She Goes to Church Alone

1902

Quakeress at Woodstown, N. J., Worships in Solitude to Keep Possession of Building

The little orthodox Friends' meeting-house at Woodstown, N. J., has only one surviving worshiper, Miss Priscilla Lippincott, an old woman, who, twice a week, carefully arrayed in the garb of that sect, goes alone to the building and frequently sits an hour on "First day" in the cushioned pew which she has occupied for 50 years.

Sometimes she sits in silence; at others, when the spirit moves, she speaks, with the long since emptied benches as her only earthly audience. The orthodox Quakers, once so numerous, built the meeting-house, but all save Miss Lippincott have died, joined other meetings, or united with the Hicksites. If Miss Lippincott should fail to hold services in the little meeting-house it would revert to the heirs of the original owner of the land, but so long as services continue to be held there it cannot be disturbed, and, therefore, she never fails to be at the door, with the big brass key, at the hour for service on "First" and "Fifth" days.