:03 am Subject: [SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS] Newsletter: Friends of Bush River 10th Anniversary Friends of Bush River Quakers reach 10th Year! It is hard to believe that it was 10 years ago on Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service, January 21, 2002, that our "Friends of the Bush River Quaker Cemetery" met in Newberry, South Carolina for our First Bush River Quaker Cemetery Clean Up Day. We were fed and kept warm by our local friends from the Newberry Genealogical Society and the Newberry Historic Society. What great day that was, even though we all had to make trips to Walmart for rain gear! And what a thrill it was for me to meet personally so many people that I had only talked to through email. I especially remember Ron Edmundson's enthusiasm and still miss his constant stream of great ideas. On that weekend we all, working together, managed to make the one acre cemetery more accessible than it had been in many years. Since 2002 our group has been together several more times in Newberry. We all became amateur archeologists for the 2005 Cemetery Survey Day. We had a wonderful Homecoming Weekend in 2008 and another informal gathering in 2010. Many of you have reported you've visited the Cemetery on your individual research trips, too. Even though we live all over the country, we can now keep in touch with the entire group of friends and researchers through our rootsweb sc-bushriverquakers list. We all have made good friends and research sources among our subscribers. I think that our rootsweb group must be the most informative and helpful of all the 1000s available! And coming soon, thanks to Forrest Plumstead, we will have a full fledged web site devoted to our families and research reports. The "Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery" book, published to report the findings of Survey Day, was our first and only fundraiser through the years. It completely sold out through several printings and can be found in more than 50 Quaker Research and genealogical collections throughout the country. Other than the income from book sales, we rely solely on donations from groups and individuals. The continued support of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, the Palmetto Meeting, and the Valentine Hollingsworth, Sr., Society have been very important to us through the years. Many individuals, too, have pledged a yearly amount to help out. It costs our group about $800 a year for regular monthly maintenance. We have to keep a fund in reserve, too, for emergencies like the storm that felled 7 large trees several years ago. We now have a committee involved in the oversight of Cemetery Care. But we always welcome everyone's input, especially since most of us live some distance from Newberry. If you visit the Cemetery and you see something that needs attention, please let us know. Our contact information is on the maps in the recently installed information box. For me, personally, my involvement in this group has been the most satisfying experience I could imagine. I hope that for you, too, the friendship and resource sharing among our members has made your research into the Quaker families of Newberry a special part of your life. We need the help, input, and resources of each and every one of you for our continued success in achieving the goal of having the Cemetery accessible every day of the year. What are your thoughts for the future of our project? Let us hear from you! And thank you, again, for everything you all have done for this project! Judy Russell 1051 Forrest Hills Drive Bogart, GA 30622 Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who might be interested. It is also available online at: http://askgrannyus.posterous.com/newsletter-friends-of-bush-river-10th-anniver ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Dear Friends, I'm sure many of you are aware that several non-Quaker families associated themselves with Quakers in the Bush River area in the late-18th and early- 19th centuries. Among them were John and Hannah PALMER and their offspring. John's son Jesse and his wife Ann moved to Ohio at the time so many Bush River Quakers made the trek. John stayed in Newberry County and died there in 1818. The Hannah Palmer who was still there when the Bush River Meeting was laid down in 1822 was probably my gggg grandmother, who was apparently a member of the SoF by that time. If any of the people associated with this list know anything about my Palmers, their antecedents and/or descendants, please contact me, either through this list or off-list at pcpalmer@gvtc.com . Paul C. Palmer (Comal County, TX)