A significant number of the early settlers in the vicinity of Palmyra were members of the Society of Friends. The Friends migrating to Farmington Township were holding meetings by 1790 in private homes. The home of Abraham Lapham was one of the primary gathering places. The Farmington Society of Friends constructed a double log house in 1796. When that building burned in December 1803, a new frame meetinghouse was constructed in 1804. While the new building was being erected, the Farmington society met with the Palmyra congregation. A local historian assessed the influx: “Throughout several of the towns in this part of the state there dwelt families of the society; in Farmington about thirty families, and in Palmyra about forty-five” (History of the Town of Farmington, New York, 1788–1988, 14–15).
Quakers in Palmyra built an Orthodox church house in 1800 on Lemuel Durfee’s farm about two miles north of the community of Palmyra. Durfee donated the land for the church house on Walker Road (Cook, Palmyra and Vicinity, 192–93; History of the Town of Farmington, New York, 1788–1988 (Farmington, N.Y.: Bicentennial Committee, 1988), 12–15).
The “Four Other Individuals” permitted to see the 116 pages were Quakers—