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Earlham: The Story of the College, 1847-1962 (review)
- Quaker History
- Friends Historical Association
- Volume 53, Number 1, Spring 1964
- pp. 48-50
- 10.1353/qkh.1964.0022
- Review
- Additional Information
48Quaker History Elizabeth Harris returned to England in 1657, to go to Venice and the Middle East, but came back to Anne Arundel County after 1660 to settle with her husband near South River. The individuals who came to Friends through her persuasion and that of other early Friends founded three strong Monthly Meetings in the County; West River, where house meetings were held as early as 1657, Herring Creek, settled before 1671, and Indian Spring, organized before 1792. In 1672, at the call of John Burnyeat, a "General Meeting" gathered at West River. George Fox, sailing from Barbados, came in time to be present at the Yearly Meeting—the first such General Meeting George Fox attended on the mainland of America. In addition to the fascinating story of the work of the founder of Quakerism in Anne Arundel County, Reaney Kelly devotes a chapter to each of the three Monthly Meetings of the area, and tells the story of six of the beautiful homes owned by Friends in Anne Arundel in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This section of the book is made additionally interesting with fullpage photographs of the site of the first General Meeting, the Indian Spring Meetinghouse, which stood within the present area of Fort George G. Meade, six of the early Quaker homes to which reference has been made, and three portraits of Friends who, with their descendants, owned several of these fine old homes. Reaney Kelly gives his reasons for the decline of Quakerism in Anne Arundel County—for no Monthly Meeting now exists in the area—which are those often suggested concerning the disappearance of rural Friends meetings in the eighteenth century. It took years of patient and diligent labor for the author to amass the detailed information contained in his book; he has indeed given a "clearer understanding of the development of the Province, of the founding years of the county, and of the history of the Society of Friends." Baltimore, MarylandBuss Forbush Earlham: The Story of the College, 1847-1962. By Opal Thornburg. Richmond, Indiana: Earlham College Press. 1963. 540 pages. Illustrations. $7.50. The first half of the nineteenth century brought to Indiana a vigorous migration of Quakers. Most of them came from North Carolina to escape the curse of slavery. Almost every meeting established as a result of this migration conducted a Monthly Meeting school. But where were they to get sufficient teachers? And so in 1835 Indiana Yearly Meeting decided to establish a boarding school designed to furnish elementary education and especially to provide teachers for the Monthly Meeting schools. Land consisting of 320 acres was bought (the present location of Earlham College), but for fifteen years its chief use was to park wagons and carriages of Friends who came to attend Yearly Meeting and to graze the horses. Not until 1847 was Friends Boarding School opened with 23 boys and 22 girls as students. Barnabas Hobbs, a genuine educator, was superintendent. It was to be twelve years before the Friends Boarding School was reorganized as Earlham College. This history clearly reveals an interesting intermingling of concerns as Earlham grows. There was the visit to America of Joseph John Gurney, an Book Reviews49 educated, wealthy Friends minister from England, who came not only with great prestige but with a strong evangelical message. It was the ancestral Gurney home, Earlham, which gave its name to the college. The Gurney visit injected a new drive into Indiana Quakerism which resulted in the rise of the pastoral system. Dougan Clark, an energetic teacher of classical languages at the young institution, carried the evangelical doctrine to emphasize holiness and sanctification until he finally left Friends for more congenial associations. But these influences made themselves felt on the college development. Dougan Clark's famous saying left its impact: "The purpose of a college is to convert." Alongside this emphasis was the indelible imprint left by such scientific scholars as Joseph Moore, one of the great scientists of his day. Chiefly remembered today for the museum specimens which he collected and left to the college, he might well be even more significantly remembered for his capacity to see the increasing revelations of science...