Randolph County, Indiana Family History
Wayne Township
Churches
Jericho Friends Meeting
Wayne Township
Churches
Jericho Friends Meeting
Tucker History Page 149
Jericho was established about 1820. They built a log cabin, with no windows, but merely holes for light with shutters. The seats were poles with legs. The women's side had a big fire- place, but the men's side had a hearth in the middle of the room, with a hole in the roof above to let the heat and smoke out They would use coals from the fir-place, bark, etc., that made but little smoke. Benoni Hill, Henry Hill, Amos Peacock, Abram Peacock, Elijah Cox, and William Cox, with their wives, formed the meeting.
There was no minister for fifteen years. The first preacher was John Jones, about 1835. Other preachers have been resident among them, though not very many.
In 1843, a division took place in the society at Jericho, a large company adhering to the Anti-slavery Friends. A new meeting-house was built near Henry Hill's, and it was occupied, perhaps, for twenty years. The Hills, the Peacocks, and others were prominent in this "Reparation" at Jericho. After the abolition of slavery, the Anti-slavery Friends disbanded, and most went back to the "body." In about 1878, another division occurred at Jericho arising from the fact that the great body of the societies belonging to the Richmond Yearly Meeting (and, perhaps, to others), have decidedly charged their methods of procedure and their modes of worship from those which had been prevalent for many years. Some of the Jericho Friends were unwilling to yield to these changes, and set up a meeting for themselves. The two divisions occupy the same meeting-house, the old society meeting in the forenoon, and the new in the afternoon. The "new", would to outsiders appear to be the "old," but since the Yearly Meeting has also changed, those who persist in the old methods are reckoned to be the "new" society. Both, curiously enough, claim to be in the spirit, and to be using the methods, of the original Quakers. The new methods" certainly differ very greatly from those forty and fifty years ago. How it was at first, we are unable to say. The members of the meeting in harmony with Richmond Yearly Meeting are George Thomas, Frances Frazier, Asenath Thomas, and many others.
The members of the other meeting are William Peacock, Clarkson Peacock, ____ Peacock, Elijah Peacock, William Robinson, ___ Gilbert, with their wives, as also perhaps others.
The Jericho Friends are a steady, God-fearing, kind and generous people, trying to walk in the leadings of the Spirit, and following peace and good-will toward their brethren and their fellow-men; and it would seem, to those who look on a matter of sincere regret that the little group of faithful Christians, small enough even in the whole, could not so far walk in unity as to continue to be one in outward work and modes of worship, even as they doubtless are in substantial love and desire for Christian purity and spiritual advancement.
Our Special Heritage
Sesquicentennial History of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) Page 108
Jericho Friends Meeting
Location: 1 mile south and 4 miles east of Winchester, Wayne Twp., Randolph Co., IN. Address RR3, Winchester, IN.
Date Organized as a meeting: Worship services were held as early as 1822.
A preparative meeting was established Aug 30, 1827. As a monthly meeting: November,1946.
Organized by Authority of: White River Meeting.
Origin of Name: Historians disagree whether the meeting was named for the Biblical city or for Jeremiah Cox (Jeri-co), an early settler in the area.
Family names of charter or early members: COX, GRAY, HILL, KEYS, THOMAS, PEACOCK, RHODES, ROBERTS and ROBINSON.
First paid minister: Franklin Chant. Date: 1934.
Present membership 103.
History of physical facilities: A log meetinghouse was constructed in the early 1820's and served until 1836, when a frame structure was built. In 1863 the present brick meetinghouse was erected.
The present meetinghouse was remodeled in 1888 and in 1906. In 1958 a Christian Education Annex was added.
Other information: West of the meetinghouse is the Jericho Friends Cemetery.
The cemetery is still in use.
Two books are available on the history of Jericho Friends Meeting:
Jericho Friends Meeting and It's Community
Jericho Friends Meeting and It's Community Supplement
The set is $15.00 plus shipping.
For more information please send an email to Donald Peacock
Be sure to include Jericho History Books in the subject line. Hand written requests for information should be addressed to Donald Peacock or Andrea Long
To order the set, send checks or money orders to Mark Macy, Treasurer
Jericho Friends Meeting
4010 E. 100 S, Winchester, IN 47394.
Hand written requests for information should be addressed
Attention: Donald Peacock or Andrea Long
The Jericho Friends Meeting House and Community are found in Wayne Township of Randolph County, Indiana. Two pieces of evidence show differently how Jericho received its name. The first minutes of the Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting, under date of 4-18-1822, show the following: "Friends appointed to visit the upper settlement of the White River report...good satisfaction. And are free that their request be granted with which this meeting unites...meetings to be held on the 1st and 5th days...the opening of the same on the 25th of this month...the 5th day preceding White River Preparative excepted. Also to be known by the name of Jericho." The second piece of evidence is left by William Robinson, as a boy of six years of age, was in the County of Randolph by 1822, and who later became a recognized minister in the Friends Meeting and a resident of the Jericho Community. He states the name Jericho did not derive from that of the ancient Biblical but rather that the Meeting was named for a local man of the Community, Jeremiah Cox. Evidence received 7-6-1956 in connection with the celebration of the sesquicentennial shows that William Robinson was correct.
Jeremiah Cox was one of the first five settlers of Wayne County, Indiana. He came there in 1805 or 1806 and settled on ground now occupied by the City of Richmond. About the year 1816 Jeremiah Cox sold lots in Randolph County and called the name of his community Jericho, this being a play on his own name. Abram Peacock moved to this neighborhood in 1818 and purchased considerable land. It was only natural that he was willing to name the newly established Meeting in honor of Uncle Jere. Uncle Jere only lived three or years after he moved to Jericho in 1826. He was soon laid in the little first cemetery. An unbroken forest occupied the land to which the approximately one dozen families of the first community came in the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. These woods were everywhere, and constituted not only a barrier to travel, but also became a tremendous task in clearing, preparatory to settlement and farming operations. They are, therefore, worth of special mention and description.
The first group of people, who entered Government land near Jericho, did so by the end of the year 1826. Two or three purchases appear later, but no more entries of Government land until 1831. Entries began in 1818. Abram Peacock, his son Amos, his son in law Henry Hill, and Henry's brother, Benoni were the first to arrive in the spring of 1818. The Hills and the Peacocks were from Guilford County, North Carolina, where they belonged to the Back Creek Friends Meeting. All of these families settled first in Wayne County, Indiana. The left Wayne County perhaps partly under the influence of Jeremiah Cox, who was adverse to the establishment of the city of Richmond. He purchased Government land at Jericho, also in 1818, though he did not move here till later. Listed below are the residents of Jericho Community before 1830.
| Settler | Notes | Children | Born |
| Peacock, Abram | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Peacock, Anna Joy | Second Wife of Abram - d. 1818 | - | - |
| Peacock, Rachel | Third Wife of Abram | - | - |
| Peacock, John Joy | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Peacock, Ruth (Cox) | First Wife of John Joy | - | - |
| Peacock | - | Elwood | 1823 |
| Peacock | - | Simeon | 1825 |
| Peacock | - | Anna | 1826 |
| Peacock | - | Achsah | 1828 |
| Peacock | - | Enoch | 1829 |
| Peacock, Amos | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Peacock, Hannah (Hill) | Wife | - | - |
| Peacock | - | Jonah | 1814 |
| Peacock | - | Aaron | 1816 |
| Peacock | - | William | 1818 |
| Peacock | - | Matilda | 1821 |
| Peacock | - | Anna | 1823 |
| Peacock | - | Abigail | 1825 |
| Peacock | - | Abraham | 1829 |
| Hill, Henry | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Hill, Achsah (Peacock) | First wife of Henry | - | - |
| Hill | - | Asenath | 1815 |
| Hill | - | Daniel | 1817 |
| Hill | - | Jesse | 1820 |
| Hill | - | Margaret | 1824 |
| Hill | - | Achsah | 1830 |
| Cox, William | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Cox, Margaret (Peacock) | - | - | - |
| Cox | - | Merab | 1821 |
| Cox | - | Silas | 1822 |
| Cox | - | Foster | 1823 |
| Cox | - | -Henry | 1825 |
| Cox | two others 1830 census | - | - |
| Hill, Benoni | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Hill, Mary (Boswell) | wife | - | - |
| Hill | - | Mathew | 1814 |
| Hill | - | Rebecca | 1816 |
| Hill | - | Miriam | 1818 |
| Hill | - | Lydia | 1822 |
| Hill | - | John | 1824 |
| Hill | - | Mary | 1826 |
| Hill | - | Seth | 1828 |
| Cox, Elijah | Came 1818 | - | - |
| Cox, Rachel (Thomas) | wife | - | |
| Cox | - | Isaac | - |
| Cox | - | Jemima | - |
| Cox | - | Anna | - |
| Cox | - | Rachel | - |
| Cox | - | Catherine | - |
| Cox, Joshua (Lyin) | Came 1822 | - | -1789 |
| Cox, Mariah (McGee) | Wife | - | - |
| Cox | - | Elizabeth | - |
| Cox | - | John M | 1821 |
| Cox | - | Rachel | 1826 |
| Cox | - | Joshua | 1829 |
| Cox, Amy (Weirman) | Mother of Lyin Joshua | - | -1765 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Rebecca | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Amy Amanda | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Ruth Ann | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Warner L | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Pheba Ann | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Esther Maria | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox | Ch. of son Wm | Sarah Ellen | Over 21 by 1852 |
| Cox, Jeremiah | Came 1826 | - | - |
| Cox, Catherine | Third wife of Jeremiah | - | - |
| Cox | - | Enoch | - |
| Cox | - | Benjamin | 1803 |
| Cox | - | Catherine | 1805 |
| Cox | - | Robert | 1811 |
| Cox | - | William | 1814 |
| Cox | - | Samuel | - |
| Cox | - | John | - |
| Pickett, William | - | - | - |
| Pickett, Sarah Ann | wife | - | - |
| Pickett | - | Esther | bc1827 |
| Pickett | - | Mahalon | - |
| Pickett | - | Hannah | - |
| Gray, Absalom | Came 1826 | - | - |
| Gray, Margery | First Wife of Absalom | - | - |
| Gray | - | Simon | 1826 |
| Gray | - | John | - |
| Gray | - | James | 1823 |
| Gray | - | Elias | 1825 |
| Gray, Mary (Pickett) | Second wife of Absalom | - | - |
| Gray | Children names unknown | - | - |
| Pickett, Matilda | daughter of Mary Pickett | - | - |
| Cox, Solomon | Came 1826 | - | - |
| Cox, Zebiar | Wife of Solomon | - | - |
| Cox | - | Mary | - |
| Buckingham, Joshua | Came 1826 | - | - |
| Buckingham, Rachel | Wife of Joshua | - | - |
| Buckingham | - | Margery | 1802 |
| Buckingham | - | Rachel | - |
| Buckingham | - | Thomas | - |
| Buckingham | - | Sarah | - |
| Buckingham | - | Hannah | - |
Index of Churches Main Page
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