Plymouth Meeting was one of two meetings of Pennsville Quarter that were located in Washington County, Ohio. These two meetings (Plymouth and Southland) comprised Plymouth MM. Plymouth Meeting was located near Bartlett in Wesley Township. Note: another meeting with the same name was Plymouth Meeting in Jefferson County; it was renamed Smithfield in 1818.
Friends settled in the Plymouth area in the mid-1830s. They held their membership at Pennsville until 1837. On 8/30/1837, Pennsville MM asked Stillwater QM for permission to open a new MW at Plymouth. The QM appointed a committee that reported back favorably on 11/29/1837, but the QM was not ready to open the meeting at Plymouth.
Chesterfield MM was established in 1837 and included the Friends in the Plymouth area. Chesterfield MM renewed the request for a meeting at Plymouth at Stillwater QM on 5/30/1838. The QM appointed a new committee that reported back favorably on 8/29/1838. This time, Stillwater QM chose to grant the MW at Plymouth and appointed a committee to open it on 10/17/1838.
At some point, the Plymouth Meeting House was rebuilt in a different location. One of the two extant burial grounds is located north of Bartlett, and the other is east of Bartlett. It has not been determined which was the earlier site or when the change took place.
After Plymouth Meeting was laid down in 1911, occasional travelling Friends such as Carl Patterson would hold worship in the area to try to revive the meeting. Eventually, the meeting house was sold. |
