Indiana, U.S., Selected Quaker Meeting Directories, 1836-1921

The roots of Quakerism in America date back to the mid-17th century, and by the early 19th century, the Society of Friends had established meetings in Indiana. This collection includes directories from Quaker meetings in Indiana.

The directories include names, and often street addresses, of meeting members. Additionally they can provide any posts (e.g., ministers, overseers, elders, trustees, clerks, etc.) members held in the meeting. Some directories also list committee members.

Directories in this collection are from monthly and quarterly meetings at Indianapolis (Indianapolis, Marion Co.), Whitewater (Richmond, Wayne Co.), Walnut Ridge (Carthage, Rush Co.), and Knightstown (Knightstown, Henry Co.), as well as the yearly meeting for Indiana, 1889.

Historical Background

The Society of Friends was an important religious group from the seventeenth century onward in North America. They spread throughout New England and into New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. The Quakers are organized into meetings designated for worship (First Day Meetings), congregational business (monthly meetings), meetings that combine a group of congregations from a specific area that come together for worship and business (quarterly meetings), and meetings that have jurisdiction over a wide geographical area (yearly meetings). Quakers usually chose not to register marriages in civil records prior to the close of the nineteenth century, and most Quakers did not use tombstones until the mid-nineteenth century. These omissions add importance to the consistent and thorough record-keeping found in Quaker meeting records, which record a family’s births, deaths, and marriages. Certificates of removal were issued when a Quaker moved from one meeting to another and also appear in the monthly meeting minutes of both the transferring and receiving congregations.