Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
41 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION <br /> portion of grand juries and petty juries. They were also commonly appointed to numerous small <br /> committees of adjudication. Thus, it is no stretch to conclude that the Eno Quakers played a <br /> significant role in the early development of the county seat.21 <br /> The group of Quakers who settled around the Eno River first joined with the Cane Creek <br /> Meeting. Although it was located two or more days southwest of where the Eno Quakers lived, it <br /> was the closest Meeting of the Society of Friends they could attend. The Eno Quakers soon <br /> became anxious to establish their own meeting, and on February 2, 1754, they requested from the <br /> Cane Creek Meeting the privilege of holding their own meeting for worship to be held every <br /> Wednesday. Permission was granted for the Eno Quakers to organize a first-stage "particular <br /> meeting." With such a meeting, they could worship, but they could not transact business or <br /> resolve matters of discipline as the second-stage "preparative meeting," such as Cane Creek, <br /> could do.22 <br /> The early gatherings of the Eno Friends Meeting were doubtless held in the homes of one or <br /> more of the members. However, a significant step forward came on.Tune 10, 1759, when <br /> William Comb, a substantial planter and wagoner, leased the Fano Quakers a triangular tract of <br /> five acres along what is now NC 57. A part of Comb's 348-acre grant northeast of the county <br /> seat, the land was to be used for the Eno Friends' meeting house, school, and burying ground. <br /> Apparently, the meeting house was built immediately, for a note in the August 8, 1761, minutes <br /> of the Western Quarterly Meeting mentions ". . . where their [the Eno Friends'] meeting House <br /> now stands." Although the original lease does not survive, a description of the tract was copied <br /> Z,Engstrom, 19. <br /> zz Engstrom, 11-12. <br /> 19 <br />