Barnabas C. Hobbs: Midwestern Quaker Minister and Educator

BARNABAS C. HOBBS MIDWESTERN QUAKER MINISTER AND EDUCATOR By Elizabeth H. Emerson* William and Priscilla Hobbs with their older children removed from Randolph County, North Carolina, to southern Indiana in 1812, three years before the birth of their youngest son, Barnabas. Together with families of Lindleys, Hollowells, Coffins, and other Friends from North Carolina, they comprised the beginnings of the strong settlement of Blue River, located near Salem in what was then Harrison County, later to become Washington County, Indiana. William Hobbs's parents were Elisha and Fanny (or Fanna) McLane Hobbs, members of the Episcopal Church until a few years before his birth, when they became Friends and members at Back Creek in Randolph County, North Carolina, where the boy William, with his father, walked eight miles to meeting. Priscilla Coffin's ancestry has been traced to Sir Richard Coffin, companion to William the Conqueror when he entered Britain in 1066. Many generations later, her father, William Coffin, whose forebears had lived in Salisbury, Connecticut, and Nantucket , Massachusetts, moved to Guilford County, North Carolina. He was one of those Friends who did service of relief after the battle of Guilford Court House on March 15, 1781. It was in Guilford County that the marriage of William Hobbs and Priscilla Coffin took place. William Hobbs was a saddlemaker by trade in a time when saddles were much in demand, but nothing ever hindered him *Elizabeth H. Emerson, Elon College, North Carolina, is the author of The Good Crop (1946) and The Garnered Sheaves (1948), Quaker novels in which Barnabas Hobbs appears as a character, and of Walter C. Woodward, Friend on the Frontier: A Biography (1952). This article is based on the address which she delivered at Western Yearly Meeting on Eighth Month 20, 1958. 21 22Bulletin of Friends Historical Association from making religious visits or attending Yearly Meeting sessions. Barnabas early learned the meaning of the word "concern," for his father had many which took him away from home, sometimes for weeks. He was an elder and "timer" of his meeting at Blue River. Although he did not become a minister until middle age, his service to Friends was lifelong. He had an active part in Blue River movements in behalf of the Indians of the region and in stopping the custom of furnishing liquor for harvest hands. He was a member of the Salem Peace Society, which came into being in 1818 at Blue River Meetinghouse. He was a friend of education and a mover in the action which resulted in the establishing of the Friends Boarding School at Richmond, Indiana, which developed into Earlham College. Priscilla Coffin Hobbs was a woman of loving disposition and many virtues. She was very heavy, and, as a boy, Barnabas had the duty of helping her in and out of the oxcart which carried the family to meeting. She died in 1836, when Barnabas was coming of age, shortly before he went to college. When the family left North Carolina in 1812, she left behind the graves of three stillborn babies. There are indications that her youngest son was her Benjamin, much beloved. After her death her husband wrote of her, "This loss was a very great trial for my nature to bear. We had lived together thirty-eight years lacking about four months, and she had made me a very real helpmate."1 The home, then, in which Barnabas Hobbs grew to manhood was one where religious interests were paramount, with education a close second. At an early age Barnabas "evinced a strong liking for books, and his future as a student and teacher seemed assured by the time he was sixteen years of age."2 He taught his first school at eighteen; "there were forty pupils in attendance, some much older than the teacher."3 Among the many events which helped to send this child in the direction he took, two were of major importance. The first was the 1 The Autobiography of William Hobbs, ed. Barnabas C. Hobbs (Bloomingdale, Indiana, n.d.), p. 28. 2 Mary E. Carnmack, "The Influence of Barnabas C. Hobbs on Education in Indiana," M.A. thesis (Butler College, 1934), p. 4. 3 Ibid...