Location: 1795 Staley Snow Camp Rd., north of Siler City
County: Chatham
Original Date Cast: 1973
By 1751 there were enough Quakers in the vicinity of Cane Creek, now in Alamance County, that the group was able to organize and establish a regular meeting for worship. As the Quaker population in the Piedmont grew, the large membership of the Cane Creek Meeting began to splinter into smaller and hence more convenient meetings. The minutes of Cane Creek for 1753 indicate that the “Friends Inhabiting on the waters of Rocky River” requested to hold their own meeting on Fourth Day, or Wednesday. Although records indicate that the Rocky River meeting was well established by 1792, it remained a Preparative Meeting under Cane Creek until 1908.
Initially, meetings were held in local homes. While little is known about the first meeting house, it was likely a log structure built on land donated in 1792 by church leader David Vestal. That meeting house was followed by a second log building and then a frame one. The present Rocky River Friends meetinghouse was completed in 1926. It was remodeled extensively in 1969 and is the site of the highway marker.
References:
Seth B. and Mary Edith Hinshaw, eds., Carolina Quakers (1972)
Seth B. Hinshaw, The Carolina Quaker Experience, 1665-1985 (1984)
Bobbie T. Teague, Cane Creek, Mother of Meetings (1995)
Francis Charles Anscombe, I Have Called You Friends, The Story of Quakerism in North Carolina (1959)