Stanfield Quaker Notes

Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, 1750-1930

Back to Stanfield Quaker Notes-Table of Contents

Part 1:  Abbreviations and Definitions of Quaker Terms

Part 3: Cane Creek Monthly Meeting

The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, Vol I, Cane Creek Monthly Meeting, Page 343

CANE CREEK MONTHLY MEETING

Orange (now Alamance) County, North Carolina

Cane Creek Monthly Meeting was established 7^th of 10^th month, 1751, being located on the steams from which it took its name, in the central part of the large area which comprised Orange County. This area included all the present counties of Caswell, Person, Alamance, Chatham and Orange and parts of Rockingham, Guilford, Randolph, Lee, Wake and Durham. In 1777, Chatham, Guilford and Wake Counties were established - each taking a part of Orange County. The division line between Orange and Chatham was run a short distance to the south of the meeting house, so the meeting continued to be in Orange County, but the residences of many of the members were thrown into Chatham. This accounts for the fact that in a large number of families the older children were recorded as having been born in Orange County and the younger ones in Chatham County. In 1849 Orange County was again divided, the western portion, including the site of Cane Creek Meeting, being set off as Alamance County. The meeting house is today located in that County, adjacent to the village of Snow Camp, and about 15 miles south of Graham, the county seat.

The meeting was set up under authorization of Perquimans and Little River Quarterly Meeting as set forth in the following minutes, dated 1751, 6, 31: "Friends on Cane Creek wrote to our Quarterly Meeting Desiring a Monthly Meeting to be settled amongst them, which was referred to this meeting & several Friends of them parts appeared at this meeting and acquainted Friends that there is Thirty families and upwards of Friends settled in them parts & Desire still in behalf of themselves and their Families to have a Monthly Meeting settled amongst them, which request upon mature consideration Friends think proper to grant & leave to themselves to settle it in the most convenient place amongst the Body."

It is not possible to present a complete list of the thirty or more families of Friends who are referred to in the above minute. That the original membership was scattered over a large territory is shown by a minute in the proceeding of the first sitting, 1751, 10, 7, which states that "Friends of New Garden belonging to this monthly meeting, request the privilege of holding a meeting for worship on first days at that place." The distance from Cane Creek to New Garden was upward of thirty miles. The Cane Creek birth records show that one or more children were born, in Orange County, North Carolina, prior to 10^th month, 1751, in each of the following families:

William and Hannah Brown

Anthony and Sarah Chamness

John and Abigail Pike

William and Sarah Piggott

Hugh and Mary Laughlin

John and Rachel Wright

At the opening session of the meeting, certificates were produced by

John Powell

Martha Hiatt and children

John Hiatt

Joseph Doan

Robert Summers, wife and children

Simon Dixon

Aaron Jones

Henry Ballenger, wife and children

William Reynolds, wife and children

Elizabeth Vestal and sons, William and Thomas

Other persons who are mentioned in the minutes during the first eighteen months include the following, some of whom were probably among the thirty families:

Ann Armfield

William Baldwin

Mary Ballenger

Rachel Ballenger

Bowater Beals

Sarah Beals

Thomas Beals

Benjamin Beeson

William Beeson

Rebekah Branson

Thomas Branson

Juliatha Carr

Thomas Carr

Sarah Chapman

Benjamin Clark

Catherine Cox

William Cox

Charles Davies

Hannah Davies

Daniel Dillon

Peter Dillon

John Doan

Elinor Edwards

Jonathan Harrold

Richard Henderson

Martha Hiatt

Sarah Hiatt

William Hiatt

Sarah Hodgin

John Hodson

Sarah Hodson

John Hoggatt

William Hoggatt

Rachel Howard

Mary Hudson

Eleazar Hunt

Thomas Hunt

William Hunt

Elizabeth Jackson

Isaac Jackson

John Jones

Able Knight

Elizabeth Laky

William Marshill

Edward Matthews

Mary Matthews

William Matthews

Henry Maynor

Mordecai Mendenhall

Hur Mills

John Mills

Thomas Mills

Benjamin Moorman

Matthew Ozbun

Jeremiah Piggott

David Reynolds

Benjamin Ruddock

Joseph Ruddock

Richard Sidwell

Phebe Summers

Frances Taylor

James Taylor

Robert Taylor

Martha Thornton

Thomas Thornton

Thomas Thornburgh

William Thornburgh

Joseph Wells

Thomas Wilkisson

Johnathan Williams

John Hiatt and Sarah Hodson were married 1752, 4, 22. The list of witnesses includes

George Hiatt

George Hodson

Henry Ballinger

Thomas Hunt

Eleazer Hunt

Thomas Beales

Martha Hiatt

Mary Hodson

Hannah Ballinger

Abigail Pike

Sarah Beals

Ann Hunt

Eleazer Hunt and Catherine Cox were married 1752, 12, 4. Among the witnesses were

Thomas Hunt

Zebulon Gaunt

John Wright

Charles Davis

Henry Mayner

William Piggott

Mary Jackson

Mary Matthews

Hannah Davis

Mary Wright

Rachel Mayner

The birth and death records of Cane Creek Monthly Meeting are in two volumes, designated as II and III. In each volume the pages devoted to birth records and those devoted to death records are numbered separately. In the following abstract, page numbers without volume indication refer to the birth records in volume II. Page numbers followed by the designations D, 2 and 2D refer to death records in volume II, birth records in volume III, and death records in volume III, respectively. The abstract of the minutes and marriage records has been compiled from the men’s minutes 1751-1899 (four volumes), women’s minutes, 1751-1883 (three volumes), and the register of marriage certificates.