The Summer Meeting of F. H. A., 1937

Volume 26, No. 1 Spring Number, 1937 Bulletin of Friends* Historical Association THE SUMMER MEETING of the Friends' Historical Association was held at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Fifth month 15, 1937. Preceding the official meeting was a visit to the Museum of the Bucks County Historical Society, at which members and their friends inspected the curious and multitudinous relics of American civilization of the last 250 years, gathered in a curious building and maintained under the care of Mr. Horace M. Mann, the Curator. There was also a display of books of special interest to Friends, arranged by the Librarian, Mr. George MacReynolds. The Editor was interested to find there a manuscript copy of the Philadelphia Discipline of 1719, the property of Buckingham Monthly Meeting, in the handwriting of William Atkinson—a manuscript of sixty pages. Readers of the Bulletin will recall mention of this revision of the Philadelphia Discipline in Rayner W. Kelsey's article on Early Books of Discipline in the Bulletin, vol. 24 (1935). The Museum proper is a great concrete structure built with an open space in the center from basement to roof, and galleries around the four sides. The visitor entering on the ground floor sees above and on all sides a threatening collection of household implements and artifacts hanging from the roof and from the galleries about him—farm wagons and water wheels, pump shafts and whaling boats, stage coaches and heavy sleighs— ; while smaller articles are displayed on the floors or, if in danger of being removed, in well-lighted recesses, visible through glass windows. The number and variety is astonishing. The meeting was called in the meeting house under the chairmanship of Lydia Flagg Gummere, as the President of the Association, William W. Comfort, was in Europe, and Mrs. Francis B. Gummere, Vice President, who had been expected to 4 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION preside, was prevented by illness from serving. The meeting house dates from 1835. Two interesting addresses, prepared and read by Mrs. George Watson and Mrs. Harry T. Shoemaker, gave an account of the founding of the meeting, and of Samuel Hart and John Watson, who had been active in the building of the meeting house and in early meeting affairs. The essential facts of the early history, based on a memorandum written by Samuel Hart himself in 1850, are given below, followed by selections from the papers prepared for the occasion. An indulged meeting at Doylestown was authorized by Buckingham Monthly Meeting in 1834, and was held at first in a rented room. In 1835, the meeting house was started. Five Friends agreed to underwrite the enterprise—William Stokes, Timothy Smith, Samuel Hart, Eleazer T. McDowell, and Samuel Yardley ; and a house fifty by twenty-six feet was erected at a cost of $1654.50, in which the first meeting was held in Second month 1936. Various Friends contributed toward the expense of the building, and John Watson interested himself in ;securing contributions totaling $545.25 from Bucks Quarterly Meeting and from Gwynedd and Richland Monthly Meetings of Abington Quarter, leaving a balance of $880.25 for the five underwriting Friends to pay. Later Bucks Quarter increased its contribution, so that the contribution of the five Friends, who held title, was reduced to about $75 each, and they declared a trust of the property, holding it as trustees under the Quarterly Meeting for the Meeting's benefit. At the date of Samuel Hart's memorandum, Samuel Yardley had removed to Philadelphia, and the other trustees, except Samuel Hart himself, had died. Doylestown Meeting DOYLESTOWN is an indulged meeting under the care of Buckingham Monthly Meeting. The meeting house belongs to Bucks Quarter. Originally there was a partition and the seats ran in the other direction from the way they now run, with the raised seats facing the street. The specifications called for "a partition running across the house from front to back, with one double door to pass through and five hoisting shutters on slides, all to be hung with pulleys and weights, the said double door, partition and slides to be of panel work." The inside woodwork was unpainted. We have a letter from...