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PROVIDENCE MEETING83 SOME REMINISCENCES OF PROVIDENCE MEETING A paper read by Lydia G. Hawkins at the spring meeting of Friends' Historical Association held at Providence Meeting House, Media, Pennsylvania , Fifth Month 25, 1929. We may imagine this afternoon we are back in the late years of the seventeenth century and that we are looking at a little log house surrounded by forest trees. Indians probably are living not far away. This house was on the property now adjoining these (Providence Meeting) grounds which were then a part of this same tract of land. It was located not far from where the trolley now crosses Bowling Green. A depression' in the ground can be seen where it stood, and comparatively lately an old pear and apple tree marked the spot; also a covered well was nearby. This little log house, the home of Thomas Minshall, was the first place in which Friends of this neighborhood met to worship God. In 1700 a hip-roofed frame meeting house was erected not far from this building where we sit today. We pass over the next hundred years with all the changes they must have brought ; at their close we find both the little log house and the meeting house still standing, though grown old and time worn. What they could tell us, could they speak, of the people who once sat within their doors would be most interesting. But this is a closed book. William Penn was probably one of those who attended meeting iri this house. In 1807 a Friend from Edgemont with his son came to attend Providence Meeting, then still held in the old meeting house. He came also to look over some land near-by. This was the Minshall property, at that time owned by one Peggy Neusam, who lived in the same log house. The Friend was my great-grandfather , Robert Green arid his son, Abel Green, my grandfather, from whom, as a little child, I have heard the story of this visit to the old Minshall house, and the very important ending thereof. Peggy gave her visitors a very hearty welcome for she soon understood they were interested in her land and she wanted badly to sell. She was tired, she said of " snapping brush " and wanted to move " out west to RedlandsJ" Her. woman's intuition told her that it would be wise to first 84 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION offer her guests food before talking business. She thereupon set about preparing a meal. The haste with which this was done greatly impressed my grandfather. First, she stirred up the coals in the fireplace so they would be bright and hot; then she drew water from the well outside, filled her tea-kettle and hung it on the crane over the fire to boil ; from a little cupboard on the wall, she filled an earthen bowl with corn meal and mixed it into a dough for cakes which she put to bake in a pan before the fire. Hurriedly, she stepped into the end of the fireplace where smoked meats were kept; took down a long strip of flitch, cut off some generous slices which were soon sizzling over the coals. While these were cooking, she ran out to her garden, gathered a bunch of fragrant hyssup for tea, twisted it as she hastened iri; thrust it into her teapot and poured over it the boiling water; and now the meal was ready. We can picture her guests sitting around the open fire enjoying this primitive hospitality. It had the desired effect; she sold her land to her visitors for $670. A small amount it seems to us now, but probably Peggy was satisfied, for now she could move out to Redlands. My grandfather occupied the old house until about 1812 or 1814 when the dwelling now owned by Mr. E. Kenney Crothers was built. Here I was borri and my five brothers and two sisters ; and thus we came to inherit Providence Meeting traditions. I do not know how long the log house stood after my grandfather left it. My mother, Sarah Sharpless, daughter of Samuel Sharpless, has told me that as a young...

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