The Quakers get all the glory, but I keep discovering communities of other faiths that were even more progressive. In fact, there were plenty of excommunicated Quakers who were too radical as regards race and equality. Laura Haviland, of Lenawee County, Michigan, was an excommunicated Quaker turned Wesleyan Methodist. She opened the Raisin Institute, a school for females and blacks whose purpose was to teach basic literacy and trades.

There were sects of Presbyterians and Methodists who broke with their mother churches and sought social equality, not merely an end to the peculiar institution. There were the Universalists. And there were the United Brethren. To this day the Mennonites adopt and serve as foster parents to black children and you’ll find interracial lines in their families. The Quakers didn’t even walk that walk (that is, the ones who weren’t excommunicated).

A local historian, Ken Beck, had many health problems a few years ago. If he is able, he would be a valuable resource. He is a retired teacher who lives near Bible Park near Montpelier, at the corner of county Roads J and 10. His son, Kevin, is the county sheriff. Bible Park is named for my Great+++grandfather who was the first settler in Superior Twp. in Williams County. That’s how I remember the names of the roads.

Ken Beck chaired the committee that compiled two volumes of the history of Williams County, many years ago.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time not far from there. In Ray there’s a Covenanter Presbyterian cemetery; this was an extreme abolitionist sect. Another place that sets off my abolitionist gaydar is the Powers Church and Cemetery on Old 1; the doctor who founded the Fort Wayne Medical College and later Tri-State University is buried there along with a few other remarkable early citizens. Hauntingly beautiful place. When I read about it later it was fascinating to see that the founders of the cemetery were similarly impressed by the environs; they had to come up with a place to bury a child in the dead of winter. The boy’s father wrote about it quite poignantly in a letter to family back east.

Williams County is a new frontier and I’ve been looking forward to exploring it, so thanks for the leads.

I hope the the Bowman house is still standing near West Unity. It is very tall and has a concealed room in the basement for the Underground Railroad.

There are some Flory families in the area, I think more around Pioneer.

The history books talk about the Quakers leaving the south for the midwest but seldom mention that the Brethren did the same thing at the same time for the same reasons. In researching genealogies, I’m also finding a lot of intermarriage between birthright Quakers and Brethren, many of the former excommunicated by conservative sects for their antislavery activities.

Fun stuff. I may take a couple weeks of my vacation time this summer just to spend roadtripping and cemetery hiking and visiting libraries and historical societies. There’s one figure in particular whose personal papers I’d love to comb for names and places. (She’s mentioned in Levi Coffin’s autobiography, which remains one of my all-time favorite books.)

and when you click it, you get

“Where’s the outrage? He’s an Obamanation!”

and then this pitch:

From his radical stance on abortion to his prominence in the corruption scandals that has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media, Barack Obama is not fit to be Senator — not to mention the next President of the United States. Obama has declared his presidential intentions, but it is up to well-informed and energetic conservatives like you to spare our nation from the scourge of a far-left President Barack H. Obama.

and this made me wonder what the editors at Human Events mean by “where’s the outrage?” Do they want hundreds of thousands of “outraged” citizens, rioting in the streets, in order to “spare our nation” (note that bit of exclusivity, regarding whose nation it is) from the “scourge” of Obama? Are they hoping to incite a lynch mob? Are these the sorts of ‘Human Events’ that that publication aspires to, or advocates for?

My plan is to keep the wick turned down on this stuff, but I don’t know….my darned wick seems to be stuck in the up position (so to speak) (if it persists for 4 hours, I’ll call a doctor)