Over 70 people gathered at Quaker Meeting House in Farmingdale Sunday to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bethpage Friends Meeting, one of America's oldest religious congregations.

Bethpage Friends Meeting, formally known as Bethpage Preparative Meeting, began in 1698, when the first Quakers in the area began gathering in each other's homes. The pioneering group was led by Thomas Powell, the earliest settler of Farmingdale-Bethpage, who in 1695 bought a large tract of land known as the Bethpage Purchase from Long Island's Native Americans.

"Those guys and ladies were like Christopher Columbus. They charted what had never been here before," Farmingdale Village Mayor Joseph M. Trudden said at the commemorative program.

One testament to this is that the Quakers built the first school in Farmingdale in 1786, while the Farmingdale School District was not established until 1814.

Elizabeth Moger, a noted Quaker historian who recently retired as keeper of Records for New York Yearly Meeting was the keynote speaker at the event. In her address about Quaker history, she noted that Friends - as Quakers are known - were early involved in social issues. For example, she said, "Relief of suffering was early accepted by Friends as a responsibility."

In 1975, she added, the New York Yearly Meeting started Alternatives to Violence Project, an outreach program for inmates which is now in more than 30 New York prisons, as well as in other states and countries.

Quakers also had long appointed women to leadership positions and were early supporters of the women's suffrage and anti-slavery movements in America. In addition, they were promoters of education.

Jean Merritt Hubbard, the clerk of Bethpage Friends Meeting, who traces her ancestry back to Thomas Powell, noted that Quakers share not only a tradition of social activities, but also a deep religious mysticism. "Besides all of these activities, they really concentrated on their religious base," she said. Many of Hubbard's relatives were present at the celebration.

Moger explained that while the Bethpage Friends began meeting in their homes in 1698, the first local meeting house was not built until 1741. "This is not the 300th anniversary of the meeting house. It is the 300th anniversary of the meeting," she said.

The meeting place has been through many changes since that time.

The house built in 1741 was destroyed by a fire in 1810, and was replaced in 1819 with a larger structure. That one, too, burned during the Blizzard of 1888. It was rebuilt in 1890. Around the time of the commissioning of Bethpage State Park during the 1930s, the house was moved off of the property which is now the park, to across the road, next to the Quaker cemetery. After a serious fire in 1990 once again left the house in ashes, the Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society helped the small Society of Friends rebuild it. It reopened in 1992, six years to the day of Sunday's anniversary celebration.

During the program, Hubbard thanked members of the historical society for both their generous financial support during the rebuilding, and also for their help in organizing the anniversary. She also thanked the Friends and historians who had traveled to be present.

In addition to Mayor Trudden, two other local public officials were present to recognize the anniversary: State Assemblyman Steve Labriola (R-Massapequa) and Nassau Legislator Salvatore Pontillo (R-Farmingdale). Local clergy also attended.

After the event, Bill Johnston, a member of the Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society, who is also Farmingdale Village historian, reflected on the significance of the anniversary to the Farmingdale-Bethpage community. "I think it helps to reflect the long history of the community," adding that the early local Quakers were people of deep faith and hard work. "Fortunately, we still have that today."