1720: Pilesgrove Preparative Meeting [of Salem Monthly Meeting] buys its first piece
of land -- a half-acre to be used as a burial ground [located approximately in the “L” defined by the present
driveway and parking lot].
1725: Pilesgrove Friends build a frame meetinghouse in the rear of the lot now occupied
by #1 Marlton Road.
1783: A new brick meetinghouse is begun.
1785: The new meetinghouse is finished.
1786: Salem MM collects 90
pounds to help defray costs of Pilesgrove Friends’ new building.
1792: Pilesgrove Friends request that Salem
monthly meetings alternate between Salem and Pilesgrove.
1793: Pilesgrove PM requests to hold a separate
monthly meeting in Pilesgrove.
1794: With the approval of Haddonfield QM, Pilesgrove
becomes “a Meeting of record,” i.e., a Monthly Meeting.
1814: First purchase of land for present cemetery
on West Avenue. Between then and 1919, four more tracts are purchased
to comprise the cemetery’s current size.
1816: First burial in new cemetery, nine-year-old
Hannah Pimm. At this time, Friends could elect burial in the West Avenue
lot or in the old cemetery beside the meetinghouse.
1821: Letter sent to the Yearly Meeting’s
Committee on Sufferings reporting on the imprisonments and fines imposed upon individual Pilesgrove Friends for refusing to
participate in military exercise. In following years, some Friends took advantage of laws exempting members of fire companies
from military duty. A small, frame firehouse was built (in the space between the meetinghouse and # 1 Marlton) to be the home
of a hand pumper, “Old Discipline.” It was in use into the second half of the century.
1846: To accommodate transportation needs of
a growing membership, horse sheds are built near the north and east boundaries of the property. “Saddle” or “carriage
doors,” a 19th century accommodation to accessibility, were in use at this time.
1849: With QM encouragement, a decision is made
to expand the meetinghouse. Shortly thereafter, the old balcony is expanded to the new rear wall.
1873: The brick porticoes at the front and south
side of the meetinghouse are replaced by a porch. Porticoes on north side of meetinghouse remain to this day.
1891: Interior is painted for the first time
and new benches are installed.
1896: Friends Boarding Home established across
North Main Street from meetinghouse.
1907: Original Annex section is built, a frame
building, open to the rafters, with electric lights, and a brick-enclosed stove beneath the floor.
1910: North Main Street
is widened and paved, necessitating the removal of the brick wall in the front of the property. The used bricks are moved
to West Avenue in order to build a low wall in front of the cemetery.
1915: Piano introduced into meetinghouse.
1925: A tennis court is installed [on the site
of the present parking lot].
1926: Stove purchased for Annex kitchen. First
oyster supper held.
1928: The partition, separating the men’s
and women’s meetings is removed; a new roof is installed; benches in the balcony are removed, the floor leveled, and
the area is enclosed for use as classrooms; four coal stoves are removed, sold, and steam heat is installed with a library
room above the boiler room; new benches are purchased; the coal house is removed and the now unused horse sheds are stacked
with kindling. The Committee of Trustees spends in excess of $8000 this year, putting it $1500 in debt, which it expects to
pay off in the following summer and fall.
1929: Name of Pilesgrove Monthly Meeting changed
to Woodstown Monthly Meeting.
1932 & 1935: Second and third tennis courts
installed, necessitating the removal of all old gravestones to the West Avenue
cemetery.
1938: The meetinghouse is wired for electricity
to accommodate the gift of an electric clock.
1946: The driveway is paved for the first time.
1949: New roof put on Annex.
1955: The Annex is connected to the meetinghouse
via a library room with folding doors. The new addition is brick, so the original structure is brickfaced to match. A new
hot-air heating system is installed; two restrooms added. These alterations amount to over $16,500.
1956-7: Annex is rented to Woodstown-Pilesgrove
Board of Education for use as kindergarten classrooms.
1965-6 Social room is built; entire floor of
meetinghouse is replaced and carpeted, new ceiling and lighting are installed, some floorboards and beams are used in new
Social Room; addition made to Annex kitchen; all tennis courts removed.
1974: More additions to Annex kitchen
1976: $40,000 loaned to Friends Home for building
project.
1980’s: New roof installed on Annex.
1990’s: One classroom converted to office
space for QM Coordinator’s office; light switches installed on walls near stairs in meetinghouse and at doors of Annex.
2001: Ceiling fans installed in meetinghouse
and energy efficient lighting in meetinghouse, Annex, and Social Room.
What if?
Interesting improvements to MH
If one were
to assume that a “lifetime” is equal to seventy-five years, what would be different in our meetinghouse a lifetime
ago?
Well, the driveway, unpaved, would be dusty in summer and muddy in winter. There would be no electricity in
the meetinghouse, but there would be four coal stoves. Two would be located on each side of the partition that separated the
men’s and women’s meetings for business. There would be no classrooms upstairs and to reach the Annex you would
have to go outdoors.
If a Friend of those 1920’s could travel
seventy-five years back in time, how would the meetinghouse seem different?
There would be no Annex, no piano, no porch, but there would be two cemeteries and a brick
wall separating the meetinghouse from North Main Street. The interior
would be considerably darker because it was not yet painted white. The entire floor area occupied by today’s facing
benches would be outside the walls. No one would ever have heard of Friends Home.
And what if that pre-Civil War Friend could “visit” the monthly meeting of a
“lifetime” previous?
Well, obviously, there would be no brick meetinghouse resembling today’s. Woodstown
– whoops! – Pilesgrove Friends would be traveling to Salem for Monthly
Meeting for Business and seriously considering how to replace their current [and probably inadequate] meetinghouse with something
suitable for a growing membership.
Current demographics & membership
In the middle of the nineteenth century, Woodstown and Moorestown
were considered to be the largest “country” meetings in New Jersey
and Salem QM saw fit to convene Quarterly Meeting twice a year at “Pilesgrove.” Harder
to prove, in the mid twentieth century, Woodstown was rumored to have the largest Friends
First Day School in the world. But, change is constant.
Although still a rural community, farmlands of the 18th & 19th centuries have given way to residential
subdivisions in many places. Manufacturing of the 20th century has, in many cases, moved to other parts of the
country. These are just a few of the reasons why the flow of membership has always been changing.
For example, though the meetinghouse was once enlarged, Friends later saw fit to remove
seating in favor of installing classrooms so as to provide better religious education. Nowadays, the meetinghouse is seldom
“full,” save for some memorial services. All of that being said, Woodstown is still one of Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting’s larger monthly meetings, with adult membership over 130 and a very active First
Day School. That active First Day
School is one reason why the geographical nature of the meeting has changed. We are no longer
a “neighborhood” Friends meeting with members primarily from Woodstown or Pilesgrove. The horse sheds of the 19th
century are gone and numerous families drive many miles each Sunday morning to teach, be taught, and to worship.
Additionally, just over one hundred years ago, the Friends Boarding Home was established near the meetinghouse.
In the second half of the twentieth century that home moved to its larger and more modern, current location, east of Woodstown
on US Route 40. Just as we have always known that Friends have been bringing their children to worship each First Day, the
twentieth-first century prospect of Friends Home being poised to enlarge itself into a continuing care community, has driven
home another fact, sometimes overlooked: over many years, Friends have also been bringing their parents to worship.
Committee structure
The monthly meeting committee structure includes an active Committee of Oversight,
managing membership issues, new members, funerals and weddings, as well as guidance for the meeting’s benevolent donations
and scholarships to Friends Schools; Religious Education Committee, responsible for First Day School classes for children
through high school and nursery-aged childcare; Worship & Ministry Committee
continues childcare by making arrangements for children during meeting for worship, providing worship-sharing activity for
adults through the summer months, and leading the worship service each First Day for residents at Friends Home; Best Interests Committee literally visits our sick and shut-in, while paying special attention to
those at Friends Home; Property & Finance sees to management and maintenance
of our buildings & cemetery, manages investments, prepares the budget, and plans finances; other committees include that
overseeing the Annex, also responsible for hospitality at Quarterly Meeting in March; the Newsletter; and the
important Nominating Committee. Trustees are named each year and are, ex
officio, the clerk, treasurer, and clerk of Property & Finance.
Decision making
The Monthly Meeting discerns its business at the regularly held Meeting for Business at which the Clerk presides.
A recording clerk takes minutes published later in the meeting’s newsletter. The treasurer makes a monthly report, as
well, and the agenda includes space for all the meeting’s committees to report on their respective work or to introduce
new business. Meeting for Business is open to all members and attenders.
The monthly meeting is careful not to execute the sense of the meeting until certain that sufficient time has
been given for a decision to season. At times this means that more weighty decisions are tabled until a second discussion
has taken place. In the interim, other members have the opportunity to read the notes from the previous meeting as presented
in the newsletter.
Once a year, all committees of the monthly meeting present an annual report. Additionally, once each year a
“Three Committee” meeting is held. It is a common meeting of Committee of Oversight, Religious Education, and
Worship & Ministry committees, open to all members of the meeting. It is an opportunity to plan a year’s calendar
of events, naming the committees or people who will be responsible for each event, and to open up other areas of common concern.
