¹Many of the very first settlers to enter Uxbridge Township were Quakers, members of the Society of Friends, who came from Pennsylvania shortly after 1804 by way of Yonge St. and Newmarket. They believed that there was an Inner Light of God in all men making ritual unnecessary. Being self-sufficient, they chose leaders or elders from their own community, and the twelve families scattered in the Uxbridge forest soon began to plan for a church, or meeting house as it was properly called.

The Orthodox Friends' Meeting House

¹The Uxbridge Friends built their first meeting house of logs on the north-east corner of lot 29, concession V, in 1809. At the same time, they obtained land across the road for a burial ground. This was the only cemetry in the area for a decade, and some early grave markers are of local granite stone.

In 1817, the Friends started collecting materials for a new meeting house, and in 1820, a frame building was erected on the same site. This Uxbridge Meeting House was the only church in Uxbridge-Scott for nearly a generation. The Orthodox Friends continued to hold meetings in it until 1925.

²Although Quakers did not originally believe in the need for a minister, sometimes when a member showed extra ability in that direction, he or she was allowed to preach regularly to the Meeting. One such minister was associated with the Uxbridge Meeting House. That was Alma Gould Dale, daughter of Joseph Gould, who married Thomas Dale. She took up her duties which included the beginning of a Sunday School about 1881, and remained until the 1890's.