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This cache has been placed with permission from Westfield Friends Church and is wheelchair accessible and what I consider a mini micro & BYOP. You may also need tweezers or paperclip for the log. Please be considerate of church events (Sun 8:00 - 2:00 pm & 5:00 to 9:00 pm, Tuesday 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Wednesday 5:00 am to 8:00 am). If parking lot is empty, happy geocaching. Otherwise you may be approached by church members asking what you are doing.
WESTFIELD FRIENDS MEETING According to the Westfield history book, Westfield, Indiana was named after the community of Westfield, North Carolina. Quoting from OUR WESTFIELD, “An account of churches in Surry County, North Carolina by H. H. Lowry states, ~The old Westfield Monthly Meeting of Friends is the oldest church organization in Surry County and probably the oldest religious group in northwest North Carolina that is west of the Moravian settlement in the Winston-Salem area and the Quaker College. The Westfield Meeting, located 15 miles southwest of Mt. Airy was set up as a preparative meeting under New Garden Monthly Meeting as early as the 1760’s. It was not formally organized as a monthly meeting until after the Revolution.’ The name of Westfield was given to the community since the Friends at New Garden referred to it as the western field or the ‘West field’ of their endeavors. Asa Bales migrated from this Westfield community to Indiana and he chose this name for the new settlement. Westfield, Indiana was founded in 1834.” The following is a chronology of the development & changes of Westfield Friends: 1834 – Asa Bales establishes Westfield, Indiana. The first religious services in the township are held by a group of 12 families meeting in the home of Ambrose Osborn. Westfield Friends Preparative Meeting is organized under the care of, and memberships were held by, Fairfield Monthly Meeting (Hendricks Co.) of White Lick Quarterly Meeting (Mooresville, Morgan Co.) of Indiana Yearly Meeting (Richmond, IN). 1835 – Westfield Friends Meeting is set off as a separate, full Monthly Meeting. A log cabin meetinghouse consisting of two, 24 foot square rooms in which men and women meet and worship separately (unprogrammed), is built on the south side of town, just north of the present grounds. Isaac Baldwin and John White are the first clerks. 1843 – (March 4) The Anti-Slavery controversy leads those who felt Friends should be militarily involved in freeing the slaves (and preserving the union) to withdraw and organize the Westfield Monthly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends on the north side of town. The anti-Slavery Meeting lasts for about 10 years. 1848 – A new large, but plain and simple, frame meetinghouse is completed at a cost of $1,000.00, standing just north of the present building. A wide aisle and a large partition consisting of four shutters separates the two rooms, each with an outside door, with men sitting on the east side, and women sitting on the west. The shutters can be opened or closed, as the occasion requires. For instance, the shutters would be closed as men and women each conduct separate business meetings, with messengers carrying information back & forth between the two rooms. (Business that affected the entire membership had to be approved by both groups.) On those occasions when visiting Friends speak, the shutters can be opened to make one large room. Meetings for worship are held on First Day (Sunday) and Fifth Day (Thursday) of each week. At the north end of each room is a raised gallery with four benches on each side, facing the congregation. These are occupied by the clerks during business sessions, and by recorded ministers, elders, and other “weighty Friends” during meetings for worship. 1849 – Union Quarterly Meeting is established at Westfield. (It is reported that by 1869 there were 10 meetings with a membership of 1335 in Union Quarterly Meeting. By 1871 there were 11 meetings with a membership of 1756.) 1860 – A First Day School (Sunday School) program is started for the instruction of children and study of the Scriptures. 1861 – (January) Westfield Friends complete a two-story, 60 x 30 brick building with 6 large rooms at a cost of $2000 in the center of a 3 acre campus just south of the present meetinghouse to house the first high school in the community, Union High School. The published purpose of this school is “to prepare students for college if desired, to qualify those for teaching who desire this profession, and for all, to offer good practical education that would fit them for usefulness in this world.” The building and grounds are eventually purchased by Union Friends Meeting under William Smith (see below, 1924) and organized as Union Bible Seminary. 1875 – A great revival sweeps through the community, resulting in many conversions and interest in new forms of worship. A short time later, “plainness” is laid aside, music is introduced into the services, and a “hireling” ministry is begun with the employment of Mahlon Perry as minister for $300 a year. 1879 – Those opposed to the above innovations withdraw to the northeast side of town and organize the Westfield Conservative Friends Meeting. Their first monthly meeting is held February 27, 1879, and their last monthly meeting is held July 17, 1915. A statement issued in 1880 lists some of their reasons for separation, including: the appearance of some Calvinist and Wesleyan doctrines, a mourners bench, ritualism, the “hireling” ministry, music in worship, failure to adhere to the testimonies regarding peace, plain speech, plain dress, and complimentary titles. 1888 – The present meetinghouse is built following a fire that destroyed the earlier one. Nathan Clark is pastor. (This is not certain, however, as dates are unclear.) Several improvements take place in the years to come. A balcony is added, a sloping floor in the sanctuary, Sunday School rooms, a basement is dug and a kitchen installed for fellowship times, sheds providing indoor rest rooms and classrooms on the east end of the building on supports, furnaces (first coal, then oil, now gas) replace the old fireplace and stove, and much later, air conditioning is added. 1893 – Union Quarterly Meeting becomes Westfield Quarterly Meeting. A copy of the 1895 Western Yearly Meeting minutes lists 10 meetings under Westfield Quarterly Meeting: Chester, Eagle Creek, Hortonville, Lapel, Maple Grove, Pleasant View, Sheridan, Union Grove, Westfield, and Western Review. Nathan Baldwin is pastor. (This is not certain, however, as dates are unclear.) 1924 – Sixty-six Friends, followers of William Smith, withdraw from Westfield Friends Meeting (Clyde Watson, pastor) and form their own more conservative organization, Union Friends Church, three blocks south of Westfield Friends, in order to take a stand against what they see as a “rising tide of liberalism”. 1954 – A new parsonage is built next to the meetinghouse on the north side at a cost of $16,000 and paid for in under two years. Paul Goins is the pastor. 1979 – (March) Ground is broken for a new wing to be attached to the meetinghouse providing offices, a nursery, classrooms, restrooms, a nice kitchen, and a large fellowship hall, at a cost of $135,000. The wing was dedicated March 16, 1980. Glenn Moore is the pastor. 1995 – The first phase of a renovation of the meetinghouse removed the existing basement and foundation replacing it with new, and adding a spacious new entry area including new rest rooms. (Cost $355,000 that was paid within five years). 2001 – The second phase of the meetinghouse renovation adds seating for the growing congregation, office space, and basement classrooms. (Cost: $393,000). Doug Shoemaker was the pastor during both phases of this renovation. 2009- Trusses failed in the sanctuary roof. Old roof was removed and replaced. New trusses raised the ceiling of the sanctuary by 2 feet. During construction wiring issues were found and repaired. Sanctuary was repainted & recarpeted, sound dampening material was added to the ceiling to help improve sound. Lou Herchenroeder was pastor during this project. Thanks to coachstahly for the FTF.
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