Cane Creek Friends Meeting
Alamance County, Alamance County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Cane Creek Meeting. First Monthly Meeting of Friends in central North Carolina, 1751. Present building is on the original site.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Established in 1751, Cane Creek was the first monthly meeting of the Society of Friends in central North Carolina, planted as Quaker families migrated down the backcountry into the Piedmont. The present meeting house still occupies the original site, marking more than two and a half centuries of continuous Quaker life.
Why it matters
Quaker meetings like Cane Creek anchored some of the earliest organized communities of the Carolina backcountry and carried a distinctive tradition of conscience into the region.
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Themes & tags
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