Stanfield Quaker Notes

The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, 1750-1930

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Part 1:  Abbreviations and Definitions of Quaker Terms

Part 6: Lost Creek Monthly Meeting

The following abstract of the records of the meeting has been compiled from one volume of birth, death and marriage records, five volumes of men’s minutes (1778-1890), and two volumes of women’s minutes (1778-1892).

The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, Vol. I, Lost Creek Monthly Meeting, Page 1101

LOST CREEK MONTHLY MEETING

Jefferson County, Tennessee

Lost Creek Monthly Meeting was established the 20^th of 5^th month, 1797, near the present town of New Market, Jefferson County, Tennessee. Nathan Hunt and Jacob Hunt were in attendance as representatives of New Garden Quarterly Meeting. Abraham Woodward and Sarah Mills were appointed clerks. Henry Thornbrough, Richard Hayworth, Mary Turner and Eleanor Sumner were appointed to attend the next session of the Quarterly Meeting at New Garden, N.C. At the monthly meeting held 23^rd of 9^th month, 1797, John Mills, Henry Thornbrough, Sarah Mills and Rachel Thornbrough were chosen to serve as Elders.

The exact date of settlement of Friends in Lost Creek Valley is not known. John Mills and family are said to have been the earliest settlers and the date of arrival has been fixed as about 1784. ("Genealogy of the Maulsbuy Family," page 30.) The early Tennessee settlements in Greene and Jefferson Counties were under the care of New Garden Monthly Meeting, N.C. In 1786, the memberships of John and Sarah Mills and children and of William and Rachel Beals and children were transferred to New Garden by certificates issued by Center Monthly Meeting. By certificates dated 1791, 11, 5, New Garden Monthly Meeting transferred the memberships of these families and of

William and Margaret Hinshaw and children

William and Eleanor Sumner

Jesse and Hannah Baldwin and children

Jeremiah and Judith Horn and children

Moses and Hannah Ballenger and children

Richard and Ann Haworth and children

to Westfield Monthly Meeting, N.C. All these certificates were received at Westfield, 1792, 1, 21. The minutes relating to this transfer state that the families were living on the waters of the Holston River and it was believed that it would be more convenient for them to belong to Westfield. Before granting these certificates New Garden Monthly Meeting assured itself that the lands on which the members were living had been purchased from the native Indian owners. Certificates for other Friends who are know to have been living at or near Lost Creek at early dates were received at Westfield as follows:

Richard Mills and children from Deep River, 1792, 6, 23

Elihu and Sarah Swain and children, 1791, 12, 24

Evan and Susannah Lewis and children, from Hopewell, Va., 1791, 12, 24

John and Lydia Maulsby and children, from Hopewell, Va., 1791, 12, 24

Mordecai and Hannah Mendenhall and children, from Deep River, 1792, 6, 23

Aaron and Charity Mills and children, from Deep River, 1793, 1, 19

Henry and Rachel Thornbrough and children, from Springfield, 1792, 4, 21

Isaac Williams and children, from Deep River, 1792, 4, 21

William and Rachel Williams and children, from Cane Creek, 1792, 12, 22

Thomas and Margaret Chapman and family, from Cane Creek, 1793, 6, 22

Miles Chapman and family from Cane Creek, 1793, 6, 22

Abraham Woodward and family (wife Hannah), from Center, 1793, 2, 16

Joseph and Rebecca Thornbrough and children, from Deep River, 1792, 6, 23

Nehemiah and Sarah Ellis and children, from Hopewell, Va., 1793, 10, 25

William Frazier and family (wife Susannah), from Center, 1793, 6, 22

William Thornbrough, from Deep River, 1792, 9, 22

Isaac Stout (wife Susannah) from Cane Creek, 1794, 12, 20

Joel Elmore, from Deep River, 1793, 4, 20

Walter Thornbrough, from Springfield, 1793, 6, 22

Samuel Mills, from Center, 1791, 12, 24

When Newhope Monthly Meeting was established in Greene County in 1795, Lost Creek Friends were included in its membership. Additions to their number, through certificates received at Newhope prior to the setting up of Lost Creek Monthly Meeting, included:

Thomas and Ann Marshill and family, from Deep River, 1795, 7, 25

Jesse Adamson and children, from Deep River, 1795, 12, 26

Daniel Osborn and family (wife Margaret), from Center, 1795, 10, 31

John Bond and children, from Center, 1795, 11, 28

Patrick Beard and family (wife Hannah), from Center, 1795, 12, 26

John Moffitt, from Cane Creek, 1796, 3, 26

William and Elizabeth Woodward and son, from Center

(Elizabeth and son 1795, 8, 29; William 1797, 1, 28)

Others who had certificates addressed to Newhope, but presented them at Lost Creek instead, included

Isaac and Esther Jones

Israel and Welmet Elliott and family

John and Margaret Canaday and family

Jesse and Hannah Jones and family

Asa Mills

Mordecai and Phebe Mendenhall and family

Eunice Wilson and family

Joseph Moon

William Morgan

Isaac and Ruth Marshill and family

John Hodgen

Charles Canaday

Others who were members from the date of organization of the monthly meeting or became members within the next few months included

Jacob Bailey

William Brazleton

Alexander and Margaret Campbell and family

James and Lydia Ballenger and family

Isaac Hammer and family

Ezekiel Trogdon

Rueben Morgan

Johnathan and Ann Newman

Alice Dimmitt

Mary Turner

Meetings for worship were held at Lost Creek from an early date, - at first in homes and later in a log meeting house. A preparative meeting was established in 1795 by Newhope Monthly Meeting, with the approval of New Garden Quarterly Meeting. Under date of 25^th of 5^th month, 1796, John Mills deeded to Lost Creek Meeting a three acre tract which was used as a site for a meeting house and school house and for a grave yard. At the first session of Lost Creek Monthly Meeting, "Friends inhabiting about Thomas Marshall’s in the head of the Grassy Valley" (across the Holston River in Knox County) requested the privilege of holding a First Day Meeting. This was granted and Grassy Valley became an important preparative meeting. Other meetings for worship in Lost Creek Monthly Meeting were Lower Settlement (became a preparative meeting and a monthly meeting under the name of Newberry), Panther Creek, and South of French Broad River.

Until 1803, Lost Creek Monthly Meeting was attached to New Garden Quarterly Meeting, in North Carolina. In that year Newhope and Lost Creek Quarterly Meeting was established by North Carolina Yearly Meeting, to meet at Newhope in the 5^th and 11^th months and at Lost Creek in the 2^nd and 8^th month.

Migration to the North began in 1802, with one certificate (for Amaziah Beeson and family) to Westland Monthly Meeting, Pa. Between 1803 and 1810, about twenty-five certificates were issued to Miami Monthly Meeting, Ohio, and ten to other Ohio meetings. Beginning with 1810 the tide of emigration turned to Indiana. During the two decades between 1810 and 1830 more than thirty certificates were issued to White Water, twenty to New Garden, five to Silver Creek, two to West Grave, ten to Lick Creek, six to Springfield, four to Honey Creek and three to Duck Creek. During this period about ten more certificates were issued to the Ohio meetings. From 1827 to 1832, Vermilion Monthly Meeting, Illinois, was the favorite objective, with about ten certificates.

A large percentage of the above mentioned certificates were for families - many of them large. Altogether, they probably represent a loss to Lost Creek Monthly Meeting of at least 400 or 500 members. Grassy Valley Meeting was discontinued in 1815. It appears that all the other smaller meeting disappeared about the same time, leaving Lost Creek as the sole survivor in the monthly meeting, and it reduced to a small fraction of its former strength.

A large number of those who removed from Lost Creek to the North between 1802 and 1820, perhaps as many as one-third of the total number of emigrants, settled in the north-west corner of Wayne County, Indiana. Here, near the present town of Economy, they established Springfield meeting for worship as early as 1815, a preparative meeting in 1817, and Springfield Monthly Meeting in 1820. Because of the great predominance of Tennesseans among the settlers, the community was called the "Tennessee Settlement." The town of Economy was laid out in 1825 by Charles Osborn, noted minister and abolitionist who had removed from Lost Creek to Ohio in 1816 and to Indiana in 1819.

In 1897, the Tennessee meetings were transferred from North Carolina Yearly Meeting to Wilmington Yearly Meeting, held at Wilmington, Ohio. Lost Creek Monthly Meeting reported to the Yearly Meeting, in 1934, at total of 59 members, and of whom 22 were classed as non-resident, and 6 as associate members.

The records of Lost Creek Monthly Meeting consist of one book of birth, death and marriage records, one book of men’s minutes (1797-1831), and one book of women’s minutes (1817-1873). These books have been deposited at the Yearly Meeting House, Richmond, Indiana. The men’s minutes for the period subsequent to 1831 have been lost.