Canadian Friends Historical Association

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  • Current Situation of the Canadian Quaker Archives and Library

    The Canadian Quaker Archives and Library is managed by the Archives Committee (formerly Records Committee) of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. The Committee operates under Canadian Yearly Meeting Organization and Procedures 6.17 (O&P). In October 2019, the Canadian Quaker Archives and Library had to temporarily suspended operations. The Archives Committee is working to address the re-opening of the Archives and Library as soon as possible.

    For many years Jane Zavitz-Bond has worked as the volunteer archivist. She has retired from this position, but continues on the Archives Committee as archivist emerita.

    This created a period of transition and along with other problems has resulted in the current closure of the Archives. This closure has been extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has brought uncertainty as to how and when the Archives may open.

    RogersHouse-small-300x170
    Pickering College

    Pickering College, which houses the Library and Vault, has been closed and the Archives Committee has been physically unable to assess the Archive’s needs.

    A Working Group of concerned people had been struck in 2019 to help resolve some of the problems of the management of the Archives and the need for an archivist once the Archives could be opened again. This group will be laid down. A revived Archives Committee, now consisting of six members is diligently working to hire an archivist and to open the Archives.

    One of the largest obstacles to operating the Archives is funding. Canadian Yearly Meeting owns and operates the Archives, but it is suffering from lack of sufficient funds to do the many things it would like to do. Canadian Yearly Meeting has been visioning how to proceed through a group called Change and Sustainable Transformation (CAST) working group. It is incumbent on those who wish to see the Archives as a viable entity to remind Canadian Yearly Meeting that the Archives must be supported. Pickering College has been historically very helpful by allowing the Archives to be housed there. The Archives Committee now has to hire an archivist and this has created more funding needs for the Archives operation.

    Canadian Friends Historical Association exists because there are those interested in the history of Quakers in Canada. Canadian Yearly Meeting, its constituent Monthly Meetings, and Committees such as Canadian Friends Service Committee are the present-day living and active Religious Society of Friends. The documents that record their history are located in the Canadian Quaker Archives and Library. CFHA has been industriously transcribing and digitalizing many of these documents, but the physical record must also be preserved.

    Below is a description of the Quaker Archives and Library from quaker.ca:

    “The Archives consist of the records of the Yearly Meeting and its constituent meetings and various committees since the mid-1700s. It also includes photographs of places, persons and events, the personal papers of various Canadian Quakers, and artifacts from pottery to traditional Quaker bonnets.

    The Arthur Garratt Dorland Reference Library holds over 5000 titles of non-circulating books, journals, newspapers and pamphlets dating from the late 1600s to today. Contained within the Library is the Rendell Rhoades Discipline Collection, an extensive collection of Quaker Books of Discipline (Society of Friends’ organization and practice).

    The nucleus of the Quaker archives in Canada began in the 1920s when Arthur G Dorland collected records during research for his doctoral thesis, which became the book A History of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada (1927). In 1927 he deposited these records at the University of Western Ontario, where he was head of the History Department. During the next 56 years the UWO held Canadian Quaker records. The Quakers in Canada, A History (1968) by Arthur Dorland is still available.

    The 1955 reunification of Friends in Canada resulted in the formation of the Canadian Yearly Meeting, combining the records from Canada Yearly Meeting (Orthodox-Five Years Meeting), Canada Yearly Meeting (Conservative), and Genesee Yearly Meeting – some of which is in New York State (Hicksite-Friends General Conference). The Rendell Rhoades Collection of Quaker Disciplines was acquired in 1981.

    Lacking ecclesiastical centres, Yearly Meetings in North America have often chosen a Quaker school as the location in which to establish an archives and library. Pickering College was founded by Friends in 1842 and is now an independent primary and secondary day/boarding school in Newmarket, Ontario. Rebuilding after a fire in 1981, Pickering College included in their plans an environmentally-controlled room and vault for the archives of Canadian Yearly Meeting. The archives were moved to Pickering College in 1983 with Jane Zavitz-Bond, teacher and librarian at the College at the time, serving as volunteer archivist for almost 4 decades.

    Researchers will find extensive documents in the more recent records of Canadian Yearly Meeting, including those from the Canadian Friends Service Committee, the Quaker Committee on Native Concerns (now the Quaker Indigenous Rights Committee), Camp Neekaunis Committee, the Committee on Jails and Justice, the Home Missions and Advancement Committee (now the Education and Outreach Committee), Religious Education Committee, the Discipline Committee, and the Foreign Missionary Board. These files may be found in the Vault Collection.

    The personal papers of active Canadian Friends supplement these records. Non-textual records include maps and photographs of Meeting Houses, homes, and individuals. There are extensive holdings of published materials, particularly The Canadian Friend (published since 1904), as well as pamphlets and tracts containing testimonies of Friends on subjects of simplicity, education, human rights, and peace.”

     

     

     

     

  • Stephen W. Angell and Ben Pink Dandelion to speak at the CFHA Annual General Meeting

    Stephen W. Angell and Ben Pink Dandelion to speak at the CFHA Annual General Meeting

    Exciting news!

    The executive committee is thrilled to announce that our speakers for the CFHA Annual General Meeting to be held on September 26th will be Ben Pink Dandelion of the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Bournville, England, and Stephen W. Angell of the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.

    Ben and Steve have been instrumental in the explosion of interest in Quaker history and other aspects of Quaker studies in the past ten years. They have led the way in working with a number of university presses, and have encouraged scholarship in a way that has fundamentally changed the scholarly landscape in Quaker studies.

    We have invited Ben and Steve to speak about their experience in reframing Quaker studies, the impact of the scholarship that is being done, and the ways that scholarship reaches both the academic community as well as interested lay researchers and well-read Friends. Along with our speakers we will inquire about the role for a group like the CFHA in this larger discussion, and ask how we through CFHA can better support the work of academic researchers, genealogists, and Canadian Friends.

    We hope you will be able to join us for this important program. Ben and Steve will speak beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the business portion of the AGM will follow. Please RSVP to the link below:

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

    Please note that there is no charge to register and only contact information for member verification is collected when you register. Individuals not currently in membership are welcome to become members before the meeting, or to attend as guests. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to attend as a guest, or if you require additional information.

  • Canadian Quaker Highlight: Sarah Wilde Rogers

    Two weeks ago, we featured a post by Albert Schrauwers in which he reflected on transcribing and editing the Journal of Timothy Rogers.[1] Timothy Rogers is celebrated for his role in Quaker settlement on Yonge Street and at Pickering. His wife, Sarah, is not as renowned. Her story gives us insights into the strength and tenacity of the Quaker women who were co-founders of frontier Quaker settlements throughout North America. We have no extant records in Sarah’s hand; much of what we can extrapolate about her life comes from her husband’s Journal, meeting records, or careful reading of parallel sources.

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    Richard Edsall (1683–1762), “Great Nine Partners Patent” | Public domain (wikimedia)

    Sarah Wilde was born 3 January 1759 in Clinton Township, Dutchess County, New York to Obadiah and Sarah Wilde. On 7 January 1776, seventeen-year old Sarah married nineteen-year old Timothy Rogers in the Nine Partners area of the colony of New York. The Wildes were Baptists, although they had a Quaker background and owned a number of Quaker books (Journal, 3). Nine Partners was also home to a sizeable group of Friends. While the newlyweds were living with Sarah’s parents, Timothy read the works of John Woolman and George Fox, began using plain language, and attended a local Quaker meeting. Timothy became a member of the Society in 1778. It was not until after the birth of her fourth child that Sarah became a member in 1782; she had begun using plain language herself in 1777 (Journal, 6, 7).

    In their first year of marriage, Sarah and Picture2Timothy became parents.Obadiah Wilde Rogers was the first of Sarah’s fourteen children. On average, she gave birth every twenty-four months between December 1776 and November 1802.

    Early in 1777 the Rogers family moved to Danby, Vermont, beginning a pattern of consistent relocation as Timothy sought opportunities to improve their economic prospects. In 1778, they moved to Saratoga, New York before returning to Danby in 1780. How did Sarah feel about constant displacement? It is impossible to know with certainty. Timothy notes that after Sarah gave birth to her fourth child, Mary, on 22 Picture3May 1782, she “had a very poor turn and never had a well day for two years.” Despite his wife’s poor health, Timothy continued to travel, embarking to the township of Ferrisburg, Vermont where he purchased land “about 40 miles beyond where there was any inhabitants” (Journal, 7).

    From there, Timothy went on to New York to buy more land. While he was in New York, he comments that “My wife knowing I did intend to move to Ferrisburg, thought we should be disappointed so she got sleighs and moved before I came home” (7). Despite not experiencing “a well day for two years,” Sarah alone arranged for and moved her household including four children under the age of five to the wilderness of Vermont.

    While many of the Rogers family moves were uncomplicated (inasmuch as moving house on the frontier can be uncomplicated), there were occasional disasters. On 2 October 1785, the family was moving from Button Bay in Ferrisburg to Little Otter Creek. Along with their five young children and possessions, Timothy was transporting land records and bonds (his journal records forty deeds for 6,000 acres and about $2000 in bonds).[2] It was a “dark rainy time” when the family’s boat finally came ashore about midnight necessitating the kindling of a fire to light their path. Timothy tells us that he had to lead Sarah by the hand because she was ill (8). The couple woke at sunrise to learn that the tree by which they had lit their fire had burned, destroying the deeds, bonds, and all the family’s clothing (8). Timothy recorded that “this brought me to a great stand to know what to do” (8). Sarah’s response to these events remain a mystery.

    The couple did not give up. Timothy continued to travel for personal and meeting business (he was in Quebec in 1786 when their sixth child was born). They continued to relocate around the Ferrisburg region. Sarah continued to give birth roughly every second year.

    By 1800, Sarah and Timothy had experienced some prosperity but there had also been some stresses. Timothy does not reveal what these tensions were, only that in late 1798 and 1799 “I had many very great trials, some things so singular in my family that I think not best to mention” (Journal, 102). Both Timothy and Sarah were required to make an acknowledgement in their meeting. Timothy acknowledged “falling into a passion and using unbecoming language and conduct in his family” (Journal, 102–03). Once again, Timothy felt God calling him away, now to the British colony of Upper Canada. Did the stresses motivate the desire to move, or was the desire to move the source of the family stress? We cannot know.

    This time Sarah was “unwilling to move” (Journal, 103). She was forty-one years old, pregnant with their thirteenth child; four of her older children were married and had set up their own households in the area. She likely had a strong local community. Perhaps the distant frontier no longer held any appeal for her. According to Timothy’s journal, Sarah’s resistance to his “calling” was a significant impediment to his plans. Until she consented, their meeting would not endorse his travel to Upper Canada where he intended to explore the region to determine the most favourable location for settlement. Something happened to change Sarah’s mind. Timothy does not tell us what it was, only that “about three weeks after an occurrence took place whereby my wife became willing, and on the 24 day of 4th mo. 1800, I started” (Journal, 103).

    Timothy spent the summer of 1800 in Upper Canada and decided to locate his settlement in the densely forested land on Yonge Street at what is now Newmarket, Ontario about fifty-five kilometres north of Lake Ontario. The following year, he planned to lead Quaker families from Vermont (many of them his relatives) to this new settlement where Quaker families from Pennsylvania, led by Samuel Lundy, would join them.

    Sarah and Timothy Rogers left Vermont in February 1801. It must have been a difficult journey. Many of the women were travelling with young children and infants. Sarah Rogers and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary Rogers, both had infants one month apart in age.

    These Quaker families initiated a series of chain migrations as settlers encouraged family and friends back in the United States to “mak[e] ready to come to a land as it were flowing with milk and honey.”[3] Immigration helped this community—the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting—to flourish and become the largest Quaker meeting in Upper Canada (now Ontario).

    Sarah gave birth to her last child in November 1802, two months before her forty-fourth birthday. Settled on Yonge Street, she lived in proximity to her children. In addition to the eight offspring still living at home, five of her older children had settled in the Yonge Street community. Her son, Timothy Rogers Jr., was at Friends’ School at West-town in Pennsylvania, but he arrived at Yonge Street in 1806 to open a school (at the age of sixteen!). Sarah was active in meeting business and the early minutes record her appointment to varied duties. Was she surprised when, in 1807, Timothy decided to move them again? It cannot have been easy. The couple once again pulled up stakes and moved to Duffin’s Creek in Pickering Township, east of York (Toronto) on Lake Ontario, approximately 65 kilometres away from the Yonge Street settlement. There Timothy constructed a saw and a gristmill. Here, his son, Wing, tells us, he found prosperity: “My father moved here into the wilderness, but settlement went on rapidly, & he became wealthy, for the God his fathers had blessed him in basket & in store.”[4]

    Sarah was living at Duffin’s Creek in 1809 when an epidemic ravaged the Yonge Street community, devastating her family. Five daughters, two sons, one son-in-law, and three grandchildren died in the epidemic. Timothy recorded that “My wife entirely gave up business, my family half gone” (Journal, 112). Sarah’s son’s memories align with his father’s: “My parents buried seven children out of the fourteen & most of them were married & had families, which was a great trial to them both, but particularly so, with mother. I was young but I can remember of seeing [mother] meet the neighbour women & talking of her troubles & great loss, with the tears running down her aged face, & comparing it to Job’s troubles.”[5]

    Some families never recovered from the death toll of the epidemic. According to Timothy, Sarah “kept along in a strange way.” She was so debilitated by her experience that Timothy was unable to attend to his meeting duties. No doubt sick and tired of the frontier that had claimed so many of her children, Sarah told Timothy that if he would build “her a good house or to that effect [he] might go” (Journal, 113). Timothy summarizes what followed: “in 1810 and 11, I got a house so I thought to amoved in in a short time; had a barn, and a considerable of clearing. About the third day of the 1 month 1812, my wife Sarah and I started to go to York with me to get some things she wanted to begin said house. And as we rode this 24 miles, she talked pleasant and told her wishes, and the next day attended to sell and buy” (Journal, 113). January 3, 1812 was Sarah’s fifty-third birthday. Despite her losses, it seems that Sarah had a pleasant day.

    A few days later, as they made their way home from York, they stopped to visit one of Sarah’s distant relatives. There Sarah fell ill and, after a six-day illness, died on 13 January 1812. She is buried in what is now the Pickering Friends Burial Ground; at the time it was Rogers family land. Hers was the first death in a second epidemic that claimed many more lives in the Quaker community in 1812–13. As with the first outbreak, no one can say what it was. Timothy recorded “that first it was called the Typhus fever, but latterly we have had the Measles, by which some have departed this life; but mostly it has been such an uncommon Disorder that it seems to baffle the skill of the wisest and best physicians” (Journal, 117–18).

    Sarah’s life comes to us in glimpses from the words of her husband and son, and from brief mentions in meeting minutes. Without her own words, much of her lived experience remains unknown. Even so, this short outline of her life demonstrates that Sarah Wilde Rogers was a woman of strength and tenacity. These traits served her well as one of the founding members of the Yonge Street Quaker community.

     

    [1] Christopher Densmore and Albert Schrauwers, eds., “The Best Man for Settling New Country …”: The Journal of Timothy Rogers (Toronto: CFHA, 2000). The map of Lake Champlain, Vermont and the genealogical table in this post are from the introduction of The Journal of Timothy Rogers.

    [2] Rogers was the clerk for the Proprietors of Ferrisburg, a position that involved “buying and selling of thousands of acres of land, overseeing the settlement of the town of Ferrisburg and the city of Vergennes.” He was also the clerk of the Proprietors of the town of Hungerford. Overall, he was “a highly successful entrepreneur and one of the leading citizens of Ferrisburg.” Christopher Densmore, “Timothy Rogers: The Story he Wanted to Tell,” Canadian Quaker History Journal 65(2000): 3.

    [3] Qtd, in Robynne Rogers Healey From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-–1850 (MQUP, 2006), 40–41.

    [4] “The Journal of Wing Rogers,” in Densmore and Schruawers, eds., The Journal of Timothy Rogers, 139.

    [5] “The Journal of Wing Rogers,” 138. Original spelling corrected.

  • Founders and Builders Series: Grace Pincoe

    In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to CFHA co-founder Grace Pincoe. This essay is written by her daughter Ruth Pincoe and Jane Zavitz-Bond.

    Grace Pincoe – A Faithful Founder and Pillar of CFHA
    by Ruth Pincoe and Jane Zavtiz-Bond

    Grace Lillian Cochrane, the third and youngest daughter of Eliza (née Falconer, Lizzie) and Henry Cochrane was born on 22 June 1906 at 12 Boustead Avenue, in the west end of Toronto. Eilza’s Scottish family had been farming in Ontario for several generations; Henry’s family emigrated from Ireland in the mid-1800s. Henry’s death from typhoid in January 1912 left the family in difficult circumstances. There was no social safety net in those days, but Lizzie was a practical and determined woman. Her eldest daughter, Beatrice, left school at age thirteen to take a secretarial job while Eliza took in boarders and cleaned floors in a local bank. Her middle daughter, Edna, finished high school and then worked at the Post Office. Nonetheless, books, music, and education were respected in Lizzie’s household. The three Cochrane girls were also mentored by an elder cousin who encouraged them to learn through reading.

    Grace’s love of books, libraries, learning, and boats focussed her life. Unsatisfied after a year in Normal School (her mother’s choice), she completed a short library course and found work, but her real desire was to go to university. Her cousin helped to persuade Lizzie, who finally agreed to one year. Grace enrolled in Victoria College, University of Toronto, completed her first year as a full-time student, and continued with night classes and summer school to graduate with her class in 1930. She was an intelligent and determined young woman.

    Grace met Roland Pincoe in 1930 when she was working at the newly-opened Runnymede branch of the Toronto Public Library. They shared a love of music and art. They also shared an enthusiasm for Northern Ontario, and Grace had a canoe. At the depth of the Depression, marriage was out of the question, but they both had jobs and could save a little. They were married on 3 February 1937 and moved into a small house Ellis Park Road, on the west side of Grenadier Pond. Money was short, but their time there was happy. For low-cost holidays they took canoe trips in northern Ontario, first in Algonquin Park, later in Temagami, and in 1943 down the Moose and Abitibi Rivers to James Bay. By 1941, however, Grace’s mother was in her last years and her sister Edna was not well. Grace and Roland moved to 12 Boustead Avenue to care for her mother and her sister. The move was unavoidable, and they stayed for the rest of their lives, but their deep regret of the loss of theirhome remained.

    As a city employee during the Depression, Grace had to leave her library job when she married, but she was not a “housewife.” She had other gifts. Grace found part-time and occasional jobs with a variety of organizations that had libraries, including the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Ontario), Marani & Morris (an architectural firm), the School of Missions (later the Ecumenical Institute), and a private library in the home of Robert and Adelaide McLaughlin in Oshawa.

    Grace and Roland’s daughter Ruth was born in 1946. In the mid 1950s Grace went back to full-time employment as head of cataloguing for Etobicoke Public Library. She was a gifted cataloguer with a passion for subject analysis. After the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, she argued for moving space travel from the Dewey 500s (theoretical physics) to the 600s (applied science), arguing that “the future is longer than the past.” In the mid-1960s Grace moved to a cataloguing position at the Toronto Board of Education Library. She also worked with the Board’s Historical Collection, her first involvement with archives, and she attended an archives course at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information Science. She retired from the Board in 1971.

    Grace had come came to the Religious Society of Friends around 1950 through her friendship with Kathleen Savan (née Green) and began to attend Meeting for Worship at 60 Lowther Avenue. (Kathleen, her two sisters, and her brother had been good friends with Roland and Grace since the in the 1930s, and Kathleen spent he war years in China with the Friends Ambulance Unit.) Care and service were natural for Grace and these aspects of Friends cemented her commitment. She became an active member of Toronto Monthly Meeting, and of course served on the Library Committee. (Jane Sweet, another member of that committee met Grace when they both worked at the Board of Education, and came to Friends through Grace.)

    After her retirement Grace devoted an increasing amount of time to the Friends House Library. By this time she had developed a deep interest in the history of Friends in Canada. One thing seemed to lead to another. Jane Zavitz remembers that Grace and Kathleen Hertzberg both told her about their conversation on the stairway at Pickering College during Yearly Meeting, after a session that included Canadian Quaker history. They both saw a need for an organization that could to find, preserve, and publish research on the history of Quakers in Canada.

    Grace wrote to a number of Friends and other individuals who might assist with undertaking a Friends historical body, asking them to identify factors that would allow such an organization to flourish, and what they would be willing to undertake. Responses were positive but only a few individuals agreed to fill major roles. After some months, however, a nucleus of individuals was assembled. In August 1970 there was a presentation at Canadian Yearly Meeting and, in November, Representative Meeting approved the concern for the formation of a Canadian Friends Historical Association. The CHFA was underway. It sounds easy, but establishing even a basic structure required energy and patience. The elderly Arthur Dorland (author of The Quakers in Canada) was unable to play a major role, but as honorary chairman his reputation carried weight and helped to give the new organization recognized standing.

    When CFHA was launched in 1972, forty-one individuals paid their annual dues, and for the princely sum of two dollars, received the newsletter that Grace helped to prepare. She could take advantage of the holdings of the Friends House Library to support CFHA work, and her skills and experience were a perfect fit. She always had more ideas to carry out, and her enthusiasm for new projects abounded. She soon attracted others who became involved and in turn made important contributions to CFHA’s success.

    Almost immediately, Grace began collecting biographical information about Canadian Friends in a rapidly expanding card file. She was always ready to respond to research questions and any new details that turned up were entered on the cards in pencil. She also began indexing the occasional biographical accounts published in The Canadian Friend. Grace’s index and card file was the beginning of one of CFHA’s most significant projects.

    During CHFA’s first decade (1972–1982), Grace planned tours of Quaker sites in conjunction with the annual meetings, and sometimes during Canadian Yearly Meeting. Locations included the early meetinghouses and burial grounds of the Norwich, Niagara, and Yonge Street Monthly Meetings. Information was distributed in advance to encourage participation. Jane sometimes drove Grace over the planned route so that she could determine travel time, and spot interesting highlights. Grace also prepared related bibliographies that were published in the newsletter, along with the accounts she had enlisted CHFA members to write. The year that CHFA met in the Maritimes, Ralph Green was invited to speak about of the Nantucket Quakers who came to Canada following the American Revolution. A tour was not possible, but Grace made maps and display boards to illustrate the talk.

    It is impossible to overstate the importance of Grace Pincoe’s influence on CFHA. She was a primary force in its creation and continuing existence. Her work is carried on today in the Canadian Friends Biographical File and the Register of Canadian Quaker Sites. Her spirit and imagination modeled the generous nature of the organization. She greeted all inquirers, and welcomed their questions. She was fully present for each person she met. As was said at her Memorial Meeting for Worship, she brought others into the fellowship of Friends and the CFHA.

    Grace’s retirement years were not completely devoted to the CHFA. Some years earlier, she had purchased a small wooden sailboat from Kathleen and David Savan, called the Hermit Crab (because it went sideways). She stored this boat (and its successor) at a club on the Toronto Island where she spent some of her happiest days. She also investigated the genealogy of her family, and did research on Irish immigrants to Canada.

    In the early 1980s Grace’s health declined. She suffered from osteoarthritis and also developed dementia. She remained at 12 Boustead Avenue, the house where she was born, lovingly cared for by her husband Roland and her daughter Ruth. She died on 18 October 1987.

    Jane Zavitz remembers: “In my work in the CYM Archives, supported and encouraged by CFHA, I sensed Grace’s solid support in the presence of an old library storage unit that holds supplies for our work and some files. Her daughter, Ruth, passed it on to us after Grace’s death. As we move into a new technological era, Grace’s spirit of search and her care and love for Quaker history remains the foundation of our association and our work. She showed the way. May we continue in that spirit.”

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    Photo of the first Newsletter from November 1972

  • CFHA Celebrates 48 Years!

    Many organizations have their own creation story, and CFHA is no exception. It came into being out of a concern for the preservation of a small, somewhat decrepit little meetinghouse out in the countryside west of Uxbridge, Ontario. When word that this meetinghouse might be purchased and moved to the United States reached Toronto Monthly Meeting, Kathleen Schmitz-Hertzberg made it her goal that the building and its heritage not be lost. Out of this a wider concern for the preservation and appreciation of Quaker legacy in general developed. Together with fellow Toronto Monthly Meeting member Grace Pincoe, the concept of the Canadian Friends Historical Association took shape. Establishment of the Association in 1972 provided an organization where non-Quaker academics, Quaker descendants, and historians could join members of the Religious Society of Friends in shared concerns and activities.

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    Photo of Uxbridge Quaker Meeting House

    The rest, as they say, is history. A viewing of the CFHA website contents reveals the significant and numerous accomplishments of CFHA during the past 48 years. This includes many scholarly articles, outreach resources (including our new “Who are the Quakers?” panels), plus an ever-growing library of searchable transcriptions of minute books and documents.

    While much has been accomplished, many more areas of concern remain. Modern technology now opens possibilities to preserve and promote appreciation of Quaker faith and heritage that Kathleen and Grace could not have imagined. Like many similar volunteer organizations, CFHA has been challenged to adapt and modernize. This work is being diligently pursued. That CFHA has survived 48 years is itself a remarkable achievement. We trust that new generations of members and supporters will help sustain and realize the great potential and important work of CFHA in years to come. As for that little meetinghouse near Uxbridge, it has been lovingly embraced by the wider community and is cared for by the Friends of Uxbridge Meetinghouse.

    The Canadian Friends Historical Association is a similar success. As we celebrate 48 years of achievements, we wish to thank the very many members, contributors, and supporters who have made CFHA an unique, fun, and enriching community.

    Happy birthday, CFHA!

     

  • “The Best Man for Settling New Country…”: The Journal of Timothy Rogers

    “The Best Man for Settling New Country…”: The Journal of Timothy Rogers
    Edited by Christopher Densmore and Albert Schrauwers

    This guest post is contributed by Albert Schrauwers and includes his reflections on editing Timothy Rogers’ journal alongside Christopher Densmore. Rogers’ journal can be found here: http://www.cfha.info/journalrogers.pdf

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    Photo of Timothy Rogers’ journal

    Timothy Rogers is a subject of perennial interest to genealogists and historians, and I welcome this opportunity to broaden its availability. Rogers’s Journal contains a riveting narrative of his spiritual development and (unsuccessful) attempts at the ministry; his travels across the north-eastern states to Maine, Nova Scotia and PEI in service of the ministry; and his role in opening new Quaker settlements in Vermont, Newmarket, and Pickering. It is the most extensive first-person narrative of an early nineteenth century Quaker pioneer outside the manuscripts of David Willson, leader of the Children of Peace. It is thus of interest to Quaker and local historians in both Canada and the US, and to a very large number of descendants (including those who went on to create Rogers Communications).

    Timothy Rogers’s Journal was published by CFHA twenty years ago, the product of years of careful preparation. The choice of Rogers’s Journal seemed obvious at the time. As a major source of historical and genealogical information, it was the single largest subject of interest to visitors of the Dorland Room. The journal itself, however, was in a fragile state and could not withstand heavy usage. The Yearly Meeting had decided not to allow the Archives of Ontario to microfilm its collection, but lacked the resources to do so itself. Producing an easily accessible copy was a pressing need.

    Producing the journal was a complicated matter. Making a photocopy of the fragile journal from which the transcription could be made without damaging it was only the first step. Decisions also needed to be made as to how the transcription would be made. Rogers had little formal education, used erratic spelling and no punctuation. A copy of a page and its direct transcription were given in the published journal to indicate the actual tenor of his writing. It was decided, however, to make the journal as accessible as possible to a modern audience by following modern orthographic conventions. In doing so, some valuable information was lost. It was clear, for example, that Rogers spelled phonetically, hence the original journal conveyed his pronunciation and speaking style. Given the spiritual journey that Rogers recorded, it was also considered important to highlight to modern (perhaps secular) readers how grounded the journal was in biblical references. This entailed adding quotation marks to biblical passages, and providing footnoted citations. Further extensive footnotes were added drawing on Monthly Meeting minutes and secondary sources that clarified references made by Rogers; two appendices, containing journals by his descendant Wing Rogers, and fellow traveller, Joshua Evans, were included for the same reason. The preparation of the transcription was thus a long, laborious process.

    As the copyright for the journal itself (as opposed to the transcription) was retained by the Yearly Meeting, it was decided that CFHA would self-publish the result, giving Friends greater control over it use. Unfortunately, we lacked the means of promoting it as it deserved. Dissemination on the web will at last make the work generally available, and further evidence the impact of early Quakers on Canadian history.

  • Co-Chair Update

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    Though Covid-19 has thrown our upcoming AGM a few curveballs, we’re excited at the prospect of having members join us virtually on Saturday, September 26th (11:00 AM EDST Toronto time) for the CFHA Annual General Meeting. All members are encouraged to attend, and guests may request to participate by writing to [email protected]. Perhaps a silver lining through all of this is the ability to accommodate members from all across North America for the first time, and we hope it allows more of you to participate.

    The CFHA will circulate a ‘Documents in Advance’ package for members to review prior to the AGM. This allows our virtual meeting to run smoothly, as this package will include the typical reports and statements which have been submitted for review and approval at the AGM. Our meeting will also include a separate moderator to manage the media traffic and facilitate the work of the Co-Chairs.

    At the time of writing, other items are in the works for the AGM, including the possibility of an interesting presentation following the AGM. Please continue to watch for additional details as they become available. Any questions or comments may be forwarded to [email protected].

  • Research Inquiry

    We recently received a genealogy question in regard to the ancestry of Thomas William Henry Young Bunnell (1860 – 1896) from Susan Bunnell.

    Thomas Young Bunnell listed his birthplace as Toronto and Ontario on two documents, but on his death notice his place of birth is left blank. In another document, he lists his parents as Henry and Hannah Bunnel. The Bunnell/Bonnell family appear to be active in the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting (this includes Henry and Margaret Bonnell and their children). However, there is no birth record for Thomas in Ontario and no mention of him in any census until 1891 (after his marriage to Ellen Guard in 1888).

    Susan Bunnell has suggested that perhaps Thomas came to Canada through the British Home Child Program and was adopted into the Bunnell family, as she found a record of a Thomas Young entering Canada at the age of 14.

    Do you have any information about Thomas Young Bunnell or the Bunnell/Bonnell family?

  • Canadian Quaker Highlight: Anna Solmes Cronk

    The Canadian Quaker Highlight series features the stories of Friends whose lives are part of the Canadian Quaker experience.

    Anna (Engeltie, or ‘Angelica’) Solmes was born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1774.[1] Anna immigrated to Upper Canada in the late 1790s after her marriage to Jacob Cronk. Jacob Cronk, alongside his father Abraham, had already spent a number of years in Upper Canada before his marriage to Anna. Historian Margaret McBurney recalls, “In order to finance a trip to the United States to bring back his bride, young Jacob had to sell part of his land and spend the winter working in Adolphustown cutting cordwood for four dollars a month plus board.”[2]

    Anna and Jacob quickly integrated themselves into their nearest Quaker meeting. Jacob was accepted by the Adolphustown Monthly meeting in 1798, and Anna a year later. The couple’s dedication to their faith was strong. Anna became an elder in 1804, and by 1807, Anna and Jacob began hosting an indulged meeting in their Sophiasburgh home. This meeting later became the Green Point Preparative Meeting in 1811. The couple also hosted a number of travelling Quaker ministers, including Rufus Hall in 1798, Elias Hicks in 1803, and Phoebe Roberts in 1821. During her travels, Roberts described the Cronk family as “valuable friends,” noting they were “very wealthy people and appeared to live in much harmony.”[3]

    Anna’s active involvement in the Upper Canadian meetings is evident throughout meeting minutes. Anna was a regular attendee of the Canada Half-Yearly Meeting from its inception in 1810 and was often chosen to attend the New York Yearly Meeting as a representative. Her presence is peppered throughout meeting minutes as part of numerous committees formed to look into schools, troubling issues, establishing new meetings, and visiting members.

    Like many nineteenth-century women, Anna experienced significant heartbreak in her life. Anna and Jacob were vocal proponents of the Hicksite faction during the 1828 Orthodox-Hicksite schism that affected Quaker meetings across North America. The Orthodox West Lake Monthly Meeting minutes accused Anna of being “instrumental in setting up separate meetings in conformity with Elias Hicks,” and allegedly “pushing the half years meeting clerks, and afterwards denying it in the face of the monthly meeting.”[4] Already in her mid-fifties, Anna suffered through the devastating separation of a community she had been actively involved in for over thirty years. A decade later, Anna’s only son Samuel died in 1841. Samuel left behind his wife Eliza and his own young son.

    Anna’s Quaker faith remained a central tenet in her life. In the Hicksite West Lake Monthly Meeting, Anna continued on as an overseer and elder, even travelling on a religious visit with Margaret Brewer in 1836 to Friends in Philadelphia and New York.[5] Anna was active in the West Lake meeting into her old age, and was last recorded as an elder in 1860, just three years before she died at the age of eighty-nine.

    Screen Shot 2020-07-09 at 5.15.50 PM
    A photo of the Cronk home in Sophiasburgh (photo found in Margaret McBurney’s Homesteads, 54).

    [1] Information on Anna Solmes and her family can be found in the Herbert Clarence Burleigh Fonds, folder 2324, box 12.2, file 5.

    [2] Margaret McBurney, Homesteads: Early Buildings and Families from Kingston to Toronto (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 52.

    [3] Leslie R. Gray, ed. “Phoebe Roberts’ Diary of A Quaker Missionary Journey to Upper Canada.” Ontario History 42 (1950): 24.

    [4] West Lake Monthly Meeting Women (Orthodox) 1828-1851 (C-4-1), 15 January 1829.

    [5] West Lake Monthly Meeting Women (Hicksite) 1825-1851 (H-11-5) 18 May 1836.

  • Randy Saylor presents Guide to Quaker Sources to Quinte branch of Ontario Ancestry

    Randy Saylor has supported CFHA in many ways. He initiated the CFHA website and served many years as webmaster. He also initiated in Canada collaborative internet transcription of Quaker minute books, a project he continues to administer. A Quaker descendant himself, Randy has spent decades researching and writing about diverse aspects of Quaker experience. To assist other researchers, some years ago Randy compiled a guide to understanding the structure and availability of Quaker records. Who better than to provide a virtual presentation on the subject to the Quinte branch of Ontario Ancestry this past weekend?

    Over 80 participants logged in on June 20th to the presentation. Randy first acquainted the viewers with the hierarchal structure of Quaker meetings and the interlocking nature of their records which results. This provides viewers a good sense of how records of activity related to membership, marriage or disownment. For example, records can originate in a smaller local “Preparative” meeting and then advance upward to then also appear in subsequent records of the “Monthly’” meeting and on, in some cases, to the “Quarterly”, “Half-Yearly”, and Yearly meeting sessions respectively. Likewise, the written decisions, financial requirements, epistles, and amendments to the book of Discipline moved the other way through the successive superior meetings back down to the local Preparative meeting, being duly recorded at every stage. These records were supplemented by those of communications such as certificates of removal, that were exchanged directly between meetings. The net effect has been a boon to researchers as some aspects of the historical information may be preserved somewhere in the document chain even if a particular minute book may have been lost or destroyed.

    Randy made use of various charts of the historical meetings under the care of New York Yearly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to show how extensive the Quaker presence had been in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Arthur Dorland charts of initial to early 20th century meetings in Canada were used to show the numerous meetings which existed in the greater Quinte area. These were in a band extending from Adolphustown in the east through Prince Edward County to Cold Creek meeting (present day Wooler Monthly Meeting), the only surviving meeting, in the west.

    Randy was able to draw upon his own family history to illustrate some aspects of Quaker practice and principles. His Quaker ancestor Jemima Hubbs was disowned from her local meeting when she “married out” to captain Charles Saylor. Such “going out of the good order of our Society” could be remedied by providing the meeting with a written acknowledgement of error. Like many other Quaker women in like circumstances, Jemima provided the requisite letter and was restored into membership.

    Randy provided a tour of the CFHA website, including the many searchable transcriptions of local Quaker minute books available on the site. Participants were also provided access to Randy’s recently updated Quaker research guide. This useful aid to researchers is available on the CFHA website.

    The presentation was illustrated with some 20 slides in a PowerPoint format. The PowerPoint and text of the presentation has been posted on the Quinte branch website and can be accessed here: https://vimeo.com/431945751/f2828d0745

    Also available on the CFHA website are two presentations Randy made at CFHA events in recent months: “Quaker to Slave Master”, and “Quakers Who Were United Empire Loyalists: An Exploration.” Both are well researched, detailed explorations which extend and clarify unexpected aspects of Quaker experience.

    Anyone interested in joining the transcription group is invited to contact [email protected] for more information.

    Comments on the webinar given by the Quinte Branch can be found here: https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/2020/06/22/early-quakers-in-upper-canada-notes-by-randy-saylor/

    Screen Shot 2020-06-30 at 8.21.25 PM
    A History of Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada, A.G. Dorland, MacMillan, 1927