Richland Meeting was located in today's West Virginia, just northwest of Philippi. Its current street address is 71 Mount Olive Road.
A committee to visit Friends "living in remote places" held a meeting in this location in 1797, leading to the opening of the meeting later that year. Isaac Votaw sold a tract of 10 acres to Richland trustees in 1800 for a meeting house and burial ground. Friends here requested the meeting to be established at Redstone QM on 12/1/1800. A PM was held here 1801-1805, and a meeting house was built in 1802. Marriages were held here from 1801-1804.
Richland Meeting was increasingly small after 1804 due to members moving to Ohio. Westland MM considered the meeting's situation on 5/25/1805, by which time a majority of the local Friends families had moved away, and it appointed a committee to visit Richland. The committee held a conference with the remaining Friends there, who asked that the preparative meeting be laid down but that worship be continued (Westland MM 6/22/1805). The MM agreed and forwarded the request to Redstone QM for approval, but the QM decided instead to lay down both the PM and the MW.
Informal worship continued in the meeting house thereafter. Westland appointed a visiting committee on 8/26/1809 to see how the remaining Friends at Richland fared. The committee visited with them several times and reported back on 8/25/1810 that Richland Friends mostly lived consistent lives and that the majority of remaining families were also planning to relocate to Ohio. |
