Post Card from Dieter Friedrichsen's collection
Now (2007), Photo by Teddi
The religious “Society of Friends”, also known as Quakers, was started in 1648 by George Fox in England and quickly spread to the American Colonies. In 1828, differences of opinion regarding certain aspects of religious belief resulted in a separation of the Quakers into the Orthodox and Hicksite groups.
Meetings for worship were allowed in Pleasant Valley in 1803, and by 1850 Pleasant Valley was the largest “preparative” meeting under the Oswego monthly meeting. The Quakers built this Meeting House in 1810 on the corner of North Avenue and Quaker Hill. The assessor’s records show this building in 1913 as “Quaker Church Pleasant Valley”, valued at $500.
Due to migration of Country Friends into the city and problems at Pleasant Valley, membership declined and was discontinued in 1881. The friction at Pleasant Valley was caused by a particular member “whose communications have a tendency to take off the solemnity of our religious meetings”. He was finally disowned.
Poor in the numbers of members but rich in the numbers of properties, the Quakers sold the Pleasant Valley Meeting House, but not the burial ground, in 1922, and an unused portion of the grounds in 1946. It is now owned by the Grange.
Information provided by Dieter Friedrichsen