• Saturday, May 19
• No Freedom Shrieker Letters to Macedon from a Civil War Soldier 
• Katie Aldridge, author, No Freedom Shrieker
• Location: Macedon Academy, 1185 Macedon Center Rd, Macedon Center, N.Y.
• Open House 1:00 – 4:30 / Talk at 1:30 — Free and open to everyone
• Co-sponsors: 1816 Farmington Mtghouse, Macedon Hist. Soc., Wayne Co. Historian’s Ofc., Macedon’s Books, et al

• Saturday, July 7 
• Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” 
• David Anderson, Nazareth College Location: Farmington Friends Meetinghouse, 187 County Road 8, Farmington
• Open House 1:00 – 4:30 / Talk at 1:30pm — Free and open to everyone
• Co-sponsored w/Rochester and Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission

• Saturday, August 4
• Human Trafficking at Home & Abroad
• Cindy Dyer, Vital Voices Global PartnershipLocation: Nazareth College, Shults Community Ctr., 4245 East Ave., Rochester
• Talk at 1:30 – 3:30 — Free and open to everyone
• Co-sponsored w/Peace & Social Services Committee of the Farmington Friends Meeting, Sisters of St Joseph, andEmpowerment Sisters of Mercy Justice Group

• Saturday, August 25
• Faith & Politics The spiritual journeys of Amy Post, A Celebration of Women’s Equality Day
• Nancy Hewitt, Rutgers University
• Location: Farmington Friends Meetinghouse, 187 County Road 8, Farmington
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• Tours of the 1816 Meetinghouse 1:00 – 4:30 / Talk at 1:30Free and open to everyone

• Thursday, Sept. 20
• Land & Identity: Seneca and Quaker Perspectives on the Controversial Treaties of 1838 and 1842
• Peter Jemison (Seneca, Heron Clan), Ganondagan State Historic Site Manager
• Judith Wellman, Colgate University
• Jamie Jacobs and Terry Abrams,Tonawanda Senecas
• Location: Nazareth College, Shults Community Ctr, 4245 East Ave., Rochester
• When: 7:00-9:00 p.m.
• Co-sponsors: Friends of Ganondagan w/Center for Service-Learning & Dept of Religious Studies, Nazareth College

The public is invited to a ceremony to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event at Farmington Friends Meetinghouse, 187 County Road 8, at 11:00 o’clock. Peter Jemison, Historic Site Manager of Ganondagan, will open our program with a traditional Haudenosaunee thanksgiving ceremony. Drive to the Friends Meetinghouse along Sheldon Road, to avoid crossing the intersection with County Road 8. (From exit 44 on the Thruway, travel south on Route 332, turn east on Route 96, north on County Road 8, east on Holtz Road, and north on Sheldon Road.)

Built to hold 1000 people, the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse is most likely the largest frame pre-Erie Canal building in western New York. It regularly hosted Quakers from all over western New York; Ontario, Canada; and Michigan until its sale in 1927 to a local farmer, who moved it 325 feet down the road to its current home on County Road 8.

In February 2006, a windstorm blew the east wall off the Meetinghouse. A group of local citizens made a heroic effort to preserve and restore this structure. Part of the long-range plan involves moving the building from its current privately owned site to a new home across the road.

The 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse is nationally important for its role in movements for equal rights for women, African Americans, and Native Americans. The country’s first women’s rights convention, held at Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848, would not have occurred without support from these Quakers. Farmington became an active site for abolitionist organizing and Underground Railroad activity. Seneca people came to this Meetinghouse in June 1840, forging an alliance with Quakers nationally to save some of the lands officially lost under the fraudulent Treaty of Buffalo Creek, preventing a “trail of tears” for the Seneca such as that suffered by the Cherokee who were forced to move west.

Famous Americans such as Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, and the Edmondson sisters—all African Americans who escaped from slavery—spoke and lived in Farmington. Nationally important women’s rights leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony spoke in Farmington. Seneca leaders such as Jimmy Jemison, Seneca White, Daniel Two Guns, Samuel Gordon and Cayuga Peter Wilson met with Quakers from Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Genesee in the Farmington Meetinghouse.

Reflecting its national significance, the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom, and is a member of the National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Funders include New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund, the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom, the Rochester Area Community Foundation, and many private individuals and foundations. The Preservation League of New York State and Canandaigua National Bank have made this project possible through bridge loans. Architects for this project are John G. Waite Associates from Albany, New York. Movers are Wolfe Brother Movers from Bern, Pennsylvania.

Donations of all sizes are most welcome and may be sent to:
1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse
P.O. Box 25053
Farmington, New York 14425

For more information, call Judith Wellman, Coordinator, 315-598-4387 (cell 315-529-7808); Helen Kirker, President, 585-526-6897; Lyle Jenks, 585-393-0037; or Bill Brandow, John G. Waite Associates, 518-449-5440. Website: www.farmingtonmeetinghouse.org.

Moving the Meetinghouse

Upcoming Open House Dates

July 30–”Farmington: Steps in Austin Steward’s Stride toward Freedom”

David Anderson, Chair, Rochester and Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission.

August 27– “Lucretia Mott, Quakers, and the   Early   Women’s Rights Movement.”

Carol Faulkner, History Department,  Syracuse University.

All Open Houses–with exhibits and tours–are held at Farmington Friends Meeting, 187 County Road 8, 12 a.m.-4:30 p.m., with talks at 2:00 p.m. and refreshments and conversation at 3:30. All talks are sponsored by the New York Council on the Humanities and are free and open to the public.

Historic energies are bubbling up again. Most wonderfully, this Meetinghouse is—at last—well on its way toward final stabilization and eventual preservation. With the help of one of the country’s premier historic preservation firms (John G. Waite Associates), Wolfe Brothers Building Movers stabilized and enclosed the building. They will move the Meetinghouse next summer to a site across the road, still within the Farmington Quaker Crossroads Historic District, to be donated by the current Farmington Friends Meeting.

We are grateful to the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation for working so hard to save this building. This year, we also formed a new not-for-profit organization, the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, to work jointly with the Stanton Foundation.

We are delighted with this progress. We are also immensely grateful for the financial support that has made this possible—from the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund, Preservation League of New York State, Rochester Area Community Foundation, Farmington Friends Meeting, Canandaigua National Bank, and so many of you. You have contributed so much—in money, time, and sustaining energy—from your hearts.

To finish stabilizing and moving this Meetinghouse, we have committed ourselves to raise $76,000 from private sources this year to match federal and state funds. All donations (including pledges and appreciated securities) are much appreciated. Donations may be sent to the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, P.O. Box 25053, Farmington, New York 14425 or donated on Visa or MasterCard through this website ».

Stay tuned!

With grateful hearts,
1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Steering Committee

Judith Wellman, Director
Historical New York Research Associates
Professor Emerita, SUNY Oswego

2 Harris Hill Road
Fulton, New York 13069
315-598-4387
historicalnewyork@mac.com

We are so pleased—absolutely delighted—to announce that the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, through NYS’s Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, has received a grant of $330,000 from New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund for this project. Now, we need to match this!

View award letter (Adobe pdf 1 page 42Kb)

We are still working on the remaining $11,800 to match our grant of $47,000 from the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. Profound thanks to the Rochester Area Community Foundation, Canandaigua National Bank, and many, many generous private individuals for their contribution toward this goal.

With this money, we hope to put out bids very soon for stabilizing this building in place this fall.

Stay tuned!

Alaine will send this to the IRS so that we may be officially recognized for tax purposes as a 501c3 organization. This will be retroactive to May 18, 2009, and will allow us to accept donations as a charitable organization.

Congratulations and many, many thanks for all this hard work by so many people! Thank you, Alaine!

Best, Judy

Provisional Charter of 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum
( 5 pages 865Kb)

Minutes of NYS Board of Regents meeting granting Provisional Charter for 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum.
( 2 pages 37Kb)

—–Original Message—–
From: Karen Andersen
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 12:30 PM
Subject: RE: 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse

At the May Regents Meeting, the Board of Regents voted to issue a Provisional Charter. The corporation should receive it in the mail in a few weeks. Congratulations!

Here is the agenda item:

1816 FARMINGTON QUAKER MEETINGHOUSE MUSEUM

Farmington, Ontario County

The board of trustees has petitioned the Board of Regents to form a corporation to establish and maintain the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse as a historic house museum open to the public relating to and interpreting the national reform movements relating to women’s rights and women’s suffrage; relations between Quakers, Haudenosaunee and African Americans; abolition of slavery; and the Underground Railroad; to maintain and preserve the house and open it to the public on a regular schedule; to collect, own, hold, maintain, preserve and make available appropriate historical objects and artifacts; to arrange, create, maintain and promote appropriate historical exhibits and displays; to promote and support historical research and scholarship, issue publications in any format, and organize historical and cultural activities, programs and events for the public. The Office of Cultural Education recommends that a provisional charter be granted for a period of five years.

You can view the actual Regents meeting as a webcast on http://usny.nysed.gov/webcasts.html

Karen Andersen
Education Program Assistant I, Museum Chartering
NY State Museum
Office of Cultural Education
NY State Education Department
3097 Cultural Education Center
Albany NY 12230
Phone: 518-473-3131
Fax: 518-473-8724
email: kanderse@mail.nysed.gov
web site: www.nysm.nysed.gov/charter/

provisional_charter

board_of_regents_meeting

Hello Friends

Check out this excellent news from Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, through Fran and Gail Caracillo—$330,000 from our Environmental Protection Fund application from last year for the Meetinghouse!

• Award letter: from NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (1 page 50Kb)

Take two days to dance and celebrate. Then we will get to work raising matching funds! Thanks so much to the EPF review board, to SHPO, and to all of you who have contributed so much to make this happen! After OPRHP makes its own formal announcement, we can tell others about this.

ecs_epf_award

The Journal was a Hicksite Quaker publication in the 1870s and 1880s, edited by Joseph Gibbons and his daughter Phebe E. Gibbons (from Lampeter, now Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster County, PA). The Gibbons were actively involved in anti-slavery and the Underground Railroad for several generations, and their publication contains some interesting recollections of the anti-slavery times, plus news of Friends., like Joseph Dugdale, who had been active in the anti-slavery movement.

The issue of 3 Mo. 22, 1876, has an column of “Friendly Items” containing news of Quaker doings, including:

The author of this was J.M.T. Jr. — almost certainly one of the Trumans of Philadelphia who were related to Jane Master Hunt and to the M’Clintocks — probably Joseph M. Truman Jr.

The “Friendly Items” column in the Journal 4 Mo. 5, 1876, included some corrections and additions:

I haven’t been able to find the fuller account of TM’s life that JMT Jr. promised.

Christopher Densmore, Curator Friends Historical Library
Swarthmore College
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1929
Phone: 610-328-8499
Fax: 610-328-5728
cdensmo1@swarthmore.edu

http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends