The mind of the community had, indeed, an active interest in liberty and the contribution noted above (see Ch. IV. Part I) in the agitation for the abolition of slavery in this state was an act of public spirit along the lines of a great national experience. The fact that the meeting of Friends in 1767 was held on Quaker Hill, which initiated effective action against slave-holding, is much cherished on the Hill, and is commemorated in a stone and bronze memorial at the Meeting House. Equality of suffrage and universal suffrage are jealously believed in, owing to the Quaker teaching as to woman's parity with man. Yet in the school-meeting, in which women have the same right to vote that men have, there are seldom any women present. Indeed, except for a packed meeting once in a decade, to decide some agitated question, few women attend school-meetings. The size of the holdings of land on the Hill, and the curve of increase and decrease for seventy years, are exhibited in Table II. TABLE II. _Land-Holdings on Quaker Hill: Acreages on which Owners are taxed._ Years 1835 1845 1865 1875 1890 1900 1906 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No. Owners 31 26 39 51 48 53 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Highest Acreage 610 540 445 420 540 540 540 Higher Quartile 378 260 225 225 183.5 222.5 265 Average 222 206 150.5 147.8 137.8 154 184.2 Median 187 150 131 120 104 120 155.5 Lower Quartile 80 100 59 52 43.5 57 90 Lowest Acreage 1 42 3 6 5 1 6 The above table gives in a graphic manner the tendency of wealth to increase, on the Hill, so far as wealth is represented in land. It is to be noted that these figures, taken from the Tax-Lists of the town of Pawling, are not precisely accurate, especially in the lower ranges. There is an evident inaccuracy in the reporting of the smaller places. Yet from them the following may be inferred: First, that from the beginning of the reports, which was about the end of the period of the Quaker Community, there was a shrinkage in the size of the land-holdings on the Hill; and from the beginning of the period of the Mixed Community a rise in the general averages. The lowest of the curve is about 1890, in the Median, the average and in each of the quartiles. Second, the incoming of the Irish immigrants, who began to be land-holders about 1850, multiplied the number of small holdings of land.