Ercildoun, Pennsylvania

Ercildoun Historic District
Fallowfields Meetinghouse, built 1801
Nearest city Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 39°56′35″N 75°50′31″W / 39.94306°N 75.84194°W / 39.94306; -75.84194Coordinates: 39°56′35″N 75°50′31″W / 39.94306°N 75.84194°W / 39.94306; -75.84194
Area 43 acres (17 ha)
MPS East Fallowfield Township MRA
NRHP Reference # 85001157[1]
Added to NRHP May 20, 1985
Ercildoun
Unincorporated community
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
County Chester
Township East Fallowfield
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes 19320 (Coatesville)

Ercildoun, population about 100, is an unincorporated community in East Fallowfield Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The hamlet was founded by Quakers and was an early center of the abolitionist movement. In 1985 the entire hamlet, including 31 properties, was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Of these properties two were vacant land, 14 were significant buildings, ten were contributing buildings, and five buildings, built in the 1950s, were non-contributing.[2] The Lukens Pierce House, an octagon house listed separately on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is located about half a mile northwest of the hamlet. Ercildoun is one of about ten hamlets in the township, which has no cities or towns, but has 31 sites listed on the National Register. Though it may not be the largest hamlet, Ercildoun is near the center of the township, and historically among the best known. The city of Coatesville is about 3 miles north.

The name "Ercildoun" was taken from the poem, "Thomas the Rhymer" by Sir Walter Scott when the hamlet's post office opened in 1850, but it was misspelled "Ercildown" until 1854. The main character in the poem was Thomas of Ercildoun, from Ercildoune, Scotland.[2]

History

People's Hall
One old building still stands
As a tribute to voices now stilled
It stands as a monument to Old "Friends"
Who dared to do right.[3]

Land in the current hamlet was first settled by Quaker farmers in the final years of the eighteenth century. In 1801 the current Fallowfields Friends Meeting House was built, which, with the adjoining cemetery, People's Hall, and a grocery store, forms the center of town. Arising from Quaker beliefs, the abolitionist East Fallowfield Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1835 with James Fulton Jr. as the recording secretary, and 33 other members. Fulton became active as an officer of the county and state anti-slavery societies and attended national meetings on abolition.[2] In its first annual report the Society stated that they had distributed 3,000 books and tracts and gathered signatures petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the territories.[4]

The Anti-Slavery Society met in the Fallowfield Meetinghouse until the winter of 1844, when Abby Kelley and Charles Burleigh spoke at a meeting that was broken up by a mob of anti-abolitionists. About this time abolitionist halls were burned down in Philadelphia and Lancaster, both less than 40 miles away. The Quaker Meeting membership then banned the Anti-Slavery group from its meetinghouse. In 1845 an association of abolitionists purchased the land and built a hall next to the Meetinghouse, which they called the Free Hall and later the People's Hall.[2] The group declared that "every question, creed, or race was welcome on our platform," and above the platform was the motto "Let Truth and Error grapple." According to resident Gertrude W. Nields, one Quaker who had been supporting the group, withdrew his support on seeing the motto, considering it "inconsistent in Friends to grapple with anything - even error."[4]

Ercildoun became known as center of the Underground Railroad with groups as large as 33 escaped slaves passing through town. Ercildoun's location about 15 miles north of the slave state of Maryland contributed to this activity, and the hamlet fed both the northern and southern Pennsylvania branches of the Underground Railroad both before and during the Civil War. After the Civil War, former slaves settled in the hamlet and People's Hall served as a grange, church, library, and town hall. It currently houses the Fallowfield Historical Society.[2]

The July 1877 "Ercildoun Tornado" was so violent that it was the subject of a lecture at the French Academy of Sciences in 1878.[2]

In 1894 a black congregation built the Christ Disciple Church.[2]

Notable residents

Lukens Pierce House

References

  1. ↑ Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jane L.S. Davidson, NRHP Nomination
  3. ↑ by Isabella Stokes, resident of Ercildoun and daughter of former slave Samuel Roth, 1974, reprinted in NRHP nomination form
  4. 1 2 Fallowfield Friends Meeting House, 1811-1911, One Hundredth Anniversary, Ercildoun, Pennsylvania

Further reading

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