Yellow Springs Friends Meeting  

written and finished in 2000 by Lorena Hyde 

Chronology of key events 

1930 Rockford Meeting House constructed and given to Antioch College by Lucy Morgan. 

April 10, 1940 Application of 11 people to Green Plain Monthly Meeting to become a Preparative Meeting was accepted by Green Plain. Cynthia Johnson appointed as first Clerk. 

October 11, 1942 First report to Green Plain Monthly Meeting: 4 transfers from other Meetings and 9 new members. 

October 24, 1947 First Day School established. Freda Abrams, chairman. 

April 8, 1948 Arthur Morgan suggested establishing a Burial Committee. 

May 8, 1949 Letter to Green Plain Monthly Meeting requesting Yellow Springs Monthly Meeting status. January 8,. 1950 Epistle, as a new Monthly Meeting, sent world-wide to Monthly Meetings. 

August 1953 Burial Committee plan ready to use. First used Feb. 1955. 

February 6, 1977 Decisive minute to proceed toward establishment of a Friends Nursing Care Center in Yellow Springs. 

July 27, 1978 Agreement with Xenia Township. trustees for use of a burial plot in Friends Cemetery on u.s. 68 north of Oldtown. 

May 9, 1981 Friends Care Center dedication.

June 3, 1981 Celebration and Rededication of 50 years of use of Rockford. 

October 30, 1987 Lease signed between Antioch College and Friends Meeting for use of Rockford and extension to be built by the Meeting.

June 10, 1990 Dedication of addition to Rockford (assembly room, kitchen, 2 rest rooms): $100,000 contribution to Antioch College. 

History of the Yellow Springs Meeting of the Society of Friends 

During the 1920's a small group of Friends and others met regularly in various homes. In 1930 Rockford Meeting House was  constructed from funds bequeathed to Lucy Morgan, who gave the building to Antioch College to be a place of meditation. From the beginning of its use Rockford became the gathering place for the group that had been meeting in homes. 

By 1940 this group wanted affiliation with the Society of Friends. The application of 11 people (some of whom already had Friends membership elsewhere) to Green Plain Monthly Meeting to become a Preparative Meeting was accepted by Green Plain on April 10, 1940. For a long time there was only a Meeting for Worship. Beginning in late 1946 there were dinner meetings once a month, followed by a business or educational meeting. After several months of preparations, a First Day School was established in October 1947, with Freda Abrams as chairman. 

In April 1948, at the suggestion of Arthur Morgan, a committee was assigned to investigate the possibility of establishing å burial plan for members and attenders who pre-register for its use. A final report of this committee was accepted in August 1953, and the first 

use of the plan was in February 1955. 

In early 1949 a proposal for Monthly Meeting status was presented to Green Plain Monthly Meeting and forwarded by them to Quarterly Meeting in June. Having received approval by Quarterly Meeting, a committee appointed by them attended Business Meeting in October to assist in organization of the Monthly Meeting.

In January 1950: an Epistle as a new Monthly Meeting was sent world-wide to Monthly Meetings, stating this Meeting's aims and purposes and hopes for the Society of Friends and inviting visitations from those Meetings. The first Quarterly Meeting in Yellow Springs was held in April 1952.

In the early 1950's a teen group started writing and printing a newsletter. Within a short time it became the official organ of the entire Meeting. After a time, this evolved to the QuakerShaker (a name chosen by the teens), the current newsletter of the Meeting, now the responsibility of a committee.

A first Retreat for the whole Meeting was held in fall 1963 at the Outdoor Education Center in the Glen. This Gathering eventually became an annual event, sometimes meeting in the. Vale, and with different focuses. One of the first outcomes was Quaker Evenings, when adults met to discuss a particular concern or subject. In recent years, these discussions have usually taken place in "brown bag" lunches, following Meeting for Worship Sunday morning. 

For the benefit of new attenders, a. "Quaker 101" series has been given twice in the last decade, led by a Meeting member. For several years a way of becoming better acquainted within the Meeting community was developed with "The Friendly 8s". People signed up to be hosts or participants in once a month evening potluck meals, with four couples meeting at each host home for a social evening.  Through the years the peace and Service Committee (now called Peace and Social Concerns)* has had different periods of activity and inactivity, sometimes joining with other groups in a particular project. Some of these have been Institutional Service Projects, Mississippi Freedom Project, working on local black/white tensions, AFSC clothing drives, Peace vigils, and Interfaith Hospitality Network. The Children's Fair each December raises money for the Gidimo School in Kenya and for Jicaro in Nicaragua. 

A worship group in Dayton asked to be a Preparative Meeting under Yellow Springs Monthly Meeting in the fall of 1973. They asked to become a full Monthly Meeting in February 1975. This was finally accomplished at Quarterly Meeting two years later. 

By 1957 the Meeting was feeling the need for more adequate space. It was decided to add a building fund to the annual budget, and a committee was set up to explore possibilities. This exploration continued intermittently for a number of years. In 1975 the Meeting house Committee was reformed. During the same year there was discus sion of building a nursing home, urged by Arthur Morgan long before that time. For a while it seemed that both a meeting house and a nursing home might be built on a piece of land the Meeting had bought. 

As it turned out, the nursing home ("Friends Care Center") was built first, on a piece of land large enough to permit future expansion. Griscom Morgan led the way in presenting the project to the public. Community support was strong, but only if the Friends would sponsor it. The Meeting formally agreed to do it in February 1977, and the Nursing Home Committee moved forward under the leadership of Paul Wagner. The Friends Care Center opened in October 1980 and was formally dedicated on May 9, 1981. Formal participation in FCC byy the Meeting has continued with the appointments of Board members: three from the Meeting and two from the Community at large. 

Over the years, many ideas were explored for increasing the Meeting's space, including purchasing a house or unused old school, continuing at Rockford but purchasing another building for First Day School, building on land that was purchased and building an addition to Rockford. A plan for a Rockford addition was approved in May 1987.  On October 30, 1987, a long term lease, costing $1/year, was signed by Antioch and the Friends Meeting for the use of Rockford an an extension to be built by the Meeting at a cost of $75,000.  The Meeting would have total use and control of the extension, but the college would continue to hold title for the whole building.  The addition was dedicated June 10, 1990 in a special called meeting for Worship at 3 p.m., followed by an open house reception. 

 ------

Yellow Springs Monthly Meeting belongs to Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, and is one of 16 Monthly Meetings which are part of Miami Valley Quarterly Meeting.  

Existing with several different names since the early 1800s, Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting (OVYM) was originally formed from Monthly Meetings under the care of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The beginnings of OVYM are deeply rooted in the anti-slavery movement. Quakers have sought that of God in all people, whether female or male, white or people of color, young or old. Although some early Quakers held slaves, many came to see that this was incompatible with their testimony of equality. This was especially difficult for Friends living in the Southern states. Some began to investigate moving to the Northwest Territory, designated as slave free. This included Ohio and other Midwest states. When Quakers moved from North Carolina to the “free state” of Ohio to escape the scourge of slavery, they founded Miami Monthly Meeting (Waynesville, Ohio), the first Quaker Meeting of what would become Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting. Over the years, more monthly meetings were branched off of Miami and eventually there were sufficient related meetings in the area to organize the Yearly Meeting.

(read more about OVYM's history, here)

A typed pdf history of how Yellow Springs Friends Meeting began can be found here -