Registration for this year’s Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists (CQHA) is now open. The conference is taking place online June 24–26 and is free for everyone to attend. Information on the conference can be found here, and you can register directly here.
The conference will take place between approximately11:00 am – 4:00 pm EDT each daywith built in time for breaks, and will be held over Zoom.
Presentations at CQHA, organized into thematic sessions, address aspects of Quaker history across all time periods and locations. Since this year’s program builds on the postponed 2020 conference that would have taken place at Earlham College in Indiana, the program includes several presentations related to Quakers and the American Midwest. In addition, CQHA has been able to take advantage of the virtual format to invite colleagues from several continents to participate in a series of special sessions on historiography and archives in Quaker historical studies. To view the conference’s full program, click here.
CQHA is a biennial conference which operates under the auspices of the Friends Historical Association (FHA) which focuses on the history of Quakers and Quakerism. It is organized by a steering committee appointed by the conference group during the biennial concluding business session.
Assemblee des Quakers a Londres by A. Moubach, 1727-1738
Picture of James Doan in the Weston-super-Mare Gazette, Somerset, England, “James Doan and Aunty Rogers,” 18 January 1902.
Doan’s Kidney Pills, a widely used brand of pills that gained popularity throughout the United States and Britain in the early twentieth century, claimed Canadian Quaker origins in their advertising. The pills were said to help a number of ‘female complaints,’ including kidney disease, back pain, nervousness, headaches, and restlessness. A 1902 advertisement for the pills in the Weston-super-Mare Gazette (Somerset, EN) stated, “You can be well, if you will treat the cause, as the Quakers did, and cure the kidneys.”[1]
The pills were created by James Doan (1846–1916), a druggist from Kingsville, Ontario. James Doan was the eighth child of Amos and Margaret Ann Doan, who were members of the Yonge Street Meeting. According to the Doane Family Book, James’ father Amos came to Upper Canada in 1808 with his parents, Joseph and Mary Doan, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.[2]
James Doan claimed to be given the formula for the pills from ‘Aunty Mary Rogers.’ While little information is given about Mary Rogers, it’s likely James is referring to Mary Finch Rogers. Mary Finch and her husband Augustus Rogers were Orthodox Friends, part of the Yonge Street Preparative Meeting.[3] Their fifth child, Nelson S. Rogers, married Elizabeth Doan, the sister of James Doan. This made ‘Aunty Rogers’ not James’ actual aunt, but his sister’s mother-in-law.
Photo of a 1930s jar of ‘Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills.’ Item from the Wyndham and District Historical Museum, photo courtesy of nzmuseums.co.nz.
In a 1900 advertisement, the story of how Aunty Rogers’s formula came to James Doan is given:
Many years ago there lived in a quiet country town in Canada, an old Quaker lady who was affectively known as Aunty Rogers. She had acquired great skill in compounding medicines from certain roots and herbs, the curative properties of which she knew full well, and many are the stories they tell to-day in Ontario of her wonderful cures. Chief among them was a recipe for curing Kidney Disease, an ailment that was then playing sad havoc with the farmers round about, who were compelled to work exposed to all sorts of weather, and many an hour of suffering was saved, and many a life snatched from the very grace, by what came to be known as Aunty Rogers’ Kidney Care.
Now it happened when folks were flocking from far and near to beg of Aunty Rogers some of her kidney cure, that the fame of her preparation reached the ears of Mr. James Doan, the eminent specialist of Kingsville. He obtained some of Aunty Rogers’ preparation, and his superior knowledge of medicine told him at once that she and made a most valuable discovery.[4]
The image of ‘Aunty Rogers, the Quakeress,’ was often used in advertisements for the pills. Illustrations of her at her home in Stayner, Ontario were included, highlighting her faith background. Though Doan sold rights to the medication in 1894, Doan’s Kidney Pills continued to use a maple leaf logo for decades and traced its origins to Aunty Rogers. A version of Doan’s Kidney Pills can still be purchased today.
Illustration of ‘Aunty Rogers’ in The Jersey Weekly Press and Independent, 14 April 1900, pg 14.
[1] “James Doan and Aunty Rogers,” Weston-super-Mare Gazette, Somerset, 18 January 1902, pg 10.
[2] Alfred Alder Doane, The Doane Family: 1. Deacon John of Doane, of Plymouth; II. Doctor John Done, of Maryland; And Their Descendants. With Notes Upon English Families of the Name (Salem, MA: Salem Press Co., 1902), 223.
[3] Augustus and Mary Rogers are listed as the parents of Augustus Rogers in the Newmarket Monthly Meeting Membership Roll, Box 41-1. Available here: https://cfha.info/NewmarketBotsford041-1.pdf. Mary’s husband, Augustus, was very active in the Yonge St Preparative Meeting from 1823 until his death in 1858.
[4]“Aunty Rogers, the Quakeress: The History of a Famous Medicine,” The Jersey Weekly Press and Independent, 14 April 1900, pg 14.
In the 1820s, North American Quakers were locked in disputes that divided the Religious Society of Friends in the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827–28. In the years preceding the separation, several influential English Quaker ministers—especially women—dedicated themselves to travelling throughout North America trying to correct what they saw as the flawed doctrine espoused by Friends known as Hicksites. The Hicksites were not followers of the Long Island Quaker minister Elias Hicks (1748–1830) who had traveled throughout the North American meetings in the early nineteenth century critiquing contemporary Quakerism and the “worldly spirit” that had grown among Friends. Hicksites were unified by their commitment to the ongoing revelation of the Inner Light instead of specific doctrine determined by an external source. Their detractors, the Orthodox, were committed to evangelical doctrines including the deity of Christ, the infallibility of scripture, and the atonement. Both sides claimed to represent genuine Quakerism and the disputes between the factions were extremely nasty. Orthodox English ministers crossed the Atlantic and stepped into this fray visiting individuals, families, and all levels of meetings trying to eradicate Hicksite doctrine.
Elizabeth Stephenson Robson (1771–1843) was prominent among these English ministers. She departed Liverpool on 16 August 1824 aboard the Montezuma arriving in Philadelphia on 30 September.[1] Four years later, on 27 July 1828, Robson began her return journey from Philadelphia to Liverpool on the same vessel.[2] Between 1824 and 1828 she logged over 18,000 miles of travel, attended 1,134 meetings, and recorded 3,592 family visits. It was a remarkable feat! Robson was fifty-three years old when she left England. She crossed the Atlantic alone. While her five older children were independent adults, her husband Thomas Robson (1768–1852) remained in Liverpool to care for their two younger daughters who were seven and eight years old respectively. Robson had no idea when, or if, she would see any of them again.
Robson meticulously recorded her travel and visitation itinerary, detailing the number of miles she travelled each day, the families or meetings she visited, and where she lodged. She also wrote lengthy letters to her family and journaled when she was able to do so. Her collected papers are extensive; they have been carefully curated by her descendants and are housed at the Library of the Society of Friends (LSF) in London, England.
Collage of Elizabeth Robson’s diaries at Friends House Library, London. Photo courtesy of FHL.
Some of her letters and related papers are also housed at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College (FHLSC). Each of these two Quaker archives holds one of the two extant silhouettes of Robson. Despite the commentary accompanying the silhouette at the LSF in London, it seems unlikely that the LSF silhouette represents Robson at age seventy-two. Compare it to the silhouette at FHLSC, which is dated as circa 1835. It is possible that the FHLSC silhouette, which is together with a silhouette of her Robson’s husband Thomas, was created in 1838 when Robson had returned to the United States this time accompanied by her husband. If the FHLSC represents Elizabeth Robson in her mid-sixties, the FHL silhouette cannot be from 1843 since the FHL silhouette appears to represent a younger Robson than that captured in the FHLSC silhouette.
Silhouette of Elizabeth Stephenson Robson [1843] held by Friends House Library, London. Photo by Robynne Rogers Healey.Silhouette of Elizabeth Robson c. 1835 held by Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Photo courtesy of FHLSC.
After arriving in Philadelphia in 1824, one of Robson’s first destinations was Upper Canada. The first two weeks after her arrival may have included acclimatizing herself to Philadelphia, meeting with Orthodox Friends and acquainting herself with the situation in the North American meetings, and preparing for the extended journey north. On October 12 Robson recorded attending her first meetings in and around Philadelphia. Then, on October 16, accompanied by Jane Bettle, wife of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Clerk Samuel Bettle, Robson left Philadelphia on route to Upper Canada. Presumably, Robson and Bettle were accompanied for parts of their journey by at least one male Friend who would have driven the buggy or sleigh that transported the pair. Robson’s diary contains comments on the quality of the road in various places highlighting some of the challenges of travel. For instance, the road between Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pennsylvania was “middling” while the road on Wolfe Island south of Kingston was “extreme bad.”[3] Commentary on local roads also featured prominently in Robson’s letters to her family in England.
It took three weeks for Robson and Bettle to travel the 528.5 miles (850.5 kilometers) between Philadelphia and Kingston.[4] I have roughly plotted Robson’s route north based on points noted in her diary.
Elizabeth Robson’s journey from Philadelphia to Kingston, Upper Canada, 16 October – 8 November 1824.
Because Robson visited as many Friends or Quaker meetings as possible, she did not track directly north. For instance, from Utica, New York, she went south to Bridgewater where she encountered her brother, Isaac Stephenson, another English minister travelling in North America. And from Le Ray, New York she travelled northeast to Indian River, also known as Philadelphia, New York before returning to Le Ray and continuing north where she crossed the St. Lawrence River and entered Upper Canada at Wolfe Island before being conveyed by boat into Kingston on November 8.
Robson was in Upper Canada for three months from 8 November 1824 until 10 February 1825 when she crossed back into the United States at Buffalo, New York. In those three months, she travelled through each of the three regions where Quakers had settled and monthly meetings had been established: Adolphustown/West Lake near Kingston on the Bay of Quinte; Yonge Street in the area around Newmarket and Uxbridge including Pickering east of York (Toronto) on Lake Ontario; and Pelham/Norwich on the Niagara Peninsula. In the Westlake and Yonge Street meetings especially, she participated in multiple family visitations each day; she attended every preparative meeting as she made her way across the colony; she attended monthly meetings and the Canada Half Years Meeting; and she held public meetings in Methodist or Presbyterian churches and school rooms. Robson’s list of families visited provides valuable insight into the make up of each preparative meeting in the colony. She also noted holding a public meeting at “the Mohawk Village” after which she commented that “Captain John Brant is the head counsel chief, [and] has nothing to do I understand with the war department.”[5]
At the end of the small journal that logged her travels through Upper Canada, Robson recorded “travelled 1226 miles [1973 kilometers] in Canada[,] had 70 meetings amongst Friends and others 26 of which were held from amongst Friends, paid 254 family visits.”[6] This note was made weeks after she departed the colony and may contain two errors. My own addition of Robson’s carefully itemized family visits among Upper Canadian Quakers is 245; it is possible that Robson came to the same calculation but transposed the last two numerals in recording them. Additionally, on 10 February—the day Robson entered Buffalo, New York—she inscribed the following up the side of her travel log: “attended 64 meetings in Upper Canada.” Even with the slightly smaller numbers of 245 family visits (instead of 254) and 64 meetings (instead of 70), Robson participated in 309 religious engagements in the space of ninety-four days. When one considers the added demands of winter travel between distant Upper Canadian meetings, it is apparent that Robson and her companion, Jane Bettle, kept a demanding pace that included few opportunities for rest.
Robson was clearly concerned about the state of the Upper Canadian meetings. She was particularly troubled by Pickering Preparative Meeting where Nicholas Brown had emerged as the leader of a strong Hicksite faction. Robson and Brown would cross paths a number of times in the years ahead, especially at New York Yearly Meeting sessions, but it was on her journey through Upper Canada that they first encountered one another. Robson’s efforts to impose doctrinal unity is reflected in the personal epistles she sent to both the Canada Half Years Meeting and the Pickering Preparative Meeting. Her epistle to the half years meeting reveals her discontent with the extent of Hicksite influence in Upper Canada:
it surely is for want of occupying faithfully with the gift of the Holy Spirit that blindness in part hath happened to Israel[.] When this individual and daily work is neglected, it produces weakness in the body at large and dimness of sight, hence wrong things creep in, the wine is mixed with water and the silver is become dross, this causes darkness which is to be felt in meetings for worship preventing the pure life from circulating as from vessel to vessel … I feel a near and tender sympathy with those who are ready like one formerly to utter this plaintive language, “the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much Rubbish,” permit me to remind you dear friends that in the first establishment of the wholesome discipline of our society it was said, that the power of Truth was to be the Authority of all our men’s and women’s meetings, as this power is waited for and above in Strength will be afforded to keep out wrong things by exercising the discipline duly and timely over disorderly walkers, thus out of weakness the Lord will make strong for his use[.][7]
In addressing Pickering Friends, she beseeched them to “dwell in love and true unity with each other as becometh the followers of Jesus Christ,” reminding them that “we should love one another with pure love, seeking not the hurt but the welfare of each other, then may all be concerned to look diligently least any root of bitterness springing up in any mind and therefore many be defiled.”[8] The actual separation was still years away but deep divisiveness was splitting meetings and communities.
Just before she left Upper Canada in February 1825, Robson also penned a private letter to a Canadian Friend. This letter may have been directed at Brown, although it could also have been sent to Peter Lossing from the Norwich Monthly Meeting. Robson began her missive, “I trust that in this thou wilt agree with me that it is right we should be honest with ourselves and with one another: this is what I desire to do.” She then reminded her letter’s recipient that “it was no small sacrifice for me to make, to leave my native country and tenderly beloved connexions in life to come to the Land to visit my brethren and sisters in religious membership, and being here and going from one meeting to another.”[9] Robson felt that her sacrifice entitled her to comment freely on the spiritual health of meetings and individuals and to assert her own Orthodox positions.
Ultimately, Robson and her British counterparts were unsuccessful in their efforts to stop the growing influence of the Hicksites. Nevertheless, the efforts of Robson and the other English ministers in Upper Canada in the years leading to the separation indicates how strongly integrated the Upper Canadian meetings were into North American Quakerism. Despite being located on the margins of both the North American and Transatlantic Quaker worlds, Upper Canadian Quakers were tightly connected and helped to shape the broader landscape in which they practiced their faith.
[1] Elizabeth Robson, Diary of Elizabeth Robson, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 131, LSF; Elizabeth Robson, American Diary 1824-1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 133, LSF.
[2] Diary of Elizabeth Robson, 1824–28, July 27, 1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson manuscripts, MS Vol S 133, LSF.
[3] Diary of Elizabeth Robson, MS Vol S 131, October 18, 1824, November 7, 1824.
[4] Elizabeth Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 132, LSF.
[5] Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825, back cover.
[6] Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825.
[7] Robson, To The Half Years Meeting held at West Lake in the Province of Upper Canada, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828.
[8] Elizabeth Robson, To Friends of Pickering Preparative Meeting, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 134, LSF
[9] Robson, Letter to a Friend, Queenston, 7th 2 Mo 1825, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828.
We are excited to share this guest post from Cathy Miles Grant about her father, Frank Miles. An American citizen at the time he served with the Friends Ambulance Unit in China, Frank Miles was naturalized Canadian after he and his wife Pat Miles moved to Canada in 1974. He served as General Secretary for Canadian Yearly Meeting from 1983 to 1989.
Service, Spiritual Gifts, and the 1993 Sunderland P. Gardner Lecture: Tapping reflections from a former volunteer with the Friends Ambulance Unit in China
By Cathy Grant Miles
I recently came upon a full audio recording[1] of the 1993 Sunderland P. Gardner Lecture, which featured a panel, four Canadians who volunteered with the Friends Ambulance Unit in China during the 1940s, reflecting on what their experiences had meant for them. “They spoke of the clearness of their discernment to take on this service, the life-long influence of this experience and of its effects on their spiritual life,” reported Elaine Bishop, Clerk of Canadian Yearly Meeting 1993.
1946 December – Frank Miles w. FAU Truck #23 Changte, now Anyang – Photo by Mark Shaw.
Three of the panelists, Gordon Keith, Ed Abbott, and Francis Starr, had served in China during World War II, the time of China’s “War of Resistance” against Japan. Chinese and Western Unit members teamed up to offer mobile medical aid and to transport, over rough mountain roads, some 80–90% of medical supplies entering Free China. This was “probably one of the most valuable single contributions of the Unit.”[2] Gordon Keith spoke of the significance of sharing and working and living together with the Chinese, solving problems together, “the feeling of understanding that sweeps through both people.”[3]
The last panelist, Frank Miles, chuckled that he was “the late arrival…the junior, the kid of this outfit” who’d only arrived in China in 1946.[4] He had begun his World War II years training to do relief and reconstruction work with German war refugees, until the US Congress withdrew authorization for conscientious objectors to go overseas. He was then assigned to Civilian Public Service camps,[5] where he performed work as a medical guinea pig, a psychiatric hospital aide, and a labourer in a national park, all of which seemed “very ordinary, undramatic, in a world that was full of destruction and great need.”[6] By the time the young medical mechanic landed in Shanghai in September 1946, he was chomping at the bit to do his part for lasting peace. Instead, he walked into a rising civil war.
1947 July – MT-19 & Li Jinpei and Li Chia Ke J’ai, interpreters – Photo by Douglas Clifford.
The Unit made every effort to offer its medical and rehabilitation services to people on both sides of the political conflict, through the work of its small teams of Chinese and Western associates. They persevered despite acute limitations in supplies and personnel, long periods of isolation and, at times, threats to their own life and limb. They were ever conscious that they could only meet a fraction of the need.
1947 July – Frank Miles fitting wooden leg to Nationalist boy soldier Li Jia Geichai – Photo by Douglas Clifford.
But the searing divides of the Civil War, itself embedded in and inflamed by world conflict, imprinted itself heavily on the work of the Unit. Frank was serving as Unit Chair, based in Shanghai, when Mao’s Communists claimed victory. With Washington refusing to recognize the new communist regime, the Unit’s attempts at neutrality were increasingly interpreted as indifference or, worse, passive resistance. At the time he left China, in April 1950, he scrawled out a note: “The past four months have been just about as difficult as any I’ve passed through and I do need some time to get transitioned around.”[7]The Unit closed its doors in China, the Korean War broke out, and for nearly three decades Cold War hostilities prevented contact across the Bamboo Curtain.
At the 1993 lecture for Canadian Friends, Frank Miles told his audience that, for him, the Unit’s work had ended “with a distinct sense of failure and disappointment.” But he had also come away humbled by the Chinese people with their long history and their rich heritage, their courage and perseverance in facing extremely difficult circumstances, the ways they responded to a simple and direct message and took destiny in their hands. “God’s purpose is made known in many ways outside the Christian tradition of which we are part,” he reflected.
Frank Miles’s time in China was not the heroic service he had pictured when he entered the Unit. Still, he said, “I learned a lesson in patience, to wait for the Way to open, and to feel the bonds of common experience with those around me who were also blocked from proceeding as expected.”
1948 March – Villagers carrying hospital’s ONAN 2kw generator from Xia Beitai – Photo by Douglas Clifford.
1948 March – International Peace Hospital Nurses and xiao gui crossing stream near San Jiao – Photo by Douglas Clifford
1948 March – Doctors Li Bing & Doug Clifford, Hsia Pai T’ai – Photo by Douglas Clifford.
1948 September – Unit principal interpreter Yu Jinlong & Frank Miles in front of “free religion” & “protect foreigners” slogan – Photo by Douglas Clifford.
1978 – Reunion Dr. Doug Clifford, Li Bing (Vice-Director, Cancer Institute and Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing), Frank Miles – Photo by Frank Miles.
Way did open, over time. In 1978 the Chinese Ministry of Health invited Frank and the other members of the Unit’s Medical Team 19 to visit China and to reestablish contact with the Chinese personnel from the First International Peace Hospital with whom they had formed a mobile medical unit that moved through the “Liberated Areas” of Shaanxi and Shanxi after they evacuated from Mao’s base in Yan’an in March 1947.
The renewal of friendships and contacts allowed Frank and Pat Miles and a small group of other Canadians to facilitate education in Canada for three young adult offspring of Chinese colleagues who had lost six years of training to the Cultural Revolution. This paved the way for Frank and Pat to teach English conversation in Zhengzhou, in Henan Province where Frank had begun his work in China, for three months in 1992. That reciprocity continues to this day as I and other Chinese and Western sons and daughters of former Unit members collaborate to piece together and share this story.
8. 1978 – MT-19 reunion in China 1978. Panel from exhibit at Xi’an’s Eighth Route Army Museum.
“God’s final purpose is not carried out in one or many lifetimes,” Frank told his audience at the 1993 Sunderland P. Gardner lecture. “One’s life is very small, but we each play a vital role in being part of that purpose, as we stay in tune, by searching in a spirit of worship day by day, we do what is demanded of us and we are led to a sense of fulfillment in our lives.”[8]
2016 April – Cathy Miles Grant and Li Gang (son Li Jingpei, MT-19 interpreter), at Xi’an’s Eighth Route Army Museum exhibition about the Friends Ambulance Unit.
Eighth Route Army Museum, Xi’an – Excerpt from press packet.
Catherine Miles Grant is writing a book, Leap of Faith: A Pacifist in China During the Years of Revolution — 1946-1950, based on her father Frank Miles’ experiences with the Friends Ambulance/Service Unit in China. In 2016 the Canadian Quaker History Journal published Grant’s “To Build Up a Record of Good Will,” based on early stages of her research for this book. If any readers would like to contact Cathy to discuss her post or her research, she can be reached at [email protected].
[1] The video recording previously in the Canadian Friends Service Committee’s collection only includes the first half of the panelists’ presentations.
[2] Summary Report of the F.S.U. (China), 15 September 1950.
[3] Gordon Keith, Sunderland P. Gardner lecture, 1993.
[4] Frank Miles, Sunderland P. Gardner lecture, 1993.
[5] According to General Hershey, “The conscientious objector… is best handled if no one hears of him.” General Hershey’s testimony to Congress’ Committee on Military Affairs. Conscientious Objectors’ Benefits: Hearings before a Subcommittee on military Affairs on s. 2708, 77th Cong, 2nd sess., August 19, 1942, 14.
[6] Frank Miles, Sunderland P. Gardner lecture, 1993.
[7] Frank Miles to Ross and Laura Miles, 17 April 1950.
[8] Frank Miles, Sunderland P. Gardner lecture, 1993.
2016 March – Audience response to presentation about the Friends Ambulance Unit to the Zhengzhou Salon – Photo by Cathy Miles Grant.
In 1961 MacLean’s, a Canadian news magazine, published John Gray’s article titled “How Seven Families Really Got Away from it All.” The article introduced Canadians and other readers of MacLean’s to the Quaker community of Argenta in the west Kootenay region of British Columbia. A group of American Quakers settled in the Argenta region in the early 1950s. Friends continue to make up a significant proportion of Argenta’s population today. CFHA member June Pollard has family connections to the Argenta community and has provided a brief introduction to the MacLean’s article. We hope our readers will enjoy reading Gray’s article and encountering Argenta, an important part of Quaker history in Canada.
A Contextual Introduction to Argenta Quakers June Pollard
I grew up with great respect for my Uncle George and Aunt Mary Pollard who left California with the Stevensons to start a Quaker community in Argenta, in the interior of British Columbia. My understanding was that they left California because they did not want their tax dollars going to war activities in the United States. Uncle George was my father’s oldest brother; his mother was Agnes Henderson and father was Albert Pollard. They were members of the Conservative Friends’ Norwich Meeting in Southern Ontario.
Uncle George and Aunt Mary built their own log cabin. They actually built it twice since it burned down once in a forest fire. They grew their own vegetables, and were active members of the Friends Meeting. They raised their four children—Ted, Edith, Dick, and Donald—in Argenta. Edith became principal of the Friends Boarding School during its last years.
This community has been a shining example for me as I have lived much of my adult life in intentional communities, and the Quaker process has provided guidance for that. The Quaker process involves discernment for decision-making, listening with an open heart and mind to the views of others, listening for one’s own inner voice, sitting in silence when there is disagreement, and coming to unity. This is different from consensus and from taking a vote. When living in community I have experienced the value of the Quaker process. While it may take more time, in the end everyone in the community is committed wholeheartedly to the decision.
A few new changes have come to CFHA’s website. Our events page has been updated with more information about Friendly Fridays. These free sessions are ongoing and new participants are always welcome! If you’re interested in attending a Friendly Fridays session and delving into the journal of George Fox, you can find more information and register on our events page.
We also have a new donate page, which now lists three different options for donation. CFHA receives the support of many members and individuals who volunteer their time and talent. However, it is only through the generous financial contributions received from donors that allows us to cover overhead costs while maintaining free public access to our transcriptions, publications, and programs.
In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to David L. Newlands, an early member of CFHA and a dedicated advocate for Quaker heritage in Canada. David has held various roles in the CFHA and has contributed numerous publications to the Canadian Quaker History Journal.
David L. Newlands By Gordon Thompson
David Livingstone Newlands was born on 25 July 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second son of Margaret (nee McCutcheon) and David Newlands. Margaret’s family and her older siblings had emigrated from Scotland as had David Newlands Sr. Exposure to gas warfare in the First World War contributed to the premature death of David’s father when David was only three years old. Technically considered an orphan, David was taken into the care of Girard College in Philadelphia. He remained there until his graduation at the age of seventeen.
After finishing University, David, who was a registered conscientious objector, had to find civilian work to fulfil the requirements of conscription. He was sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee and was sent to Newfoundland as a teacher. In 1961 he taught grades three and four, and in 1962 he taught eighth grade students in a one room school at Kettle Cover, Twillingate, Newfoundland. After his required two years of alternate service, he taught science and math at the Rockway Mennonite School in Kitchener, Ontario. In 1965 he was invited to become General Secretary of the Canadian Friends Service Committee.
David was present at the inaugural meeting and was among the very first organizers of the Canadian Friends Historical Association in 1972. Many of the early issues of the Newsletter were personally typed by David in his office at the Royal Ontario Museum, where he worked in the Canadiana Department. He was also head of the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting committee to renovate the Yonge Street Meetinghouse at that time, and recalls that one of the purposes of creating CFHA was to provide a means to raise awareness of this significant project.
The fledgling CFHA gained strength and, at the second annual general meeting held at the University of Western Ontario in November 1974, David was named as Convenor of Publications Committee. In this role David worked enthusiastically to raise awareness of CFHA. In order to do this David realized that it was first necessary to identify and promote a broader awareness of Quaker history and heritage within the existing community of historians and researchers and beyond. To accomplish this David used the Yonge Street Meeting House renovation project as a focal point to create initial interest and awareness. In 1974 he submitted a detailed article accompanied by beautiful images of the meeting house to Rotunda, the popular member publication of the Royal Ontario Museum. The article “A Meeting House for Friends” was the feature item in Rotunda Volume 7: 4 (1974). This article was quickly followed by “The Yonge Street Friends Meeting House, 1810-1975” which was published in the 1975 issue of The York Pioneer. David made himself available for media interviews and presentations as interest in the project developed.
Photo of David L. Newlands (right) and a student assistant analyzing material excavated from Old Fort York in 1978. Toronto Star Photograph Archive, Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.
David also brought his professional skills to bear on his contributions to CFHA. His training as an archaeologist is reflected in the first CFHA monograph published in 1983. Titled “The Orthodox Friends Burying Ground, Yonge Street, Newmarket, Ontario,” this scholarly and well researched treatment of all aspects of Quaker burial practices as demonstrated in this burying ground was typical of the high standard of publication that was established early on by CFHA.
In the 1980s David was employed as Director of the Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto, and this interest is reflected in the concern advanced on his behalf at the 20th Annual General Meeting as reported in the 1992 Canadian Quaker History Journal 52, page 5:
David Newland’s concern: as David Newlands was not present, Kathleen Hertzberg spoke to his concern. On the model of ”The Meeting Place” of the Mennonites which they have built at St. Jacobs, David would like Friends to consider a similar historic-museum outreach Centre at Yonge Street. This could be a building alongside the Meeting House containing archives, a library and outreach centre, manned by a retired Friend. David thinks that grants could be applied for. A discussion followed. His concern will be brought to the attention of the Yearly Meeting Records Committee, Yonge Street Meeting and the Doane House Committee.
This passage speaks to a very important and very personal aspect of the contribution to CFHA that David Newlands has made and continues to make: an unbounded and inspiring faith in the vision and potential of CFHA to achieve great things. Although this particular concern is yet to be realized David continues to advance awareness and appreciation of CFHA and Quaker heritage.
In 2012, the year which saw CFHA celebrate forty years of activity, David produced with then CFHA Chair Andrew Cresswell the Yonge Street Meeting House Bicentennial Committee publication, “For deeper rest to this still room: The Yonge Street Quaker Meeting House.” At the meeting gathered at the Yonge Street Meetinghouse in October 2012 to commemorate the bicentennial of this building David and his wife Marion and members of his family joined the many in attendance. As the featured speaker of the afternoon program, David delivered an illustrated presentation, “Choose what is Simple and Beautiful.” It is fitting that this contribution by David Newlands would take place in the same cherished meeting house which inspired him to take up the cause of CFHA and appreciation of Quaker traditions and legacy over fifty years earlier.
Quakers in the Thirteen Colonies During the 1770s Quakers living in North America had large families and, like many settlers at that time, found that land for younger family members was becoming scarce and expensive. So began the great westward migration.
During and after the American Revolution, Quakers found themselves in a precarious position. Both the British forces and the American rebels and were suspicious of where the Quakers’ affiliations lay, since the Quaker Testimony Against War led them to refuse to bear arms or participate in military service. The Quakers’ strong sense of community revolved around their religion, their membership in a monthly meeting, and to a hierarchy culminating in a yearly meeting.
Timothy Rogers and his Family Timothy Rogers (1756–1834), a convinced Friend, was said to be “the best man for settling a new country.” In his journal, he articulates the evolution of his spiritual life as he visited Quaker meetings in the eastern United States. In 1795, travelling as a companion to Quaker minister Joshua Evans, Rogers visited Quaker communities in Nova Scotia and Upper and Lower Canada and met Friends in Pelham (Niagara Peninsula) and Adolphustown (on the Bay of Quinte).
Peter Hunter, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, wanted to attract United Empire Loyalists and British veterans of the American Revolution as settlers to Upper Canada. Quakers were neither veterans nor loyalists, but Timothy Rogers convinced Hunter that they would make good settlers, and received an initial grant for forty 200-acre farms. Interestingly, under the British Militia Act of 1793, Quakers were exempt from service in the militia, but were required to pay a fine, a requirement that Quakers saw as recognition of their peace testimony.
Yonge Street Meeting Timothy and his family were part of a group of Quakers that had moved northwards into Vermont. He had a prescient sense that the US-Canada border was not safe and he understood Friends’ need for more land and security. He convinced his wife Sarah that they should move their family of eight children north up the line (now Yonge Street) in Upper Canada to what would become Newmarket (in Whitchurch and East and West Gwillinbury).
They travelled in winter, arriving in May 1801 with the necessities for starting pioneer life: oxen, horses, seed, tools, guns (for hunting game), cooking pots, bedding, clothing, and more. To keep a 200-acre land grant a family had to build a cabin and clear the roadway in front: clearing land, building a one-room log house, and planting crops was the first order of business. A gristmill to grind wheat and a sawmill to mill lumber were soon erected on the Holland River east of Yonge Street.
These new settlers had the skills necessary for a community, and more Quakers followed from Pennsylvania. That same year Timothy took his certificate of removal from his meeting in Vermont to Pelham Monthly Meeting.
Yonge Street Meeting and Friends Burying Ground The first meetings for worship at Yonge Street were in cabins, but as the community grew the need for a meeting house soon became apparent. Yonge Street Meeting was set off from Pelham Monthly Meeting in 1806. Three daughters of Timothy Rogers—Hannah, Mary, and Lydia—had married the three sons of Wing Rogers, and in 1807 Asa and Mary Rogers sold a parcel of land on the west side of Yonge Street to the Yonge Street Meeting.
Tragedy struck this Quaker community in 1808–09 in the form of an epidemic that, combined with malnutrition, measles, influenza, and tuberculosis, took more than thirty lives in the community. Timothy and his wife Sarah lost their five married daughters with some of their husbands and children. The first parcel of land acquired by Yonge Street Meeting was used for a burying ground.
The wooden markers and field stones that likely marked those graves are long gone. The Yonge Street meeting house, constructed in 1810–12 on a second parcel of land adjacent to the burying ground, is still in use today by Yonge Street Monthly Meeting. The original plans specified a larger building, but with so many deaths the dimensions were reduced. Meanwhile, Timothy Rogers had moved with his younger children to Duffin’s Creek in Pickering Township in yet another stage of his expansionist plans.
Yonge Street Burial Ground
Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground in the 21st Century Ownership of the Burial Ground eventually passed to the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting Progressives (Botsford Friends Church). In 1980, when the Botsford Meeting was laid down and the Botsford Meeting House (Newmarket) sold, the Burial Ground was transferred to Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM).
Today the Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground is owned by the CYM Board of Trustees. The Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground Committee (appointed by CYM Trustees) cares for the maintenance of the cemetery and grounds, with an administrator (currently Evelyn Schmitz-Hertzberg) responsible for the business affairs, subject to the Bereavement Authority of Ontario. The Burial Ground remains an open cemetery for the use of members and regular attenders of the Religious Society of Friends and their immediate family members. Quakers may purchase lots for interment of coffins or urns, and there is also a Scattering Ground for cremains.
Preserving Quaker Grave Markers The material and design of Quaker grave markers went through many changes through the last two centuries. The earliest extant markers in the Burial Ground—the “old whites” dating back to 1820—are simple limestone slabs 12–15 inches high, 12 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. The first granite stones appeared in 1910.
One problem compounding the early lack of markers is that, prior to the 1966 Ontario Cemeteries Act (which specifies record keeping for all burials), the records for the Yonge Street Friends Burial Grounds do not indicate interment locations! This lack of precise detail lends a sense on anonymity to the individuals buried there. David Newlands noted that pioneer Friends “put emphasis on Friends community as the focus of life. The close kinship ties in the meetings were the web that supported the strong emphasis on the community. In a real sense the Friends community experienced in a corporate sense the death of a member, with the realization that was the fate of all being shared by the community in worship.”[i]
The limestone grave markers worn down by age and air pollution have been further damaged by frost as the soil heaves and settles. Some stones have been broken or even removed by vandals. Other older gravestones are missing bases (keys) and lean over from lack of support; still others fell and slowly disappeared under the sod. Mowing the grass (done since the 1900s with social pressure for park-like grounds) can chip the edges of the stones, letting in moisture that causes the stones to crack. Cement used for repairs also interacts negatively with the limestone.
The Restoration Project Under its mandate for care and maintenance of the cemetery—including the historic stones—the Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground Committee has undertaken a restoration project using the services of Tom Klaasen (of Memorial Restorations Inc., Sarnia, Ontario), a recognized specialist in the care and restoration of gravestones and monuments.[ii] His work for the first phase of the project, completed in November 2020, was excellent. The second phase will begin in the spring of 2021. Some fundraising has already been done: the Committee has received funding from the Samuel Rogers Memorial Trust and the A.S. Rogers Trust Fund. The Canadian Yearly Meeting Trustees continue to support this work, but additional contributions are needed. Those who would like to support this project can make tax-deductible donations by cheque, payable to “Canadian Yearly Meeting” with “Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground” (or “YSFBG”) on the memo line. Please mail donations to the CYM Office, 91A Fourth Ave, Ottawa, ON K1S 2L1.
More about the Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground can be found on their website, https://quaker.ca/ysfbg/.
Evelyn Schmitz-Hertzberg, February 2021
Yonge Street Friends Burial Ground Committee
Before and after restoration.
[i] David L. Newlands, “Gone but not Forgotten: Quaker Burial Grounds and Grave Markers in Central Ontario,” Canadian Quaker History Journal, 2010.
Canadian Friends Historical Association (CFHA) is pleased to announce the latest collaboration with Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. Arrangements are now in place for staff at Friends Historical Library to provide CFHA with digital images of three late eighteenth-century minute books for transcription. All of these minute books relate to the Nine Partners Monthly Meeting and its affiliated Oswego Preparative Meeting. The Nine Partners MM, the Nine Partners school and associated Preparative meetings figure prominently in the northward expansion of Quaker communities up the Hudson River Valley. Such expansions frequently involved the relocation of members of the established meetings to the more remote areas of new settlement. The minute books of Nine Partners and associated meetings provide valuable records of the members who requested certificates of removal and when such requests were submitted and approved.
Of particular interest to CFHA members and Canadian researchers are records which relate to the Adolphustown Preparative Meeting in Upper Canada. This meeting was established under the care of Nine Partners MM in 1798 under the leadership of Philip Dorland. Although birthright members of Nine Partners MM, both Philip and his brother Thomas had served in provincial militia on behalf of the British during the revolutionary war. As such, they were entitled to claim extensive land grants in Upper Canada when they and their families joined many other UE Loyalists who settled the Adolphustown area in 1784.
The new images to be provided will include the first minute book of the Men’s Monthly Meeting. This minute book covers the period between the establishment of the monthly meeting in 1769 to 1779. It is hoped that transcription of this minute book will add detail to a significant event in the early Quaker experience of Philip Dorland. A number of years ago, CFHA requested and received images of the Nine Partners Men’s Monthly Meeting from 1779 onwards. The specific request was granted on the premise that earlier records would not contain information related to migrants into what would become Canada. It came as a great surprise, then, to discover that the minutes for 1773 recorded the disownment of a late adolescent Philip Dorland.
Nine Partners Meeting House, built in 1780. Photo taken in 2010 by Daniel Case.
Once settled in Upper Canada in 1784, Philip Dorland played an important role in the early political life of the young community, and in the establishment of what would become a flourishing Quaker presence at Adolphustown and in Prince Edward County. For a larger account of this history, please see “New Light on Philip Dorland: Prodigal Son to Patriarch” by Gordon Thompson with Randy Saylor in Canadian Quaker History Journal volume 79, for membership year 2014. We look forward with anticipation to learn what this new set of images will reveal about Philip Dorland’s disownment.
In addition to the Nine Partners MM Men and Joint, 1769-1779 images, we look forward to receiving images of Oswego Prep Mens, 1794-1798 and those of a Bulls Head, Oswego MM Women’s minutes 1799-1817.
We wish to express our appreciation to Jordan Landes, curator of Friends Historical Library, and her staff in providing these images. Due to Covid 19 lockdowns and closures, we are unable to access additional images at either the Archives of Ontario or the Canadian Yearly Meeting Archives. The new images will provide hundreds of pages of transcription resource material.
New volunteer CFHA transcribers are always welcome. The work is not hard and is performed at your own pace and convenience. Guidance and advice is provided when needed. Please contact the writer at [email protected] for additional details if interested.
The following is a report and update on the activity of the Executive Committee and members during the recent months. We hope you find this information encouraging, for although Covid-19 may have altered our patterns, our work has been progressing well. We invite your comments and questions on the information provided below.
Many of you participated in our Annual General Meeting presentation featuring Ben Pink Dandelion and Steven Angell in 9th month 2020. By virtue of Zoom technology, we were able for the first time to make participation in the AGM possible for members in every Canadian time zone and beyond.
During the business meeting that followed, members present were updated on financial, membership, and other activity of the past year. Regular membership has seen little change, but institutional and meeting membership has declined. This can be attributed to the cessation of our hard copy publications, the Canadian Quaker History Journal and The Meetinghouse. Our member services were expanded to now include electronic fund transfer capability to facilitate member renewal and donation options.
Substantial investments in organizational capacity building and updating saw expenditures greatly exceed income last year. For the first time in the history of CFHA, part-time contract staff positions were created and filled to provide the organization with needed special skills and to perform duties not able to be performed by our available volunteers. Chris Landry, Organizational Assistant, and Allana Mayer, Digital Archivist and website consultant, effected immediate and dramatic progress on a number of CFHA objectives. These included a complete reconfiguration, upgrade and relaunch of the website, acquisition and implementation of a membership administration software program, and the initiation of a ground-breaking Digital Archive facility development project. The investments of the past year have greatly enhanced CFHA’s ability to fulfil the objectives of our mission statement. Our donations received during the past year met our budget expectations, and we wish to take this opportunity to thank all those who donated generously last year and since.
Last year the transition from printed publications to a weekly blog was completed, and CFHA gained a presence on Twitter and Facebook. We thank Robynne Rogers Healey and Digital Editor Sydney Harker for oversight and sustaining a lively and informative blog. Members and viewers are encouraged to contribute comments and items of historical Quaker interest. Please click here to register as a blog contributor: https://cfha.info/register-for-the-cfha-website/, or here to view our latest and previous postings: https://cfha.info/blog/.
Thanks are also due to transcription coordinator Randy Saylor and transcriber Carman Foster for adding new transcriptions to the many already available our website. Without access to the microfilm records held at the Archives of Ontario and the Canadian Yearly Meeting Archive at Pickering College, Newmarket, we have relied on our long relationship with staff at Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College to provide minute book images for transcription. Carman is currently working on an additional Muncy Monthly Meeting book containing records of the Catawissa meeting in Pennsylvania. This meeting largely relocated to Uxbridge, Ontario, early in the nineteenth century. Please click here to view our transcriptions: https://cfha.info/transcriptions/.
The Who are the Quakers? panel set continues to be among the most frequently viewed items on our website. The principal creator of that set, member David Newlands, has completed a draft of a set of eight new panels documenting the life and ministry of George Fox. Final completion of this new set awaits the reopening of Friends House in London, and the granting of permission to use certain copyright graphics and images. Watch for updates. Please click here to view the existing Who are the Quakers? panels: https://cfha.info/about-quakers-in-canada/.
Friendly Friday sessions via Zoom were launched last year on alternate Friday afternoons between 1:30 and 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The initial concept was to utilize group readings of the Nickalls edition of the Journal of George Fox to acquaint seekers and those unfamiliar with the principles and testimonies of Quaker faith and practice. Things did not work out that way. Instead, a relatively small but loyal group of participants consisting almost entirely of members and attenders of meetings has developed. All are welcome, and participants from Hawaii to Germany have joined in via Zoom. In the course of a dozen sessions, we have delved deeply into most of the first two chapters. These sessions are neither lively discussions nor particularly academic. Rather, they have acquired the tone and characteristics of worship sharing. Those familiar with this work by Fox know that it is a very intense, challenging, and difficult to understand text. The slow but thorough pace of the group has facilitated knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the foundational ministry Fox was and continues to communicate to our present day. Thanks to Chris Landry for sending out the meeting notifications and to Donna Moore for hosting the Zoom sessions and preparing the on-screen reading texts. Click here to register for receive Friendly Friday notifications: https://cfha.b.civicrm.ca/civicrm/event/register?id=3.
In summary, we remain a very active group dedicated to achieving our mission statement goals and organizational potential. We hope you will continue to support us in this important work through your membership and your contributions both historical and financial. If you have never contributed to CFHA preciously, please consider making a one-time or planned giving donation today. Donations can be made directly to CFHA via cheque or electronic transfer, please see our website for details. CFHA is a registered Canadian charitable organization. Charitable donation tax deduction receipts will be issued for all donations. Please click here to view our donor information page: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/canadian-friends-historical-association/.
Submitted on behalf of the CFHA Executive Committee,
