Society of Friends in Ohio Collection: Finding Aid mssSFO
Olga Tsapina and Brooke M. Black
The Huntington Library
March 2022
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Note
Finding aid last updated on April 9, 2024, by Mari Khasmanyan.
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Society of Friends in Ohio collection
Identifier/Call Number: mssSFO
Physical Description:
0.42 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1789-1915
Date (bulk): 1851-1869
Abstract: Collection of papers relating to the
Society of Friends in Ohio (Orthodox).
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Society of Friends in Ohio collection, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Assembled at the Library from items donated by Mrs. Howard E. Carpenter and Daniel J.
Jaeger, 1953 and 1965.
Quakers, also called Friends, belong to a historically Christian denomination known
formally as the Religious Society of Friends or Friends Church. In the early 1800s, Elias
Hicks, a traveling Quaker minister from New York, began to break with traditional Quaker
beliefs, and his religious views were claimed to be universalist and to contradict Quakers'
historical orthodox Christian beliefs and practices. Hicks' Gospel preaching and teaching
precipitated the Great Separation of 1827, which resulted in a parallel system of Yearly
Meetings in America, joined by Friends from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and
Baltimore. They were referred to by opponents as Hicksites and sometimes as Orthodox.
Collection of papers relating to the Society of Friends in Ohio (Orthodox). Included are
communications and epistles received by Ohio Yearly Meeting from the Yearly Meetings in
Philadelphia, New York, and Maryland; minutes and other records of the Stillwater, Short
Creek, and Redstone Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, marriage announcements, certificates,
and other miscellaneous records, including a proposal submitted to the Yearly meeting for
establishing labor schools, approximately 1840. The collection also contains some personal
letters discussing religious practice, theology, history, child rearing, etc. Also included
are: an epistle from Women Friends Meeting in London to Women Friends Yearly Meeting in
Philadelphia, 1789, two addresses to a "Spiritual Improvement Society", by Edward Hoops,
1840, two short memoirs of the underground railroad and Quaker abolitionists, and a copy of
August Diamond's Levi Coffin, the friend of the slave, published for the Friends' Tract
Association (London : Headley Bros.; New York : Friends' Book & Tract Committee),
approximately 1915. The collection also contains a bound manuscript "Memoirs of Rachel E.
Paterson, 1828-1869." Rachel E. Paterson (born 1810) was a Quaker preacher, daughter of
James Edgerton and Anne Hall, members of Stillwater Monthly Meeting (Orthodox). The
manuscript consists of copies of letters that she exchanged with her family.
Processed by Olga Tsapina in March 2003. In 2022, Brooke M. Black created an online finding
aid.
Arranged chronologically.
Former call number: mssSociety of Friends.
Rachel E. Paterson's manuscript is further described in: Balderston, Marion, "Rachel
Patterson, Primitive Quaker," Quaker History: 50 (Spring 1970): 44-48.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Society of Friends -- Ohio -- History -- Sources
Quaker abolitionists -- Ohio -- History
Quaker women -- History -- Sources
Quaker women -- Ohio
Quakers -- Ohio -- Archives
Quakers -- United States -- History -- Sources
Underground Railroad -- Ohio
Ohio -- Church history -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States
Minutes (administrative records) -- Ohio -- 19th century
Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends
(Orthodox : 1828-1854)
Diamond, Augustus -- Levi
Coffin, the friend of the slave
Paterson, Rachel E., 1810-
Box 1, Folder 1-2
Correspondence and documents 1789-1915
Box 1, Volume 1
Memoirs of Rachel E. Patterson 1828-1869