Public Universal Friend

The Scherer Carriage House, located behind the L. Caroline Underwood Museum at 107 Chapel Street, Penn Yan, is home to a permanent exhibit on the Public Universal Friend, minister and founder of the Society of the Universal Friends. The exhibit includes the Friend’s portrait, bible, hat, saddle and coachee. The Public Universal Friend (born as Jemima Wilkinson) is historically renowned nationally and in Yates County.

Locally, the Public Universal Friend and a group of followers, the Society of Universal Friends, formed the first non-native settlement in what is presently Yates County. Coming from New England and Pennsylvania, the Society founded the first mills in the area. Consisting of almost 300 members in 1790, this community was the largest of its kind this far west in New York State.

This building, renovated to house the Wilkinson Collection, was named for Mrs. Doris Coates Scherer, a generous benefactor of Yates County History Center.