Friends Cemetery was founded in 1794 when six acres were purchased from William Webb of Frederick County, Maryland, for 15 shillings per acre on August 30, 1794, by members of the Society of People called Quakers for use as a site for a meeting house and graveyard. The Quaker burial ground was used by Dunnings Creek Friends Meeting, established in 1795, until 1948, and the church meeting houses moved into Fishertown in 1884-5. Many people buried there were active in the Underground Railroad despite the risks of imprisonment, barn burning, or loss of other personal property. Believing in that of God in every person, Quakers aided slaves in their journeys to freedom until the Civil War ended, and there is no record of any slaves being captured while in the care of local Friends.