Salem Meetinghouses

Samuel Davis Cabin

Samuel Davis left New Jersey and came to Ohio in 1803. He purchased land and built his log house at (what is now) N. Lincoln Ave. near where the Junior High School now stands. It was known as "The House by the Spring".

In the summer of 1804 Samuel and his wife welcomed about 12 local Quakers to their cabin for the first Meeting of Friends. During the meeting, an indian chief and his wife appeared. After an explanation, the chief and his wife waited silently until the everyone shook hands signaling the close of the meeting. The visitors were invited to stay for a meal after which the chief replied "Indian go six days" meaning he could last six days without more food after such a meal.

A new log meetinghouse was built, after this first meeting, on the south side of Main St. (now E. State St.) opposite from where the old Town Hall once stood.

In 1807 the Salem Monthly Meeting purchased two lots of land (three acres each) for $15 from Samuel and Mary Davis. One lot was at the east side of (what is now) N. Ellsworth Ave. and north of E. State St and the other was bounded by E. State St., (Market St., later Main St., Broadway (now S. Broadway,) E. Dry St. (now E. Pershing St.) and Depot St. (now S. Ellsworth Ave.)

In the summer and fall of 1807, a one-story meetinghouse was built of brick measuring 50 feet by 25 feet. Completed the following year it stood at the corner of Main St. between Broadway and Depot St.

In his History of Salem" (1898) George Hunt writes:

When the masons went to their work one morning they found the tracks of a bear that had passed over the foundation in the night, leaving its marks in the mortar. The foundation of this building was not well laid; too many small stones were used in it; wherefore in about thirty-five years it showed signs of sinking so as to make cracks in the walls; then a new house was deemed necessary. (pp. 11-12)

The lot had horse sheds on three sides, and was entered by two gates from Main St., and by one on the west side. This venerable meetinghouse, the first brick building erected in the town, was one of the most prominent buildings in Salem. In the rear of it was the schoolhouse."

The burying ground was at the corner of what is now E. State St. and S. Broadway.

Dry Street MeethingHouse

By 1838 the Salem Friends felt a need for a larger Meetinghouse and a more quiet location--away from the busy public road. Lots were purchased along Main St. (now E. State St.) and a new meetinghouse was built on the north side of the E.Dry St. (now E. Pershing St).

Dry Street MeetingHouse

The first meeting at the new meetinghouse was on July 27, 1845.

(From a Phamphlet "The Story of Salem Friends from 1803-1973" by Pearl Ada Walker)
Wilbur Friends Meeting House
Built in 1871

Located at 350 E. 6th Street
Salem, Oh

Hicksite Meeting House
(click to enlarge)

This was the site of the third women's rights convention. The first women's suffrage meeting was held at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The third was held in Salem, Ohio, on April 19-20, 1850. It was the first women's rights meeting organized on a statewide basis. The meeting opened in the Second Baptist Church but moved, at the end of morning session, to the Hicksite Friends Meeting House to accommodate the 200 participants. (Shaffer, p. 72)


	Hicksite Meeting House (click to enlarge)

The two pictures of the Hicksite Meeting House are from

Shaffer, Dale E. Salem: A Quaker City History. Making of America series. (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2002) p. 73 and 74.

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