The Rise and Decline of Quakerism in the Monongahela Valley

Abstract

THE RISE AND DECLINE OF QUAKERISM IN THE MONONGAHELA VALLEY By Levinus K. Painter* Before the Revolutionary War a few Friends from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia joined the thin stream of hardy pioneers who followed the trail that Braddock and his men had cut across the mountains. Due to the failure of the Braddock expedition ( 1755 ), the Pennsylvania colonial government warned settlers that it was not in a position to assure protection to new communities west of the Allegheny Mountains. Indian raids, inspired by the French, slowed down the stream of Scotch-Irish settlers. But Indian war cries created no fears in the hearts of Quakers. Their "broad brims" afforded far surer protection than the methods of the lamented Braddock. Most of the early Quaker settlers in the Monongahela Valley came from the vicinity of Hopewell, Virginia (Fairfax Quarterly Meeting, later known as Warrington and Fairfax). While their neighbors were engaged in the struggle for political independence, Quakers found peaceful conquest of the lands beyond the mountains a very suitable alternative to military service. They could clear land, build homes and meetinghouses, establish schools, and start frontier industrial life while other men fought battles and set up the instruments of constitutional government . These pioneering Quakers in the Redstone area of the Monongahela Valley carved new communities out of the wilderness. About the year 1768 Henry Beeson settled at the junction of the two branches of Redstone Creek and laid out lots for a town. The settlement was first known as Beeson's Town but the name was later changed to Union Town. About the same time, Rees Cadwallader settled on Bridgeport Hill, overlooking the Monongahela River. After his death an attempt was made to give his name to the settlement. Perhaps the name was too great an effort for the human tongue. The name South Brownsville was adopted instead. * Minister in the Friends Meeting at Collins, New York. 24 Quakerism in the Monongahela Valley25 Other Friends crossed the Monongahela River and started a settlement at Westland, four miles west of Brownsville. This community apparently grew more rapidly than the Beeson and Cadwallader neighborhoods, so far as the number of Friends settling in the respective areas was concerned. In 1782 Westland Friends requested that a Preparative Meeting be set up by the parent Monthly Meeting at Hopewell, Virginia. After due deliberation the request was granted and Westland became the first organized Friends meeting west of the Allegheny Mountains. Other meetings were established during the next few years and in 1785 Redstone Monthly Meeting was set up, meeting alternately at Westland on the west side of the Monongahela River and at Redstone (South Brownsville) on the east side. By 1793 a sufficient number of meetings had been set up to make desirable two Monthly Meetings, the river providing a convenient dividing line. Four years later, in 1797, Baltimore Yearly Meeting gave approval to the setting up of Redstone Quarterly Meeting. At the turn of the century there were eleven meetings of Friends in the Redstone area of the Monongahela Valley. Located on the east side of the river in Fayette County were Bridgeport Hill (also known as South Brownsville and at times called Redstone), Sandy Hill, Center, Providence, and Stewart's Crossing (Connellsville); Sewickley in Westmoreland County, and Sandy Creek over the border in West Virginia. In addition to Westland meeting in Washington County, three other meetings had been set up on the west side of the river: Fallowfield (sometimes called Tallowfield), Pike's Run, and East Findley (also known as Head of Wheeling). A little later, a fifth meeting was established at Ridge or Muddy Creek, but the meeting was small and did not continue many years. A map showing the location of meetings in Ohio Yearly Meeting circa 1826 indicates that there was also a small group of Friends in Pittsburgh but not a regularly organized meeting.1 Redstone Quarterly Meeting had been transferred from Baltimore to Ohio Yearly Meeting when it was set up in 1813. 1 This map is reproduced in the Inventory of Church Archives: Society of Friends in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Friends Historical Association 1941), opp. p. 338. 26Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Concerned Friends established...