Canadian Friends Historical Association

Author: CFHA

  • Founders and Builders Series: Peter Brock

    In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to Peter Brock, a gracious supporter of the CFHA and later honorary chairman. His legacy is remembered here by Jane Zavitz-Bond.

    Peter Brock: World Peace Historian
    1920-2006

    By Jane Zavitz-Bond

    Peter de Beauvoir Brock spent his life in the study, writing and teaching of the history of peace in the world. All his endeavours were interlinked as all aspects of peace, his focus and goal, are tied to one another. Peter understood that education was key to gaining an understanding of the past and bringing peace in the future.

    Peter Brock

    Peter Brock’s life began 30 January 1920 on the Channel Isle of Guernsey, where he lived until entering Exeter College at Oxford. His family had a long military tradition, including Sir Isaac Brock. Always finding his individual way, as a child he was not militarily minded. Perhaps awareness of World War I and its aftermath as he grew up led Peter to be a conscientious objector in World War II. He was in prison at Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs until released for alternative service in hospitals where he met Quaker pacifism with its links to social justice.

    As a natural step after the war, Peter joined the Society of Friends Anglo-American Relief Mission in Poland, supported by UNRRA, where the need was great. He became the young head of the transport team with the office in Warsaw. Knowing the language was essential, he began his lifelong pursuit of Eastern European languages to permit fuller understanding of their history and current role as he wrote and taught. He earned two doctoral degrees, one from Oxford, and one from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, merely the beginning of his carefully researched works covering the beginning to current times in Eastern Europe, and then the world’s peace history for the rest of his productive life. He never ceased learning the language of the area studied.

    Although Peter did not join the Society of Friends, he kept his connection to Quakerism. Following his marriage to Carman Williamson in 1958, a Friend from Jamaica, the ties were even stronger. After his 1966 appointment to the Department of History at the University of Toronto, their home was always a welcoming place for f/Friends, refugees, and, of course, students. Sharing over a cup of tea quietly passed the spirit of peace in their daily lives over to those who entered the home. Living their faith made the message of peace authentic.

    Peter Brock’s role in the Canadian Friends Historical Association began in 1978 after the passing of Arthur G. Dorland, the original honorary chairman of CFHA. Peter was then invited to accept that role. It was proper recognition for him and right for CFHA as the Peace Testimony is a fundamental block of the association’s mission for both research and outreach. Peter Brock remained quietly supportive for the rest of his life. We were honoured by his generosity.

    Peter Brock did not write articles for the Journal, but his books related to peace history were reported in the CFHA Newsletter and the Canadian Quaker History Journal. As the foremost scholar on pacifism, his many books and articles focused on social justice work and fighting oppression. The Brock works continue to assist researchers and provide a valuable resource in the Arthur G. Dorland Friends Historical Research Collection. The bibliography by John Stanley lists the books, essays and articles: “Scholarly Publications by Peter de Beauvoir Brock,” revised in 2006, required twenty nine pages to record.[1] The appointments and honours Professor Peter Brock received always enhanced CFHA’s standing among historical societies by association with the esteemed scholar.

    There are a number of books in the Dorland Library Collection which Peter donated after using them for his research. Special treasures are Besse’s Sufferings, in two volumes, rebound in the leather style of the era, which recount the suffering of Friends by imprisonment and confiscation of property for refusal to obey laws they believed were not enacted in the Light of Truth. When required for later research Peter would request books via interlibrary loan. He gave the CYM Archives letters he had written to his mother, a personal insight to his life, always written with care.

    He also gave the CYM Archives copies of letters from Peggy Robbins Harrison, an American AFSC Polish Team worker who married and lived in Alberta. Paul Zavitz’s letters also tell of events with the Polish team. They called Peter ‘the student prince,’ aware of his bent, before his future as a scholar could be known. The study of languages was a tool. He began as a young student of Latin and Greek, and continued with the fifteen languages he learned in order to research fully. At the end of his life he was studying Japanese and Hindi.

    Peter’s contributions to CFHA were supportive. Quietly done, and simply there; he was present for us. We benefitted from his publications which helped open the field of the history of pacifism. Peter Stanley wrote in his account of Peter Brock’s life, “Scholarship in Action, ” that “his contributions have proven useful to scholars in many countries, drawing attention to figures, movements, events, and even whole people’s that might have been ignored. His lack of prejudice but also sympathy for his subjects was a model to scholars and students.” His hundreds of articles and books reflect a great diversity of interests, “but as a group they reflect a central concern of Prof. Brock: a struggle against injustice and oppression…This concern for justice unified his scholarship as it did his life.”[2] His histories of southeastern Europe are studied after the Yugoslavian break-up and terrible war.

    We all are indebted to Peter Brock for his studies in history and the spirit in which he undertook them. May we continue to follow both his methods and spirit.

     

    [1] John Stanley, “Peter de Beauvoir Brock: Scholarship in Action,” The Canadian Quaker History Journal 72 (2007): 3-10.  This article by a former student and colleague presents a valuable account of Peter Brock’s life and work.

    [2] John Stanley, Scholarly Publications by Peter de Beauvoir Brock, rev. ed., (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006). The preface reads: The listing for the period from 1951 to 1989 appeared earlier in “Essays in Honour of Peter Brock”, edited by John Stanley, Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXXI, no.2, 211-20. The Pacifist Impulse in Historical Perspective, a volume of essays in honour of Peter Brock for his seventy-fifth birthday on 30 January 1995, edited by Harvey L. Dyck. (University of Toronto Press, 1996), also included a bibliography of “Books and Articles on Peace History by Peter Brock (425-428). The present bibliography reflects virtually the whole of Peter Brock’s scholarly endeavours, which began early in 1949 when he started work on his Ph. D. at the Jagiellonian  University of Crocow. An earlier edition of the bibliography appeared in the middle of 1999.

  • Coldstream Series: The Marsh Store

    This guest post was graciously contributed by Dave Zavitz.

    A photo of the Marsh Store, courtesy of the current Marsh Store

    For generations the Marsh Store site has been the nucleus of activity in the Coldstream area. Its history began when John Moor Marsh and his wife, Sarah Zavitz, purchased the land in 1839 with encouragement from his brother-in-law Benjamin Cutler. Benjamin had already built a house and mill on the adjoining lot to the east.

     After purchasing the property, John and Sarah built a home identical to a house plan they saw in London, and went on to have seven children together. John expanded his holdings by building a grist and sawmill on the river and a furniture factory on a stream on the north side of the river. 

    Their son, Jacob, married Louisa Wood who with her mother ran a store in their house on the corner of the Ilderton Road and Coldstream Side-road. When his father died in 1868, Jacob inherited the property and decided to expand. He moved the two-storey house and his family to the current site and built a two-storey store attached to it. He and Louisa had eight children. He continued to run the grist and sawmills as well as the new store. In 1890, he built a woollen factory behind the store which for a time ran twenty-four hours a day. Louisa provided meals at midnight for the night shift. Sadly, the mill burned down in the early 1900s. 

    The store quickly became a busy place. It housed the mercantile business, with the first telegraph in 1873. In 1882, the Lobo Mutual Insurance Company was housed here and later Jacob became president. The Lobo Mechanics Institute opened in 1890 in the back room and stayed there until it was moved to the Community Centre in the 1960s. Jacob ran the Post Office from the store. Jacob began the first telephone system which became the Coldstream Telephone Company in 1908. In 1921, Alex McKenzie moved it across the road. His son George later moved it to Poplar Hill where it was eventually taken over by Bell Canada.

    Community activities, such as the lecture club and Olio society, often met in the upper rooms of the store. Upon Jacob’s death in 1927, son Roy and his wife Hope Nicholson took over and managed it until his death in 1955. Their son, Glenn, ran the store for a short time but due to poor profits it was finally closed. Hope ran the library once a week where you could come and check out reading materials. It was a much anticipated visit for locals each week. 

    In 1967 the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority purchased the land behind the store and along the river for a Conservation Area. The Authority rebuilt the dam to create a lake like the original mill pond. In 1977, they purchased the store, tore off the old tin shed roof that had replaced the original balconies and returned the exterior to its original glory. This building, later sold, was used as several businesses and today is a quilt store.

    This site’s history was crucial to the development of the community. Many of the records of the store’s past are stored at the Middlesex Centre Archives where visitors may do research to gain an in-depth perspective on life and times in Coldstream.

  • Friendly Friday Session on October 30th

    The Friendly Friday sessions are held via Zoom starting at 1:30 PM, every other Friday. The next session will be held on Friday, October 30th. Subsequent sessions will be held on Friday November 13th and 27th, and Friday December 11th.

    For each session the appropriate passages of the Nickalls edition of the Journal of George Fox are provided to session participants on-screen. The passages are marked to identify short individual paragraphs or portions which individual members volunteer to read aloud. Comment, question, and discussion follow each reading to reveal the richness and depth of the life and experience of George Fox.

    Registration for Friendly Friday is required to allow distribution of the Zoom meeting invitations. Registration is only required once, and can be made by clicking the registration link provided in the Friendly Friday blog post on the CFHA website www.cfha.info, or by contacting [email protected].

  • Founders and Builders Series: Fred Haslam

    In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to an influential Friend and early contributor to the CFHA. Our fourth essay features Fred Haslam and is written by Dorothy Trimble. Dorothy passed in 2014 at the age of 91 but remembers the life of Fred Haslam here in her 2012 essay written for the 40th anniversary of the CFHA.

    Remembering Fred Haslam
    1897-1979

    By Dorothy Trimble

    Fred was a vital part of the Toronto Meeting where my family found its spiritual home. We first started attending Meetings for Worship at the end of 1957. Fred had retired the year before from the Canadian Friends Service Committee, and he and his wife Maud were living at Inglewood in the Caledon Hills, about equidistant to the Meetings of Toronto, Newmarket, Hamilton, and Kitchener.  They had hoped that it would be of help to Quarterly Meetings, but sadly, Maud died of cancer in 1958. Unable to maintain the home alone, Fred moved to an apartment in Toronto.

    I remember Fred as reserved and quiet-spoken, but I soon came to appreciate the depth of thought and wealth of experience behind his well-chosen words. It took me longer to realize how many ways his life spoke of Christian faith.

    Fred Haslam’s early years were spent at the Providence School in Middleton, Lancashire, run by the Providence Congregational Chapel where the family attended two services and two Sunday School classes each week. Fred left school right after his thirteenth birthday and took a job at a cotton mill to support his family. He continued his education at night school and read extensively.

    Fred first came in contact with the Society of Friends in 1917 during the First World War. After spending three months in detention for refusing to take any part in combat, he was assigned to the Work Centre at Wakefield. One of the men at the centre invited him to go to the Adult School held at the Friends Meeting House. He also started to attend morning and evening meetings there, and to study Quaker literature.

    After the war, Fred worked for Friends’ Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee, which was concerned with the repatriation of German citizens who had been interned during the war. Fred also volunteered for service overseas and joined the Friends Relief Mission in Vienna where he was in charge of the twenty-one food depots. While there he was also instrumental in persuading the government to improve conditions for prisoners, many of whom had been incarcerated for stealing food for their families.

    In June 1921, Fred heard from his family, who had emigrated earlier, that his father had had an accident that ended his work as a carpenter. Fred came to Canada the next month. By the next year, he was not only helping his family but also serving Toronto Meeting as its treasurer.

    One of the letters of introduction that Fred carried to Canada was to Albert S. Rogers. This was the beginning of a deep friendship and collaboration that lasted until Albert’s death in 1932. One of the projects they worked on was the Boys and Girls Clubs, held at Toronto Meeting on Maitland Street, where a bowling alley was installed in the basement for the purpose. Fred directed the Boys Club for many years. In 1930 Albert offered to purchase a property to provide a summer vacation for the children in the clubs and Fred helped find a suitable ten-acre property on Sturgeon Bay. In 1940 Fred purchased the adjacent property to the camp to increase its size. His vision of Camp NeeKauNis as a place for communal education and recreation helped to bring together the three separate yearly meetings in Canada in 1955.

    When Albert’s son, Ted, developed “Rogers Batteryless” and started a radio tube company in 1924, Fred was appointed the secretary-treasurer. He resigned in 1940, when, a year after Ted’s death, the products were in demand for war purposes.

    Fred served as the treasurer and general secretary of the Canadian Friends Service Committee from its beginnings in 1931 through 1956. During World War II, drawing on his own experiences as a conscientious objector (CO), he was able to counsel and assist COs in Canada. His 1940 letter to the Prime Minister resulted in expanded opportunities for meaningful alternative service, including conservation, road maintenance, social service work, and participation in post-war rehabilitation. He was later instrumental in Canada’s recognition of work in the British Friends Ambulance Unit as a form of alternative service, and he helped organize the first group of twenty Canadians to serve in China. His work included assisting Japanese-Canadian evacuees from the west coast who had moved to Toronto, and providing post World War II relief.

    Ellen Johnson, whose parents Margaret and Reg Smith served as Resident Friends, remembers Fred Haslam as “like a grandfather to me.  I was born in 1952 and have a sense that he was always around.  In fact, a major snowstorm blew across Toronto on the day I was born.  Dad was at school and couldn’t get home fast enough, so Fred drove mom to the Women’s College Hospital. It was Fred who taught me my colours sitting at the window of the library and watching the world go by. One day he came to my mom’s rescue when she discovered that I was sitting on the window ledge of what is now the daycare with my legs dangling outside. Fred went outside ready to catch me if I startled when mom approached me from behind.”

    When I was serving as Superintendent of the First Day School, Fred would sometimes speak to the older class. One day after Meeting, I was mulling over something related to the First Day School and realized that I needed to speak to Fred. He had already left Friends House, so I dashed out the front door and down Bedford Road, managing to reach him before he stepped on the streetcar.  But I was huffing and puffing so much I couldn’t speak. Fred reached out and gave me a big steadying hug, enabling me to catch my breath and relate what was on my mind.

    Fred’s compassionate hug is a symbol for me of the many ways that Fred reached out to help those in need. His many efforts included frequent visits to the Toronto Jail, work with the John Howard and Elizabeth Fry Societies, work with the Canadian Council of Churches to abolish capital punishment, and support of relief work and projects of the Right Sharing of Resources, UNESCO, and the Friends Service Council of British Friends. Fred maintained that properly caring for the people of the world is essential for peace.

    Fred also reached out to coordinate efforts of a wider circle, serving as full-time treasurer and general secretary for Canadian Yearly Meeting from 1960-1972, representing Friends on the Canadian Council of Churches, and representing Canadian Friends on the board of Friends United Meeting and on the World Committee for Consultation. Through example, he answered the question he posed: “Why try to do the job with a teaspoon when by cooperation you can use a bulldozer?”

    tspa_0012492f
    Photo of (from left) Fred Haslam, Ralph Eames, and Murray Thompson at the Toronto Meeting, 1963. Photo by Barry Philp, 1963, Baldwin Collection, Toronto Star Archives, courtesy of the Toronto Reference Library.

    I am especially grateful for Fred’s selfless service to Toronto Meeting. I have been told that he could be uncompromising at times, but I think we all knew that we were near and dear to him, and he took a real interest in our activities.  During the three years that Bill and I spent in Lesotho, Africa, he sent three letters, expressing appreciation for Bill’s Letters from Lesotho book, and for his work in education. He took a special interest in my work with Canadian Save the Children Fund because of his long connection with the organization (which earned him the Canada Medal in 1977).

    A letter written in January 1976 included a note on his health:

    For me 1975 was a hard year with the discovery of cancer and operations on both eyes.  However, the doctors involved agree that progress is being made, and the cancer doctor at Princess Margaret Hospital has now suggested that I take a trip to San Carlos near San Francisco. I had no  idea that I would be able to take such a trip at this stage, but the medical people, including personal friends in the meeting, are all encouraging the idea. It has now taken hold of me and I hope to go for a month on February 5th. My sister and all my other immediate relatives are in San Carlos, I am all excited and hope it will be useful in keeping me to a more normal life.

    Back in Canada, not long before Fred died in 1979, I visited him at the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital in Toronto. He was very weak but enjoyed singing some of the hymns of his favourite poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.

     

    Resources:

    Dorland, Arthur. The Quakers in Canada, A History. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1968.

    Haslam, Fred. A Record of Experience with Canadian Friends (Quakers) and the Canadian Ecumenical Movement 1921 – 1967. Woodbrooke College, Birmingham, England, 1970.

    Muma, Dorothy. “Fred Haslam (1897-1979): “Mr. Canadian Friend” – A Personal View.” Canadian Quaker History Journal 66 (2001): 23 – 34.

    Toronto Monthly Meeting of the Religions Society of Friends. “A Testimony to the Grace of God in the Life of Fred Haslam.” March 1980.

    Zavitz-Bond, Jane. “CFSC Records.” The Canadian Friend 107, no. 2 (2011): 40.

     

     

  • Join us for ‘Friendly Friday’ on October 16th

    Please join the Canadian Friends Historical Association in a “Friendly Friday” discussion of George Fox’s journal. This Zoom session will run on Fri. Oct. 16, from 1:30-3 pm. In the course of a little more than an hour, our group covered the first 8 pages of the Journal. We will pick up where we left off this coming Friday, and new participants are welcome to join us. Sessions will continue every other Friday through to December.

    It is really easy to register–just submit your name and email address in the following link and submit. You’ll then be prompted “review your registration” which will then take you to a confirmation page. No need to be a member of CFHA to join.

    Here’s the link to register:

     https://cfha.b.civicrm.ca/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=3

    Here’s more: “I attended the session on Oct. 2. The reading was sent out in advance, and it caught my interest in learning more about George Fox and his experience. During the session, we read a section from Fox’s journal, and then stopped for discussion along the way. I’m so glad to have attended this session because it helped me deepen my knowledge of a foundational text to understand what led up to the development of the Religious Society of Friends and to compare and contrast this with our modern Quaker experience. Donna Moore”

  • Research Inquiry – Doan and Wade Families

    We recently received a genealogy question in regard to the ancestry of Jemima Camp Wade (1812-1895).

    In 1832, Jemima Wade married Solomon Doan, an active member of the Black Creek PM and Pelham MM. One of their children is listed in the Pelham Register as born in Crowland. We’re hoping some information can be found regarding Jemima Camp Wade’s parentage, in particular linking her to Wells Wade (1780-1858) and Abigail ‘Abby’ Wade (1782-1858).

    Do you have any information about Jemima Camp Wade and her family?

  • CFHA Student Essay Award and Scholarship Program

    As students enter a fall semester full of new challenges, we want to highlight the CFHA Student Essay Award and Scholarship Program. The program was created to support students interested in Canadian Quaker history and promote awareness of local meetings among students. The CFHA encourages all students undertaking research related to Canadian Quaker history to apply.

    One CFHA student essay scholarship is available to junior high school students (Grades 9-10) in the amount of $200, and one award is available to senior high school students (Grades 11-12) in the amount of $300. In addition, one scholarship in the amount of $1500 per year for each of two years is available to a university student who is undertaking a program in relevant Canadian Quaker research. 

    Information about applying and all forms can be found here: https://cfha.info/research-support/

  • Recording of Program Portion of AGM Available

    For those of you who were unable to join us at the program portion of our AGM, we have a recording of Ben Pink Dandelion and Stephen W. Angell’s discussion. Ben and Stephen have been instrumental in the field of Quaker studies and we were so pleased to have them.

     

  • Robynne Rogers Healey to Speak at Freedom Forum’s Series on Faith, Race, and Civil Rights

    Freedom Forum Institute is hosting the fifth program in their series, “Religious Resolve: Stories from Our Past, for Our Future,” on the Grimké sisters. The panel, “The Grimkés Speak Out on Faith, Race, and Civil Rights,” will take place Sunday, October 11th, at 3:00 pm (EST).

    The panel includes Dr. Healey’s discussion of Quaker sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké and the complexities and contradictions of religious life in 19th and 20th century America. Rev. Perzavia Praylow will present the story of Rev. Francis Grimké, a prominent African-American clergyman and civil rights activist.

    For more information on the panel and to register for this free event, see https://www.freedomforum.org/event/religious-resolve-stories-from-our-past-for-our-future-program-5/

    Angelina Grimké (1805-1879), Library of Congress.
    Sarah Grimké (1792-1873), Library of Congress.

     

  • Verifying a Quaker Presence in American Television Westerns

    How many times have you seen a Quaker in a television program or movie? How often have Quakers, the Amish, and Mennonites been conflated into stock characters? We are thrilled to share this guest post from Stephen D. Brooks who is researching representations of Quakers in television and film as part of a PhD in Quaker Studies at the University of Birmingham (UK). If any readers would like to discuss Stephen’s post, or if you have suggestions where he may find representations of Quakers in film or tv, please drop him a line at [email protected].

     

    Verifying a Quaker Presence in American Television Westerns

    Stephen D. Brooks

    At first glance it would appear that representations of Quakers in the mediums of film and television are sparse. Collectively, James Emmett Ryan’s Imaginary Friends (2009) and David N. Butterworth’s Celluloid Friends (2015) found forty-nine cases of either motion pictures or television programs that included some portrayal of Quakers. These vary from significant Quaker characters, or some reflection on Quakerism, to secondary or walk-on characters who can be identified as Quaker. These include silent-era features and shorts, plus those that use Quakers to provide one-liners and jokes such as Woody Allen’s Sleeper (1973).

    Miles Monroe (played by Allen): “I’m telling you. You got the wrong man. I’m not the heroic type. Really. I was beaten up by Quakers.”

    This was my starting point. From there I cross-referenced these forty-nine instances with the web-based resource The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) along with self-compiled lists put together by Quakers online. These lists included the “Friends Media Project” and “Quakers On Film” from pendlehill.org plus the michiganquaker.org entry of “Quakers in Popular Culture.” This resulted in 171 examples, ranging from a quarter of a reel (no more than three minutes) silent comedy called Topsy-Turvy Dance of Three Quaker Maidens (1900) up to the BBC TV series Fleabag (2019).

    These representations of Quakers also covered numerous genres: romance, comedy, adventure and drama to crime thrillers, science fiction, and musicals. In this post I am focussing on the western genre, especially American television westerns. According to the IMDb, between 1958 and 1970, Quaker characters appeared in nineteen different episodes of various shows. I am currently in the process of tracking these shows down and verifying the presence of a Quaker. There are three types of validation that I have found so far: explicit, implicit, and negative.

    To establish that a character is actually a Quaker in any of the examples I’ve examined, I look for explicit confirmation either by the character themselves or by another character. In the case of silent movies, I look for a title-card. The reason for an explicit verification is because it has become apparent that descriptors on the IMDb will use “Quaker” when a character may exhibit one or more of the following tropes: identifying as pacifist because of religious beliefs, using plain language, or wearing plain dress. Careful viewing has demonstrated that the character in question may not be a Quaker at all; they could be Amish, Pennsylvania Dutch, or a member of another Mennonite group.

    An example of an explicit confirmation can be found in Wagon Train: The Patience Miller Story, NBC, first shown 11 January 1961. In the opening scenes, a wagon train is attacked.  There is a close-up of a family—a man, a woman, and a child. The man is killed. It transpires that this is the Miller family who are missionaries on their way to Arapaho territory to open a school for indigenous children. Some of the men on the train urge wagon master Flint McCullough (Robert Preston) to convince the widowed Patience Miller (Rhonda Fleming) and her young daughter (Terry Burnham) to abandon her plan to continue to the mission without her husband. He replies, “ever tried arguing with a red-headed Quaker?” Patience for her part uses plain “thee” and “thou” language, dresses plainly, and often quotes William Penn.

    An illustration of what I term as implicit confirmation occurs in Bonanza: The Hopefuls, NBC, first shown 8 October 1960. Here a religious group is crossing the Ponderosa as settlers on their way to new territory. A wagon train is carrying both the community members and the money they had pooled to pay for the land. Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts), who is smitten by the daughter of the group’s leader, and his stepbrother Hoss (Dan Blocker) escort the train across the Cartwright’s territory. In turn, they are stalked by a gang intent on stealing the community’s money. Members of the group display the familiar traits associated with depictions of Quakers: they are a pacifist religious group and they dress plainly and use the term “Friend.” Yet, at no point is there a verbal verification or use of the word “Quaker” by them or any other character.

    Finally, a negative confirmation is evident in The Restless Gun: Strange Family In Town, NBC, first shown 20 January 1958. Here, a family of new settlers—the Hoffmans—fall foul of the locals when their belief in non-violence is misinterpreted as cowardice. Along with their pacifism they do dress plainly. However, they do not use plain language, and, at no point as with Bonanza or The Hopefuls, is there any verbal confirmation by them or any other characters that they are Quakers. Moreover, they have a German-language Bible, speak German at home, eat ‘hasenpfeffer’, and are insulted by the local townspeople as “squareheads.” So, despite the listing on the IMDb including this as a Quaker family, it appears after viewing that these characters are more likely (although of course, there is no explicit confirmation) to be members of a Pennsylvania Dutch community.

    Stephen D. Brooks

    As I continue to look through the results from IMDb, it will be interesting to see just how many films and programs will contain explicit confirmation that characters are Quakers rather than members of another religious group. The other side to this of course that merits consideration, is the possibility that listings stating that a story contains an Amish, Anabaptist, or another non-conformist representation of characters is in fact a Quaker?

    Bibliography.

    Butterworth, David N. (2015) Celluloid Friends: Cinematic Quakers real and imagined (1922-2012) USA, Amazon Press LLC.

    Ryan, James Emmett. (2009) Imaginary Friends: Representing Quakers In American culture 1650 -1950. Studies in American Thought and Culture. Series editor Paul S. Boyer. Madison, Wisconsin, The University of Wisconsin Press.

    Filmography.

    Bonanza: The Hopefuls. October 1960 [TV] James Nielsen dir. USA. National Broadcasting Corporation.

    Restless Gun, The: Strange Family in Town. January 1958. [TV] Earl Bellamy dir. USA. Window Glen Productions.

    Sleeper. 1973 [Film] Woody Allen dir. USA.  Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions.

    Topsy-Turvy Dance of Three Quaker Maidens. 1902 [Film] George Albert Smith dir. UK. George Albert Smith Films.

    Wagon Train: The Patience Miller Story. January 1961 [TV] Mitch Leisen dir. USA. Revue Studios.