Canadian Friends Historical Association

Category: Academic

  • Elizabeth Robson’s Visit to Upper Canada, 1824–25

    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.

  • Canadian Quaker Highlight: Frank Miles

    Canadian Quaker Highlight: Frank Miles

    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.”

    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]

    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.

    Links to Sunderland P. Gardner 1993 lecture
    Here’s Part 1, Frank Miles’ introduction and Part 1 on the panel.
    And here’s Part 2. Frank Miles’ panel presentation comes at the end.
    And here, finally, are Frank’s reflections (separated out from the rest of the panel).

     

  • Save the Date: Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists to be Held Online

    The biennial Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists (CQHA) will take place virtually this year between June 24–26. Operating with the support of the Friends Historical Association, the CQHA focuses on the history of Quakers and Quakerism. This year’s conference will be free for all to attend.

    Registration will open by the end of March, though you can check the CQHA website for updates on registration and program details.

    The 2018 conference, held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, featured excellent presentations on diverse topics ranging from Quaker spirituality, transatlantic politics, persecution, discipline, and enslavement. Past programs can be found here.

    “Assemblée des Quaquers à Londres” by A. Moubach, 1727-1738

  • Canadian Friends and Black History Month: William Allen

    William Allen (1821–1898)

    William Allen, a Black American Quaker, spent his later years as a minister in Canada and the pastor of Newmarket Friends Church. Allen first visited Canada in 1875, though his return in the 1890s was permanent. A gifted orator, Allen spent five years preaching to different meetings in Canada and was described in his memorial as a “man of sterling character, noble in spirit,” and “firm in his conviction for the truth.”[1]

    Born in Tennessee in 1821, Allen’s father was an Irish plantation owner and enslaver, and his mother was enslaved. He lived his early years under the bondage of his own father, and according to the writings of his ministerial companion Fred L. Ryon, his mother was sold when he was a young boy.[2] Allen spoke often of his experience living in slavery and the cruelties he witnessed growing up. This included the racism he faced when he preached.

    Ryon’s memories include an incident that took place in a New York meeting where a group of men had gathered to stop Allen from speaking. Ryon recalled that Allen, upon being unable to continue due to the noise caused by the gathered group, “poured forth such a deluge of oratorical denunciation of infidelity as I had never heard before. The very foundation of the house seemed to tremble neath the tread of his indignant feet. The large part of the congregation was spellbound.”[3] Ryon also noted that when Allen travelled, many families that hosted him at first “felt a hesitancy about receiving him into their homes,” further demonstrating the racial inequalities that Allen faced. This never stopped Allen from sharing his story, and a pamphlet about Allen’s life recorded that Allen’s “reference to slavery days was full of pathos, and his graphic word-picture of his mother and his parting with her, burning into the memory of his audience.”[4]

    In Allen’s memorandum book, he recorded lecturing on slavery in the following Ontario townships: Hibbert, Hatchley, Mariposa, Colebrook, and Moscow.[5] He also spent time in Pelham, Toronto, Gowrie, Uxbridge, Plymouth, Wellington, Bloomfield, and Pickering. On the subject of his calling to preach, Allen wrote:

    My motto is to preach the preaching that the Lord bids, [re]guardless to what men may say, or what they may think. For it is God I am working for and not man. So I hold up a free salvation, every person can have it by repentance towards God & faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. If we keep on the straight line with God we will have power to do his will. He will bless us in so doing.[6]

    Allen also believed wholeheartedly in social reform and valued the role Quaker women played in public ministry. When he fell ill during his travels, he recorded that Alma Dale, a minister from Uxbridge, was able to take over his work and run the meetings. He stated: “the Lord blest us in sending us Alma Dale.”[7]

    William Allen was an influential Friend and upon his death in 1898 he left behind a lasting legacy of great faith. Described as an outstanding leader, Ryon wrote that Allen’s “eloquence and sincerity left a lasting impression upon the large audiences which gathered wherever it became known that he would hold service. As the years passed, his ministry, broadened by diligent and continuous study, won for him the distinction of being known as the ‘traveling theological seminary of the Society of Friends.’”[8] Allen’s life and his work are a testament to the continual importance of anti-racism work and learning from the work of Black leaders.

     

    [1] “A Memorial Concerning William Allen, An Esteemed Minister of Yonge St. Monthly Meeting of Friends,” Canadian Quaker Archives and Library, Newmarket, ON.

    [2] Fred L. Ryon, “William Allen, Evangelist of the Society of Friends,” Bulletin of Friends Historical Association 47 (1958): 94. Ryon’s memoirs can also be read in the Canadian Quaker History Journal 65 (1999): 37-53.

    [3] Ryon, “William Allen,” 99.

    [4] Jessie M. Walton, From the Auction Block of Slavery to the Rostrum of the Quaker Ministry: The Life of William Allan (Aurora, ON: J. M. Walton, 1938).

    [5] William Allen’s memorandum book was transcribed by Jane Zavitz Bond and can be read in the CQHJ 64 (1999): 54-73.

    [6] “William Allen’s Memorandum Book 1887-1891,” CQHJ 64 (1999): 71.

    [7] “William Allen’s Memorandum Book 1887-1891,” 59.

    [8] Ryon, “William Allen,” 105.

     

  • CFHA Student Essay Award and Scholarship Program

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

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

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

  • Verifying a Quaker Presence in American Television Westerns

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

     

    Verifying a Quaker Presence in American Television Westerns

    Stephen D. Brooks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Stephen D. Brooks

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

    Bibliography.

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

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

    Filmography.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Friendly Fridays launching this Friday, October 2nd – Join Us For An Introduction To The George Fox Journal

    CFHA is pleased to announce that the ‘Friendly Friday’ program presentations will launch Friday, October 02, 2020 at 1:30 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (Toronto).

    Everyone is welcome to participate. Sessions will be held via Zoom, and will typically last approximately an hour.

    The first set of sessions will be of particular interest to anyone seeking an understanding of the spiritual experiences, epiphanies, and testimonies as related in the Journal of George Fox. These came to form the foundational principles of the Religious Society of Friends.

    Although the Journal of George Fox has served for centuries as the creation account of the Quakers, it is relatively little read among contemporary Friends. Many find the book difficult and lengthy. It is nonetheless richly rewarding and relevant to contemporary seekers. This is especially so for the first 40 to 50 pages. These include the context and content of all of George Fox’s foundational “openings” and formative experiences through childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. It will be our objective to read and discuss this portion of the Journal.

    Photo of George Fox from the
    Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-11433).

    The readings and discussion will be facilitated by CFHA Co-Chair Gord Thompson. The text of the Journal has been broken into short manageable readings for willing participants to read aloud. Experience has shown that short readings followed by discussion, questions, and comments allow a thorough unpacking of the text. Our aim is to foster a personal tone of sharing which facilitates individual and collective understanding. It is anticipated that 5 or 6 sessions will see us through the essential first chapters. These will be scheduled for every other Friday following October 2nd, through to early December. Ideally most participants will be able to take part in all sessions, but even occasional participants will find the experience worthwhile.

    Those interested in participating are asked to register here via the link provided in order to receive the Zoom meeting invitation and admission to the session.

    Event link: https://cfha.b.civicrm.ca/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=2

    Please note that readings will be based on the John Nickalls edition of the Journal of George Fox. Text annotated to identify the respective individual readings will be provided to participants. If you have any questions please contact [email protected].

  • 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.

    Picture1
    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: Kathleen Hertzberg

    In its almost fifty-year history, CFHA has come a long way! From the association’s publication of its first newsletters in the year it was established to our very recent entree into the digital world of blogging, the goal has remained the same: preserving and communicating the on-going history and faith of Friends in Canada and their contribution to the Canadian experience. This month we are beginning a series on CFHA’s founders and builders. Each month we will introduce you to one of the individuals who played an important role in creating or maintaining CFHA over the years. We hope that you will enjoy meeting these dedicated people. We look forward to your comments and memories on these posts. Our first essay is about one of CFHA’s co-founders, Kathleen Hertzberg, written by her daughter, Eve Schmitz-Hertzberg.

    Kathleen (Schmitz-) Hertzberg nee Brookhouse

    by Eve Schmitz-Hertzberg

    Kathleen Brookhouse was born in 1916 near Preston, Lancashire, England. She became a member of Stafford Meeting in 1935 and attended Woodbrooke College for one academic year through 1937-1938. She experienced a leading as a young person to give service in the Society of Friends, which led her to travel to Germany in 1938/39 under the auspices of the Friends.[1] It was there she met her future husband Fritz Schmitz-Hertzberg. However, they were separated for ten years by the events of the war and his time in Russia as a prisoner of war.[2] She worked under the Germany Emergency Committee as a case worker helping refugees from Germany. She also served in the Friends Ambulance Unit in London during the war and with the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. After the war, Kathleen travelled with Fred Tritton to visit Friends in Germany and then did relief work in Berlin. Fritz and Kathleen were married in the Stafford Meeting in 1949 before immigrating to Canada in 1951.

    Toronto Friends were very helpful, and Kathleen worked in Friends House Toronto until she and Fritz moved to Pickering where Fritz started his medical practice. They became members of Toronto Monthly Meeting. Kathleen was active in the Society of Friends and in the local community with the Red Cross and Community Care. She was chairman of Canadian Friends Service Committee from 1965 until 1972. She represented Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) at FWCC and was involved in ecumenical work. She gave the Samuel P. Gardiner (SPG) lecture at CYM in 2002: Doing the Work: Finding the Meaning. She lived in Pickering in the house that she and Fritz built together in 1963. In 2012 she self-published her memoirs: From My Demi-Paradise.

    Hertzberg
    Kathleen Hertzberg, left, stands beside her mother, Edith Brookhouse. In her arms is her son Andy, and her daughter Eve is at their feet. This photo is believed to be taken on the porch of the Yonge Street Meeting House, c. 1954.

    Living in Pickering, Kathleen discovered that in the 1800s the earliest settlers of the area were Quakers. In 1969 she learned that the Quaker meeting house in Uxbridge (1820) was about to be moved to the USA to be used as a child’s playhouse. Through Toronto Meeting, Kathleen had been in contact with Arthur Dorland, professor of history at University of Western Ontario. Through this connection, she became aware that much of the Quaker heritage in Canada was gradually disappearing. In 1970 Grace Pincoe and Kathleen declared that what was needed was a Canadian Friends Historical Association (CFHA) to work to collect, research, and preserve Quaker heritage in Canada. From the beginning CFHA was separate from Canadian Yearly Meeting. This allowed those outside of Friends to belong to CFHA.

    In the fall of 1972 CFHA sent out an invitation outlining its objectives and encouraging interested individuals to join. The inaugural meeting of CFHA was held on 19 August 1972. Kathleen became the first clerk with Walter Balderstone as chairperson and Grace Pincoe as secretary. Arthur Dorland gave his blessing and was made honorary chairman. Walter died in 1978 and Kathleen became chairperson until 1995. Kathleen wrote A Short History of the Canadian Friends Historical Association 1972 – 1992 (CQHJ summer 1992) to celebrate the association’s first twenty years. She remained a life member of CFHA until her death in 2019.

    In the excitement of CFHA’s first year, five executive meetings were held in 1973. A newsletter, Canadian Quaker History Newsletter, was established. Three or even four issues were published annually. Kathleen often wrote an editorial introduction to the issue. In 1989 a bound edition of historical articles called Canadian Quaker History Journal was started.

    During Kathleen’s tenure as chairperson many tasks were undertaken. Historical Quaker materials from the University of Western Ontario were indexed and microfilmed. A grant was obtained to do this work. The materials were moved to Pickering College in Newmarket and The Quaker Archives and Dorland Room were established. Materials of historic interest, especially journals by individual Quakers, now had a potential home and were donated to the archives.  The Newsletter and Journal encouraged people to write Quaker history for publication. Meetings were encouraged to collect historical documents such as minute books and to write their meeting histories.

    CFHA has been an active voice and advocate for Quaker history. It has been involved in the placing of several historical plaques in Canada at Quaker historical sites. Connections to other historical organizations, nationally in Canada and internationally as well, were established. CFHA met annually and, as part of each AGM, a pilgrimage or tour of Quaker historical sites was organized. These bur tours have been inspirational as guides related stories of Quaker history at the sites where they occurred.

    CFHA honoured Arthur Dorland in 1979. He had planned to give a talk at the AGM but died before it could take place. A brochure was printed to promote CFHA. A Guide to Quaker Sites in Canada was planned in 1982. Kyle Jollife received a grant to do oral histories. Yonge Street Meeting house was restored in 1975. The Journal of Timothy Rogers was donated in 1974 to the archives and was later transcribed and published (2000). Many of the dreams of the founders like Kathleen have been realized.

    Kathleen was an enthusiastic and dedicated contributor to the Canadian Friends Historical Association since its inception. She quotes from T.S. Elliot: “A people without history/  Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern/ Of timeless moments” (Four Quartets, “Little Gidding”).

    [1] See report in the Canadian Quaker History Journal 74 (2009).

    [2] Fritz’ account of his time as a POW in the Soviet Union translated from the German by Kathleen is published as The Night is Full of Stars (Sessions of York, 2009).

  • Access Ancestry Library Edition from home

    All over the world, digital research collections are being prioritized to ensure continuing access to people working from home, self-isolating, or sheltering in place. Ancestry is no different: they’ve made their usual Library Edition (only available at the computer terminals of contracting public libraries) available from home.

    Go to your local public library’s website and see if Ancestry Library Edition is now available for you from home. All you need to do is enter your library card number. Libraries from Halifax to Vancouver Island are offering this  service.

    I logged in through my own library (from Hamilton Public Library – thanks!) and was able to find a few resources of note. One is of course the collection of microfilmed books from the Canada Yearly Meeting Archives:

    Our partners at Swarthmore College Library have shared their collection of annual reports and proceedings including many from Canada.

    If you search “Quaker” you will find a variety of results from both overseas and close to home.

    Happy reading!