The social mind of the Quaker Hill population was formed, at the
settlement of the place, in a common response to common stimuli. The
population was congregated from Long Island and Massachusetts
settlements, by the tidings of the opening of this fertile land of the
Oblong for settlement in 1731. I infer from the fact that settlements
were previously made on both sides, at Fredericksburgh on one side, and
at New Milford on the other,--at New Milford there was a Quaker Meeting
established in 1729, fifteen years before Quaker Hill--that the value of
the lands in the Oblong was well advertised. From the fact noted by
James Wood (The Purchase Meeting, p. 10) that "the first settlement in
any considerable numbers was upon Quaker Hill in the Oblong," I infer
that the uncommon promise of this hill land had been made known to the
Quakers then assembling at this "Purchase in the Rye Woods," and that
Quaker Hill was settled in response to the stimulus of valuable, fertile
lands offered for occupation and ownership.

It seems to have been the desire of the first settlers to form a
community where they could live apart, maintain their form of religion
and possess land fertile and rich. The Quakers are always shrewd as to
economic affairs, and the business motive is never lost sight of in the
spiritual inner light. In choosing Quaker Hill soil they selected ground
which after one hundred and sixty-seven years is the richest in the
region, sustains the best dairies, and is able longer than any other in
the neighborhood in time of drought to afford abundant green grass
and verdure.

[Illustration: MAP No. I.

QUAKER HILL AND VICINITY. (From Robert Erskine's Map, 1778-1780, in De
Witt Clinton Collection, New York Historical Society.)]

[Illustration: MAP No. II.

QUAKER HILL AND VICINITY. (Based on a tracing of United States
Geographical Survey.)]

To this place thus secluded, came Benjamin Ferriss in 1728, and Nathan
Birdsall. They settled upon the sites marked 31 and 39; which are 1,200
and 1,100 feet above the sea, and very near the highest ground for many
miles. There was at this time, 1729, a meeting of Friends at New
Milford, nine miles away; but these two men came from Purchase Meeting
in the town of Rye, forty miles directly to the South. There soon
followed others, bearing the names, Irish, Wing, Briggs, Toffey, Akin,
Taber, Russell, Osborn, Merritt, Dakin, Hoag. In ten years the tide of
settlement was flowing ful