As it turns out, I descend from a number of Quaker families: there’s the bearded Bond brothers from Wayne County, Indiana; the Roberts family, whose log cabin still stands in Richmond; and the Hawkins family, who traveled to America with William Penn aboard the Welcome in 1682. These findings pale in comparison, though, to my newfound research on the Beals family of Chester County, Pennsylvania; like his parents, Thomas Beals was a prominent minister in the Quaker church, and, in 1748, the Beals family and other church members followed a wagon train south to establish a new meeting house in Guilford, North Carolina.
The Society of Friends called their frontier settlement “New Garden,” a tribute to both the New Garden Meeting House of Chester County and the earlier New Garden of County Carlow, Ireland. The first meeting of the Friends of New Garden occurred in Cane Creek in 1751 (present-day Alamance County), and the members in attendance drafted a petition requesting permission to hold permanent meetings of worship: “There is Thirty Families and upwards of Friends settled in them Parts and Desire still in behalf of themselves and their Friends to have a Monthly Meeting settled amongst them.”

“At first there was no meeting house, and there is an amusing tradition in regard to their pioneer meeting: Two great logs were placed to form an angle. The leaders sat at the vertex and, supposedly, the men sat on one log, the women on the other, in the typical Quaker tradition of separating the sexes. Then, to prevent their horses from straying during the extended silent meeting, they drove them into the open angle and closed it by a third log, thus forming a triangle.” After the Friends’ petition was approved, their first meeting in a private dwelling was in the home of Thomas Beals, my 7th great-grandfather, in February of 1752.
The New Garden Meeting continued to grow over the next few decades, ultimately becoming the “focal point of Quakerism in North Carolina and in the South.” Some 93 public Friends from the North, from eastern Carolina and from Europe attended Monthly or Yearly Meetings between 1752 and 1778, attesting to the importance of New Garden. The earliest description of one of these meetings was by one visitor, Catherine Payton Phillips, an English Quaker, who wrote of her visit in 1753: “We set out next morning [after spending the night in the woods] in hopes of reaching a settlement of Friends at New Garden that day; but…we thought it best to stop at William Rinald’s [Reynolds?] at Polecat, who was under the possession of Truth…”

“And the next day…we had a meeting there with a few friends, and some of the neighbours; which was exercising, yet ended in a sense of Divine sweetness. The 24th [December], we went to New Garden, and staid amongst Friends in that settlement till the 28th. This was a new settlement of Friends, and we were the first from Europe that had visited them, or traveled in these parts in the service of Truth. We had pretty close service among them, and laboured for the establishment of a meeting for ministers and elders in their monthly meetings; which we found was much wanting: and we had reason to hope that the proposition would be adopted; divers Friends being convinced of its usefulness, and seemed glad that it became our concern to recommend it.”
And that’s Thomas’ story: he was a prominent Quaker minister who, along with his family, established the first Meeting House at New Garden in North Carolina. He was widely-known and well-regarded among his peers, and a number of my ancestors were Friends of New Garden throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries–the Meeting House is still in existence today. I have some strong Quaker roots, a find that surprised me a few months ago; however, this is, in my opinion, the most remarkable find of all. Discovering that my ancestor laid the foundations of a new church–the church that nearly all of my paternal ancestors grew up in–is simply incredible. Genealogy is crazy, isn’t it?
I live in Guilford County, NC and am very familiar with New Garden. There’s a major thoroughfare bearing the name. The Quaker influence is throughout the city of Greensboro. Thanks for an interesting and enlightening post!
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Thanks for reading! I’m in Mecklenburg, so Guilford’s not as familiar to me–it’s cool to know the influence is still there, and that my ancestors were a part of that. You’ve made my day!
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Which state are the photos from? I descend from Quakers from Wayne County, Indiana–the Marshalls from the Economy area. The old house still stands! Most of them moved to Dallas County, Iowa, before and after the Civil War.
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These photos are from North Carolina, but I’m trying to find artist’s renderings of their former meeting house in Pennsylvania. And I didn’t know the house still stands in Indiana! Now I need to make a trip up there even more.
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The town I live in was founded by Quakers, and I have discovered one in the Quaker cemetery. Your post has spurred me on to research if he’s converted or if more family members were members. Love the image with covered wagons. I never think of a gathering not lined up with anything but cars 😊
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Let us know what you find–that sounds so cool! In my family, most of the Quakers became Methodist circuit riders around the late-1800s; I wonder if you’ll find the same for this man and his family/descendants.
And you’re so right, I do always think of cars. Even with the photo, it’s hard to put myself in their shoes–everything is just too different now.
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Jamie,
I can’t believe what a small world it really is! I just read your most recent post, and would you believe I live in Wayne County, Indiana. Your post particularly caught my eye though because of the attention to the New Garden settlement of Quakers. To add on to your post, members of that New Garden area moved to Wayne County, Indiana and founded a Quaker Church here. The old New Garden Quaker church still stands in northern Wayne County. It is no longer used as a Quaker meeting house, but has been converted and is used for weddings and social events. A relatively well known member of the Underground Railroad, Levi Coffin, was a prominent member of the New Garden Church here, and was a transplant from the North Carolina branch. I drive by the New Garden church here every day on my way to and from work. If you ever need help with any local research here, please don’t hesitate to ask!
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How interesting!
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I know right–agreed! I’m so excited I don’t even know if I included everything I should’ve in my response!
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Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing all of this information, it’s made my day! I’ve been following the historical museum in Wayne County for a while, but I had no idea the old meeting house still stands in the area, as well. I really need to make a trip up there, and I’ll definitely have to take you up on the research sometime! All of this new information is going in my ancestry books (full of records and photos and stories of the family)–I can’t thank you enough!
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I particularly enjoyed the description of the worship set-up prior to the meeting house being built!
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Thanks! That’s my favorite detail–I can’t believe it was held in their home!
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Liz, that is what really caught my attention also.
As always, Jamie, you send me off on a tangent, wanting to know more about what you have posted…
Congratulations! Your blog is included in INTERESTING BLOGS in FRIDAY FOSSICKING at
https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2019/03/friday-fossicking-22nd-mar-2019.html
Thank you, Chris
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Thank you!!! And you’re in luck, because I’ve written a series of articles on this family that is scheduled for the next couple of weeks! I’m really glad you liked it–I think March is turning into a Quaker roots month, accidentally.
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I look forward to them.
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There were a lot of Quaker in WNY any connection to them also?
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Not yet, which is so weird–everyone else in the family has lived in Western New York for so long, but this Quaker line traveled all over the United States. California, Washington, Montana…hopefully I’ll find a New York connection soon.
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Maybe they knew something.
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Haha, maybe
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Quite a legacy. Very cool!
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Thank you!
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My husband’s Quaker ancestors were also in Guilford County, NC around 1800. They moved from Pasquotank to Back Creek and then onto Indiana. We are blessed to have ancestors in one branch who kept such detailed church records.
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It seems like our ancestors followed a similar path–there are probably good odds that they knew each other, too. We are VERY lucky to be Quaker descendants, I agree–their record-keeping is invaluable. My research on this line is well-documented and verified (that’s always difficult!), and none of the family legends were lost to time!
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I don’t know any Quakers but in Massachusetts, but there are the Shakers! (Actually a museum). Do you consider yourself a Quaker? Seems like you have an entrepreneurial spirit in your DNA.
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I’m not a member of a church right now—and I don’t know if I consider myself to be anything really—but I was raised Roman Catholic. I spent my childhood memorizing my prayers and Acts of Contrition. 😂 The Quaker roots are from a while ago, and we didn’t even know we had them! And thank you—there were a few entrepreneurs in the family, and that’s a great compliment!
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Interestingly I strongly suspect one branch of the family tree were Quakers. It made sense to me as I was always told positive things about Quakers growing up.
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