South Berkshire Friends Meeting
South Berkshire Friends Meeting Records
1982-2010
MS 902 s347
2 boxes
1 linear foot
Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries
Originating as an independent worship group in Monterey, Mass., in about 1952, the South Berkshire Friends Meeting came under the auspices of the Middle Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting in 1955 as the Great Barrington Worship Group. It changed name to Gould Farm in 1962, and then to Berkshire in 1971 before setting off formally from the Mount Toby Monthly Meeting in 1984.
This small collection contains minutes and newsletters of the meeting since it was organized as a monthly in 1984.
English
Abbie Loring in Cape Cod Quaker attire, ca.1930. Photo by Alton H. Blackington
The South Berkshire Monthly Meeting originated in the home of Raymond and Abbie Olds of Monterey, Mass., and in 1955 became an Allowed Meeting, the Great Barrington Worship Group, under the care of what was then the Middle Connecticut Valley Monthly Meeting (now Mount Toby Monthly). After the Olds relocated in 1962, the small group continued to meet at Gould Farm, a residential rehabilitation center for individuals with mental health challenges, under Clarence and Ruth Carr. It changed name again in 1971 to the Berkshire Worship Group.
With the number of worshippers slowly increasing, Shirley Olds called Friends in the area together in 1982 to discuss their future status and on Sept. 11, 1983, they held their first meeting for business to pursue becoming a monthly meeting. Their application was formally accepted at the Hartford Quarterly Meeting, leading them to set off formally from Mount Toby Monthly Meeting in February 1984.
This small collection contains minutes and newsletters of the meeting since it was organized as a monthly in 1984.
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: South Berkshire Friends Meeting Records (MS 902 s347). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Gift of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records, March 2016.
This collection is part of the New England Yearly Meeting Records.
Current contact for the meeting
South Berkshire Friends Meeting website (Nov. 2018).
Quakers
Religion
Massachusetts (West)
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, October 2018.
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
Quakers--Massachusetts
Society of Friends--Massachusetts
Massachusetts--Religious life and customs
Minutes (Administrative records)
Newsletters
11:E5
Minutes
1982-2003
11South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1982 Sept.-1986 Jan.
12South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1986 Feb.-1988 Jan.
13South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1988 Feb.-1989 Jan.
14South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1989 Feb.-1990 Jan.
15South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1990 Feb.-Dec.
16South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1991-1992
17South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1993-1994
18South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1996-1997
19South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1998
110South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes1999
111South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes2000
112South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes2001
113South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes2002
114South Berkshire Monthly: Minutes2003
11:G2Newsletters and publications
1985-2010
2South Berkshire Monthly: Newsletters1985-1993
2South Berkshire Monthly: Newsletters1994-1998
2South Berkshire Monthly: Newsletters1999-2004
2South Berkshire Monthly:
Newsletters2005-2010
Miscellaneous
1984
115The genesis of South Berkshire Monthly Meeting from the 1950s through 19841984