History

Our Meetinghouse

The Deer Creek Friends Meetinghouse is one of the oldest in continuous use on its original site in the country.  Built originally in 1737 as a log and frame structure just across the street from the present meetinghouse's location, it was moved and rebuilt in 1784 after a fire, this time with sturdy local field stone and smooth stone lintels over windows and doors.  The slate roof was constructed using slate shingle quarried and trimmed at the famous Delta-Cardiff slate quarries a few miles north on the MD-PA line. The cemetery behind the meetinghouse contains slate gravestones from as early as 1775, however, early Quakers did not mark their graves and this site may contain graves that are much older.  In 1888 the meetinghouse recieved a full renovation and in the years following additions were added that contain a kitchen, gathering room, library, and entrance parlor (the original side extension) outfitted with rest rooms. The benches in the meeting room are original to the 1784 rebuild and contain whimsical images of sailing ships and other fanciful doodles on the back rests, no doubt created by some bored youth with a talent for engraving with a penknife! 

A Meeting Near the Mason-Dixon Line

Between 1763 and 1767 British astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon laid the famous Mason-Dixon Line to mark the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryand. The formal declaration of this border ended a century of hostilities between the two colonies that each claimed land for settlement and expanision (often violently) in an area of contested ownership. The Mason Dixon Line served also as the symbolic boundary between the North and South and this put Quakers who lived near the line in Pennsylvania and Maryland into direct engagement with the abolition movement and a commitment for the protection of manumitted slaves. 

In 1779, Deer Creek Meeting formed the Committee for the Oversight of Manumitted Slaves that worked to protect free blacks from being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Freed black men, women, and chidren were placed legaly under the care of the Meeting.  Deer Creek offered many Meetings for Worship for Negroes were well attended. The fire of 1784 that nearly destoyed the original meetinghouse was most likely set by arsonists who, like the Paxton gang north of the Mason Dixon Line, used terror to frighten and intimidate those who worked to protect and educate free and manumitted blacks near the border.  In 1796, member Silas Warner presented a report to Deer Creek Meeting on behalf of the Trustees of the School for Black Children. This act took courage as the education of blacks was not popular in slave-holding states like Maryland.  By 1800 prominent, wealthy members of the Deer Creek Meeting had totally freed their slaves.  Many Deer Creek Friends participated in the Underground Railroad at great risk of life and property as they sheltered runaway slaves during the day and at night led them across the Mason Dixon Line into Pennsylvania. 

Quakers across the nation played a major role in ending the slave trade and slavery itself both with energetic vocal ministry as public denouncement  and in the dangerous work of protecting free blacks and assisting those seeking freedom to find safety in the North.  Though this activism came with serious social costs and combined with a complicated relationship with owning slaves themselves, the story of Deer Creek Friends Meeting during these turblent and troubling times, serves as one example among many of the meetings located just north or south of the Mason-Dixon Line. 

The Nature of Where We Are

Our Meeting is geographically located in the Lower Susquehanna River Valley, a scenic two-state, four-county region known for its high biodiversity and rich human history that spans pre-contact times through the colonial period and industrial revolution.  Just a short drive from the Meetinghouse you can hike for miles on well-maintained systems of state and county trails, four which are National Recreation Trails. Join us for a hike! The Susquehanna River becomes the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace and the river's many islands are birding hot-spots and geological wonders. We love to explore the river! Deer Creek, the last major tributary to flow into the Susquehanna for it becomes the bay, is classified as "wild and scenic" by the State of Maryland and runs through several state parks that contain the ruins and restored structures of a once-thriving grist mill industry that has supported as many as forty water-powered mills along its banks since colonial times. We do love history! Stately forests, beautiful farms, and historic towns are all around - worth a Sunday drive after meeting to admire it all.