Michigan roots and routes

Raisin Valley (formerly Adrian) Friends Church. The oldest active Friends congregation 
in Michigan

Nineteenth century history

Whether they got there on by boat on the Erie Canal and Lake Erie or by train, by carriage or on foot, Friends who moved to Michigan in the nineteenth century were pioneer farmers, artisans, teachers and small business owners. Those whose work was connected to logging communities had to move frequently, so it was not unusual for some worship groups and meetings to be established and laid down a few years later. The landscape of the Lower Peninsula contains the ghosts of small meetings and worship groups. The meetings in farming and manufacturing areas to the southeast of the state had a more stable population.

To the outside world, the early Quaker settlers would have looked the same. All the early meetings were unprogrammed until the late-19th century evangelical revivals. The early Friends would have worn plain dress and used plain speech. Differences in theology and attitudes towards the world, and Friends' place in it, would, however, have been apparent by the vocal ministry and in some of the conflicts that arose. 

There were two main migration routes: The earliest was from Ohio or via upstate New York and the Erie Canal; the later route was through Indiana. Because of their different roots, the congregations had distinct cultural and theological histories. 

Most of the congregations began as worship groups or preparative meetings under the care of a monthly meeting. Those "home" monthly meetings belonged to one of the following yearly meetings.

NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING was the Orthodox yearly meeting that had continued after the Orthodox/Hicksite separation of the late 1820s. The earliest Friends congregations in Michigan were part of New York Yearly Meeting:

-Raisin Valley (formerly Adrian), Lenawee County (1831- ),

-Raisin Center (formerly Raisin), Lenawee County (1842- ),

-Rollin, Lenawee County (1851- ), and

-Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County (1855- .)  

Together, they formed New York Yearly Meeting's Adrian Quarterly Meeting. There were early tensions over engagement in the Underground Railroad, and some activist members left to join other churches, but there was no schism.

GENESEE YEARLY MEETING Set up in 1834, it had its roots in New York Yearly Meeting's Hicksite branch. Three monthly meetings were established in Michigan:

-Livonia (formerly Plymouth, originally Nankin), Wayne County (1834-joined Michigan Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends 1848; laid down 1849.)

-Battle Creek (formerly Milton), Calhoun County (1838-1899), and

-Adrian, Lenawee County (1840-49.)

In Michigan the yearly meeting was weakened by the Congregational/ Progressive schism four years later. One meeting split; its Genesee supporters joining another meeting, and that meeting survived until 1899, but none of the 19th century Hicksite meetings survived the 19th century. Hicksite Quakerism underwent a revival in Michigan in the 20th century, but not in the original Genesee meetings.

MICHIGAN YEARLY MEETING OF CONGREGATIONAL FRIENDS Linked to the movements in other states of Progressive and Reform Friends, and the Friends of Human Progress, two meetings in Genesee Yearly Meeting separated:

-Adrian, Lenawee County. The Progressives separated from the Hicksite Adrian Meeting in 1840. Its dates as a monthly meeting are 1848/9-1860.

-Livonia (formerly Plymouth, originally Nankin), Wayne County. This Hicksite meeting became a Progressive meeting in 1848. It was laid down in 1849.)

-Hickory Grove (formerly Parma Preparative Meeting), Jackson County. Became a Progressive meeting in 1848, and was also laid down in 1849.

Members of Progressive meetings supported anti-slavery activism, women's rights  and greater equality in meetings.  The movement faded because, with Emancipation, some of their work was accomplished. By the late 19th century many of their views on equality had become mainstream Hicksite thinking.

INDIANA YEARLY MEETING: Its first monthly meeting in Michigan was established in 1841, to be followed by twelve others and several preparative meetings and worship groups. It experienced a schism over anti-slavery activism, but only one meeting in Michigan separated. Although Indiana Yearly Meeting had also separated into Hicksite and Orthodox branches, the Hicksite yearly meeting had no congregations in Michigan. Of Indiana's original thirteen meetings, nine were laid down and one was transferred as a worship group to Ohio Yearly Meeting and subsequently laid down. They were:

-Birch Lake, Cass County (1841-1921, when it merged with Penn Monthly Meeting.)

-Vandalia, Cass County (1880-1915, when it merged with Penn Monthly Meeting.)

-Long Lake, Grand Traverse County (1880-.)

-Maple City, Leelanau County (1886-1917.)

-Manton, Wexford County (1890-1929.)

-Traverse City, Grand Traverse County (1894-1975; 1978-1987.)

-Onaway, Presque Isle County (1895-1910.)

-Penn, Cass County (1896-2012, when it became an independent Evangelical church.)

-Chapel Hill, Cass County (1899-1924.)

-Tawas City, Iosco County (1905-transferred to Ohio Yearly Meeting and laid down in 1906.)

-Arthur Center, Clare County (1915-1920.)

-Detroit, Wayne County (1922-1984.)

-Friends of the Light, Grand Traverse County (1994-.)

INDIANA YEARLY MEETING OF ANTI-SLAVERY FRIENDS. While by the 19th century Friends were united on the evil of slavery, they were divided  on what actions they should take. A minority of Indiana Yearly Meeting Friends became committed to nonviolent direction action through hiding enslaved fugitives and engagement in the Underground Railroad movement. The majority believed that abstinence from slaveholding and non-engagement with "the world" was their calling. This led to a schism and the establishment of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends.

In 1843, two years after Birch Lake, Indiana's first monthly meeting in Michigan was established, an Anti-Slavery group separated from it, and Young's Prairie, part of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends, continued until 1857. 

After Emancipation, the two yearly meetings recombined, with the understanding that there need be no apology on either side. 

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A new yearly meeting came into Michigan 16 years after the third of the 19th century schisms was affecting Friends in the U.S. Inspired by Joseph John Gurney's revivals, there were movements of energetic evangelism, which were opposed vigorously by John Wilbur and his supporters. This lead to Gurneyite/ Wilburite (Evangelical/ Conservative) separations. Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends split in 1854, with the Evangelical branch being identified with Damascus, Ohio and the Conservative branch identified with Barnesville, Ohio. 

New York Yearly Meeting transferred all its meetings in Adrian Quarter to the Gurneyite, Evangelical OHIO YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS in 1869. Ohio Yearly Meeting went on to establish nine more monthly meetings in Michigan:

-Hanover, Jackson County (1882-1924), 

-Lupton (formerly Lane), Ogemaw County (1893- ),

-Tecumseh (now Riverbend), Lenawee County (1893- ), 

-Adrian, Lenawee County (1904-1973), 

-Burt, Saginaw County (1907-1913), 

-Albee, Saginaw County (1908-1926), 

  

-Selkirk (formerly Rifle River), Ogemaw County (1912-1964),

-Battle Creek, Calhoun County (1946-), and

-Lansing, Ingham County (1964-1970.) 

This branch of Ohio Yearly Meeting changed its name to EVANGELICAL FRIENDS CHURCH EASTERN REGION, leaving the name 'Ohio Yearly Meeting' to be used by the Wilburite, Conservative branch, based in Barnesville Ohio. 

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Twentieth/twenty-first century developments

Nine new monthly meetings have been established in Michigan since 1937, mainly in college towns. They are affiliated to Friends General Conference, so have Hicksite roots, though not all members would be comfortable with that term. Seven monthly meetings and their associated worship groups on the Lower Peninsula belong to LAKE ERIE YEARLY MEETING. They are:

-Detroit, Wayne County, (1937-)

-Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, (1938-),

-Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, (1955-)

-Birmingham, Oakland County, (1968-) 

-Pine River, Isabella County, (1970-)

-Grand Rapids, Kent County, (1971-), and 

-Red Cedar, Ingham County, 1973-.)

There are also two meetings on Michigan's Upper Peninsula affiliated with Friends General Conference belonging to NORTHERN YEARLY MEETING:

-Lake Superior, Marquette County, (1979-), and 

-Keweenaw, Houghton County, (1991.)

The original four monthly meetings established by NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING and transferred to what is now EVANGELICAL FRIENDS CHURCH EASTERN REGION remain:

-Raisin Valley, 

-Raisin Center, 

-Rollin, and 

-Ypsilanti.

Of the nine other Evangelical churches, three survive: 

-Lupton,

-River Bend (formerly Tecumseh), and

-Battle Creek.

Of the original 13 meetings founded by INDIANA YEARLY MEETING, nine were laid down and one was transferred as a worship group to Ohio Yearly Meeting and subsequently laid down. 

It appears that only Long Lake will survive as part of the yearly meeting. Historic Penn Friends Church (which, as Penn Monthly Meeting, had absorbed Birch Lake and Vandalia, Indiana's earliest meetings in Michigan) withdrew from Indiana Yearly Meeting in 2012, and is currently an independent Evangelical church. Indiana's youngest Michigan congregation, Friends of the Light, plans to leave the yearly meeting when the yearly meeting's reconfiguration is complete in 2013.  

The newest small monthly meeting in Michigan, Crossroads, a Conservative meeting in Genesee County, was established in 2009 under Stillwater Quarterly Meeting, OHIO YEARLY MEETING.

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180 years of Quakers in Michigan

45 monthly meetings have existed in Michigan. (The figure is approximate because of separations and mergers.) Some bloomed briefly, either because of schism or implosion, or because communities moved to follow the work, especially that associated with the lumber industry. Others are still active more than 150 years later.

Over the years, Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region and its predecessor Ohio Yearly Meeting laid down six of its 13 monthly meetings. 

11 of Indiana's 13 meetings have been laid down, transferred or withdrawn, with another due to leave in 2013.

None of the traditional Hicksite meetings or the activist splinter meetings survived.

All nine Friends General Conference meetings established in the 20th century have survived, and a new Conservative meeting has been established.

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There are currently 20 monthly meetings in Michigan.

Nine of them are unprogrammed meetings affiliated to Friends General Conference, and somewhat Universalist in outlook.

Eight (including one independent) are Evangelical, with a particular understanding of what it means to be Christian. 

These two groups tend to pull away from each other. One group may look outwards towards building alliances with other Faiths. The other may look to other Christian evangelical denominations for alliances. Their focus is unlikely to be on each other, and towards Friends who are somewhat different from them.

The Conservative meeting is likely to look to other Conservative meetings in Ohio and elsewhere for its connections. 

The traditional Orthodox, Friends United Meeting "middle ground" has largely collapsed. What is left of it is fragile, with just two congregations that belong to Indiana Yearly Meeting, which is in the process of schism. One is evangelical, the other seeks stronger connections with the wider world of Friends and progressive Christians.

While the nineteenth century saw fractiousness, arguments and some schism, most Friends would have recognized in each other more that was common than was different. This was not just because Friends were still “peculiar” - more set apart from the World. It was also because they did share commonality: the identity of being a particular part of the Christian Family that was Quaker. They were also linked through educational, employment, and family ties and tradition.

Given the polarization of the present Quaker landscape, what if anything,can hold us together, and how can we nurture that fragile middle ground?

Friends of the Light, Traverse City. Newer congregation; historic building

Thanks to Thomas C. Hill, Monthly Meetings in North America: A Quaker Index https://www.quakermeetings.com 
for the names and dates.