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Birth:          15 May 1806 Radnor, Pa.
Death:          8 Aug 1887 Colerain, Ohio
Burial:         Colerain, Ohio

Notes
1981 book:
Joshua went to Baltimore, Md., to learn the trade of blacksmith. Joshua was living in 
Baltimore in 1827 when the schism between Orthodox and Hicksite factions split the 
Society of Friends. Although his family was Orthodox, Joshua sided with the Hicksites. 
His first wife was Orthodox, but Joshua was never disowned. He returned to Radnor 
later in 1827.
	In 1852, Joshua moved to Colerain, Ohio. Joshua made threshing machines 
and was a storekeeper. In April of 1862, Joshua visited his brother Jacob (1E85), who 
was then living in Perryville, Juniata Co., Pa.
	The group of Friends who separated from the Guernseyites (who had 
separated from the Hicksites) were led by Joshua and were referred to as the 
"Maulites". The sect was short-lived. In 1862, Joshua wrote "An Examination of 
Considerations suggested by the Present Position of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting". He 
also wrote "A Plea for the Unchangeable Truth" (1860), "Reasons for the Necessity of 
Silent Waiting" (1868), "Some Account of John Spalding" (1869), and "Transactions 
and Changes in the Society of Friends", the last being autobiographical in part.
Source: Miller-Robison Notes; Leeds Gen.; EAQG; Cope, Gen. of Darlington Fam.; 
Desc. of Darlington Cope; Rec. of Munvy MM, Streets, Walker Gen.; Caldwell, Hist. of 
Belmont & Jefferson Cos., Ohio; Letter from Robert J. Leach to Thomas Drake, June 
17, 1941, in coll. of Friends Library, Swarthmore, Pa.; Maule, Transactions and 
Changes; 1850 Ohio census; Belmont Co., Ohio, Birth Rec.; Quaker Biogs.
An ancestry.com record shows him md to Pricilla Sarah Deaver, b 1812 Md, ch: James 
b 1837, Jacob b 1840, Hirium b 1848, Alexander b 1852 all in Belmont Co Ohio. There 
must be some confusion in this!!
1850 in Colerain, Belmont Co., Ohio merchant
also with them is Rachel Spence and Deborah Steer
1860 in Colerain, Belmont Co., Ohio merchant
with them is Sarah Ecroyd age 18, prob a niece of his wife, and Susan Etler, a servant
1870 in Colerain, Belmont Co., Ohio selling dry goods
1880 in Colerain, Belmont Co., Ohio retired merchant
from http://www.quakerpedia.org/index.php?title=Joshua_Maule
Joshua Maule (1806-1887) was an important leader of the Primitive Friends in Ohio 
and a national leader of the Wilburite movement. He also played a significant role as a 
postmaster at Colerain, being, at his retirement, the longest serving postmaster in the 
nation. 

Contents [hide]
1 Early Years
2 Incipient Primitive Movement
3 Ohio General Meeting
4 Sources
 
Early Years 
Maule was born on Fifth Month 15th, 1806 in a house immediately west of the Radnor 
Friends Meeting House in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. His father was a 
schoolteacher who operated a boarding school in the house. 

Maule was serving as an apprentice in Baltimore at the time of the Hicksite division. 
He was in attendance at Baltimore YM at the time of the division there, and he and his 
master sided with the Hicksites. During a visit to his family at Radnor, however, Maule 
became convinced of the Orthodox position. 

Maule moved to Ohio in 1831. He started a business making agricultural implements. 
During the depression of 1837, the business went bankrupt. 

At that time, Maule began the general store in Colerain, Ohio. This store became quite 
profitable financially. Maule was appointed postmaster, a post he held until 1861. He 
purchased a machine which carbonated water, and throughout the remainder of his 
life, travelling ministers stopped at the store to purchase carbonated water to take on 
their travels. Maule also served as the postman for the Mount Pleasant Boarding 
School. He had a special cancellation stamp made which used the plain calendar, and 
his cancellation stamps are highly prized by philatelists. 

In the 1830s, Maule first became active in Quaker affairs. At the time, some wealthy 
Quakers in Ohio wanted to relax the ban on tombstones. Maule vociferously defended 
the ban on markers, which was upheld. The minority faction decided to create family 
plots where tombstones could be used. 

Incipient Primitive Movement 
In the 1840s, Maule became a leader of the Primitive movement. He attended New 
England YM, where his brother-in-law Thomas B. Gould was Clerk. During this visit, 
John Wilbur spoke so well against the evils of tobacco that when Maule returned 
home, he burned all the tobacco he had in stock and refused to trade in it thereafter. 

At the time of the 1854 division, Maule was appointed Assistant Clerk of Short Creek 
Quarterly Meeting. He argued for recognition of all Wilburite bodies, especially New 
England YM, Baltimore YM, and New York YM. 

In the late 1850s, Maule continued his work with Primitive Friends. He gave the money 
needed to set the type (an expensive undertaking of the time) for the Journal of Job 
Otis of Poplar Ridge NY and the Life and Letters of Thomas B. Gould. Maule also 
helped to fund the composition work for the Otisite version of the Journal of Joseph 
Hoag. 

Maule resigned as postmaster in 1861 because he would not deliver draft papers for 
the U.S. Army. Maule also refused to pay special war taxes, stopped reading 
newspapers, and decided to stop voting in elections. 

During the Civil War, a local man learned an important lesson. Maule had encouraged 
him not to serve in the military, but he joined anyway. During a battle in Virginia, the 
man's unit came under fire from a Confederate unit. The young man jumped under an 
agricultural implement, which was stamped on the bottom "J. Maule, Colerain, Ohio." 
The soldier recalled Maule's words, encouraging him not to join the army. 

Ohio General Meeting 
In 1862-1863, Ohio Yearly Meeting suffered a division as the Primitive Friends 
withdrew and formed Ohio General Meeting. Joshua Maule's son, who operated a 
general store in nearby Pennsville, was nearing his death at the time, which meant 
that Joshua Maule was present for many of the critical events of the 1862 division at 
Chesterfield. 

When Ohio General Meeting first met at Chesterfield on 6/20/1863, Maule was 
appointed the first Clerk. OGM approved a document for publication prepared by 
Maule, entitled An Address to the Members of the Society of Friends in Ohio and 
Elsewhere. On occasion, members of Ohio General Meeting were called the 
"Mauleites." 

Maule's local meeting, Concord, also had a division. The Primitive meeting house was 
located north of the Wilburite meeting house on land donated by neighbor Josiah 
Bundy. 

After OGM suffered its division with the Kollites, Maule began to re-think the Primitive 
position regarding business meetings. He argued that business meetings engendered 
strife rather than bringing Friends into unity. Eventually, he left OGM, joining a faction 
of Primitive Friends called the Remnants. The Concord Remnant meeting was held in 
his house until his wife died; after that time, he worshipped at the house of Thomas 
Hall. 

In 1881, Ohio YM minister Elwood Dean expressed an interest in purchasing the 
Chesterfield Primitive Meeting House to convert it into a residence. Joshua Maule 
worked with him to find the remaining 43 members of OGM and get them to sign over 
their interest to the building. 

Near the end of his life, Joshua Maule financed the printing of his own journal. James 
Cotton, a Primitive Friend from New Zealand, worked as editor. The original journals at 
Swarthmore College reveal that Cotton heavily edited the text. In any case, Maule's 
journal, printed with the title Transactions and Changes in the Society of Friends, 
appeared in the year before Maule's death. Due to his death soon after the book 
appeared, not many copies of the book sold. A grandson inherited a chest full of 
pristine, unsold copies of the book. He donated a copy to each library in the state of 
Ohio and sold the remainder. In the late 20th century, the book became required 
reading for Wilburite Friends. 

Maule died on Eighth Month 8th, 1887, according to his tombstone. He was buried in 
the Concord Primitive Friends burial ground. His second wife installed a tombstone for 
him and his first wife there. In the late twentieth century, Maule's daughter had a 
second tombstone placed in he Wilburite burial ground at Concord, where Maule is not 
buried. It is quite ironic that the man who led the movement to retain the ban on 
tombstones would end up with two of them himself. 


Parents
MAULE Jacob (21 May 1759 - 18 Sep 1849)
BALDWIN Jane (22 Mar 1763 - 5 Mar 1851)

Siblings
MAULE Rachel (31 Jul 1794 - 12 Jun 1886)
MAULE Josiah (4 Nov 1797 - 8 Dec 1797)
MAULE Samuel (1 Jan 1799 - 28 Jan 1799)
MAULE Beulah (1 Mar 1800 - 13 Sep 1834)
MAULE Jacob (14 Jan 1802 - 31 Mar 1878)
MAULE Rachel (6 Feb 1804 - 6 Feb 1804)
MAULE Joshua Baldwin (15 May 1806 - 8 Aug 1887)

Marriage To ECHROYD Sarah Norton (23 Apr 1811 - 15 Jan 1871)
    m. 28 Mar 1832 Muncy, Pa.

Notes

Parents
ECHROYD James ()
HAWORTH Martha ()

Children by ECHROYD Sarah Norton 23 Apr 1811 - 15 Jan 1871
MAULE James Echroyd (19 Dec 1838 - 6 Dec 1862)
MAULE Jacob (18 Aug 1840 - 12 Jul 1933)
MAULE Henry Echroyd (2 Oct 1851 - 1 Oct 1855)

Marriage To COPE Hannah Thomas (18 Sep 1840 - 30 Sep 1910)
    m. 18 Nov 1875 Pleasant Grove, Ohio

Notes

Parents
COPE Darlington ()
THOMAS Sally ()

Children by COPE Hannah Thomas 18 Sep 1840 - 30 Sep 1910
MAULE Sarah (28 Dec 1876 - 15 Aug 1968)

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