![\"Lamar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/REG-L-ExeterFriends300th0793.jpg\")
Lamar Foley of Oley talks about his genealogy that goes back to George Boone, one of the founders of the Exeter Friends Meeting. The Exeter Friends Meeting will celebrate its 300th anniversary on Oct. 19. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\nLamar Foley walked across Meeting House Road from the parking lot to the Exeter Friends Meeting.<\/p>\n
He nodded to the cemetery adjoining the meeting house prior to his presentation on genealogy during a recent Sunday morning fellowship hour before the worship meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more of my DNA in that cemetery than anywhere else,\u201d he said, noting he was a descendant of the Boones and the Lincolns.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing leads to another and you get interested in genealogy, and all of a sudden you realize all kinds of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lamar Foley of Oley talks about his genealogy that goes back to George Boone, one of the founders of the Exeter Friends Meeting. The Exeter Friends Meeting will celebrate its 300th anniversary on Oct. 19. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
On Oct. 19, Foley, an Oley resident, will be one of the presenters as the Exeter Friends Meeting marks its 300th anniversary in conjunction with the Daniel Boone Homestead\u2019s annual Heritage Day Fall Festival.<\/p>\n
Visitors are invited to worship at the meeting at 10:30 a.m. and stay for lunch, the interpretations, displays and guided tours of the meeting house and the burial grounds from noon to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Foley\u2019s spiritual path hasn\u2019t always included the Quakers. He talks about not being particularly religious until he was around 23 years old and was attracted to the peace churches, such as the Coventry Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n
A family legacy<\/p>\n
He was drawn to the Exeter meeting after researching his family background.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess my mother always wanted to know who was who and wanted to know all my relatives and, you know, when you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019re not really necessarily interested,\u201d Foley said. \u201cBut now that I\u2019m older, it\u2019s fascinating to look down over the years and just see how you got where you are. None of us are born with that knowledge, and if you\u2019re interested, you can find all kinds of unusual and surprising things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Genealogy also attracted Ron and Joanne Nolen, who have worshiped at the Exeter meeting for the past two years.<\/p>\n
Originally from California, Ron moved to Berks County in 1981, and his grandmother had said to him, \u201cWell, you know you\u2019re going back to where your ancestors are from.\u201d<\/p>\n
He thought it was just a West Coast to East Coast remark until Joanne started to research their family histories around four years ago.<\/p>\n
They discovered that on his mother\u2019s side there were Quakers who had worshiped at the Reading meeting house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came in here and just felt welcomed,\u201d Nolen said. \u201cIt was very very open and inviting.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lamar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/REG-L-ExeterFriends300th0788.jpg\")
Lamar Foley of Oley talks about his genealogy that goes back to George Boone, one of the founders of the Exeter Friends Meeting. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
The Oley residents became attracted to the style of worship and have been active at the Exeter meeting since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a silent worship, and every once in a while someone will feel the spirit to stand up and say something,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re here and you just let your mind be open, it\u2019s an amazing feeling, and you know that people of great importance started this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nolens have not only immersed themselves in genealogy but also the history of the Quakers in eastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Packed with history<\/p>\n
Ron relishes the small details of the meeting house, built in 1759.\u00a0 Much of the original building remains, including the benches, the floors, the windows, the walls. Several years ago, a fire damaged the roof, but the building was saved.<\/p>\n
He notes the burial ground dating to 1736 is unique in that no headstones are allowed on the graves. He points out the two tiers in the cemetery, a result of the graveyard being filled in the 1800s and the necessity of adding a second layer for burials.<\/p>\n
Burials are still held, he said, with a recent green burial, the only kind allowed.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/REG-L-ExeterFriends300th0795.jpg\")
A green burial was recently held at the 1736 cemetery at the Exeter Friends Meeting. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
Joanne has become interested in other aspects of Quaker history, such as support for the Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n
She has combined that history with her love of quilting. During the celebration she will present squares that have symbols denoting stops on the Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough looking at Quakerism, we realize that they were the first abolitionists, and that got me interested. And then, you know, things lead you, so I looked it up and found, \u2018Oh, maybe I can make a couple squares.\u2019 Next thing I know, I made 12. It\u2019s usually the way it goes, right?\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Stan Dalton, the clerk of the meeting, has been a lifelong Quaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been worshiping with Quakers in various meeting houses since I was a boy,\u201d the Exeter Township resident said.<\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019ve been in meeting houses that have been a few decades old and those that have been around for over 260 years. So the space has changed, but the worship stays the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/REG-L-ExeterFriends300th0796.jpg\")
The Exeter Friends Meeting will celebrate its 300th anniversary on Oct. 19. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
He stresses the importance of being in communion with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to impress upon people that the Religious Society of Friends is a living, breathing, growing organization,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a dead faith. We\u2019re not the image of a Quaker on an oatmeal box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the weight of history is palpable in the Exeter meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s amazing to me is that this, where we\u2019re standing, was the frontier of the New World when at least my ancestors got here, the Boones,\u201d Foley said before going inside the meeting house to worship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hope in 300 years that they have another anniversary meeting. That would be fascinating,\u201d he said. \u201cTo now look over this peaceful valley, the way it is after 300 years, is pretty nice. Whether it can stay that way another 300 years, let\u2019s hope so. Let\u2019s hope humanity can stay, well, yes, human for another 300 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is actually an amazing thing that it\u2019s been here this long,\u201d Ron Nolen said as he looked around at the meeting house and the cemetery. \u201cIf these grounds could talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the 300-year worship tradition of the Exeter Friends Meeting, the grounds remain silent.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/REG-L-ExeterFriends300th0789.jpg\")
The Exeter Friends Meeting will celebrate its 300th anniversary on Oct. 19. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lamar Foley walked across Meeting House Road from the parking lot to the Exeter Friends Meeting. He nodded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1411,182,139,28,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-3574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-exeter-township","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}