When the Religious Society of Friends was first established in the seventeenth century, Quakers tended to be skeptical of higher education, which was often regarded as vocational training for the paid clergy. However, they strongly supported basic education for both boys and girls. Yearly meetings encouraged monthly meetings to operate
Quaker History
CFM Roots: The First First-Day School
After the construction of the new meetinghouse in 1830, one of the first items of business was to start a First-Day School so that Orthodox Friends could pass on to their children the values and beliefs that they felt had been challenged during the Hicksite separation. Although interest in this
Channeling Mary J. Taylor
Compassion and courage. Those two words leap to my mind when I think about Mary J. Taylor. They’re the reason why I chose to speak as her at the Heritage Village Museum’s First Person Program Series on March 24. Mary and her parents left Virginia in 1814 when she was
CFM Roots: A Second Meetinghouse
Throughout 1829, as contention over the teachings of Elias Hicks continued, not a month went by that did not involve either dealing with or disowning members of the meeting who were sympathetic to his views. The disagreements over who were the rightful members of the meeting raised another specter: who
CFM Roots: The Hicksite Separation
Not long after Cincinnati Friends Meeting was established in 1815, an itinerant Long Island preacher named Elias Hicks became a nexus of controversy among Quakers on the East Coast. In the tradition of George Fox, Hicks strongly advocated for relying on the Inner Light for guidance, to the extent that