Sadsbury Friends Meeting, a Quaker house of worship, has held a number of special activities this year in observance of its 300th anniversary.

The next scheduled event will be a talk by Harold Finigan, titled "The Extraordinary Case of Allen Ricketts," on Saturday, June 29, at 10:30 a.m. at the Sadsbury Friends Meeting House, 1089 Simmontown Road, Gap. The event is free and open to the public.

Finigan will provide a historical account of an enslaved person, Allen Ricketts, who escaped slavery in the South and came North but was captured and sold back into slavery.

Ricketts finally escaped a second time with the help of Lancaster County Quakers, including members of Lampeter Friends Meeting in Bird-in-Hand. "Daniel Gibbs of Lampeter Meeting is very well known in Lancaster County history for helping the slaves," explained Sadsbury Friends Meeting member Connie Webster.

Ricketts is buried at Darby Friends Meeting in Delaware County. Finigan is a member of Darby Meeting and as such has done research on the individuals in its burial ground.

Sadsbury Friends Meeting opened its 300th anniversary year with a wedding re-enactment of Joseph Miller and Jane Kirk, the first couple to be married at Sadsbury Monthly Meeting in 1738.

In March, Finigan was the guest speaker, offering a talk about the Lenapi and Minquas Trail. Other anniversary events included a Peace Tea held in April.

Following the June talk, "Quakers in Two Centuries, Part 2" will be presented on Saturday, July 27, at 2 p.m. Guest speaker Brenda Walker Beadenkopf will present a program about her father, Charles Walker, and his civil rights work, particularly with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charles Walker was born in the Gap area.

"(Beadenkopf) will do Part I on Thursday evening (July 25) at the Christiana Historical Society, and our talk will be on Saturday afternoon," Webster noted.

Webster added that the Sadsbury Friends Meeting will also participate in Christiana Heritage Days in September, which marks the anniversary of Christiana Resistance. "We will also have our 'talking tombstone' event that we will repeat in the fall," she said. "It is in conjunction with the Christiana Historical Society, and it will highlight the graves of those who were active in the Christiana Resistance plus the Underground Railroad. We will get dressed up for that in Quaker clothing that we borrow from Downingtown Meeting."

For more information about the meetinghouse and the upcoming events, visit http://www.sadsburyfriendsmeeting.org, visit the aforementioned website, search for "Sadsbury Friends Meeting" on Facebook or contact Webster at 484-985-0454.