USA > Pennsylvania > Two centuries of the Church of the Brethren in western Pennsylvania, 1751-1950 > Part 13
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Answer of Annual Meeting: We heartily approve of the above, and bid our brethren God speed, and recommend to our brotherhood to imitate the worthy example of our dear brethren in southern In- diana.
To what extent the Western District responded to this appeal, we have no record today; but we do not think they would disregard it. Of one thing we are certain-that there was some response to the need for "education" by at least one minister in our Brotherhood, as is revealed in the Annual Meet- ing minutes of 1867:
Art. 22. Has Bro. E. Heyser a right, being a ministering brother, to receive pay from the government for teaching school in the South, under the employment and protection of the Freedmen's Bureau?
Answer: Inasmuch as Bro. Heyser is employed by the govern- ment in teaching school, and not in preaching the gospel, we can see no impropriety in the government paying him for teaching.3
During the period between the Civil War and World Wars I and II, the Brotherhood had a number of opportunities to do relief work outside the United States, such as Armenian relief, and famine relief in both India and China. The Western Dis- trict not only helped provide funds for famine victims but also became deeply interested in the missionary work.
The story of Brethren service of the past several years is often mentioned in the various congregational histories in Part Two, and in the chapters on Women's Work and Men's Work in Part One. The sharing of our clothing, food, soap, seeds of good will, and heifers has had a wholesome influence on our church life. It should be continued as our fellow men have need, regardless of race, color, or nationality, for God is no respecter
3 Minutes of Annual Meeting, 1778 to 1909. Pages 253 and 264.
ICE
ERY
CH OF THE BRETHREN 22 bulk Stale St.
ELGIN ILL.
Brethren Service Truck Being Loaded With Clothing
of persons, and the followers of Jesus must do likewise if we expect to receive his plaudit, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).
CHAPTER 19. TRENDS IN THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
Pioneer log meetinghouse-dwellings to Romanesque churches Community-centered love feasts to family-church communions Open house and praying churches to closed homes and paying churches
This brief chapter is no attempt to deal with the subject in any wide or exhaustive way. That has been done in several volumes by others.1 Our only desire is to call attention to a
1 1906-J. L. Gillen, The Dunkers, a Sociological Interpretation, 238 pages; 1932- F. D. Dove, Cultural Changes in the Church of the Brethren, 256 pages; 1942-Alvin G. Faust, Cultural Patterns and Social Adjustments in the Church of the Brethren with Special Reference to an Allegheny Tableland Community.
Fairview Church, North of Somerset, Built in 1856
Notice the Gothic window over the front door.
few "trends" which have been observed in the preparation of this history and in our half century of affiliation with the dis- trict.
Our church and home life is perhaps typified best by the transition from the Martin Spohn meetinghouse-dwelling (1775) and "Solomon's Temple" without residence (1805) to the Roman- esque sanctuaries which have been erected in the district, be- ginning with Greensburg in 1912.
The bell which was placed on our first meetinghouse (Stony Creek) erected about 1771 by Henry Roth, Sr .; the Colonial column-effect on the Grove, or Plank Road, church, just west of Somerset (after 1848); and the Gothic window in the attic of the Fairview church, three miles north of Somerset in 1856, are evidences of a liberality found west of the Alleghenies in an early day. Tendencies toward the American Colonial type of building were manifested by spires being placed on a number of our churches during the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury. Later, several of these were removed, but bells are still retained by a few congregations.
The interiors of our churches have undergone a still more radical change. Worshipers in some of our most beautiful sanc- tuaries today may have difficulty to envision the following description:
A SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE2
Let us stand among the grand old oaks, and witness the gather- ing of the faithful. Evidence of rural prosperity abounds on every hand. ... It lacks ten minutes of the appointed hour for worship, but the worshippers have arrived. There is an unwritten law against the late comer which no discreet Tunker will violate.
2 H. R. Holsinger, History of the Tunkers and the Brethren Church. Pages 244-246.
The Twin Communion Cups: One for Brethren, One for Sisters Today, under Pennsylvania state law, we must use the individual communion cups.
Our description concerns a typical Tunker congregation, such as could be seen anywhere in the fraternity about the middle of the nineteenth century. Meeting day, which was usually only once a month at the old church, was the great Sabbath of the month. All who were physically able to be out, were sure to be there. Tunker houses were closed that day, the whole family and the help at church. They never were and never will be more diligent in this respect than during the period mentioned. Duty called them to the house of God, but another and still louder call urged them. It was the call of love. They loved one another, and they loved to meet and greet each other at the doors of the sanctuary.
The congregation is in its place. Behind the long, unpainted table, instead of a pulpit, the long, plain bench is filled with the elders and preachers. There are no upholstered chairs for this unpretentious clergy. They allow themselves no luxury denied to the people.
A steady, strong, musical voice on the deacons' bench raises the tune, and soon the whole congregation join in the hearty singing. This was always the most attractive part of the old-time Tunker service.
The preacher calls to prayer. Immediately a great rustling is heard. ... Every man and woman is on bended knees. .
That our churches were community centers is evidenced by the attendance at the love feasts. The following chapters tell us about the great crowds, sometimes a few thousand people, who came together for the annual or semi-annual fellowship. The membership was always present then, if at no other time.
Today, it is sometimes difficult to get the whole family or the entire membership to attend. Are we forgetting the words of Jesus: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (John 6:53) ?
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Space fails us to tell of the "open house" hospitality of the early Brethren, but a few instances are found in the following records. It seems almost pathetic today, that in many homes there is no time or room for fellowship, and that in some churches the "visiting minister" must go to the restaurant for Sunday dinner.
While we have changed much since the days when the bishop was the "housekeeper" and decided who should sit at the Lord's table, we must be on guard lest we today become "lukewarm" in our devotion to the Master, and lose that radiance of personality which belongs to those who are "the redeemed of the Lord." Our tithes and offerings should not be neglected, but the entire membership should be on speaking terms with the heavenly Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray.
CHAPTER 20. FACING THE THIRD CENTURY
What others think about us A hundred years of geographical decline Do our members still have "salt"?
As we begin the third century of our church history in Western Pennsylvania, it is interesting to note what others think about our denomination. While many of us today trace our own "family tree" to various national groups, many other people still think of the Brethren as Pennsylvania Dutch. As late as 1942, a book called The Pennsylvania Germans, on page 68 under the topic, "The Sects," says:
The Church of the Brethren, incorrectly dubbed the Dunkards, after their mode of baptism by immersion have an independent origin. They partake of the otherworldly attitude of pacifism and a life of piety. They no longer insist upon quite the absolute withdrawal from the affairs of the political community as do the Mennonites and other sects stemming from the tree of German idealists. They have exercised a wholesome leadership and added a stabilizing tendency to the tempo of Pennsylvania living.
Two centuries ago our forefathers were blazing trails over the Alleghenies, through trackless forests, and across bridgeless streams, in constant danger of wild beasts and savage Indians, but they built well and wave after wave of religious progress has been the result. In some communities we have noted the rise
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and prominence of the Brethren for a generation or more, fol- lowed by an eclipse, either temporary or permanent. In other areas the growth has been permanent and phenomenal. How- ever, there are a few things every reader of this volume will want to ponder seriously.
While it is true that Western Pennsylvania has the largest membership of any district in the Brotherhood, the fact still remains that we have been decreasing in our active territorial cccupation for almost a hundred years. Our fathers and our own generation have not been willing to maintain the wide geo- graphical missionary spirit which our grandfathers and their forebears established. Western Pennsylvania includes, by alloca- tion, over one third of the state, leaving two thirds for the other four districts.
The chapter, "Lost Churches and Congregations," in Part Two, if carried to completion, would run the full scale of life's emotions, Christian experiences, and human frailties. In many instances it would contain the heart throbs of the parental home, the aspirations of youth, and the one-time fruition of a community spirit. In other cases it would be the evidence of a changing world and sometimes reveal the heartaches and tears of a past generation.
A vacant or unused church house stands as a silent but continuous testimony of man's uncertainty as compared to the certainty of God. Always, such an abandoned structure is evi- dence of a former period of religious interest in the community. It represents the zeal of local leadership, the unity of a group of believers, the visions of youth, and the dreams of the aged.
During this last century, our district has lost half a hundred churches and missions scattered throughout the entire territory, including a dozen organized congregations. While space pro- hibits a detailed account of all of them, several will be referred to briefly in the chapters of Part Two.
A century and more ago, the southwestern portion of the district, including Greene County, Washington County, and the western part of Fayette County in the Monongahela River Val- ley, was not only a stronghold of the Brethren but their leaders helped to blaze trails for the district and the Brotherhood. For instance, it was here that the first brick church house, without residence, in this district was erected in the Ten Mile congregation (Washington County) in 1832. Here the first pastor, James Quinter, was provided with a home and a farm
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by the Georges Creek congregation (Fayette County) in 1842. Here, too, the first Sunday school, at Hart's Run (Greene Coun- ty), was begun in 1856. And here, also, one of the first two college graduates in the Brotherhood with the Bachelor of Arts degree, Oliver W. Miller, was born and reared in the Mt. Union church near Morgantown, West Virginia (then a part of Georges Creek congregation) ; he was a student at Monongahela Academy, Morgantown (now the West Virginia University), and gradu- ated from Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1859. He had been elected to the ministry by Georges Creek in 1858, taught school prior to 1860, was the principal of the New Vienna Acad- emy, Ohio, about 1861-1864, and was the president of Salem College at Bourbon, Indiana, 1871 and 1872.1
The Oakdale church (Red Bank) in the northern part of Armstrong County is near the geographical center of the dis- trict. A hundred years ago the Church of the Brethren had a membership "in Butler, Lawrence, Mercer, Crawford, Venango, and even in Erie counties."2 Jefferson County had an organized church (Shemokin) in 1878,3 and Clarion County had the Clarion church, established in the 1840's. Elder Andrew Span- ogle moved in as their minister in 1847.
George Wood was elected to the ministry in 1855, and served in this vast field for forty years, passing to his reward on July 31, 1895. Elder Wood had so endeared himself to the Clarion church and the wide com- munity that at his funeral "149 vehicles left the Wood home" to follow his body to its last resting place. As they passed another church, it being Sunday, the minister dismissed his service and they joined in the proces- sion. Coming to the church house, they found a large crowd awaiting them. Over eight hundred people crowded into the sanctuary, and "at least twice that number had to remain outside" while Elder Joseph Hol- sopple preached the funeral. Then that large concourse of people filed past the casket. Yet, we permitted the "faith of our fathers" to die out in this great northern half of our district. The writer remembers attending a District Meeting over forty years ago when, at the roll call of churches, Clarion was not represented and an older brother got up and moved that "as Clarion had not sent a delegate for several years their name be stricken from the list." What a lost opportunity!
Thirty-five years ago, Brother Blough challenged the district:
If we ever hope to dot the northern portion of the State with churches of the Brethren, our Home Mission Board must be supplied with sufficient money to constantly keep a number of strong mis- sionary evangelists in the field, opening new points, and erect houses of worship as fast as promising points are found.4
1 Educational Blue Book. Page 443.
2 Blough's history. Page 67.
8 Ibid. Page 188.
4 Ibid. Page 49.
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A quarter century ago, the American Sunday School Union almost begged, through the district field director, that our de- nomination would come into these various counties in northwest Pennsylvania, take over some of their Sunday schools, and establish churches in this field, which was "white unto harvest." But instead of responding to the "Macedonian call," we permitted the trend of the age, typified in the consolidated school, to dom- inate our larger churches with the idea, "Come with us and we will do thee good."
Today, the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, the second largest city in our district, has a membership waiting for a shepherd for their souls. Aliquippa, in Beaver County, is being peopled by Brethren families from both Middle Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania. The new borough of Monroeville, situated on the William Penn Highway (Route 22) at the Pittsburgh Gate- way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, with a community population approaching ten thousand, has only three small churches. Two large, valuable building lots have been deeded to the Church of the Brethren, adjacent to a developing Brethren center. These are just typical cases which we are facing in this industrialized third century with its opportunities, challenges, and hazards.
What will we do about it? Do our members still have in their lives the "salt" that will maintain their faith in the new community and use their family as a nucleus of another Church of the Brethren? And will we, as a district, get a vision of the future possibilities?
We will close this chapter and Part One of this history with the words of Doctor Waldemar Argow:
EXPANDING HORIZONS5
History is never made in the abstract. Always it is something someone has done. History is never a solid mass achievement; it is a mosaic of countless parts, each one perfected by the sacrificial devo- tion of some particular person. The forces that have made history, and which will continue to make it, are the undying ideals men cherish, the strong-willed plans they discipline themselves to achieve, and the daring hopes by which they activate their souls.
Though it may not be our personal destiny to stand at the cross- roads and direct the traffic of history, still we can choose to become integral parts of a determined group which has espoused some high cause and dedicated its all. Thus are our lives enlarged. They begin to count for something beyond our years. No longer do we live in the limited enclosure of our own efforts and achievements. We become, instead, part of that creative life by which the world is born into new and more glorious existence.
5 Reprinted from Friendly Chat, November 1950.
PART TWO
Congregational Histories
. CHAPTER 1. THE ARBUTUS MISSION
Sunday school organized, 1935 Church house dedicated, 1940 Present church membership, 95
In September 1935 the Walnut Grove church council approved of the opening of the Arbutus mission. The first service was held October 6, 1935. The following workers were sent from Walnut Grove: R. G. Williams, superintendent; Blanche O. Wertz, Elda Wertz, Agnes Beam, and Mrs. Grover Wagner.
The property was bought in 1937 from Mrs. Bisel for $1,200.00. The building was dedicated January 14, 1940. Brother M. J. Brougher preached the dedicatory sermon.
L. B. Harshberger was secured to look after the pastoral work. He continued in this capacity until the close of 1945. After the resignation of Brother Harshberger, G. E. Yoder was secured to serve the mission as its pastor and was installed on February 17, 1946.
Arbutus Church
n
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The attendance the first Sunday was forty-three. The en- rollment at the beginning of 1946 was eighty-nine, with an average attendance of seventy.
A number of improvements on the building have been made from time to time. These include a wall placed under the build- ing, wallboard lining, painting of the building both inside and outside, pews, furnace, and Sunday-school rooms in the base- ment.
The following have served as evangelists during the past years: J. A. Robinson, twice, L. B. Harshberger, George Wright, Dorsey Rotruck, G. E. Yoder, Eugene Ankeny, and C. H. Gehman.
Superintendents of the Sunday school have been as follows: R. G. Williams, 1935-1937; Samuel Varner, 1937-1941; Harvey Berkebile, 1941-1945; Elda Wertz, 1945-1946; Samuel Varner, 1946 -.
Sunday school and two preaching services are held each Sun- day, and prayer meeting is held midweekly. A young people's group, a temperance group, and a sewing guild have been organized.
The Arbutus mission is not yet self-supporting but contrib- utes generously to its work. The District Mission Board now contributes twenty dollars monthly to the support of the mission.
The mission was recognized as a separate congregation by the District Conference in October 1950.
-Elizabeth W. Howe and George E. Yoder
CHAPTER 2. THE BEAR RUN CHURCH
First Brethren settlers, 1816 Bear Run church started, 1916 Present church membership, 39
In the History of Springfield Twp., Fayette County, Pa., by Franklin Ellis, published in 1882, we find the following:
Jacob Murray moved from the eastern country in 1816, and settled on the old Elder farm, but later made a home on Mill Run, where he died many years ago. He had a number of sons, viz .: John M., deceased a few years ago [this was written in 1882]; Samuel, also deceased in the township; and Jacob, yet living on Mill Run. Three of his daughters married Peter Ullery, Henry Pletcher, and Reuben Eicher.
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In the southwestern part of the township was formerly a Dunkard Church, which has been sold and is now used as a school house [1882], having been purchased for that purpose in 1872. Its use as a place of worship by the Dunkards was discontinued three or four years earlier [1868 or 1869]. The house was built more than twenty-five years ago [i.e., prior to 1857], mainly by the Sipe family, who con- stituted the chief membership of the Dunkards in the township.
At the house of Peter Sipe, Sr., the first meetings were held, and the church occupied a corner of his former farm. Among those who occasionally preached there were Jacob Murray, James Quinter, and Martin Meyers. Many persons from Somerset County attended the meetings, which were discontinued after the death or removal of the Sipe and Smith families.
James Quinter worked in Fayette County between the years 1842 and 1856, as pastor of the Georges Creek congregation be- tween Uniontown and Masontown; he did much traveling. Martin Meyers was from the Middle Creek congregation, across the Laurel Hill Mountain in Somerset County. Jacob Murray belonged to Indian Creek.
Following the closing and sale of this Sipe church house, there seems to have been a period of over "40 years of silence" in the lower Indian Creek Valley, so far as public services were concerned, the members having to go all the way up to County Line for love feasts and council meetings. But there were two old sayings which caused your editor to keep on trying to find the connecting link between this early Dunker church and the present Bear Run congregation. Those two old sayings were: "Blood will tell" and "Once a Dunker always a Dunker."
Finally, through one of the faithful members of the Con- nellsville church, who was born and reared in the Bear Run community, we succeeded. But we will let this sister, Mrs. John G. Sleighter, tell the story in her own words:
Peter Sipe, Sr., I feel sure, was the grandfather of Albert and Lydia Friend, also my mother, Mrs. Charles C. Tissue, their mother being the former Elizabeth Sipe Friend, so it [the faith] must come down the family tree.
The Bear Run Church started in 19161 by having services in the Bear Run school house once a month by these ministers (of the In- dian Creek Congregation): William Bond, William Knopsnyder, and I. R. Pletcher. There were four members of the Church at that time, Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Tissue, Albert S. Friend and Miss Lydia Friend, all deceased now.
In 1917 Eld. D. K. Clapper, in charge of the work in Connells- ville, held a meeting and eight were baptized. In 1921 a church building was started on ground donated from the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Tissue. The new church was dedicated in 1922, with Eld. Irvin R. Pletcher preaching the dedicatory sermon. Ministers serving the church have been from the County Line (formerly Indian Creek) and Connellsville Congregations, namely, Ralph Reiman,
1 The reader will note that it was just one hundred years from the time Brother Jacob Murray moved into the valley (1816) until the present Bear Run church was started (1916), but "the faith" did not die out.
Bear Run Church
I. R. Pletcher, John A. Buffen- myer, Ralph E. Shober, Frank A. Myers, J. H. Wimmer, and at present, Elmer Q. Gleim from County Line has services every two weeks on Sunday evening.
Sunday school is held ev- ery Sunday. While not large, but a faithful group are car- rying on what a few faithful ones started.
In addition to this connect- ing link which Sister Sleigh- ter has furnished us, we want to add that Bear Run, like many other rural churches, has lost many members by migration to more urban communities. This is in harmony with the trend in a number of our town and city churches today, who count among their membership and leaders a good percentage of rural church ancestry.
In conclusion, we feel to quote from the minutes of District Meeting as follows:
The 1921 District Mission Board report says, "At Bear Run a revival with 25 accessions was held by Brother Pletcher. Steps are being taken to build a church there." The 1922 Mission Board report says:
The pastor at Connellsville goes out to Bear Run every two weeks on Tuesday evening. Services held, 21, baptisms 22, to be bap- tized 3, reclaimed 1, 2 are to be reclaimed. A neat new church build- ing, 30 by 40 with basement and heater, will be dedicated March 19, 1922. Visits-103, business meetings-2, and one communion. Besides maintaining the work $78.44 was given to missions.
The 1930 Mission Board report says:
The work at Bear Run has been very encouraging throughout the past year. The Sunday School attendance has almost doubled. The young people organized a Bible class with ten charter members; also held weekly vesper services during the summer months.
The church has 60 resident members; 15 of these being received by baptism during the meeting held by the pastor in September, 1929. Preaching services are held Tuesday evening every two weeks, while the Sunday school convenes every Sunday morning at 10:00 o'clock. Thirty-four sermons were delivered by the pastor during the year. The church attendance runs from 10 to 15 more than that of the Sunday school. Indications are that 1930 will be a prosperous year .- Ralph E. Shober, Pastor.
Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Hay and Mrs. Richard Scarlett, charter members of the congregation, are still active in the Bear Run group. Lloyd Hay is a deacon; Richard Scarlett, Dan Stahl, and Merle Taylor are trustees; Mrs. Merle Taylor is the church clerk; and Mrs. Lloyd Hay is the current church treasurer. Lloyd Hay is also the Sunday-school superintendent, William Scarlett
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