About

Members of the Religious Society of Friends, usually called Friends or Quakers, migrated from the Carolinas to southern Grant County in the late 1820's and the early 1830's where they settled along both sides of a creek. Having come from a local meeting in North Carolina called Back Creek, they named the creek and their new home Meeting Back Creek. The Meeting was first established in 1831 by the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends and has remained in continuous operation since then. Presently it is the oldest Friends Meeting in Grant County and is the oldest worship group of any denomination in the county.

In 1829, meetings were first held for worship in the cabin of Joseph Winslow. In 1831, a log meetinghouse was erected, but it soon proved too small for the membership. A new brick meetinghouse was built  immediately west of the present meetinghouse in 1841. During worship service women would smile serenely from under their gray silk bonnets. The men would sit in quiet reverence. With so much silence and little activity the time seemed to pass slowly for the young folk.

Back Creek was instrumental in establishing other Meetings in southern Grant County. Included in this list are Oak Ridge in 1843, Center (Jonesboro) in 1844, Fairmount in 1852, Little Ridge in 1854, Bethel in 1867, and Upland in 1874. Education was important to the early Quaker settlers. School was held in the original log meetinghouse. Back Creek began Sunday School for the organized study of Scripture in 1863. In 1874, the Meeting built a two-story brick school  west of the present parsonage that was used by Friends children. In 1883 Back Creek helped establish the Fairmount Friends Academy.

The biggest event to come to Back Creek was the June Quarterly Meeting. During the years it was held here, 1839-1893, attendance grew every year until possibly 10,000 people assembled on the grounds. Excursion trains brought people on the tracks to the "Wilson crossing" one half mile east of the grounds. Nearby Friends opened their homes to overnight stays by Friends coming from a distance. The atmosphere of a County Fair prevailed, as six to eight out-of-door pulpits accommodated all who wanted to preach. Neighbors complained that horses tied to their fences pulled down the rails. Young men raced each other with their horses and their horses and buggies up and down the road beside the grounds.  Believing that crowd control would be improved, June Quarterly Meeting was moved to Fairmount Friends Meetinghouse beginning in 1894. The membership of Back Creek Meeting at this time was near 440.

The present meetinghouse was constructed in 1899, and the parsonage was  purchased in 1953.  An annex containing a pastor's study/library, classrooms, fellowship hall, and rest rooms was dedicated in October 1997.