Preface

This history of Gwynedd Monthly Meeting was originally planned for the 300th Anniversary celebration in 1998. Our member Laurie Halse Anderson spent many hours researching the history at Swarthmore College and writing. Laurie’s research resulted in the first section of this history, which takes us back to the Welsh families who came to Pennsylvania, through the 18th and 19th centuries, and a bit into the 20th century. Laurie was unable to complete the history when she became immersed in her other writing projects; she has since been nominated for the National Book Award, and other awards, for her young adult fiction books. Laurie did a tremendous job of distilling much information into a fascinating account of early Gwynedd history.

Jan Henderson revived the history project in 2000, when the History Committee, which consisted of Ginny Bergey, Cynthia Evans, Deb Faulkner, Janet Henderson, Emily Johnson, Reba Mohan, Regina Peasley, and Hamilton Thompson, began to meet again. We decided to concentrate on the 20th century, since Laurie had nearly completed the first two hundred years. We giggled a lot, and shared stories. I would like to share some of these stories here.

Regina Peasley recollected a workday when her mother, Ethel Hallowell, pulled her false teeth out with pliers and broke them. She also remembers sitting in Meeting and looking with envy at Reba Harris’s wonderful red curls made with rags. Regina describes the “baseball game” that young people would play during Meeting: the side of Meeting with the most speakers would win. She remembers Anne Ferris distinctly as having a large bosom, and always wearing a black garment with a pin at the neck. She remembers, as a teenager, asking Tom Foulke why teenagers could not sit on the facing benches. He spoke to Worship and Ministry about it, and got back to Regina that she could sit on the facing bench. Men sat on one side of the facing benches, and women sat on the other. Mixing of the men and women on the facing benches evolved gradually. Perhaps it was Alfred Wright’s wife Jane who started sitting on the men’s side. Edith Livesey always sat on the women’s side.

Jan Henderson recalls that sitting on the horsehair cushions was uncomfortable. She would bring a sweater along for her daughter to sit on.

After one funeral, with the coffin closed, the funeral director could not remember which direction the head of the deceased was. Without knowing that, the funeral director felt that the body could not be buried. No one seemed to remember which end of the coffin was the head. Arnold Trueblood came in from outside, and was apprised of the situation. He immediately stated, “Oh, that’s easy; the head is at this end”. [Arnold didn’t really know the direction of the head, but realized the need for someone to make the decision.]

Maria Arrington shared this memory of the late 1970’s or 1980’s, in a 1998 letter:

The Meeting decided to dig and prepare a new flowerbed for bulbs one Fall as a First Day School project. Everyone was to bring one or two bulbs. During the First Day session, the bulbs were planted with hopes for all the lovely blooms that would emerge in the Spring. Maria brought several bulbs, to share with Eliza Foulke, since Eliza lived at Foulkeways and wouldn’t have time to get her own. Everyone was having a jolly time, when Jim Stein commented that this was probably the only time that we could truly say that everyone in the Meeting had been in bed together. Eliza didn’t know what to say and there was quite a bit of laughter.

Jack Maxson shared this memory in a 1998 letter to Laurie:

“In the mid-70s, my life was coming apart. My marriage was failing and I was intermittently broke. I felt lost. It was Thanksgiving Eve, and I faced the holiday with the prospect of spending the day alone. Somehow – I no longer remember how it came about – I was given a telephone number to call for details of a Friends dinner. I dialed the number eagerly. A pleasant voice answered. I explained my situation.

“Oh, my!” she said. “I wish you had called earlier. We’ve run out of space.”

I wanted to get off the phone before my disappointment was apparent, but she would not let me go. She asked me a few questions, then suddenly said, “I think you’d better join us tomorrow, and I think we need you.”

At the end of the meal we climbed a small promontory for evening meditation. As the sun sank below the horizon I reflected on the inner warmth I felt from the kindness shown to me by these remarkable people.”

In 1989, I asked Jim Stein to tell his favorite hymns (He would often recite them at Meeting for Worship). He responded with these three hymns:

“New every morning is the Love”

“Now thank we all our God”

“That cause can neither be lost nor stayed”

I am told that “How can I keep from singing” was also one of his favorites.

We want to remember the Gwynedd Follies, which were gatherings with humorous entertainment by people in the Meeting.

Many individuals and committees have contributed enormous amounts of love, time, and energy, to Gwynedd Meeting, and only a few of them have been mentioned in this history. We began attending Meeting in 1985, and were so impressed by the intelligence and integrity of the Meeting community, and realized what a source of energy and spiritual light the Foulkeways community provided. Among the individuals who stood out were Howard Bartram, Linda Payton, Doris Jones, Wilbert & Nina Braxton, Mark Emerson, and Regina Peasley. Although quite old at the time, Doris Jones noticed and was very kind to our children. For us, it was also a revelation to get to know Lloyd Bailey, and to witness his introduction of the Alternatives to Violence project to Graterford Prison within weeks of his and Mary Margaret’s move to Foulkeways. We could see that Quakers didn’t necessarily retire when they moved to retirement communities.

In the mid-1980’s, Hannah Snyder seemed to run the Adult First Day School program single-handedly, and after her, Bunny Schwarz and Kevin Lohse.

My understanding is that in the early 1980’s, a new influx of younger families revived the children’s First Day School. The families of David & Karen Gray, Michael & Debra Peasley, and Aaron & Linda Poller, played a big role in establishing a vital program for children.

I appreciate especially Carolyn Moon’s helpful comments regarding this history. She pointed out that in the past 20 years, much has been done in First Day School, particularly with the children and young people (service projects, plays, intergenerational activities, young people’s business meetings) that was not mentioned in this history. She also mentioned the ongoing struggle Worship and Ministry has had with nurturing parents to bring their children and young people to Meeting for Worship. Also not mentioned is Gwynedd Monthly Meeting’s involvement in the work of Inter-Faith Housing Alliance, hosting participants in a summer month, and sponsoring an apartment at Hope Gardens.

A huge omission is the contribution of Lloyd and Mary Margaret Bailey, who moved to Foulkeways in the early 1990’s. Lloyd promptly established an Alternatives to Violence program at Graterford Penitentiary. Don Moon and others continued the program after Lloyd’s death in 2001.

Knowing that any history is incomplete, but hoping that what has been included will serve as a reminder of our past, and a help to our future, the committee apologizes in advance for all omissions or errors. We hope that future historians will find useful material here, and will be inspired to delve more deeply into our history.

Deb Faulkner

May 23, 2004

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