For information on the history of Quakers in South Carolina (from the South Carolina Encyclopedia), click on: Quakers in South Carolina
An addition from Wilhemina Branson, a descendant of South Carolina Friends: “A Quaker from the north, Zachariah Dix, traveled to Bush River to labor with Friends there to give up their slaves and move north. It is the largest migration by a group of people who migrated because of concern for other people besides themselves. Almost the entire Meeting of Bush River migrated to Waynesville, Ohio in 1803, beginning the settlement of Quakers in Waynesville and surrounding territory.”
The Penn Center
The Penn Center, formerly the Penn School, was founded by Quaker abolitionists and Unitarians in 1862 to educate formerly enslaved people.
Laing High School
Laing High School was founded in 1866 by Cornelia Hancock, a Quaker from New Jersey, to provide schooling for formerly enslaved people.
From Diane Rowley, currently a member of Atlanta Friends Meeting: “Laing School was the one my husband Bill Jenkins attended after it became part of the public school system. His grandmother and mother matriculated there when it was still under the care of Quakers. Bill recalled that the first book he enjoyed was an old Quaker reader that his grandmother had. In the early years of his career Bill was one of the people who tried to end the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis in the Negro Male. Later when he was a senior epidemiologist he became director of the Tuskegee Benefits Program office, the office at CDC that provided benefits and services to the men and he launched a work group that secured a Presidential apology from Bill Clinton for the study.”
From Diane Rowley, currently a member of Atlanta Friends Meeting: “Laing School was the one my husband Bill Jenkins attended after it became part of the public school system. His grandmother and mother matriculated there when it was still under the care of Quakers. Bill recalled that the first book he enjoyed was an old Quaker reader that his grandmother had. In the early years of his career Bill was one of the people who tried to end the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis in the Negro Male. Later when he was a senior epidemiologist he became director of the Tuskegee Benefits Program office, the office at CDC that provided benefits and services to the men and he launched a work group that secured a Presidential apology from Bill Clinton for the study.”
Alternatives to Violence Project Program
Columbia Friends Meeting began an Alternatives to Violence program in 2015. Since then, they have conducted workshops at Estill prison, the Department of Juvenile Justice Bush River, and Trenton State CI. They have been asked to do programs at Edgefield FCI, Ridgeland, Camille and Manning. Unfortunately, the COVID virus has stopped the trainings for the time being. For information on how to take part in this program, contact Lynn Newsom at lynewsom@gmail.com. See also the "News" tab.
Bush River Cemetery
The graveyard is the final resting place of hundreds of the early settlers of Bush River, who originally came from Quaker communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina. When the meeting was laid down, in 1822, most of the Friends from Bush River had already moved to Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Alabama. Whether impacted by the hostilities of the Revolutionary war, or displaced due to the slavery, the remnants of the Quaker community left the community or assimilated into other area churches.
The five-acre cemetery, located at 1828-3346 State Road S-36-60 (Dennis Dairy Road), Newberry, SC 29108 is deeded to North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. The Bush River descendants group, energized by Judith F. Russell, has followed up on cemetery care. Columbia Friends Meeting scheduled clean-up outings for several years prior to that. Downed trees from storms and poison ivy had begun to take over. Regular landscaping maintenance was organized by the Bush River descendants group. “Reunions” were held and the now eleventh printing of The Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery is available for purchase.
The Bush River Descendants group has created rich genealogical resources, which are available
at http://bushriverquakers.blogspot.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/849196008520904/?ref=bookmarks
To order a copy of the Cemetery book, with history and maps, write to Judith.f.russell@gmail.com, at 1151 Fairway Gardens NE, Brookhaven, GA 30319. Donations for cemetery clean up and maintenance can also be sent to this address with checks written to Quaker Cemetery Clean Up Fund.
Further information is available at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list@scbushriverquakers.com
As one of the last remaining preserved historical locations of Quakers in South Carolina, Bush River Cemetery has special meaning for Palmetto Friends Gathering.
Submitted by: Grace Gifford
Eighth Month, 7th, 2020
The five-acre cemetery, located at 1828-3346 State Road S-36-60 (Dennis Dairy Road), Newberry, SC 29108 is deeded to North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. The Bush River descendants group, energized by Judith F. Russell, has followed up on cemetery care. Columbia Friends Meeting scheduled clean-up outings for several years prior to that. Downed trees from storms and poison ivy had begun to take over. Regular landscaping maintenance was organized by the Bush River descendants group. “Reunions” were held and the now eleventh printing of The Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery is available for purchase.
The Bush River Descendants group has created rich genealogical resources, which are available
at http://bushriverquakers.blogspot.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/849196008520904/?ref=bookmarks
To order a copy of the Cemetery book, with history and maps, write to Judith.f.russell@gmail.com, at 1151 Fairway Gardens NE, Brookhaven, GA 30319. Donations for cemetery clean up and maintenance can also be sent to this address with checks written to Quaker Cemetery Clean Up Fund.
Further information is available at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list@scbushriverquakers.com
As one of the last remaining preserved historical locations of Quakers in South Carolina, Bush River Cemetery has special meaning for Palmetto Friends Gathering.
Submitted by: Grace Gifford
Eighth Month, 7th, 2020
Early Photographs of Palmetto Friends Gathering
Helen White at first the first Palmetto Friends Gathering on Martin Luther King Day in 1990. Helen and her husband Edwin lived in Colombia, SA, for some years when they taught at a Mennonite School located out from Bogotá.
Horry Friends Meeting, circa 1991, at the Surfside Beach shop
of a then-attender.
An early 1990s Palmetto Friends Gathering at the Lexington, SC, YMCA showing, among others, long-time Penn Center directors Elizabeth and Courtney Siceloff, Marian Beane, Harry Rogers and Jim Henderson [front-right].