Early Friends
in
East Montpelier



by

Margery S. Walker





© Copyright 2000 Margery S. Walker
All rights reserved
Originally published in 1974
Reprinted 2000 - OMlet Publications

On top of the hill just above East Montpelier Village, where the mountains begin to encircle the horizon, a dozen or so gravestones stand in a corner of the pasture back a little way from the road. This is all that remains of the early Quaker settlement (from l795 to 1840) which was the center of religious life for 70% of the people of the area now known as East Montpelier.

Quakers built the first church in what is now Washington County in 1794. It was a small log meetinghouse built about one half mile down the road from the cemetery on the banks of the "Meeting House Brook" by members of the Society of Friends. Meetings for worship had been held before that in the Stevens home.2 Clark Stevens, the prime mover of the group, had come to Montpelier from Rochester, Massachusetts (about eight miles northeast of New Bedford) in 1789 at the age of 25. "After effecting a considerable opening in the wilderness, and building customary log house and barn, he returned to the land of his fathers, and December 12, 1792, married Huldah Foster of Rochester," and brought her back to Montpelier.3

Clark Stevens was born in Rochester, Massachusetts in 1764, the oldest of eight children. With his father, Prince Stevens, he had enlisted in a company of infantry in Rochester, Massachusetts. During the last year of the Revolutionary War, Clark, then nineteen years of age, served as a sailor.4 Following the war, he spent several years as a seaman in the whaling and coastal trade out of New Bedford. One source recounts that near drowning and the perils of the sea "revived religious impressions he had experienced formerly and his desire for a quiet life." With that end in view he "removed to the forests of Montpelier."5

Clark's pioneer spirit was in harmony with his heritage. Great grandfather Andrew Stevens sailed for America from Wales in the 17th century to escape an unpleasant bondage to his uncle. Shipwrecked near land, he managed to swim ashore, saving a lady who clung to him, who later became his wife.6 His son Timothy married Mary Clark in 1716 and fathered Prince who, with his wife, joined Clark in Montpelier. Both Prince and Reliance are buried in the East Montpelier cemetery along with Clark, Huldah, and a number of their offspring.

Many family members and Rochester friends joined the Stevens in the new town: Clark's mother and father, several sisters and brothers; Huldah's brother, Stephen Foster, and an uncle who were active in starting the Universalist Church in East Montpelier Village a few years later; and David Wing the elder, a Quaker, and his family who were to become influential citizens in the new community. Clark Stevens often facilitated the move of these friends by overseeing the purchase of cattle and land for them. One letter from New Bedford in May of 1809 to "Esteemed Friend Clark Stevens" concerns the purchase of stock and how to get the money to Clark as "my neighbors that talk of going to Montpelier this Spring have failed in their intention." Another communication is from Joseph Austin who asks Clark to go ahead to purchase $100 worth of stock on credit until the 9th month. "I shall pay it if I can sell my farm, otherwise not until the note is out. I think there never was a harder time to get money with us than the present, owing somewhat to the banks being so fluctiating (sic) there is harly any bils (sic) in circulation, that it is safe to take. I have a faint prospect of seling (sic) my farm but not without a sacrifice of six or seven hundred dollars which seems very hard. My Love to James Nelson. Tel him he must do the best he can, as I mean to do as well by him as he does by me."7

Inside the fold, on the same paper as the previous letter John R. Davis writes: "One might think from my present close engagement in erecting works from manufacturing woolen yarns that the desire and expectation of settling in Montpelier was erased from my mind, but it lives with me as much as ever if not more and the little farm I want very much -- think of this Fall as I expect money then and it seems to draw near viz the time for me to leave New Bedford. It may never take place but yet cannot but think it a rational move if not a tincture of Youth in it. Yet wish not to set a seal on it but leave it and let things work and be willing should they take place as they may.."

The Friends in East Montpelier assembled together regularly twice a week on Thursday afternoons and Sunday Mornings. It is apparent that their religious convictions grew following the move to Vermont as the records of Sandwich Monthly Meetings, of which Rochester was a Preparative Meeting, make no mention of several prominent members of the group.8 In October of 1798 Montpelier Friends, after the custom of their Society, made a request to the Danby Monthly Meeting by way of Ferrisburg Preparative Meeting, "signifying their desire for to have a meeting for worship allowed them." The Danby Meeting appointed individuals to visit Montpelier and inspect the situation and report their sense of the matter when so done. Three months later the visitors reported a "good degree of satisfaction" and meetings were officially allowed to be held on the first and fifth Days.9

The Society of Friends grew rapidly in Vermont during this period. There were three Quarterly Meetings on record in the Western length of the state in 1803, each with its "constellation of Monthly, and Preparative Meetings, totaling 1,000 -1,500 Quakers in 18 small congregations from Danby to Grand Isle.10 The Meetings were bound together in a network of mutual support, their religious concerns encompassing social, intellectual and economic aspects of life as well.

You might have read this advertisement in the Vermont Centinel of 1810: "Garden seeds for sale at the Burlington Bookstore. An assortment of Garden seeds of the best kind, directly from the Quakers."11 The first drove of sheep were brought into Montpelier by Clark Stevens.12 Friends appointed Overseers of the poor and spread the expenses incurred by Local Meetings through assessments in the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings. From the Yearly Meeting of Women Friends held in New York in May, 1810, came this eloquent statement about care for the poor. "We desire friends may be encouraged not only to give to those that ask but search out the real object of our care and by endeavoring to put our souls in their souls stead, become qualified to administer to their wants--that both the precept and example of our Divine master renders it a duty for it was not on the commission of evil but the omission of acts of kindness that caused the Denunciation "Depart from me I know you not."13

Friends attempted to raise money for the civilization of the Indians, although in 1807 the Montpelier Friend appointed to open subscriptions reported that "it hath been done but none subscribed."14 There was concern about obtaining books and educating their children. The matter of the distribution of books ordered by the Meeting is a recurrent notation in the Minutes. A number of books on Quaker principles and practice are in the collection of family effects passed down through the generations in the Stevens family.15 Subscription were taken to send children of the Meeting, both boys and girls, to boarding school, most frequently at Nine Partners in N.Y. From the Yearly Meeting in 1808 came a long discourse on debts of the Friends school at Nine Partners in spite of subscriptions. An old timer who in her youth attended Quaker meetings in East Montpelier remembers a Quaker school near the Stevens house. She conjectures that it might have been the small house later moved across the road and used as the tenant farm house.16

Friends from Montpelier traveled regularly to the Western part of the state to participate in Monthly Meetings for business and often farther to carry spiritual concerns. A letter in the Minute book, fragile with age, about the visit of a Vermont Quaker to North Carolina gives a flavor of these visitations "To Moncton Monthly Meeting in the state of Vermont

Dear Friends:

Our beloved Friend Joseph Hoag in the course of his Religious Visit to these parts, visited all the Meetings constituting this and produced your certificate of Unity and concurrence dated the 30th of the 7th month 1812 with an endorsement from the Friends Quarterly Meeting held at Ferrisburg 6th, 8th month, 1812 whose Company and Service hath been truly Satisfactory; his Ministry being lively, Sound and Edifying, and his conduct and conversation corresponding therewith.

Signed by direction and on behalf of our Q.M. held at Symon's Creek in Pasquatonk County, N.C. 29-5th mo. 1813. by George Bundy."17

Clark Stevens traveled widely among Friends as well, attending Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings. "He everywhere evinced his faithfulness as a laborer and his ability as a religious speaker and teacher."18 In 1815, at a convocation at Starksboro he was acknowledged as a regular and acceptable minister of the gospel, one of about 50 or so designated through a half century by the Ferrisburg Quarter.19

Carefully kept Minute Books housed in the Records Room of New York Yearly Meeting in New York City (editor's note - now archived at the Friends Historical Library - Swarthmore College) are extant for the Montpelier Meeting for the periods between 1801-1813 and again froml826-l832. They seem to reveal that Friends were more interested in their spiritual purity than in the problems around them. The first book is covered with a 1796 newspaper giving news of the French Revolution, but no discussion of the events is recorded in the Minutes.

Business meetings were held separately for men and women. Clark Stevens generally served as Clerk of the Men's Meeting. Huldah Stevens was active in the Women's Meeting and daughter Paulina served as Clerk for the year of 1812. Friends reported faithfulness in answering the queries, a self questioning process through which Quakers assess their actions in relation to their beliefs. Their Discipline stated that: "Queries are to be read. . .in order that Friends may be led to an individual examination whether their practice is consistent with their profession; and that Ministers, Elders, Overseers, and other religiously concerned Friends, may be excited to discharge their duty faithfully, in administering counsel and admonition, tending to the promotion of vigilance and care in the exercise of our Christian discipline."20

A frequent description in the Minutes finds them "in love and unity as becomes brethering." At times more specific observations were made, such as: "prity clear of sleeping," or, "So fair as we know we are clear of tale-bearing and back-biting."21 The Discipline, in a chapter on the responsibility of Friends appointed to service, cautioned that those who give way to sleeping in meetings should not be employed in service of the Society.22 Again, advice from the Yearly Meeting in 1803 adjured members to do away with the various deficiencies noted in answers to the Queries, including the "prevalence of Lukewarm and Drowsy Spirit." Occasionally the overseers of the Montpelier Meeting had to report an errant member:

Oliver Palmer, "who lately came amongst us, (joined in 1803) has for some time past neglected to attend our Meetings and has not come in to a suitable degree of plainness, and says that his mind is much with a Peopel that are in the use of many outward forms and serimoneys for all which he has been Laboured with to but little or not affect." Or again, in 1811, we read from the Overseer's report, "Daniel Bassett a member of our Society had so fair gone from our principles as to attend a place of diversion and had gone from plainness and neglects attendance of our Meeting - which is directed to Monthly Meeting."23

Miscreants were required to bring a confession of their wrong-doing in person to Monthly Meeting.24 In July of 1807 the advice was brought from Yearly Meeting to be "clear of distilled spirits and to set a good example."

Of note for our present day feminist sensitivities, the frontispiece of the Discipline published in 1810 has this comment: "In order to avoid frequent repetitions, the masculine gender is generally made us of, which is meant to apply to either sex as the case may require."25

Montpelier Friends regularly answered "clear" to Query 7, "Are Friends clear of bearing arms, of complying with military requisitions, and of paying any fines or tax in lieu thereof." Elsewhere it is noted that some of the Moncton Quakers refused to pay war taxes in 1812 and that their animals were confiscated and sold as a result.26 There was also the notable case of Timothy Davis of Rochester, Massachusetts who was famous for the pamphlet he wrote encouraging Friends to pay the mixed taxes for the Revolutionary War. Since Friends everywhere were suffering distraints for non payment of these taxes, it created a furor, resulting in a split of Friends in Sandwich Monthly Meeting. With due penitence he was received back into the fold in 1794.27 In 1837 Vermont, by law, granted exemption to Quakers of this tax. A younger Timothy Davis who migrated to Montpelier was disowned by the Massachusetts Meeting. In 1809 there is a communication from New Bedford Monthly Meeting to Moncton Monthly Meeting inquiring into the sincerity of Timothy's acknowledgment of the transgression and his wish to be restored to membership. The committee to visit Timothy reported favorabl on his sincerity.28 Timothy subsequently married Clark Stevens oldest daughter Paulina. Both are buried in the East Montpelier cemetery.

In February of 1809 Johnson Gove informed the Meeting that "through inattention to that Principle that would have preserved him innocent he had so fare gone counter to our known principle as to agree with a Captain of a foot company and did provide him and his company a dinner when met for Militia Exercise which he was sorry for and did condemn after a consideration thereon."29 After the deliberate manner of Friends, he was finally pardoned a year later. There are a few other citations of persons taking training, but in conjunction with the seemingly greater sin of missing meetings.

A Query which generated a great deal of confrontation was that which addressed the stricture of keeping company and marrying out of the Society. To understand the importance that early Friends attached to this, it is helpful to refer to the explanation in their Discipline.

"Marriage implies union, as well in spiritual as temporal concerns. While parties differ in religious principles, they stand disunited in the main point, even in that which should increase and confirm their mutual happiness, and render them helpmates and blessings to each other. Where it is otherwise, the reciprocal obligation into which they have entered, becomes their burden. With whatever felicity they may have flattered themselves in the beginning, they find themselves disappointed, by the daily uneasiness accompanying their minds, and embittering their enjoyments. The perplexed situation of the offspring of such connexions, is also to be lamented.

"From a sense of the peculiar importance of the marriage covenant ...it is concluded that when any Friend shall marry a person not a member of our Society, he shall be disowned; unless, upon being visited by a Committee, he expresses a desire to be retained in membership, is in practice of attending Meeting, and gives evidence of attachment to our religious principles. "30

Many individuals were lost to the Society through this belief and ruling.

Friends were frequently distressed about their departure from the principle of plainness and simplicity in Dress, Address, etc. ". . .our object is to let decency, simplicity, and utility be our motives, and not a conformity to the vain and changeable fashions of the world."31

Sometimes confessions of wrong-doing were presented with apologies to the Meeting, such as that from Jonathan Varney in March of 1810. "Whereas I by taking hold of business which I was unacquainted with together with misfortunes couldn't keep up on contracts - when an officer came to the door I gave way to weakness to use opposition and threw live ashes at him which set his clothes on fire." At other times informants reported irregular behaviors. Also in March of 1810 Ferrisburg "informs that Samuel Austen presented that he was endowed with healing powers. People came from 100 miles and gave him gifts but were not healed." The Meeting appointed a committee including Clark Stevens to labor with him.32

The Montpelier Meeting never achieved Monthly Meeting status, although 150 or more were reported in attendance at the meetings on Sundays.33 The care of the Montpelier Meeting passed to Ferrisburg in 1799 and later to Moncton, and then to Starksboro. In 1804 Montpelier's share of the Quarterly Meeting collection was 3% (Ferrisburg, Moncton, Starksboro and Lincoln were the other Meetings of the Quarter.)34 The preparative status was discontinued in 1832. Thereafter it existed for many years as an indulged Meeting. In 1843, Clark Stevens in describing the Meeting to John Gridley said "The number of the families is at present quite small."35 Life was arduous. Major epidemics of dysentery or typhus fever occurred in 1802, 1806, and 1813. A visit to the hilltop town cemetery set behind the Quaker burial site reveals, with its more generous legends, a sad saga of early deaths. Not surprisingly, a plot for a "burying ground" was an important concern of the Montpelier Meeting.

In the Minutes of January 1807 emerge the first reports of interest in procuring "burying ground." The committee appointed to pursue the matter continued for two years with intermittent prospects and disappointments. In April, 1809 there was this entry: "This Meeting feels reservedly straitened and concerned respecting a Meeting House and buring ground. There is now an opportunity of purchasing a House and Land which with some repairs we think will answer and this Meeting is much united that it is best to purchase it - therefore ask for the speadaly advice and assistance of the Monthly Meeting in the business."

In July 1809, the Moncton Monthly Meeting committee appointed to visit Montpelier had completed its task and "propose purchasing a house belonging to Parley Davis and about 3/4 of an acre of land." Other sources tell us that this house was formerly used as a store by the first merchant in town, Col. David Robbins, who built it and began trade in l796.36 Nathaniel Austin and J.J. Tobias were appointed agents to purchase and take deeds of said lands. They later report that they have taken the deed and a permit to move the house and the expense of $125.68. Montpelier Preparative Meeting was directed to estimate the expense of repairing and fixing the house for to hold Meetings as the Moncton Meeting desires to forward their subscriptions toward repairs. Johnson Gove, Jared Bassett and Clark Stevens were appointed to estimate expenses and we see their report in the August Minutes: an estimate of $108, $90 of which was already subscribed. Second month 1810 finds the task finished with a total cost of $115.74 for repairing and removing the building.

The next concern was furnishings for the new Meeting House. September, "It is agreed in this Meeting for Timothy Davis to fix a table in each end of this House for the convenience of writing (probably one each for the men's and women's sides) the expense to be paid by the Meeting." In October, this Meeting "failing (feeling) the want of a stove, appointed Clark Stevens to open subscriptions." In a later Minute, Clark Stevens is paid $3.50 for finding wood and building the fire for a year. November, Timothy Davis was paid 90 cents for the tables. The table in the Vermont Historical Society, a relic from the old Quaker Meeting House, may be one of these, although the Historical Society records state that their table was made by Clark Stevens.37

W. Nelson Peck, born 1811, and "bound out" after the custom of the day to Clark Stevens, described the Meeting House. "There was a partition through the middle of the room and the women always sat on the left hand side of this, and the men on the right. The partition reached only to within a foot of the ceiling so that the voices of the speakers were audible in all parts of the room. Speaking, however, was not only always (sic) a leading feature of the services of the Quakers, for sometimes those present sat through a meeting lasting an hour and a half at which not a word was spoken. No one said a word unless "moved by the spirit" and no longer than he felt that he had something to say."

During his lifetime Clark Stevens always sat on a little platform at one side of the room, in view from both sides, at almost every service and nearly always had something to say for the benefit of his brother Friends. One feature of the meetings was the "publishing" of couples about to be married. It was done by Joseph Wing, for over fifty years town clerk. Occasionly (sic) on a Thursday afternoon Mr. Wing would ride up and hitch his horst (sic) in front of the meeting house and the younger portion of those present, knowing his errand would be thrown into a mild flutter of excitement. Mr. Wing would sit quietly for a few minutes for the sake of seemliness, and then during a quiet interval he would rise and announce that _____and ______ were soon to be united in the bonds of wedlock, and if anyone knew good and sufficient reason why, under the laws of God or the state of Vermont, such a union should not take place, they should feel themselves bounden to make the reasons known.

Mr. Wing, who was not a Quaker, would then mount his horse, and proceed to the mill in the valley below or return to his home as the case might be. As David Wing the elder who migrated to Montpelier with Clark Stevens was a Quaker it is interesting to conjecture why his descendants were not. A loose scrap of paper in the Minute books of the Moncton Monthly Meeting, which appears to be a draft of a minute, may hold some clues: "Isaac Wing a member of this meeting, having so disregarded the principles of our society as to neglect the attendance of meetings and use profane language for which he having been tenderly laboured with in order to bring him to a sense of his misconduct but not manifesting a disposition which would warrant his continuance in society we disown him from being any longer a member thereof." Signed by order of Ferrisburg Monthly Meeting held __the of __the l82__. 38

"Just back of the meeting house was the old Quaker burying ground 'where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, though just how many are buried there it is not possible to determine, for the earlier race of Friends did not believe in marking the graves of the deceased by monuments or headstones. The consequence was that after a good many years, when they came to dig new graves they sometimes disturbed the bones of those previously buried. In later years several stones were set, and the person in whose memory one of these was placed died over one hundred years ago, showing that the burials there were begun as soon as the meeting house was built."39 The earliest legible dates on the stones are for Mary S. Pratt, daughter of Seneca and Sarah Stevens, d. 1819 23 years of age, and for Timothy Stevens, d. 1833, 31 years of age. Timothy was the sixth child of Clark and Huldah Stevens.

Clark Stevens was often sought after for public office. He issued the call for the meeting to organize the Town of Montpelier.40 On the organizing of the new County of Jefferson in 1810, later named Washington, the Legislature appointed him judge on the unanimous recommendation of his fellow townsmen. However, with the exceptions of serving one year as lister, the first year Montpelier was chartered, and one year as Town Clerk, he uniformly declined, and "gave the public to understand that civil honors had so few charms for him that it would thereafter be in vain to offer them."41 In this regard he was in harmony with the prevailing views in the Society of Friends. Richard Mott, Clerk of the New York Yearly Meeting in 1812 enjoined members to keep from mixing in political controversies and thus avoid dangers to which members of our Society are exposed in taking part in any civil government and when they do take places of honor or profit with government, others should labor with them to convince them of the inconsistency of their conduct with our religious profession.42 It was a pole apart from the testimony of William Penn in the Holy Experiment of an earlier era.

Clark Stevens died in 1853, aged 89, at the farm which he had begun on moving to Vermont 64 years earlier. His parting words reflect his Friendly persuasion: "I have endeavored to do what I apprehended was required of me. I have nought but feelings of love for all mankind." Contemporaries commented that he was a fine looking man, 6' and well contoured, imposing and dignified. "A prince in appearance but a child in humility. Superior intellect, and well balanced, but his heart shone out. In the truest sense of the word, he was a great man."43 The Burlington Free Press, 23 Nov.1853, states: "A patriarch gone. Clark Stevens one of the early pioneers in the settlement of Montpelier and active in the organization of the town in 1791, died last Sabbath at East Montpelier, in his 90th year. He was a consistent Quaker and greatly beloved among the Society of Friends."

Some of Huldah and Clark Stevens eight children and their offspring did distinguish themselves in public service. Through a great, great grandson, Stanley Farnham, presently living in Montpelier (ed. -1972), we have records of the fourth son. Stephen Foster Stevens, after pursuing his trade of cabinet maker at Moncton for a few years returned to the East Montpelier homestead and cared for his parents until their decease. Stephen F. Stevens served as one of three selectmen when East Montpelier was organized into a separate municipality in 1849, as Town Representative of East Montpelier in 1855 and 1856, and as Sargent-at-Arms. Stephen's daughter, Ann, married to author Rowland Robinson, was Town Clerk of her community for 23 years, 1893-1916. A son, who succeeded his father, Thomas B. Stevens, "though never in the remotest sense an office seeker, represented his town in the legislature from 1872, and in 1896 was chosen as first senator from Washington County and in both occasions he won distinction for himself from his colleagues and constituents. In town matters he was also honored having held the position of selectman and auditor for over 15 years."44

They were also noted for their business acumen. Stephen F. Stevens had a brisk correspondence with the U.S. patent office which included applications for patents for a cheese press, platform scale, and churn. The patent for the scale was granted in 1848. A neighbor, Cyrus Morse, who had kept a dairy for 20 years testified that the churn would save half his work. "...but I Believe this Saves half the Labor this Churn I think will Recommend it Self."45

Thomas B. Stevens bought the farm in 1858 at the death of his father. "By patient toil and good management he built it up to over 400 acres and one of the finest farms in the state."46 On his death his son in law Horace Farnham purchased the property. When he sold it out of the family in 1915, the newspaper commented that "The farm is considered one of the best in the State. and has been in the hands of the Stevens family for 125 years." "..(we) regret to learn of such a venerable place passing into the hands of strangers."47

The religious heritage seemed to dissipate more quickly. "In religious preference Thomas B. Stevens was a Friend though not so orthodox as his grandfather and father being married out of the sect."48

In the family Bible the new style dating, using the names of the months, takes the place of the Quaker usage with the recording of the birth of Stanley Farnham in 1897. George Davis, son of Paulina and grandson of Clark Stevens was the last known Quaker in the area and the most recent burial in the Quaker cemetery in 1910. Mrs. Lyle Young remembers George Davis, a fine old Quaker man "though he had no Meeting to go to." He was a bachelor living on the farm where he was born down the road from the Meeting House near the Four Corners school. The "Quaker Willow" known to many old timers grew luxuriantly in his front yard and had a seat built around it. Many residents remember stopping by in its shade. The story is told that a traveling Quaker preacher stuck his willow switch in the ground and the tree grew from it.49

Davis was a specialist in his profession, known far and wide for his herd of Devon cattle. He was also unrivaled as a breeder of Light Brahma fowls. He bred colts and often served as a starting judge at horse races. He was a most excellent judge of all farm animals, and consequently in much demand as a member of the awarding committees at county fairs and all gatherings of like nature. He was director and vice president of the State Agricultural Society and served in the General Assembly in 1884.50

The role of Caleb Bennett, often listed as an energetic helper of Clark Stevens in the Friends organization,51 is cast in a new light in the Diary of John Russell Davis. On a journey through Vermont, Massachusetts and New York in the summer of 1800, John visited his relative Ruth (Davis) Bennett, wife of Caleb. Caleb, he reports, was not an ardent Quaker though his father and mother were, and Ruth and all her people were very devout.52 Perhaps this is why the name of Caleb Bennett is not found in the Minutes of the Montpelier Meeting. Caleb and Ruth Bennett and four of their children are buried in a separate plot with an imposing stone marker about 1/4 mile down the road from the Quaker burying ground.

The same Diary, as well as "A Grandfather's Reminiscences" provide information about the difficulties of these early settlers in maintaining contacts with their families back home. The writers describe the barely wagon-width path and precipitous banks along the Onion River, and the generally terrible roads. In 1840 the trip from Montpelier to Rochester took five days. Day's trips were planned to stop at relatives if possible. After a few weeks of visiting relatives in Rochester the long journey homeward began.53

The reasons are not clear as to why the Montpelier Meeting died out except that it was part of a general pattern in the Society. Lincoln and Starksboro Meetings were laid down in 1850. Some conjecture that membership diminished because the principle of simplicity, plain speech and plain dress were not highly valued in the expanding economy of a developing country.54 Moreover, as we have seen, Friends took an uncompromising position in reading non-conformists out of the Meeting. A Quaker historian, Levinus Painter, believes that the major problem was Friends' incapacity to relate themselves to the larger society. Advices against holding public office were an example. Loss of interest in social welfare, apart from women suffrage and temperance, was another. In sum, he feels that Friends lacked social vision.55 Certainly emigration played a part in the decline. The whole Preparative Meeting of S. Royalton moved out to Michigan. Theology too was a problem with the division of the Society over the Hicksite/Orthodox controversy in 1827-28. The Montpelier Meeting was listed in the census of 1828 as Orthodox. Perhaps the competition of the village church (Universalist) and the East Montpelier Center Church (Methodist) established in 1823, also took their toll in support.

Although the Quaker cemetery is still discernible, many of the stone markers are broken and illegible. Others are almost covered by grass. Perhaps it is fitting that monuments do not mark the history of the early Quakers as many of them did not approve of gravestones. In England where the sect originated many of the old cemeteries are simply grassy enclosures, with an occasional bench built out from the stone wall, open to grazing sheep and lingering passers by on the country roads.50 However, it would be too bad not to retain in our memories the contribution that the Quakers made as active, responsible citizens in the early settlement of Montpelier.

1. Picture of the Quaker Meeting House with inscription, presented to the Historical Society in 1922.

2. Hemenway, Abby Maria, Vermont Historical Gazetteer, a local History of All the Towns in the State, Vol. IV, (Mont., Vt:1882). and Barre Daily Times, 1912, Obituary, Mr. Mary Putnam, daughter of Stephen F. and Rachel Byrd Stevens.

3. Thompson, D.P. History of the Town of Montpelier, Vt. 1871- 1860 (Mont: Walton, 1960)

4. D.A.R. history of Lenora Stevens Farnham on the Stevens side, March 20, 1912. From a book in possession of Stanley Farnharn owned by his mother, and containing some of her writings and clippings.

5. Thompson, op. cit.

6. Barney, Dr. Elvira Stevens, The Stevens Genealogy (Salt Lake City: Skelton Pub. Co., 1907) pp 98-102.

7. Stevens, Clark, letters in possession of Stanley & Madeline Farnham.

8. Foster, Thyra Jane, Custodian New England Yearly Meeting Archives, correspondence 12/13/1968.

9. Minutes, Danby Monthly Meeting 1796-1799, 10th of first month 1799. Records Room of the New York Yearly Meeting, New York, N.Y.

10. Burlington Free Press, September, 1972.

11. Vermont Centinel, April 20, 1810.

12. Gridley, John, History of Montpelier, Vt. Published 1843.

13. Minutes, Montpelier Preparative Meeting, of Women Friends held 1- 15-1805 - 8th month 1813. Records Room, N.Y. Yearly Meeting, N.Y.C.

14. Minutes, Montpelier Preparative Meeting, 1801 1813; 1826-1832. Records Room of the New York Yearly Meeting, N.Y.C.

15. Collection of Madeline and Stanley Farnham.

16. Personal interview Mrs. Evelyn Sibley, Plainfield, Vt.

17. A letter in the Moncton Monthly Meeting Minute book, 1808-1819. Records Room, New York Yearly Meeting, N.Y.C.

18. Hemenway, op. cit.

19. Painter, Levinus, talk at the Starksboro Meeting House, September 2, 1972.

20. Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in New York as revised and adopted 6th month, 1810. (New York: Collins and Perkins).

21. Minutes, op. cit.

22. Discipline, op. cit. p. 14

23. Minutes, op. cit. p. 44

24. Discipline, op. cit. p. 44

25. Ibid.

26. Hughes, Charles and A. Day Bradley, "The Early Quaker Meetings of Vermont", Vermont History, Vol. 29, 1961, p. 163.

27. Foster, op. cit.

28. Minutes, Montpelier Preparative Meeting, op. cit.

29. Ibid.

30. Discipline, . cit, p. 59.

31. Ibid. p. 64.

32. Minutes, Montpelier Preparative Meeting, op. cit.

33. Montpelier Daily Record, 1896, "The Quaker Church," in the Farnham collection.

34. Minutes, Montpelier Preparative Meeting, op. cit.

35. Gridley, op. cit.

36. Hemenway, p op. cit.

37. Reading desk, from Quaker Meeting House in East Mbntpelier, Vermont Historical Society Meseum.

38. Moncton Montly Meeting 8-30 1808 - 9-29-1819. (N.Y. Yearly Meeting).

39. Montpelier Daily Record, op. cit.

40. Barre Daily Times, E. Mont. 1912, op. cit.

41. Hemenway, op. cit.

42. Minutes, Montpelier Monthly Meeting, op. cit.

43. Hemenway, op. cit.

44. Men of Vermont: an illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, compiled by Jacob G. Ullery, under the editorial supervision of Hiram A. Huse (Brattleboro Vt: Transcript Publishing Co.) 1894.

45. Handwritten statement by Cyrus Morse in Stanley Farnham collection.

47. Ibid. February 12, 1915.

48. Barre Daiiy Times, 1898, op. cit.

49. Personal interview with Mrs. Lyle Young, Montpelier, Vt.

50. Men of Vermont, op. cit.

51. Hemenway, op. cit.; Gazetteer of Washington County, Vermont, 1783-1889 Part First, compiled by Hamilton Child, and published in Syracuse, N.Y. by the Syracuse Journal Co., 1889.

52. David, John Russell, "Diary of a journey from New Bedford, Mass. to Montpelier, Vermont and return, May-June, 1800, by a Quaker preacher with one companion, on horseback." Vermont Historical Society Proceedings, 1919 20 (1921) pp. 159 183.

54. Burlington Free Press, Sept. 1, 1972, op. cit.

55. Painter, op. cit.

56. The Friend, Vol. 128, No. 41, Oct. 8, 1970, p. 1205.

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