USA > Pennsylvania > Two centuries of the Church of the Brethren in western Pennsylvania, 1751-1950 > Part 2
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Many of the church historians have made reference to the Eckerlin brothers, three of the sons of Michael Eckerlin. The father, who had been a Catholic, united with the Brethren in Europe under Alexander Mack. That these three young men, Israel, Gabriel, and Samuel Eckerlin, in their brief sojourn in these western wilds, could have colored the pages of history and geography, leaving a testimony of their religious faith that endures two hundred years afterward, is a challenge to every member of our district. So we will now introduce some data to establish our own date-line for the beginning of this history.
Brother Alvin G. Faust in quoting from Pennsylvania Archives, first series, 1853, says: "The governor of Pennsylvania is quoted as stating in 1751 that 'in Virginia people are settled on the West Side of the Appalaccian Mountains.'"3 And George Crogan, writing under date of May 25, 1751, states that "a Dunkar from the Colony of Vir- ginia came to Log's Town [on the Ohio River] and requested Liberty of the Six Nation Chiefs to make (a settlement) on the River Yough- yo-gaine, a branch of the Ohio."4
If this "Dunkar" was one of the Eckerlin brothers, we have no record of why permission was not granted to settle on the "Yough-yo-gaine," but they were permitted to build their cabin on the west bank of the Monongahela River, another branch of the Ohio. This new home was within the bounds of the Ohio Company, which had been formed in 1748, and which had re- ceived a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land lying along
2 Blough's history. Page 593.
3 Some Aspects of the Social History of Somerset County.
4 Pennsylvania Colonial Records, 5:531 published in 1851.
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the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers. In Sherman Day's history5 we read:
The warrior, with his gun, hatchet, and knife, prepared alike to slay the deer and bear for food, and also defend himself against and destroy his savage enemy, was not the only kind of man who sought these wilds. A very interesting instance was given of the contrary by the three brothers, Eckarlys.
These men, Dunkards by profession, left the eastern, and cul- tivated parts of Penna., and plunged into the depths of this western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was on a creek flowing into the Monongahela river, in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard creek, which it still bears. These men of peace employed themselves in exploring the country in every direction, in which one vast, silent, and unculti- vated waste spread around them.
From Dunkard's creek these men removed to Dunkard's Bottom, on Cheat river [near Kingwood, West Virginia], which they made their permanent residence, and, with a savage war raging at no considerable distance, they spent some years un- molested; indeed, it is probable, unseen.
As a further evidence that this settlement, although tempo- rary, was made in the year 1751, in addition to the previous references given, we quote from Foster M. Bittinger's history of the First District of West Virginia. After a long and careful research concerning the Eckerlin brothers in West Virginia- from 1747 to 1765-he says:
Here in the spring of 1751 the Eckerlins [Israel and Gabriel] were joined by Dr. Samuel Eckerlin, and their first home in the wilderness of West Virginia was for a while abandoned. The hos- pitable Delawares helped the brothers find a suitable site for a new home and promised their protection to these peace-loving settlers. This settlement was on the Monongahela River about ten miles be- low [north of] the present site of Morgantown, at the mouth of the creek which now bears their name, Dunker Creek.6
That these Dunkers, or some other early settlers in what is now Greene County, gave the name to this stream is evi- denced by the fact that the Mason and Dixon Line was extended "to the second crossing of Dunkard's Creek in 1767,"7 and also by a letter, written on April 26, 1779, from which we quote briefly: "The lady who is the subject of this story, is named Experience Bogarth. She lives on a creek called Dunkard's Creek."
5 Sherman Day, Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, published in 1843. Page 360.
6 Foster Melvin Bittinger, A History of the Church of the Brethren in the First District of West Virginia, published in 1945. Page 25.
7 Waterman, Watkins & Co., History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, published in 1884. Page 61.
NOTE: The editors of this volume have given consideration to The Horn Papers, Volumes 1 and 2, which make mention of the Eckerlin brothers as "fur traders" and give names and dates at variance with the ones used in this history.
See the William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Volume IV, Number 4, Oc- tober 1947. Also, Dr. A. P. James's report in The American Historical Review, Volume 51, July 1946, pages 771 and 772.
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Our readers should know something of the leadership ability of these early Brethren. Historians tell us that Israel Eckerlin was responsible for our Standing Committee and the method of having all queries come up through the local congregations to the "Yearly Meeting" (Annual Conference) .
These apparently authentic accounts of the three Eckerlin brothers having a temporary residence (1751) in what is now Greene County give us the title to this volume, Two Centuries of the Church of the Brethren in Western Pennsylvania.
SOMERSET COUNTY -1762
Regardless of whether Elder John Wise was correct as to the date of the "organization of the Ten Mile Church," we do have positive proof of the early settlement of the Brethren in Somerset County. Most church historians accept the date given by Morgan Edwards, 1762, for the organization of the Dunkers in what is now Somerset County under the leadership of George Adam Martin, a thorough and exhaustive account of which is given by H. Austin Cooper in the history of the Brothersvalley congregation. That George Adam Martin was a leader among men is evidenced by his suggestion to Martin Urner that Matthew 18 instead of Luke 14:25-33 be read to applicants before baptism; by the fact that he and Martin Urner were the originators of our Annual Meetings (1742) ; and by his being one of thirty-two white men named at the meeting with the Indians at "Red Stone" in 1768, prior to the treaty between the Penns and the Indian Nations.8
WASHINGTON COUNTY - 1775
Whether the first permanent settlers were in Somerset or Washington County deserves consideration. From the data at hand, the writer is of the opinion that Washington County was settled very early.
The name Shidler is found on many tombstones in the old Dunker cemeteries of Washington County, which was long a stronghold in our district. So, I am quoting at length (with the author's consent) from The History of the Shidler Family, by H. W. Shidler, editor of the Girard Press, Kansas, published in 1925.
In 1710, there was born in Hanu, Germany, a child who was
8 Waterman, Watkins & Co., History of Somerset, Bedford and Fulton Counties, published in 1884. Page 63,
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Part One: District Developments
destined to establish in America a family which in two centuries have representatives in every state north of the Ohio River and west of the Mississippi. His name was John Shidler. In 1730, this boy came to America, landing at Philadelphia, where he re- mained for a season, and then went to Frederick County, Maryland. It was here that he met and married Margaret Nave. They moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where a few of their de- scendants live in 1925.
John and Margaret reared a family of five boys and three girls; of the daughters, we have no account. Of these eight children, we have only the birth date of Henry, 1744. The father, John Shidler, died forty years later, 1784, and the mother, Margaret, in her 84th year.
From the Pennsylvania Archives, we learn that the five sons of John and Margaret Shidler, in 1781, owned property in Wash- ington county; George, Henry, Jacob, Peter, and John. In the available 1790 census, there were only 47 Shidlers, all in Washing- ton county, Penna.
Religion of the Shidlers.
A large percentage of the Shidlers from whom I have heard are members of the Dunkard, Brethren or German Baptist Church. The ancestors of others were members of that denomination. It is quite probable that the original John belonged to that church.
The Shidlers in War.
Other evidence that this family might have belonged to the Church of the Brethren is the fact that they have no great war record. So far as records show, the Shidlers had no part in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, or the numerous Indian Wars.
No records are available as to how many Brethren families had settled in what is now Washington County prior to the Revolutionary War. The Wise, Spohn, and Tombaugh families were interrelated by marriage. Tombaugh's Family History says:
When Adam Wise, Sr., reached North Ten Mile creek, it was called the Wilderness of Ten Mile, and was very sparsely settled (around 1770). Here he located a tract of 400 acres by the "tomahawk improvement" and he blazed the trees and his bound- ries, naming the tract "The Fishery," because the finny tribe was so numerous at this point in the waters of Ten Mile creek. . . Adam Wise's daughter, Judith, married John Spoon [Spohn], a minister in the German Baptist Church.
In speaking of Elders Adam and John Wise, Brother Blough says:
Their grandparents came from Schwarzenau, Germany. Their parents were followers of the Word, training their chil- dren in the duties of the Christian religion. Three of their sons, Adam, David and John, became ministers of the Gospel. On their mother's side their grandparents also were members of the Church of the Brethren.10
9 The patent title of George Shidler's estate was Bethlehem.
10 Blough's history. Page 560.
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Martin and Mary Leatherman Spohn (Spoon) came across the mountains "around 1775."11
They settled in what is now West Bethlehem township. This part of Pennsylvania was held by Virginia at that time. Martin Spohn bought a tract of land, 159 acres, from Neil Gil- lespie, the patent name being "Hyde Park." The log house built by Martin and Mary Spohn .. . was unlike the usual log house of that time, as it was built with a second story which was used as a meeting-house [it was all in one room]. The old Breth- ren or Dunkard Church [Ten Mile], grew out of this log meet- ing-house. The bricks in this church were made from clay taken from Martin Spohn's farm. Martin's son, John became a Dunkard Minister.
There must have been a considerable membership of Breth- ren to need, before the Revolutionary War, so large a "meeting- house" as Brother Spohn built. When the church was organized
Courtesy Miss Lola Spohn and Mrs. Opal Spohn Sewell, great-great-granddaughters
Martin Spohn Meetinghouse, Ten Mile Congregation (Built About 1775, Still Standing)
as a "branch" is not known, but Elder John Wise (born 1822) told Brother Blough in 1908 that "Ten Mile was organized about 1759 or 1760."12 Crumrine's "History" (1882) credits "Rev. Mr.
11 The date and the following quotation are from Mrs. Stephen Byers (a relative). Washington County's genealogist
12 Blough's history. Page 44.
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Part One: District Developments
Bruist, first pastor; Rev. Mr. Helft, second pastor; and Grand- father John Spohn, third pastor."13
We have no actual information that Martin Spohn was a minister, though he may well have been (in the old log dwell- ing) before his son was "third pastor of Ten Mile Church." I wish we could establish with certainty that Martin was a minister of the Brethren faith, though we feel sure in our hearts he was.14
CHAPTER 3. A HALF CENTURY OF CHURCH PLANTING 1800 TO 1849
Many "branches" or congregations organized Several churches, without residence, built Period of great evangelistic fervor
In a number of ways the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury is the most outstanding period in the history of Western Pennsylvania. The year 1800 is marked by the survey and recording of a "charter" (deed) for the "Town of Conemaugh" (now Johnstown), Cambria County.1
Several things happened in this half century, not the least of which was the organization of "arms" or "branches" of the Brotherhood, known today as churches or congregations. The first of these in the nineteenth century was Conemaugh, in 1810, followed by Jacobs Creek in 1811. Next came Markleys- burg in 1814, and then Glade Run in 1820. Ten years later a second church (Cowanshannock) was organized in Armstrong County. Manor, in Indiana County, was organized in 1843, and the Clarion church, in Clarion County, in 1846.
Indian Creek, which had been settled in 1816, was organized in 1849, following the historic Annual Meeting in the Pleasant Grove church, near Berlin. The bishopric of Somerset County, which had existed since 1790, was divided into four separate congregations that year: Berlin, Elk Lick, Middle Creek, and Quemahoning.
A second outstanding transition of this period was the
13 The census of 1790 lists "Christopher Brust as the head of a family in German- town town" (Philadelphia), the only family of the name in America.
14 From letters of Miss Lola Spohn and Mrs. Opal Spohn Sewell (great-great- granddaughters of Martin Spohn), Maryville, Missouri.
1 See the photostat: note the "7th" article about the "Point" for recreation.
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Part One: District Developments
Go all People wwhem thest Lo whom thest pusmis shall tout.
Charter the Journ of
Joseph Johns of Lunahoning township in the Country of Conemaugh Somerset in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yroman Sends Greeting. Whereas the said Joseph Johans haih Laid out a Town on the back of Land whereon the new lines Patuatt in the forks of and at the confluence of Story link and Little Conemaugh unit, known by the name of Conemauch old Joton'in the township and County aforesaid which said lown enlains at frusent mu hundred and forty out -Tous. Jinstruitsn six alleys and ont Marktl. Smart asby the plan thererf. will mert fully wnik at langt afocar. Now know ye that the said, leph forms hath laid out the said town on the puntifiles and conditions fallouune Nis /, 12 that said toum atall be called s kurafia, knout by lin name of lontmaud'h.
ou parsha sus af cách Tet in thu said touh
The The said Joseph Johns hereby further declares that allthat piece of ground called the point laying between the said. Town and the function of the two rivers or cracks a foursaid, shall be ustrued for commons & public amusements for the ust of the said Town & it's Situer inhabitants for wer In Testimony whereof the said Josefat Johns hath herr. unito sit his hand & heal the third day of November one thousand eight hundred. Ifod antys (S. S.)
Sealeds & Delivered in the presence of Abraham Morrison John Berkey, Josiah Espy .~
Somerset County to. On the third day of November one thousand and eighthundred, personally carks before me the subscriber ons of the Justices of the peace in and for the County afoursaid the above named Joseph johns and acknowled ord the about instru. ment in writing to by his att & Dus. Mit nafs my hand & heat
Recorded. November. . 1800
Courtesy of Miss Mary Johns, descendant
Part of Deed to Johnstown by Joseph Johns
building of meetinghouses "without residence." In the early days, pioneer cabins and barns had been used for preaching services, love feasts, and business meetings. Then special places of worship had been provided in connection with a dwelling unit, such as the "Stony Creek meetinghouse," built in 1771, by Henry Roth, Jr. (Somerset County) ; the "Martin Spohn meetinghouse" about 1775 (Washington County) ; the "Glades meetinghouse" in 1790, by John Groner (Somerset County) ; and the "Jacob Stutzman meetinghouse" about 1813, in Johnstown.
As the membership in- creased, and the construction of separate buildings for wor- ship became necessary, Ten Mile led off in 1832 with the first brick church, which is still used. Just a few miles on the opposite side of the Monongahela River, Fairview Abraham Stutzman Meetinghouse Today Built in 1828, it is now in Westmont. was built in 1836. A few years later (1838) a second church, the Grove, was built in the Georges Creek congregation. The first Horner church, Cambria County, was probably built in the 1830's or the early 1840's.
By 1845 the Brethren in Armstrong County built the first Cowanshannock church. That same year, the Somerset County bishopric erected the large edifice known as Pleasant Grove, near Berlin. The next year (1846), the large Elklick Creek (Summit Mills) house was constructed, and is still in use.
After the organization of the church in Clarion County (1846), strong leadership was maintained there for many years. The "branch" in Venango County used the home of Brother Distler for services. The spirit of home missions, or church planting, continued to extend until a church was established in Jefferson County and members settled as far northwest as Erie.
But the first half of the nineteenth century was not only a period of church planting. Its membership was aggressive in various lines, as the following chapters of this book will reveal. Young men were called to the ministry-like John Wise at the age of twenty-one. James Quinter did outstanding evangelistic work in this district at the age of twenty-three, and was pastor of the Georges Creek church at twenty-six. A young brother (aged twenty-five) was engaged in Sunday-school teaching in 1825. Other young brethren were teaching public
schools. Birth certificates were used as early as 1821. Prayer meetings and revivals were in the thought life of the member- ship. People had time to go to church both day and night through the week. And the evangelistic fervor resulted in twenty, forty, and sometimes seventy or ninety, members being received by baptism in a local church in a single year.
By 1844 the Georges Creek congregation extended south- ward into Monongalia County, West Virginia, near Morgan-
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town, which fifteen years later was to produce one of the first two college graduates in the Brethren Church to receive the Bachelor of Arts degree. And he was to be honored by being the first college president in the denomination.
In 1842 the members of the Ten Mile congregation residing in Greene County were organized as the Ryerson Station con- gregation, where the first Brethren Sunday school in Western Pennsylvania was to be organized in 1856. This church soon extended southward into Wetzel County and westward into the northern panhandle of West Virginia.
Thus, soon after the middle of the nineteenth century, ter- ritorially speaking, the Western District of Pennsylvania had extended its borders to the widest area in its two centuries. What the total membership of the district was in 1850 is not known, as no "numbering of the people" seems to have been undertaken until 1882. Howard Miller, in his Record of the Faithful, lists thirty-one congregations, the smallest with eleven members and the largest with three hundred fifty-one members; total district membership, four thousand, four hundred twenty- seven.
CHAPTER 4. DISTRICT ORGANIZATION
Seven Annual Meetings in Somerset County Western Pennsylvania becomes a district Various organizations and boards formed
With the highly specialized organization and the definite boundary lines in our churches today, it is often hard to realize the way the Brotherhood operated as a single unit during its period of growth and expansion a century and a half ago. While it is true that "arms" or "branches" were formed by electing a "speaker" and a deacon or two, so that they could have preaching and councils, with love feasts at certain places, often large areas including a number of "arms" or "branches" were presided over by a bishop or by co-bishops.
Two examples well illustrate this form of organization. The seven churches in Maryland were presided over by Bishop Daniel Leatherman for a number of years.1 From 1790 until
1 Morgan Edwards, History of the Baptists, published in 1770.
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1849, all of Somerset County, the Indian Creek Valley in Fay- ette County, and Garrett County, Maryland, were included in one bishopric; the southern half of what is now Cambria Coun- ty was apparently also included until 1810, when Conemaugh became a separate congregation. At the Annual Meeting of 1849 a committee was appointed, and later the same year it met at Berkley Mills and formed six congregations out of this large territory, four of these being in Somerset County.
As we understand it, in the earlier years Annual Meeting was not a delegate body, but all members attending had a right to vote, and the Standing Committee was selected, after arrival of the Conference attendants at the place of meeting, from the elders or bishops present representing the various states. Smaller groups or committees were then formed to consider the various papers and get them ready for the general council.
SEVEN ANNUAL MEETINGS IN SOMERSET COUNTY, 1811 - 18942
"According to the best information available seven Annual Meetings of the Brotherhood have been held in Western Penn- sylvania, and all in Somerset County within a comparatively small area."3 "The first one was held in the barn of Bishop John Buechley, in Elk Lick township, in 1811." The second one was held at "Glade, Somerset County, Pa."4
The Glades Church, Built in 1790
The Annual Meeting of 1821 was held here. See Part Two, Chapter 5.
This second Annual Meeting, held in 1821, is of special interest for sev- eral reasons. First, it was held in the "Glades meetinghouse," which was a part of the original Stony Creek church, organized in 1762. The Glades meetinghouse had been built about 1790, and is still standing (see cut). In the year 1818 new logs had been placed under the first floor (which was used for church services), mak- ing it safe for the larger audience. The year before (1820), the "Glade
2 According to the research of Brother H. Austin Cooper, there are strong indications that Annual Meeting was held in the district on three earlier occasions as follows: 1774 and 1790 in the Rhoades meetinghouse, in "The Glades"; and 1791 at Michael Beeghley's, Beachdale.
3 Blough's history. Page 291.
4 Minutes oƒ Annual Meeting, 1778-1909. Page 44.
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Part One: District Developments
Route Turnpike between Bedford and Mount Pleasant had been completed across the Allegheny and Laurel Hill mountains, making "this road ... so well improved that it can be traveled with more ease to both horse and rider than any other road across the mountains."5
One of the seven papers considered at the 1821 meeting very probably had a local coloring:
"Article 5. Whether brethren may have distilleries or not?" may have had its origin in this part of the Brotherhood, as several of the members, especially along the Laurel Hill, in keeping with many of their neighbors, found it more convenient to operate a small distillery and convert the grain into "spirits" than to send or take it by pack- horse or muleback over the long, muddy trails to the far-eastern mar- kets at Philadelphia or Baltimore. A good pack-horse could carry only about four bushels of grain. We of today just cannot appreciate their problem of transportation and travel, especially prior to the com- pletion of the "Glade Route Turnpike" in the summer of 1820.
Another was "Article 6. Whether members (persons) might be received into the church, who have been but once immersed (without baptizing them in the manner we believe it ought to be done according to the Gospel) ?" We can see that this might also have been a local problem when we understand the close fellowship and the very kindly relations in Somerset County between the Brethren and members of other churches of that early day.
From the minutes of the third Annual Meeting in this county, we quote only the opening paragraph:
As it was customary among us from time immemorial, the old brethren assembled themselves this year again from East and West, and from North and South, in yearly Meeting with Bro. William Miller [near Summit Mills], in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, where on the 28th and 29th of May, 1841, the following points were presented and taken into serious consideration" [fifteen papers were considered].
Eight years later, the fourth Annual Meeting held in Somer- set County convened in the large Pleasant Grove church, near Berlin. This very historic meeting of 1849 dealt with forty-six papers. Many of the problems were common to the church in various years, but several new ones, perhaps some of a local nature, were up for consideration.
"Article 10. Is it proper for members of the church of Christ to take stock in railroad or similar companies-such as bank stock, .. . " is better understood when we know that Brother S. C. Keim of Salis- bury became a banker, and that Elder Tobias Myers, father of Dr. T. T. Myers and Elder J. T. Myers, who lived in the Middle Creek area, was a promoter and stockholder of the railroad from Cumberland to Connellsville (now the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad). The coming of
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