Aug. 15, 1783. Returning from church, I observed people crowded about the Free Quakers meeting-house, and was told they were waiting to see the wonderful Jemima Wilkinson who had preached. I remained till she came out to get in her chair. She had on a white hat but no cap, and a white linen garment that covered her to her feet.
Aug. 20, 1783. Went to the new Quaker meeting-house on Arch Street to hear Jemima Wilkinson preach. She looks more like a man than a woman.
May 22, 1788. I rode out to Cunninghams Centre House to hear the famous Jemima Wilkinson preach, and in the room where formerly a billiard table stood I saw and heard her. She spoke much in the New England dialect. She appeared to be about twenty-five years of age, her hair was dressed like that of a man, and she wore a black gown after the fashion of church ministers.
The manuscript diary of the Reverend John Pitman, of Providence, R. I., says: “Saw that poor deluded creature Jemima Wilkerson and a number of her dull followers standing staring at the cross-roads.”
In the days of reaction after the excitement of the Revolution, many aspirations for a better social state prompted settlements in outlying portions of the Central States. Communities were founded, Utopias were planned, and soon the united body of people known as the Friend’s followers decided to seek in the depths of the wilderness a new home. It was a bold undertaking, but the band had a bold commander, and above all, they were absolute in their confidence in her. In no way was that confidence shown so remarkably as in the fact that the settlement was made for her but without her. The three delegates sent to find a place suitable for their purpose reported in favor of the region at the foot of Seneca Lake in the State of New York. In 1788 the settlement was made on the west shore of the lake by twenty-five persons, on the primitive highway of the region, about a mile south of Dresden, and it was named Jerusalem.
For over two years a band of determined believers labored in this wilderness to prepare a home for their leader, who was comfortably carrying on her triumphant and flattering progress in the large cities. Surrounded by Indians, and menaced by wild beasts, they cleared the forests, and planted wheat, and lived on scant food. During the first year one family for six weeks had only boiled nettles and bohea tea for nourishment. When the cornfields yielded the second summer, a small grist-mill was built with incredible labor. When the well-fed and not at all over-worked Friend arrived, she found an orderly, industrious community of two hundred and sixty persons, who had built for her a home and a meeting-house, and she at once settled down in comparative comfort in the midst of her flock.
The house which was occupied by the Friend was a log-house of humble pretensions; to this two or three houses were added, then upper stories were placed over all, and framed in. It stood in a fine garden, and by its side was a long building used as a workshop for the women of the settlement, where spinning, weaving, and sewing were constantly carried on. Near by stood the sugar grove, a most lucrative possession of the society. From this home the Friend and her steadfast followers would ride in imposing cavalcade, two by two, to meeting at the early settlement. With their handsome, broad-brimmed hats, substantial clothes, and excellent horses, they made a most notable and impressive appearance. Her second house was more pretentious and comparatively luxurious; in it she lived till the time of her death.
Jemima Wilkinson’s followers were of no poor or ordinary stock. Many brought to her community considerable wealth. Into the wilderness went with her from Kingstown, R. I., Judge William Potter and his daughters; a family of wealthy Hazards; Captain James Parker (brother of Sir Peter Parker); four Reynolds sisters from a family of dignity; Elizabeth Luther and seven children; members of the Card, Hunt, Sherman, and Briggs families. From New Milford, Conn., emigrated a number of Stones and Botsfords, and from New Bedford many members of the influential Hathaway and Lawrence families. From Stonington and New London went a large number of Barneses and Browns and Davises; from Philadelphia the entire family of Malins and the Supplees; from Worcester, Pa., came a most important recruit, Daniel Wagener, with his sister, and Jonathan Davis, and other well-to-do and influential persons.
The most important converts to belief in her doctrines, and pioneers for her, were doubtless Judge Potter and Captain Parker, both men of large wealth and unstinted liberality to their leader. The former had been treasurer of the State of Rhode Island; the latter had been also a magistrate for twenty years in the same State. They were the largest contributors to the fund for the purchase of the tract of land in New York. These men sacrificed home and friends to come to the New Jerusalem with their adored priestess; but they quickly escaped from her sway, and became in later years her most powerful enemies. They even issued a complaint against her for blasphemy. The officer who tried to serve the warrant upon her was unable to seize the Friend, who was an accomplished rider and well mounted, and, when he went to her house, was roughly treated and driven away. John Lawrence, whose wife was Anna Hathaway, was a near relative of Commodore Lawrence; he was a shipbuilder at New Bedford, and, though he followed Jemima Wilkinson to Seneca Lake, never joined her society. Many of her believers never lived in her settlement, but visited her there; and many bequeathed to her liberally by will, and made valuable gifts to her during their life.
In the main, the influence of this remarkable woman continued unabated with a large number of her followers throughout her life, and even after her death. This power survived against the adverse conditions of frequent litigations, personal asperities, constant injurious reports, and the dislike of many to the strictness of her faith and austerity of life required by her from her followers. This allegiance could hardly have been founded solely on religious credulity, but must have depended largely in her attractive personal traits, her humanity, and doubtless also to her attractive expositions of her lively imagination. To the last she persisted in calling herself by the sole name of the Universal Friend. Even her will was signed thus: “I, the person once called Jemima Wilkinson, but in and ever since the year 1777 known as and called the Public Universal Friend, hereunto set my name and seal; Public Universal Friend.” But she cannily appended a sub-signature over a cross-mark of the name of her youth.