Exeter Friends Meeting
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
The Exeter Friends Meeting is a place for Quakers to meet and their time of worship in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. Exeter Friends Meeting started to gain it's historical significance between 1737, when it was granted with a monthly meeting staus, through 1755, while members of the Meeting had to go assist in the French and Indian War. People of importance in this Meeting House are the Elders who help lead the church. The site is open to the public. Exeter Friends Meeting holds service every Sunday starting at 9:30 am for the pre-meeting discussion, and 10:30 am for the worship. The Quaker Meeting House is important because not many people are still Quakers. Most of the starting population were Quakers, so the religion itself is a part of history.
Images
In the picture with the blue sign is a picture of a land-marker. This sign shows that this building has historical value and has written out what the value is. It allows for others to learn the history of the building. This sign stands outside of the Exeter Friends Meeting and was placed there on 1979 by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Other historic land marker signs that you may see around the area are; The Daniel Boone Homestead, Hopewell Villiage, Baumstown World War Memorial Center, and many more.
This picture gives a very nice view of the entire front of the Exeter Friends Meeting. As you can see from the picture, it is not a very large building. But even though it is not large, it held everyone it needed to as it was a small gathering. What is not pictured is the interior. The interior is filled with pews/ bench seating for Friends to sit and spend time honoring God. There is also a small furnace on the floor of the inside to keep others warm since when it was first built it was only a log cabin. A few pictures of the interior can be located on the Exeter Friends Meeting, or you may go and visit on a Sunday morning for their service. The Exeter Friends Meeting house closed in 1899 but was reopened due to more Friends joining the area and looking for somewhere to gather. They reopened in 1949. Today the Meeting place is no longer a log cabin, and as seen in the picture, is made from bricks.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
William Penn was born into an Anglican family. But at the age of twenty-two, he joined the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. He became intrigued after hearing a missionary, Thomas Loe speak. He was inspired and decided to start attending the only church where worship was legal, Christ Church, Oxford. However, the church could not tolerate him and kicked him out, leading to his sentencing of Huguenot Academy by his father. During his time at the Academy, William Penn had another encounter with Thomas Loe. It was then in this encounter did William Penn convert to being a Quaker. William Penn then founded Pennsylvania in 1682 and shared the value of God's "Inner Light in people.
Thirty-six years after William Penn founded Pennsylvania, 1718, a group of Quakers settled in Oley Valley. Soon after the Quakers settled, a group of Irish Quakers bought land and started to build the first meetinghouse out of logs. This meetinghouse was not granted with a monthly meeting status until 1737. Their name then became Oley Monthly Meeting. According to Karen Guenther who wrote the article "Social Control and Exeter Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 1737–1789: A Research Note", these monthly meetings were meant to be like business meetings where Friends from all around could gather in one place. In June of 1737 they sent their first missionary, Jane Ellis, out to Virginia and Maryland to share their love for the Gospel. Five years later Exeter Township was created, thus changing the name of Oley Monthly Meeting to Exeter Monthly Meeting.
Jumping ahead a few years to the American Revolution, this time was trying for the Friends at the Meeting house. They did not believe in fighting in the war or paying their taxes in fear that the money would go towards the war. And due to the unpaid taxes, the sheriff would take their goods and livestock. This was not the only turmoil the Friends ran into. In the early 19th century Friends had disagreements about theology and governance. This disagreement turned into a divided of the Orthodox, where most of the Exeter Friends chose, and the Hicksites. However, the division ended in 1955.
The Exeter Friends Meeting is one of the first places in Pennsylvania to spread the Quaker religion. It is important to understand its background as it is a dying culture. According to Karen Guenther, "the religious group most prominent in the establishment of the providence -The Society of Friends or Quakers- declined in its impact and importance." (Guenther, 1990) Therefore, we need to know the history of the past to understand the future. Especially in a state where being a Quaker was popular.
Sources
“Our History.” Friends General Conference, https://www.quakercloud.org/cloud/exeter-friends-meeting/pages/our-history.
“Brief Biography of William Penn.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, https://www.ushistory.org/penn/bio.htm#:~:text=William%20Penn%20(October%2014%2C%201644,for%20the%20United%20States%20Constitution.
Quakers in the World, https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/3/William-Penn.
Guenther, Karen. “Social Control and Exeter Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 1737–1789: A Research Note.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 57, no. 2, 1990, pp. 150–63. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27773368. Accessed 18 Aug. 2022.
Morfe, Don. Exeter Friends Meeting Marker. Reading, 15 June 2015.
Morfe, Don. Exeter Friends Meeting House right view. Reading, 15 June 2015.