Last Saturday (2 August 2014) Ohio History Connection celebrated the 200th Anniversary of the Quaker Yearly Meeting House built by Jacob Ong (1760-1849). Here is the profile of Jacob Ong from the Ohio Yearly Meeting's very interesting history website: www.quaker-chronicle.info:
Jacob Ong was an early Quaker settler in Ohio who was the contractor for the Mount Pleasant
Meeting House.
Jacob Ong was an early Quaker settler in Ohio who was the contractor for the Mount Pleasant
Meeting House.
Ong was born in Burlington NJ. During the American Revolution, Ong served in a Pennsylvania regiment that monitored western Pennsylvania. After the war, Ong apologized for this military service, and he rejected his military pension.
Ong moved several times early in life: to Hopewell, Virginia, in 1786, to Westland in 1792,
and then to Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1803. Concord MM recorded him as a minister in 1803. Ong was a founding member of Short Creek MM in 1804 and then of Plymouth/Smithfield MM in 1808. A Friend later recalled that during his ministry, Ong would tremble. On occasion, he would weep during ministry, with the tears flowing down his beard.
When Ohio YM decided to construct a large new meeting house in Mount Pleasant to house yearly meeting sessions, Ong was chosen to oversee the work. At the time, his position was called “carpenter,” though we would call it a contractor today. Ong included an interesting vestigial architectural element found in early meeting houses he had seen in his youth: the narrow walkway over the gallery.
(Editor's note: "MM"= Monthly Meeting; "YM"=Yearly Meeting)
Ong moved several times early in life: to Hopewell, Virginia, in 1786, to Westland in 1792,
and then to Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1803. Concord MM recorded him as a minister in 1803. Ong was a founding member of Short Creek MM in 1804 and then of Plymouth/Smithfield MM in 1808. A Friend later recalled that during his ministry, Ong would tremble. On occasion, he would weep during ministry, with the tears flowing down his beard.
When Ohio YM decided to construct a large new meeting house in Mount Pleasant to house yearly meeting sessions, Ong was chosen to oversee the work. At the time, his position was called “carpenter,” though we would call it a contractor today. Ong included an interesting vestigial architectural element found in early meeting houses he had seen in his youth: the narrow walkway over the gallery.
(Editor's note: "MM"= Monthly Meeting; "YM"=Yearly Meeting)
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