1941 Spring Meeting: Friends' Historical Association

William Penn's Manor of Pennsbury: architect's drawing The Hicksite Meeting House at Fallsington Built in 1789 The Orthodox Meeting House at Fallsington Built in 1841 Volume 30, No. 2 Autumn Number, 1941 Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association 1941 SPRING MEETING FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE SPRING MEETING of Friends' Historical Association was held at Pennsbury and Fallsington, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1941. A large number of members and their friends assembled at three o'clock at "William Penn's Manor of Pennsbury," fronting the Delaware about four miles below Trenton , and enjoyed a tour of the reconstructed house conducted by Mr. T. Russell Stackhouse, Superintendent of Pennsbury Memorial . The manor house has only recently been completed, and many of the visitors had never seen it ; and though the building is not fully furnished, and the planting of the grounds is hardly begun, the project is far enough advanced to form an impressive monument to the zeal and skill of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission , under whose care the restoration has been carried out. After an hour of pleasant visiting and inspecting, those present adjourned to Fallsington Meeting House, about five miles away, for the meeting proper. President William W. Comfort welcomed members and guests, and introduced Charles Henry Moon, who read a paper on "The Romance of Pennsbury." He outlined briefly the conditions in Europe which induced Penn's followers to seek for better things in a new world, and the religious and political troubles which followed the first peaceful years. He then read the well-known vision of Joseph Hoag of the year 1803, which many have taken as a prophecy of the various separations in the Society of Friends, and of the Civil War. In similar vein he read a part of Tennyson's Locksley Hall: For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be— leading up to the lines : 67 68 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd, In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. He closed with a few all too brief references to episodes in the checkered 250 or more years of the history of Fallsington itself, suggesting times of comedy, tragedy, and steady unobtrusive working for the right. This subject was too interesting to leave, and Jane Moon Snipes was called upon to give a few of the salient facts in the history of the meeting houses. After the meeting, the company partook of a box supper, enjoying the many opportunities for reunion and pleasant companionship which these meetings always afford. For once, the weather was disappointing: a threat of rain, and a few actual drops, prevented the gathering from spreading over the beautiful grounds for supper. WHEN the new stack wing of the Haverford College Library was dedicated on Saturday, April 19, 1941, President Felix Morley announced that work had begun on a still newer addition to the Library, a treasure room designed to house the Quaker Collection. A gift by Morris E. Leeds, Chairman of the Board of Managers of the College, will make possible the complete remodeling of the old stack building for this purpose. According to the plans drawn up by E. Nelson Edwards, architect, of the Class of 1910, there will be an alcoved reading room lined with bookcases, and a gallery. Small rooms at the east end of the building will provide work space and a Curator's office; and there will also be a stack room. Upon the completion of the remodeling, which will take some three or four months, the Quaker manuscripts and the Charles Roberts Autograph Collection, now in Roberts Hall, will be transferred to the new wing, and the Quaker books in the old library will be moved into this fireproof addition. The William H. Jenks Collection of seventeenth-century Quaker tracts, which is the heart of the Quaker Collection, will be placed in locked display cases in the reading room. To these early records of Quakerism will be added the Rufus M. Jones Collection of books on mysticism , a gift to...