Speaker: Rhoda Renschler
Occasion: speech to the Solebury Farmers Club
Speech date: March 4, 2006
Speech location: Solebury Friends Meeting House conference room
Speech length: 47 minutes
Time span discussed: 1806 to late 1800s
Summary: Rhoda Renschler is a life-long Quaker and a descendant of an early Solebury Quakers. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Solebury Meeting, she spoke to the Solebury Farmers Club about the Meeting’s history and early Quaker practices.
Time markers:
00:00 – Solebury Friends Meeting 200th anniversary, Farmer’s Club talk to celebrate
01:12 – references Rhoda studied for the talk including original meeting minutes 1806
02:35 – Solebury Farmer’s Club first meeting 1871
03:06 – Rhoda’s attire which represents authentic 1700 Quaker clothes
05:12 – Quaker history, origins in Pennsylvania, the great experiment
06:54 – original cabinet maker’s work
07:41 – George Fox’s thinking on simplicity, inner light
08:05 – political life of Philadelphia Quakers 1750s, withdrawal due to political climate, need to swear an oath, built schools
11:50 – Solebury and Buckingham meetinghouses, Fox’s building instructions, architecture
14:10 – women’s business meeting and activities, marriages
15:03 – meetinghouse design change, men and women separate
15:32 – Buckingham meetinghouse, double-door design 1767
17:49 – Solebury meetinghouse built 1806 on Pike tract on land owned by Paxson family
22:22 – monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings
23:09 – Solebury meetinghouse building and construction
27:07 – facing benches for overseers; boxes for storage
29:32 – woodwork
29:56 – master builder, ancestor of Tinsman family; fieldstone construction
31:46 – carriage sheds; horse mountings
32:24 – Buckingham meeting allotted horse and buggy space
33:42 – schoolhouse across from meetinghouse on Blackfan land, 1836; first students
36:00 – schoolhouse to township, public school until 1899; now caretaker’s house
36:35 – burial ground, monuments discouraged, stranger’s row
39:21 – simplicity in dress
41:16 – peace testimony, fines for not fighting
42:02 – Civil War meeting minutes, anguish of going to war or obeying Quaker ways
42:55 – simplicity of Quaker beliefs, inner conscience
45:14 – women’s equality in Quaker meetings
45:50 – first woman elder in Bucks County 1741; women could inherit property
