Old West Branch Quaker Church photograph

Caption reads: "Old West Branch Quaker Church 3 miles N. of Union, Ohio, on the Garland Road." The Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers, came to Ohio in the late 1700s and the early 1800s. The first Quaker to arrive in Ohio was George Harlan in 1795. By 1800, approximately eight hundred Quaker families were living in Ohio. The number of families had more than doubled by 1814. The Friends originally settled in eastern and southern Ohio and established Mt. Pleasant, Alliance, Salem, Lisbon, and several other communities in the state. The Ohio Quakers' yearly meeting took place in Mt. Pleasant. There, the Friends built a meeting house that could hold approximately two thousand people. The Quakers played a major role in nineteenth-century reform efforts including the temperance, women's rights, and abolition movements