Redstone PM was the second meeting of its type west of the mountains. It was originally held in a meeting house on the land of Amos Hough that was sometimes called the Bull Run meeting house. That meeting house burned in 1798, after which Rees Cadwalader convinced the MM to build a new meeting house near his house, on today's Angle Street in Brownsville. This 1799 building is sometimes called the Peace Hill meeting house. After 1802, the PM only covered friends who worshipped at Redstone.
Redstone MM suffered from two divisions. After the 1828 division, the Redstone PM (Hicksite) was held in the western end of the 1799 meeting house, and the Orthodox in the east end. The meeting dwindled in size during the 1840s. The Hicksite PM was laid down in 1852. At the time of the 1854 division, the Wilburites met in the west end (the former Hicksite end), and the Redstone PM (Gurneyite) met in the east end. The Wilburites included the Orthodox PM clerk, Aaron Branson, who kept a shop in Brownsville and was also the meeting librarian as well as a brother of the renowned Ann Branson. The Wilburite Redstone PM met for ten years in the FMH, after which the meeting for worship continued for only three months.
|