The London & Middlesex Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is hosting an upcoming presentation tomorrow by Dave Zavitz on the history of Coldstream Friends. Join them this Saturday, January 7th, at 10am eastern time. This is a hybrid presentation, so you can register to attend over Zoom, or in person if you’re in the London, ON, area.
In this presentation, Dave Zavitz will cover the following questions:
Who are the Society of Friends (Quakers) and what do they believe?
What form does their worship take?
How did the village of Coldstream come about and develop: Meeting House, burying ground, local business and industries
Who were the main forces behind the development and how did they help shape this community: Education, literacy, communication, social & family?
Hugh Webster Zavitz (1854 – 1943) was a member of Coldstream Preparative and Lobo Monthly Meeting. His diaries, held by the Canadian Quaker Archives and Library, detail his life in the community of Coldstream. Jane Zavitz Bond was given Hugh’s diaries by his son, Vincent Zavitz. Jane writes, “We are grateful for Hugh Webster’s care over many years, knowing that he jotted down the key events of the day. Surely there were omissions, but this is a valuable skeletal fossil record.”
Thanks to Hugh’s records, we have a glimpse into how he and his family spent over twenty-five Christmas days. He commented on his daily chores, the weather, the health of his family, and attending meetings.
Hugh’s Christmases consisted of chopping wood, threshing peas and oats, visiting family, husking corn, making soap, and splitting wood. He noted oyster suppers, turkey dinners, and plum pudding. Gifts were seldom mentioned, though he recorded receiving mittens, a lantern, and a generous present of $500 from his mother in 1895. As part of the First Day School committee, he also attended a philanthropic meeting on peace and arbitration in 1892, and in 1898 another philanthropic session on peace where “the subject of temperance also claimed a share of our attention.”
Logging Sleigh in the Woods, c. 1890 Ontario
Hugh’s records can be read below.
1874 – Friday, December 25, 1874
Jonah was drawing saw logs to day he took down 24 logs today Father and I were choping some it was a very fine day for Christmas Mary Elizabeth was here yesterday and today.
1875 – Saturday, December 25
This has been a green Christmas as the snow is all gone except some drifts and the frost nearly all out of the ground Grand Mother is some better today.
1876 – Monday, December 25
Our folks all went over to uncle Samuels except Joah and I we were threshing peas and this evening us young folks were up to George Zavitz (except Jonah) and had a splendid good time uncle James arrived this evening.
1877 – Tuesday, December 25
We were threshing on the Haight place threshed 2 bush oats and Jonah was helping Samuel P. thresh this afternoon Willie and Phebe and a party of little folks here today which was very pleasant Charlie Vail is here this evening so ends a Merry Christmas.
1878 – Wednesday, December 25
Went to meeting and us young folks spent the afternoon and evening at Franks Eugene and Libbie Marion & Martha, Ella, Wellington, Laura were there also and had a very pleasant time.
1879 – Thursday, December 25
Amelia Mercy Jonah and I went up to uncle Elijahs this P.M. and spent the day and then spent the evening at Edmond Henrys. Dan was choping.
1880 – Saturday, December 25
Drew out two loads of wood this morning then we went over to Father’s. Uncle Merritt aunt Emily uncle James, Dellie & uncle Samuel’s there. Called on Lexie in the evening.
1882 – Monday, December 25
Carrie & Libbie washed. Husking corn. Edgar called with bills for the next lecture.
1884 – Thursday, December 25
Spent Christmas at Fathers. Uncle Zachariahs Tamer Daniel P. Emily and a cousin of theirs Kitty Shotwell were there also.
1885 – Friday, December 25
Colder and pleasant. I have been getting wood in the wood house, and spent a very pleasant Christtmas have been burning the big elm top that fell in the corn field in the summer.
1886 – Saturday, December 25
Spent Christmas at Fathers. Uncle Samuels and Melvin and Mercy there also and uncle Zacharia & Tamer. Spent a very pleasant day.
1887 – Sunday, December 25
Georgia went to meeting with Jonahs and our team. After meeting they came this way and we all went over to Fathers to an Oyster dinner uncle Samuels were there also. had a very pleasant time. Carrie went by covering her head to keep from the wind mild and snowing.
1888 – Tuesday, December 25
A rainy Christmas. We took Jonah & Emily over to Father’s Uncle Samuel’s there. Elma came home with us. Aunt Lexy brought over a present for each of us – mittens for self &c
1889 – 12-24 – 3 rd day
Helping prepare a Christmas tree to surprise the children. Libbie came this morning. Rainy. Joseph took all the children over to Walters. Walter called. After supper we had a nice little tree with presents on it for all. Frank came at night.
12-25 – 4 th day. Grand father and Grand mother and Walter Phebe & Rebecca here to dinner. Uncle John called in the P.M. We have spent a very pleasant Christmas. Weather quite mild.
1890 – Thursday, December 25
All spent Christmas at Fathers. Uncle Zachariah Tamer Thomas and Emily there also and we had a very pleasant time. Jonahs went over with us. I got 2 pairs of mittens and a lantern for my Christmas.
1891 – 12-25 Xmas. 6th day
All over to Fathers to dinner. Uncle Zachariah and family there and Annie McGilvery also, had a very pleasant time. warm and muddy.
1892 – 12-25 First day
Christmas, All but Carrie Vincent went to meeting. Father Mother and Phebe took dinner with us and we all but Carrie attended the Philanthropic meeting on Peace and Arbitration in the P.M. in place of the F.D.S. which was good. A very snowy stormy day.
1893 – 12-25
Christmas Father and Mother spent the day with us. Lexie & Annie took dinner with us. Father helped clean some more of the clover seed and started to run off the leach to make soap A warm pleasant day.
1894 – 12-25 3rd day
All went to Jonahs to spend Christmas Uncle Eli and Aunt Mary were there they came yesterday. Lexie and Annie were there also and Tommy Tompkins. We had a Christmas tree and got a good many presents. Uncle Zachariah & Tamer were there also. Colder today and a little snow flying but the ground is bare.
1895 — 12-25 4th day
All went to meeting Lexie going with us, and we all went to Jonahs to a Christmas dinner of turkey. Uncle Ambros Tamer and Katie Shotwell there also. Had a pleasant time. I went to the P.O. and got a letter for Carrie from Mother containing $500 Quite a Christmas present. Warm and pleasant no frost or snow.
1896 – 12-25 6th day
Splitting wood in the wood house and choring.
1897 – 12-25 7th day
Christmas All went over and spent the day at Fathers Lexie and Annie going along. Tamer did not come back with us, it has been pleasant to have her here with us. A pleasant day but miss the dear one who has passed on.
1898 – 12-25 First day
All went to meeting and in the P.M. attended the Philanthropic session on Peace. The subject of temperance also claimed a share of our attention.
1899 – 12-25 2nd day
All went out to Ceaf Cissons to spend Xmas The Bond and Cisson families well represented. about 30 there to eat turkey Plumb Pudding &c. Had a very nice time. went in the sleigh.
1900 – 12-25 3rd day
Christmas, Sarah Ethel and I went to Amos Wiltons to spend the day. About 30 there of their relatives and a pleasant time had turkey Edward & Bertha went the eve before
Hugh Webster Zavitz’s diaries are held at the Canadian Quaker Archives and Library. Sheila Harvard transcribed the diaries and Randy Saylor prepared them for posting.
Thank you to Carman Foster for transcribing the minutes and to Randy Saylor for overseeing the transcription process. The CFHA is grateful for their generous donation and time.
Beginning in 1845, this Orthodox-held minute book details the business of Pickering Monthly, reorganized in 1842 by the Canada Half Yearly Meeting to combine Uxbridge and Pickering. Meetings were held alternatively at both the Uxbridge and Pickering meeting houses. According to Arthur Dorland, Pickering Monthly Meeting changed to Pickering Executive in 1886 due to the general decline of the meeting and the movement of younger generations to other districts.[1]
Pickering Township was settled by families from Yonge Street, most notably Timothy Rogers. In 1809, Rogers and his family left Yonge Street and settled at Duffin’s Creek. Friends in the area were devastated soon after by an epidemic in 1809–1810 that killed many. At the end of 1810, Rogers returned to the United States and brought back with him more friends to settle the area.
Photo of the Uxbridge Meeting House, May 2019. Photo courtesy of the Uxbridge Quaker Meeting House Facebook page.
Photo of the Pickering Meeting House, built in 1867. The brick building replaced the former two-story meeting house, used from 1833–1866. Photo courtesy of Ajax.ca
[1] Arthur G. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada: A History, 2nd ed. (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1968), 174.
The new Executive Committee of the Canadian Friends Historical Association invites all interested parties to participate in a broad ranging session to help determine the future direction of CFHA. Rob Leverty, the Executive Director of the Ontario Historical Society, who has considerable experience with organizations like ours, will be present to help facilitate the discussion, and provide information.
The virtual session will take place on Zoom – Saturday, October 22nd at 1pm Eastern Time. Zoom link to follow.
At this time of transition, we are faced with some important questions and considerations:
While we are blessed with some people willing to serve on the Executive Committee, we do not at present have people willing and able to assume the offices (chair, treasurer, publications officer) that our charter outlines. How might we address this situation?
Despite gearing back on expenditures, we continue on a course where our spending is outpacing our income at what might be considered a dangerous rate. What is the best way to address this?
With full respect to all of those who have made significant and even sacrificial contributions to CFHA, is it time to ask whether our lifespan run its course? Interest in Quaker heritage may be waning among progressives, and the number of interested parties may no longer be adequate to support the Association (both in terms of volunteer participation, and in terms of financial support).
Might we envision CFHA as a separate chapter of the Friends Historical Association (run out of Philadelphia—not clear what this would mean for our charitable tax status in Canada), or as an arm of CQLA, in order to share administrative costs and be part of something larger and more sustainable?
In lieu of adequate volunteer support (which would be the ideal), how do we continue hiring people to get the work done? Do we, for example, need to replace Chris when he leaves us as our ongoing administrative assistant, or could we hire someone on an “as needed” basis for specific tasks? (For example, hire an accountant for a couple days a year to prepare our financial statements and file our tax returns.)
What responsibility do we have to our members? The meaning of membership changed when we went digital: one does not need to be a member to access materials. We have not recently been offering the annual historical trips, in-person gatherings, or lunches (especially since Covid). With activities moving online, our historic meeting houses may not be as big a part of our lives. What can/should we revive, and what should we let drop permanently? What new initiatives might we undertake to energize and serve our membership?
Please consider participating in this important event!
CFHA is pleased to share information regarding the following event.
Please join the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists (CQHA) on three days in October for a set of virtual sessions foregrounding expanded approaches to the study of Quaker history and culture. The sessions are held over Zoom and there is no cost to attend. Registration is via Eventbrite.
CQHA’s October sessions have been chosen with a focus on interpretive approaches in mind. In each, CQHA is delighted to welcome both emerging and established practitioners in their areas of Quaker scholarship. Short CQHA informational briefings and the biennial CQHA business meeting will also be held as part of these sessions.
The sessions are scheduled for October 12, 19, and 26, beginning at 12:30 pm EDT. They are:
Graphic Novels: Quakers in Pictures and Print Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Marcus Rediker,Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh
David Lester, Artist and musician (Mecca Normal) in Vancouver, Canada, and graphic novelist of Prophet against Slavery
Will Fenton, Associate Director, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University
Katelyn L. Lucas, Tribal Historic Preservation Assistant for Delaware Nation and PhD Candidate, Temple University
Dash Shaw, American comic book writer/artist and animator, and cartoonist of Discipline (2021) published by the New York Review Comics
Description:
This session focuses on three historical graphic novels to consider issues of interpretation in presenting the Quaker past through the lens of graphic or visual presentation. David Lester and Marcus Rediker will discuss the collaboration of artist and historian in the making of Prophet against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, A Graphic Novel (Beacon Press, 2021), a graphic adaptation of Rediker’s biography of Benjamin Lay. Katelyn Lucas and Will Fenton will share insights from Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga (Library Company of Philadelphia, 2019), which reimagines the Paxton massacres of 1763 as an educational graphic novel, introducing new interpreters and new bodies of evidence to highlight Indigenous victims and their kin. Dash Shaw’s presentation will detail his process and the historical materials and references for Discipline (New York Review Comics, 2021), a graphic novel about a Quaker soldier in the American Civil War, which incorporates Civil War-era Quaker letters and diary entries. Together these presentations will give insights into innovative ways of engaging and imagining the Quaker past.
CQHA: A short briefing on CQHA and upcoming business will follow the presentation.
Thought and Action in Decolonizing Practices: A Conversation Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Sa’ed Atshan, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Anthropology, Emory University
Paula Palmer, Co-Director of Toward Right Relationship, a project of the Indigenous Peoples Concerns committee of the Boulder Friends Meeting
Tanya Maus (moderator), Director, Peace Resource Center and Director, Quaker Heritage Center, Wilmington College
Description:
Focusing on academic practice and activism, this panel is devoted to a dialogue between Sa’ed Atshan and Paula Palmer regarding their interventions into upholding and uplifting the rights of first peoples and colonized peoples. Tanya Maus will moderate. Atshan’s scholarship has brought into focus the trauma of Palestinian identities including Queer and Quaker Palestinians as well as the potential for intersectional activism and solidarity among various constituents. Palmer’s lifework and activism have focused on the rights of Indigenous peoples. She witnesses the roles Quakers played in colonization and the forced assimilation of native children by means of the Quaker industrial boarding schools. Through dialogue, both participants will focus on the relationship between thought and practice, the various meanings of decolonization within the context of their work, and the necessity of restorative justice.
CQHA: A short briefing on CQHA and upcoming business will precede the presentation.
Esther Sahle, Research Associate in Global History, Freie Universität Berlin
Michael F. Suarez, S.J., Professor of English and Director of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia
James Truitt, Senior Archives Technician, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Description:
New attention to network analysis in the humanities has invited new opportunities to explore the dense set of religious, economic, and social interconnections that characterize historical Quakerism. In this session, Esther Sahle will revisit what we know on the development and significance of Quaker business networks, contextualizing them within broader social and economic developments of the long eighteenth century. Michael Suarez will discuss the essential role played by Transatlantic Quaker networks in the campaign to abolish the slave trade, c.1787–1807. James Truitt will introduce participants to Friendly Networks, an online project that maps social networks within archival sources using the journals of eighteenth-century New Jersey minister John Hunt together with EAC-CPF and TEI, widely-used standards for authority control and text encoding.
CQHA: The biennial CQHA Business Meeting will follow the presentation.
Please see CQHA’s website for full information, or contact the organizers by email at [email protected].
Recently, the paper NewmarketToday shared an article about the historic Ebenezer Doan House by Newmarket resident and local historian Richard MacLeod. The article discusses the house’s Quaker origins as well as its more recent history as the Doane House Hospice. The article can be read on the NewmarketToday website.
For those interested in more Doan Quaker connections, the blog has featured in the past articles on Hannah Doan Lundy (1812–1901), an important figure in the Children of Peace schism, and James Doan (1846–1916), who created the popular nineteenth-century brand Doan’s Kidney Pills.
Ebenezer Doan, who the Ebenezer Doane House is named after. Photo from the Sharon Temple Museum Archives.
The following report is from the Archives Committee of Canadian Yearly Meeting, shared with the CFHA in light of our upcoming Annual General Meeting on September 24th.
2022 08 04
To Friends in Canadian Yearly Meeting and beyond
We send loving greetings from the annual gathering of the Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) Archives Committee at the Canadian Quaker Library and Archives (CQLA) and Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario.
We gathered for a day and a half with most of our Ontario members on site and those of us further afield joining via zoom. We are delighted actually to be in the CQLA for the first time as a committee. This reflects the lightening of limitations of the Covid pandemic. We are truly grateful to Pickering College not only for their long term hosting of the CQLA but also for welcoming us here this weekend including providing accommodation for those staying overnight.
We have the gift and privilege of being responsible, on behalf of the CYM Board of Trustees, for the right holding and care of the historical records of Canadian Yearly Meeting, of Canadian Monthly Meetings and individual Canadian Quakers. This work has most recently been tasked to us by Canadian Yearly Meeting during our Reporting and Clearness session held in February 2020.
A renewed agreement with Pickering College enables us to appreciate the College’s significant contribution to Canadian Yearly Meeting. It provides climate controlled space in our Library and Vault, and support from their custodial, reception and Information Technology departments, amongst others. We appreciate that we and local Quakers support the College’s Quaker values and provide resources for the Quaker and social justice studies of interested teachers and students.
We are delighted to have heard of work being done by friends in Kenya and other parts of Africa to create their own African Quaker archives so that they, rather than colonial counties, are the keepers of their Quaker history.
On tour of the Library and Archives vault, led by our CYM Archivist Michelle Tolley, has enabled us to appreciate the work that has been accomplished over the past year, yet to see how much remains to be done for us to be faithful to the responsibilities entrusted to us. We are guided in our work by the five year goals approved by CYM during our Reporting and Clearness and the Turner Report.[1] The Turner Report, from the two-week evaluation of the CQLA by James Turner, Archives Committee member and retired professor of library and archival studies, identified short, medium and long term recommendations needing to be implemented. However, some of these need time.
We are developing new ways for accessing records in our vault by use of a program, ArchivesSpace. It is a medium term project to move information about all records in the vault onto ArchivesSpace. This will make searches for information much easier including being able to search for materials that are stored in several places. We are working to renew and expand CQLA pages on the CYM website. We are doing initial exploration of the multi-year task of digitizing our collection so that it can be much more accessible to Friends in Canada and around the world. A first step was all of us attending a workshop on digitization so that we all can understand the power yet complexities of combining technology and history. We are extending our relationships with others interested in Canadian Quaker history such as the Canadian Friends Historical Association (CFHA).
We are grateful to all the Meetings and other who have deposited records with the CQLA this year! We encourage Monthly Meetings and CYM Committees to let us know how else we may serve them. The CQLA holds histories of Friends in Canada going back to the 1790s. We remind Friends that the tides of history continue and encourage ways of recording this so that Friends of the future may know Friends of today. This treasure trove holds wonderful resources for sharing the history of Quakerism in Canada, including the witness of Friends during many social justice campaigns, for us in religious education. We appreciate the requests we have received so far this year and welcome more!
We are aware of the significant challenges of maintaining the funding needed for the CQLA to continue its work. We appreciate the flexibility confirmed by the Clerks of CYM to enable us to extend our search for funds. We are exploring avenues both within and beyond Quaker sources. We ask Friends to hold this in the Light believing that we are entrusted custodians not only for Canadian Quakers but for wider Quaker and Canadian communities for these important records. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve in this ministry, one that brings us joy and laughter as well as challenges! We look forward to continuing this work confident in finding Way opening as we move ahead.
Please be reminded that this Saturday, the 24th of September, we will hold:
THE 50th ANNIVERSARY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF
THE CANADIAN FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Zoom invitation forthcoming on Friday!
From 1-2 p.m. Eastern (Toronto) time we will conduct our business.
From 2:30-3:30 our annual lecture will be presented by former and oncoming member of the Executive Committee, Kyle Jolliffe, who will provide us with “a look back at the first year of the Canadian Friend,” with a brief response by the current editor of the CF, Tim Kits.
CFHA is in a time of transition, so please consider joining the new Executive as a volunteer, and help continue and move forward the work of our Association.
Thank you to Carman Foster for transcribing the minutes, and to Randy Saylor for overseeing the transcription process. The CFHA is grateful for their generous donation and time.
This minute book follows the minutes from the Norwich Monthly Meeting, 1834 – 1852. Both books were held by Orthodox Friends. Like many meeting minutes, the transcript reports on the general state of the meeting, as well as meeting business.
The township of Norwich was originally settled by Quakers when Peter Lossing and his brother-in-law Peter DeLong purchased 15,000 acres of land in 1810. A year later, a group of Quaker families from Duchess County, New York, moved with Lossing to the area.
According to Arthur Dorland, the earliest families in the area included the Lossings, DeLongs, Moores, Curtises, Stovers, and Lancasters.[1] They were closely followed by the McLees, Sackridges, Cornwells, McAuleys, Palmers, Siples, and the Hillikers.[2] A meeting was set up in the home of Joseph Lancaster in 1812, and by 1819, Norwich became its own monthly meeting, no longer under the authority of Pelham Monthly.
Photo of the “Old Brick” Quaker meeting house in Norwich, first built in 1850. The building was demolished in 1949. Photo courtesy of the Norwich and District Museum and Archives.
[1] Arthur Dorland, The Quakers in Canada: A History (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1968), 84.
[2] Mary Beth Start, “Peaceable Kingdom – Unsound Friends: Norwich Monthly Meeting Divided,” Canadian Quaker History Journal 75 (2010): 3.
CQHA’s 
