York County Quaker Meetings
York County has a number of Quaker meetings and burial grounds. as shown on the map below.
Fawn Grove Friends Meeting
Often called Fawn Grove Friends, due to its location in the town of Fawn Grove, the meeting is more properly called Fawn. In 1763, minutes of the Western Quarterly Meeting recorded the following:
“8-15-1763, Deer Creek, Md., monthly meeting mentions that a few families of Friends settled in Fawn Township, York County, were desirous of having the privilege of holding a meeting, having selected a spot of ground on which they desired to build a meeting house.”
Subsequently: “11-21-1763: the committee reported: that, having met and viewed the place purposed by them to build a meeting house on which place not yet being secured, and the winter season approaching, they are mind that it is best for this meeting to defer granting their request until spring; yet that Deer Creek Monthly Meeting may allow them to same liberty as formerly…”
For whatever reasons,, the preparative meeting for Fawn was not set up until 1792, and its first meeting house was built about 1790. In 1878, this first meetinghouse was razed and a new one built to replace it
The graveyard at Fawn is kept tidy and most of the graves are fairly easy to read.
South Market St., Fawn Grove, PA
Huntington Meetinghouse (Historic)
A preparative meeting was set up in 1750 near York Springs by Sadsbury Meeting and a meetinghouse was built in 1766. A larger building replaced this in 1790, but by the middle of the 1800s, the meeting was dwindling in membership. The meeting was laid down in 1861 and is currently under the care of Menallen Friends in Adams county.
When the original Warrington Monthly meeting was divided about 1779 due to its size, the Menallen Meeting was established with Huntington as one of its subordinates meetings.
A large cemetery lies beside the meetinghouse.
Quaker Church Rd, York Springs, PA
Newberry Friends Meetinghouse (Historic)
The meeting house in Newberrytown that once hosted the Friends meeting has been a private residence for over two hundred years now, but it is still possible to see that it was once a Quaker meeting house. The simple structure complete with two front doorways shows the typical design of an old Pennsylvania meeting house.
The Newberry meeting was first set up as an indulged meeting in 1734 by Sadsbury and in 1738 became a preparative meeting. Until 1745, when the first meeting house was built of logs, the meetings were held in the homes of the members. A small graveyard located across the street from the original meeting site is probably the oldest Quaker burial ground west of the Susquehanna. The meeting house shown in the picture was built in 1792 but it was abandoned in 1811 when the meeting moved further west and began building the meeting house that would become known as Redlands.
Across the street from the former meetinghouse is the original burial ground for the meeting.
York Haven Road, Newberrytown, PA
Redlands Meetinghouse (Historic)
The Redlands Meetinghouse is the successor to the original Newberry meeting discussed above. The meetinghouse at the new site was completed in 1812. Over the next several decades, membership steadily declined at Redlands, Huntington and Warrington. There are a number of reasons for the declining membership of these meetings, but it was mostly due to the western expansion of the country. All three meetings had been laid by 1863.
Starting in 1950, the meetinghouse was opened for a meeting annually in order to maintain the non-profit status of the property. Finally, in 2015, the meeting house has been opened for meetings in the summer months. It remains under the care of Menallen Friends Meeting.
There is a graveyard besides the meetinghouse.
Old Quaker Road at Lewisberry Road, Newberrytown, PA
Warrington Friends Meeting
An indulged meeting was first set up in the Wellsville area of York County about 1730 under the care of Sadsbury Preparative and in 1747, it was set up by Chester Quarterly as a Monthly meeting, with Warrington and Newberry meetings being its members. First meeting in the home of William Garretson, the first meeting house, built of logs, was erected in 1745. The meeting became part of Western Quarterly in 1758 and then Warrington-Fairfax Quarter when that body was established in 1776. By that time the meeting had outgrown both its first log meetinghouse and the second log meeting house that followed it, and a new meetinghouse was built in 1769. It would be enlarged yet again in 1782.
In 1787 the Warrington-Fairfax Qaurterly was divided in to two meetings, and the Warrington meeting was added to Warrington Quarter and was transferred with that quarter to Baltimore yearly Meeting in 1789.
By the time of the civil war, the attendance of the meeting had dropped considerably and in 1862 the meeting was laid down and its members transferred to Menallen Meeting. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1945, Quakers in the area were interested in utilizing the old meetinghouse for a newly formed meeting and the Warrington Meeting was re-established and became part of Warrington Quarterly Meeting.
There is a large graveyard next to the meeting.
York Friends Meeting
The original York Friends Meeting was established in 1765 on land donated by Nathan Hussey, with a meetinghouse being built soon afterward. Hussey’s will, probated in 1773, added another small tract of land to the property which allowed the burial ground, behind the meetinghouse, to be enlarged. The property is located on the northern side of Philadelphia Street in the city of York.
In 1786, a Monthly Meeting was established as part of the Warrington and Fairfax Quarterly Meeting, which included York and the Newberry Preparative Meeting.
By the mid 1850’s the meetinghouse was in need of extensive repairs, which were accomplished, but in 1858, the meeting was discontinued and its remaining members transferred to the care of Baltimore Monthly Meeting as an indulged worship group. In 1933, the meeting was re-established as a Preparative meeting, and, finally, in 1951, the York Monthly Meeting was established once again under Warrington Quarterly Meeting.
Marriage Records for York Meeting
135 W. Philadelphia St., York, PA 17401
717-814-8534
Website: https://www.yorkquakermeeting.org