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William Logan Fisher papers, 1749-1861

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Summary

Creator:
Fisher, William Logan, 1781-1862
Abstract:
The Fisher collection consists mostly of letters received by William Logan Fisher between 1798 and 1861, along with a few items concerning other family members. The strength of this small collection lies in its documentation of the crisis afflicting American Quakerism during the antebellum period, particularly the deep rifts that developed in the meetings at Lynn and New Bedford, Mass., and the efforts there to suppress dissent.
Extent:
103 items (0.25 linear feet)
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Rob S. Cox, may 1992

Background

Scope and Content:

The Fisher collection consists of 69 letters received by William Logan Fisher between 1798 and 1861, with a few older items, mostly legal documents and commercial correspondence, received by his father Thomas Fisher (1741-1810; 17 items), and 8 items relating to his grandfather, William Logan (1718-1776). There are also four letters received by William Logan Fisher's son, Charles W., from a friend, M. Ritchie.

The strength of this small collection lies in its documentation of the crisis afflicting American Quakerism during the antebellum period. The letters from Charles W. Morgan from New Bedford are particularly noteworthy for documenting the deep rifts that developed in the meetings at Lynn and New Bedford, Mass., and the efforts there to suppress dissent. In 1822, the meeting at Lynn was repeatedly interrupted by the ministering of politically and theologically progressive Friends. On February 17th, one dissenter entered meeting brandishing a sword as an emblem of the "warlike disposition of those against whom he wished to bear testimony." Although this form of symbolic speech had been common among Quakers of the 17th century, it was ill received in Lynn. The sword was wrenched from the man, and he was forcibly expelled from meeting. The protest, however, was renewed by several others in the afternoon, after which the sheriff was called in to read the riot act. When the protesters refused to absent themselves, four were arrested and jailed at Salem. Morgan wrote that they were "confined the first night in a store without provisions or sleeping accommodations" (1822 February 26). Two of the protesters were ultimately found guilty and fined, and two, according to Morgan, were found innocent because insane.

Morgan's letters also document that the tensions in the Society were hardly unique to Lynn, nor were they confined to this one incident. Morgan noted with great personal interest the divisions within the New Bedford meeting, his parents and other relatives pitted against the more numerous conservatives. Morgan felt throughout the crisis that he might become a target for disownment due to his views, and was distressed by the accusations of adultery made against a fellow "Hicksite," The stress that this otherwise devout Quaker experienced is suggested by his comment to Fisher of October 6th, 1822: "This is all the Religion that I can communicate to thee at present -- I have nothing of my own & I can see nothing in others, meeting discipline, preachers and Societies all are dead and dark to me and I go among them hardly without knowing why yet not perhaps quite easy to abandon all that is called holy -- though all is death and idolatry to me." Interestingly, at the height of the fracas in Lynn, on March 27th, 1822, Morgan's "black man" rose at the New Bedford meeting without forewarning Morgan, and asked to be admitted as a member. Morgan wrote that he "sp[oke] very well & properly, the request Received due notice, and is under care of overseers."

Other aspects of the tensions within the Society are recorded in a long letter from James B. Congdon on his book, the Quaker Quiddities, discussing the reservations that young Friends had toward Quaker "peculiarities." In a similar vein, Christopher Slocum complained of the practice among Friends of expelling members who had married outside the faith: "What a pity it is Wm that Society should loose so many of its Members by Marriage -- how can it be remedied? does it not sustain a greater injury in this way, than if it admitted Persons into Membership for that express Purpose..." (22 November 1800). Two letters from Matilda F. Fry, an English Quaker, represent the conservative view on the doctrinal disputes.

Other letters of interest in the collection are two letters from Christopher Slocum, a Quaker merchant from New York City, and the letters of John Wadey Russell, also a New York merchant. In Slocum's first, dated October 12th, 1800, he describes three suicides, one of which turned out to be a ruse by a man attempting to escape from his debts. In his second, he records a medical experiment performed on a Black woman: after being inoculated with cow pox serum as a preventative against small pox, the woman was injected with small pox and thereafter developed all of the sequelae of the disease. In the same letter, Slocum describes the use of Priestly's "dephlogisticated nitrous air" (i.e., nitrous oxide), then in vogue as a treatment for a variety of ailments in New York. Russell lured away Slocum's partner J. Mintern, thus dissolving the firm of Slocum & Mintern. Though hard feelings seem to have been avoided in the long run, Slocum warned Fisher, who was then engaged to be married, "Beware my dear Fellow of Partnerships -- they are so uncertain -- that no calculation can be made upon them -- unless thou should'st be so fortunate as to form a Connection of a Matrimonial kind..." (1801 February 4). Though the letters relating to the Slocum-Mintern-Russell triangle are few and brief, they provide an interesting insight into business relations in the small and interrelated community of Quaker merchants. Finally, there are two fine letters from Theodore Parker one of which (1845 January 30) includes an optimistic statement of his plans for the future of Universalism.

Biographical / Historical:

The Logans and Fishers were among the most prominent families in American Quaker society during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Descendants of John Fisher, who had accompanied William Penn to Pennsylvania in 1682, the Fishers were a particularly large and affluent family, many of whom became known for their philanthropy. Their various commercial endeavors, fostered through a network of family members and fellow Quakers throughout the northeastern seaboard, resulted in the establishment of several prosperous and highly profitable firms as one generation succeeded another in manufacturing and shipping.

In March, 1772, Thomas Fisher, originally from Lewes, Del., married Sarah Logan, daughter of William and granddaughter of James Logan. Following in the footsteps of his father, Joshua, Fisher established himself early in life as a merchant, engaging in trade with Britain and her West Indian colonies before the Revolution intervened. In 1777, Thomas and his younger brothers Miers and Samuel were among several Quakers arrested by American radicals after refusing to swear an oath of allegiance. Although their refusal to do so was based upon religious principals, they were nevertheless suspected of loyalism, were locked into the Masonic Hall, and finally exiled to Winchester, Va. All three Fishers survived this ordeal with their businesses more or less intact, and after the war Thomas Fisher renewed his diverse interests in shipping and brewing, and gained a local reputation for his philanthropy. Thomas and Sarah Fisher fled Philadelphia during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, to a property called Wakefield, near Germantown, that they had inherited from Sarah's father. Taking a strong liking to this country estate, the Fishers built a house on a portion of the property and settled there in 1795.

The Fishers' third child, William Logan Fisher, was born in Philadelphia in 1781. Twice married, first to Mary Rodman in 1801, with whom he had three children, and secondly to Sarah Lindley, with whom he had an additional three, Fisher remained most of his life at Wakefield. In 1829 his son, Thomas Rodman Fisher, would build a small house of his own called Little Wakefield (Wakefield burned in the 1980s but Little Wakefield still stands on the campus of LaSalle University). From his early twenties, William Logan Fisher distinguished himself as an industrious manufacturer and merchant, assuming a brisk trade in wool and woolen products, and promoting the indigenous manufacture of gloves, stockings, woolen apparel, and broad cloth, with his mill at Germantown serving as a prototype of American ingenuity and enterprise. The most important and longest lasting among several commercial partnerships of Fisher's was the one with his brother-in-law, Charles Waln Morgan (Morgan's wife, Sarah Rodman, and Fisher's first wife, Mary Rodman, were sisters). The two became close friends, working together both in the wool trade and as partners in the Duncannon Iron Works, a major operation in Clark's Ferry, Pa., that included a blast furnace, rolling mill and nail manufactory. Both, too, were devout, politically and doctrinally liberal Quakers.

In the 1820s, the Society of Friends in America entered a period of extreme crisis. Doctrinal disputes between conservative and progressive factions, centering on the relative importance of scripture versus personal revelation and the influence of the "new" evangelism, dominated Quaker discourse, and resulted in a series of major schisms in the church. This volatile mixture was further fueled by disputes between politically conservative Friends and progressive to radical Friends, divided over such issues of national importance as slavery or race- and sex-equality, as well as issues specific to Quakers, such as Friends' "peculiarities" in speech and dress. The Hicksite schism of 1827, the Wilburite-Gurneyite schisms of the 1830's, and the separation of the Progressive Friends in Philadelphia in 1848 were all products of these disputes, and the rifts that developed in meetings were years in repairing.

Fisher, Morgan, and most of Fisher's correspondents were committed to the "liberal" ideas exemplified in the preaching of Elias Hicks, and opposed to the narrowly scripture-centered, evangelical-influenced Orthodox doctrine prevalent in the New England Yearly Meeting and present in a sizable minority in Philadelphia. Typical of many "Hicksites," Fisher also espoused politically radical points of view. Later in his life, Fisher became well known in Quaker circles as a controversialist, authoring books on Owenite socialism, the history of Sabbath observance, the laws of the Society of Friends, and a history of the Society. Others of his friends were no less controversial: most notably, James B. Congdon, who wrote the doctrinally radical Quaker Quiddities. Fisher died in Philadelphia in 1862.

Acquisition Information:
1980. M-1898 .
Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown.

PREFERRED CITATION:

William Logan Fisher Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

William Logan Fisher papers, 1749-1861
Total components 1
Last indexed 2025-02-09