2021 Events Schedule
We are pleased to announce our schedule of programs for July – November 2021. We invite you to attend and, as is our custom, welcome the general public to all programs free of charge. This is made possible thanks to our co-sponsors who host us at their facilities and a grant from Humanities NY for the Suffrage series and the Indian Affairs Committee of NY Yearly Meeting. All programs will last about 1 ½ hours, including presentation and Q&A with audience, followed by informal discussion and refreshments. We look forward to seeing you there!
Genesee Country Village
& Museum Visit
On July 20, 2021, members of the Board of the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum met in the restored Wheatland Quaker Meetinghouse at Genesee Country Village. Peter Wisbey, curator of Genesee County Village, shared information about restoration materials, skilled preservationists, and much more, to help us plan for finishing restoration of our own 1816 Meetinghouse. Thank you so much, Peter!
Sitting in the restored Wheatland Meetinghouse, we could envision ourselves in the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse two hundred years ago. We felt the peace of long-ago Quaker meetings surround us. Outside, the air was fresh, the sun bright, childrenactually were playing played in the meadow.
Wheatland Friends were once a preparative meeting of Farmington Monthly Meeting (and then Rochester Monthly Meeting). They met first in a small frame building. In 1834, Orthodox Friends built a cobblestone Meetinghouse, and in 1854, they built a new frame Meetinghouse. Genesee Country Village acquired this 1854 structure in 1967-68. It had been used as a farm building, with dirt floor and farm door added, much like our own 1816 building. Stuart Bolger, founding director of Genesee Country Village, who acquired the Wheatland Meetinghouse, served on the National Advisory Committee for the 1816 Meetinghouse until his death in 2011. As for the cobblestone building, Hicksite Friends used it until 1879. It is still standing as a residence on Quaker Rd. in Wheatland.
Although the Wheatland Meetinghouse is half the size of the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, it stands as a reminder that restoration is possible. Thanks to Peter Wisbey and Genesee Country Village for taking such good care of this building, an inspiration to all of us.
Looking to the Future
We are delighted to share two items of good news with you. First, on May 13, we had a walk-through of our planned nature trail, a Walk for Freedom inspired by Carol Elaine Deys, our long-time and much-loved Board member.
Carol has experience in developing these trails. As a volunteer in Macedon, she worked on a Butterfly Trail and a Tasha Tudor storybook trail. (See article by Julie Sherwood in the Daily Messenger:).
These trails are beautiful examples of what a community can do when it comes together for the common good. Many thanks to Dave Bruinix, trail master, for his help in doing this work, and to Peter Ingalsbe, Farmington Town Supervisor, and Dan Delpriore, Code Enforcement Officer, for their help in laying this out.
Dave Bruinix pointing the way from the meadow into the woods.
Photo by Stacey Vandenburgh
Searching for a good site for a serenity garden at the end of the trail.
Photo by Reginald Neale
Second, we are very pleased to announce that, thanks to the good work of Kathleen Hendrix, our program committee chair, we received a grant from Humanities New York to support a series of talks on the Struggle for Women’s Suffrage: Politics and Race, a continuation of our theme from last year. We are also grateful for support from New York Yearly Meeting of Friends to support a talk on Native American issues.
Stay tuned for details!