Short Creek was one of the oldest MMs located inside the state of Ohio. Worship began at Short Creek in 1801, and the MM was established in 1804. The MM became the largest in Ohio YM, and its relatively central location made it the obvious choice when the time came to build a yearly meeting house and boarding school, which were built in the village of Mount Pleasant. The MM had four PMs before the 1828 division, joined that year by Concord PM. The Orthodox represented the majority faction at Short Creek, and the MM continued to be the historic center of Ohio YM through the mid-nineteenth century. At the time of the 1854 division, the PMs of Mount Pleasant and West Grove were entirely Gurneyite, and the PMs of Concord and Harrisville were overwhelmingly Wilburite; the weak but evenly divided Short Creek PM soon failed in both factions. When the Gurneyites wrested control of the Boarding School from the Wilburites, the latter group had no presence in Mount Pleasant and built a new yearly meeting house at Stillwater, shifting the weight of gravity away from Short Creek MM. The two PMs experienced ongoing attrition, and about the time that Concord PM was laid down, the MM went into joint session. In the early twenty-first century, with only two active members, the MM was laid down after 216 years of service.
See also Short Creek MM (Hicksite) and Short Creek MM (Gurneyite). |
