Fairfax Meeting House was burnt in 1887, and in spite of the decrease in numbers it was rebuilt at a cost of $4,840.00. Its young men having gone away to the west and the opportunities limited to educated persons, as the Quakers undoubtedly were, the meeting lost members until the sad day came when it was laid down in 1926. The last paper was signed in 1929 and the final grand meeting held with many a Friend wiping away a furtive tear. Goose Creek Friends were not paying their preacher either, for during a terrible wind and rain storm in 1943 half the roof and the west end of their meeting house was blown off and in, making the house unusable. The Orthodox Friends came to the rescue and meetings were held together in their house until the Goose Creek meeting house could be rebuilt. Friends found out they could get along together and like it. All the younger Friends wondered what it had all been about anyway, so after the grand opening of the newly reconstructed meeting house in 1948, the Goose Creek United Monthly Meeting of Friends came into being in 1950. Friends have stepped on many toes with their advanced views, but they have been right so often as to gain much respect throughout the country. That their worship is not understood by many is well known and even as early as 1776 Nichols Cresswell went to meeting in Leesburg and reported, “Mr. Brooks and I went to the Quaker Meeting, but were too late, tho it would have been equally as well as if we had been sooner, for the spirit did not move any of them to speak. Can’t conceive what service the people can receive by grunting and groaning for two or three hours without speaking a word. This is a stupid religion, indeed.” The Religious Society of Friends is as the name implies a group of people with the religious conviction that one’s life is the experience of love, love of God and love of one’s fellow man. It is a living fellowship rather than a sacred institution. From this view comes all of its good. It affirms that it is the Presence in the Midst—that God is everywhere—that every man is endowed with this light within. Religion for Friends is not apart from life nor for special days. The early Friends had no Christmas nor Easter, every day is equal in the sight of God. It is “the life we lead, the things we do” which count; as witness their history in Loudoun: that African children should be educated; that men should be free; a man should not demean himself by taking off his hat to another; that work is noble; that the laborer is worthy of his hire; that no man should lose while you gain; that children must be educated to live a fuller life for mankind; that no one has the right to take a life that only God can give; that the _fallen_ should do better and come back into the fold, “which is our desire for her.”