Quarterly Meeting at Gwynedd Seventy Years Ago

GwYNEDD MEETINGHOUSE — as it appeared seventy years ago THE BULLETIN OF Friends Historical Association VoL 39Spring Number, 1950No. 1 QUARTERLY MEETING AT GWYNEDD SEVENTY YEARS AGO By Charles F. Jenkins* (with the assistance of Richmond P. Miller) OF ALL the days that created a stir in Gwynedd, nothing could compare with Abington Quarterly Meeting. It was held at Gwynedd each year according to a cabalistic rule which was pure gibberish to the non-Friend: the first Fifth-day after the second First-day in Eighth Month.1 The week before Quarterly Meeting the women descended upon the meetinghouse with buckets, brooms, and soap, and literally scrubbed the benches, woodwork, partitions, and floor. Those who had them brought their maids along and it was a buzzing social occasion for all women Friends ! * Charles F. Jenkins, a former President of Friends Historical Association, is the author of many books, including Tortola: A Quaker Experiment of Long Ago in the Tropics. This article is based upon an address prepared for the 250th Anniversary of Gwynedd Meeting, Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, on Tenth Month 16, 1949. Because of illness, Charles F. Jenkins was unable to be present in person ; his reminiscences were set down and presented by Richmond P. Miller. 1 The Friends of Gwynedd first belonged to Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting. It was not until 1786, a century after the founding of the settlement, that Abington Quarter was established. At that time it was composed of Monthly Meetings at Abington, Horsham, Gwynedd, and Richland. Seventy years ago Abington Quarterly Meeting rotated between Abington in Second Month, Horsham in the Fifth, Gwynedd in the Eighth, and Byberry in Eleventh Month.—(R.P.M.) 4 Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Walter H. Jenkins and Charles Francis Jenkins, first cousins, had "the contract to whitewash the fence" around the property. They were paid five dollars apiece and they regarded themselves as magnates to hold this contract as their share of beautifying the premises for Quarterly Meeting. On the morning before Quarterly Meeting the men brought iron rakes and raked the turnpike—of excellent construction before the days of macadam and without a binder. From the meetinghouse to Gwynedd store and postoffice they raked the pike clear of all large stones and smoothed over the surface. Early that same morning my uncle and I would go to the shed, get out the wagon, take out the shafts, put in the tongue, and drive down to Dock Street in Philadelphia. There we would buy Delaware peaches by the basket, just off the boats, load up and drive back to the store—a tremendous journey it seemed to me then. That evening all the other Friends would come to the store and get what they wanted for Quarterly Meeting luncheon the next day. On the morning of Quarterly Meeting, before opening, we took brooms, swept the turnpike, and then carried watering cans and sprinkled it. By about nine o'clock we were ready. About 9:30 the carriages began to arrive from all over the Quarterly Meeting. My grandfather had a wagon shed between his house and barn. All it did all year was to shelter what we called the Quarterly Meeting carriage. It was really a glorified Germantown wagon. For this one day it was polished and scrubbed, the harness washed and cleaned, and then we went up to the North Wales Station to meet the Quakertown Friends. They came too far to travel in a carriage. We also met some of the Byberry Friends (Byberry was so far away that not many of us often went to Quarterly Meeting there from Gwynedd). The "first meeting," as it was called — the meeting for worship before the meeting for business — started at ten o'clock. I remember sitting on the porch of the store as a boy, three hundred yards away, and at that distance I could hear Samuel J. Levick of Quakertown intoning and ministering in the Quaker manner of bygone days. Quarterly Meeting at Gwynedd5 AU the sheds and woods were filled with horses and buggies, the horses impatiently stamping at the flies: even they seemed to know that it was a great annual event. I can't convey the...