USA > West Virginia > A history of the Church of the Brethren in the first district of West Virginia > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
128
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
Clark, Dennis
Bro. Dennis Clark was elected to the ministry in the Green- land congregation in 1886 and advanced to the second degree in 1889, and to the eldership at some unknown later date. He had charge of the congregation from the resignation of Charles Frantz in 1903 until 1910 or 1911. He was recognized as an able speaker.
Clark, Thomas, Sr. and Jr.
There were two Thomas Clarks, both ministers, but from no records and no individuals can I find enough information to dis- tinguish between them. In the notes of John Kline, this is found: "May 21, (1849) Thomas Clark and Michael Lyon are estab- lished," perhaps meaning ordained to the eldership or full min- istry, as it is said that the same day William Michaels is elected speaker. That was done at Solomon Michaels', in the Greenland congregation as it now is. Those two brethren were given re- sponsibilities, which may mean that they had nearly the over- sight of the congregation.
Older residents of the Allegheny congregation said that Thom- as Clark, Sr., was born in 1786, installed into the ministry about 1831, and died in 1869. They, and also Sister Anderson of the Fairview congregation, now deceased, said that the first preach- ing that was done in the Allegheny congregation was done by Thomas Clark in 1848. They said that Thomas Clark lived on the hill east of Bayard and owned most of the land on that side of the river. That would be correct, for Bro. Kline often spent the night there and then the next day went to the railroad at Oakland.
John Reel of Bismarck, now deceased, said that the older Thomas Clark lived at Greenland, and the younger one, a nephew, at Bayard. That seems to be right but just what of the above work was done by each, we cannot tell.
Cosner, Daniel
Bro. Daniel Cosner was called to the ministry in the Green- land congregation.
Cosner, Earl
Bro. Earl was elected to the ministry on September 21, 1913, and held his first revival at the Lone Star school; though he was much discouraged at first, there were seventeen conversions at
MOSES FIKE, JEREMIAH MILLER, AARON FIKE, JONAS FIKE Early leaders of the Eglon congregation. Taken 1908
S. PAUL DAUGHERTY
ERNEST MUNTZING
R. K. SHOW ALTER
JEREMIAH THOMAS
LORENZO FIKE AND WIFE
AARON FIKE AND WIFE
DESMOND W. BITTINGER
D. W. TUSING
PHILIP DeMUTH
B. W. SMITH
M. L. RIGGLEMAN
RUSSELL G. WEST AND WIFE
CHARLES MARTIN
EZRA FIKE
B. B. LUDWICK AND WIFE
W. L. RIGGLEMAN AND FAMILY
NEWTON D. COSNER AND FAMILY
FOSTER M. BITTINGER AND WIFE
VERNON SHANHOLTZ
ROY K. MILLER
EDWARD K. ZIEGLER
A. R. SHOWALTER
C. E. GRAPES AND WIFE
WILMA B. WAYBRIGHT
EMRA T. FIKE
M. R. WOLFE
BENJAMIN BEEGHLY AND WIFE
He was the first overseer of the Eglon congregation
ASA HARMAN
VELMA OBER ALVA HARSH MARY HARSH MARY GAUNTZ CUMMING
Alva and Mary Harsh, missionaries to China, disappeared December 2, 1937.
129
BIOGRAPHIES
that meeting. He served several terms as elder of the Allegheny congregation between 1925 and the present. Though his school- ing has been meager, he is an able minister.
Cosner, Henry
Bro. Henry was elected to the ministry in the Allegheny congregation around 1926 and has served a large part of that time as elder of the congregation. He works in his garage in Petersburg, West Virginia, where he also resides, but gets up to Allegheny on Sunday for church.
Cosner, John Tyler
Bro. John T. was born near Bismarck, West Virginia, on January 15, 1840, and died on March 8, 1925, aged eighty-five years. His death occurred at the home of his son, Elder W. H. Cosner, where he had gone for a visit. He was the last of a family of sixteen children. His first marriage was to Eva Cos- ner in 1865; to them were born four sons and three daughters. She died April 21, 1898. His second marriage was to Pauline Geiser in 1901; she died in 1919.
He had been a member of the church for over sixty years, and an elder for forty years, during which time he traveled afoot and on horseback hundreds of miles over the rough mountain section of West Virginia, preaching the gospel. He was heard to say that in all of his labors, five dollars was all the recompense he ever received financially. His ordination must have been about 1887.
The fact that of his descendants all five children were mem- bers of the church, one of them an elder and one a deacon, and the many grandchildren are all substantial citizens, speaks well of his exemplary living and teaching. He was buried in the Cosner cemetery, near Bismarck, near where he lived. The fu- neral services were conducted by Elder B. W. Smith.
Cosner, Martin
Jacob Cosner, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a man of good business ability and rocklike character, who owned and operated a mill on Luney's Creek at the western end of Maysville Gap. He thus knew and served people from a large area. His wife, who was Barbary Hawk, is yet today remem- bered for her kind and generous spirit.
130
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
Martin, born in 1825, possessed the rocklike character and self-control of his father and the kindness of his mother, hence possessed the qualities of leadership. He served the Greenland congregation, earning the love and the respect of the member- ship. He traveled much, visiting and consulting with the mem- bership. He baptized many applicants. His thought and prac- tice were in advance of the time. He saw the importance of the young people, and received them into the church while young, which was not the practice then.
He was elder of the congregation at the time the Brick church was built and served until 1876 or 1877. In 1880 or 1881 he moved to northern Michigan, where he died a few years later. He was greatly missed. The congregation had depended on him and he had built it up. Those who followed worked valiantly but they too had been followers and they had not his qualities of lead- ership. The congregation and the church stand as a shrine to him and others who with him were builders.
Cosner, Newton D.
Near Bismarck, West Virginia, in the Allegheny congrega- tion, Newton was born June 27, 1894. He was there elected to the ministry in 1916 and ordained to the eldership the following year. He taught school for two years and then went to Bridge- water College in 1916-17. In 1919 he entered Juniata College and continued there until graduation in 1925. During his col- lege years he was summer pastor of the Rockwood, Middle Creek and Chess Creek congregations of Western Pennsylvania, and the Cumberland, Maryland, church for two summers.
His first full pastorate was the Markleysburg congregation in Western Pennsylvania. He has also served at Sipesville and Windber, Pennsylvania, and Westernport and Frostburg, West- ern Maryland. At present he is in the Akron, Ohio, church.
Cosner, Zina
Son of John Tyler Cosner, a minister widely known in West Virginia, and Maggie Rinker Cosner, Zina was born on Decem- ber 29, 1895, at Bismarck, West Virginia. There his entire life has been spent excepting fifteen months during World War I. He united with the church at the age of sixteen and has taught a Sunday-school class every year since that, excepting during the war when he was away. He was elected to the ministry in
131
BIOGRAPHIES
1921, and to the eldership in 1928. He has served his home church as elder during several one-year periods. He was mar- ried in 1919 and to them three children, two girls and a boy, have been born.
Daugherty, S. Paul
Bro. Daugherty was born at Augusta, West Virginia, on June 23, 1903, and was married to Helen Naomi Hatfield of Wenatchee, Washington, on August 9, 1925, at Bethany Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. He was licensed to the ministry by the Tear Coat church in March of 1923, installed by the First church in Chi- cago in 1926, and ordained to the eldership by the Tear Coat church in October 1932.
He served the Tear Coat church as pastor from 1930 to 1934, and the Union Chapel church in the Tear Coat congregation from 1931 to 1939. From 1939 to the present he has served the Live Oak church in California. He has also served as evangelist in West Virginia, at Tear Coat, Union Chapel, Bright's Hollow, Shady Grove, Hazelton, Clifton Mills, and Salem.
DeMuth, Philip Edwin
Philip E. was born April 14, 1918, in Keyser, West Virginia, to Philip and Clara DeMuth. He lived his entire youth in Key- ser, and in 1937 graduated from the high school there. At twelve years of age he dedicated his life to Christ in a revival conducted by the Rev. B. M. Rollins. On April 13, 1930, he was received in- to the fellowship of the church of his parents, the Presbyterian Church, South, but finding the Church of the Brethren more to his liking he was baptized into the fellowship of the Church of the Brethren in Keyser on October 24, 1937. He became an active worker and on October 6, 1940, was licensed to preach; he was ordained to the full ministry on September 12, 1943. Fol- lowing his conscience, and at the call of his country, he entered the Civilian Public Service camp at Lyndhurst, Virginia, on November 6, 1943. After serving eight months there he took on a new Civilian Public Service assignment, and is now working in a hospital for the mentally ill at Sykesville, Maryland.
Dietrick, Abraham
Bro. Dietrick was perhaps the first minister of the church to live in Hampshire County, in the vicinity of Augusta. He later moved to Ohio, taking his family in a one-horse wagon.
132
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
Ebert, John
Bro. John Ebert was called to the ministry in the Greenland congregation.
Ebert, Otis
Bro. Otis Ebert was called to the ministry in the Greenland congregation.
Evans, Lester S.
At the council meeting at the Brick church, September 6, 1924, Lester Evans and Ernest Muntzing were called to the min- istry. Lester was not present, and for years he struggled with the decision as to whether or not it was the call of God. How- ever, the minute of August 13, 1927, says, "As Bro. Lester Evans has decided to accept the call to the ministry, the church has gladly granted him a license to preach." He was installed on September 15, 1928.
Lester was born April 28, 1903, at Streby, West Virginia, to James G. and Arnie Becker Evans. At the age of seventeen he joined the church under the preaching of John Cassady. He was married on April 19, 1933, to Edna Mae Ebert, daughter of Jesse Ebert, at Keyser.
He has ever been ready to serve the church whenever she called him. His living is secured by other means, at present as supervising assistant for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. But his devotion to the church is growing and his life is increasingly of real service to her. He preaches, when called upon, but never takes pay for it. He graduated from Bridgewater College in 1933.
Fike, Aaron
Elder Aaron Fike, son of Peter and Magdalena Arnold Fike, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on Indian Creek, where he spent his early days. At the age of eleven he, with his parents, moved to Brownings Mill, Maryland, and in 1854 located near Eglon, West Virginia.
On March 29, 1860, he was married to Rebecca S. Rudolph. He served one year with his father, using noon and evening hours to make furniture which he would sell to earn money for his own household goods. In 1860 he united with the church and one year later was elected to the ministry; he was ordained to the eldership four years later.
133
BIOGRAPHIES
From this time on his life was very strenuous. He spent much time away from home on preaching tours, often three or four weeks in length, without remuneration, and then return- ing worked the harder to maintain the family. Much of his early travel was on horseback. Twice he came home frozen to the saddle and his family had to carry him and the saddle into the house to thaw him loose, or to thaw out his hands and feet. He was known to preach fifteen miles from home, baptize appli- cants and then ride home with no change of clothes. He was often in danger fording swollen streams. Once his horse refused to ford the Cheat River as usual. Later he returned to find that the river had cut a deep channel at that place.
In his youth he was in vigorous health, but in later years his health failed. An affliction disabled him from riding, so he would walk. Often he would walk twenty miles, preach Satur- day night and Sunday morning, and then walk home. He would walk forty miles to hold a meeting. He was indeed faithful.
He reared a family of eleven children. Three of the sons are elders in the church: Phineas, Emra, and Lorenzo. A. R. is a deacon. He used home remedies for the family, paying out only $5.00 for doctor bills. He was born April 25, 1840, and died December 17, 1916, the funeral being conducted by Elder Jonas Fike; interment was in the Maple Spring cemetery.
Fike, Albert J.
Albert is a West Virginia boy, though most of his life has been spent outside the state. He was born at Eglon on December 4, 1890. The family moved to Grantsville, Maryland, in 1897, and from there to the Eastern Shore in 1907. He was elected deacon in 1915, married in 1916, called to the ministry in 1920, and or- dained to the eldership in 1930. They have three boys: Norman, age twenty-seven; Paul, age twenty-five, a minister, elected in 1939; and Emerson, age sixteen. His service has for the most part been in the Peach Blossom and Ridgely churches.
Fike, Earl William
Bro. Earl, son of Ezra, was born at Eglon, West Virginia. He attended Bridgewater College, and served the Greenland and Petersburg congregations, and also the Ninth Street Church in Roanoke, Virginia.
134
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
Fike, Emra Trenton
Bro. Emra Fike, son of Aaron and Rebecca Rudolph Fike, was born near Eglon, West Virginia, on September 26, 1872. He married Rebecca Jane Umbel on March 31, 1895, in the Mark- leysburg church, Bro. Samuel C. Umbel officiating. To this union were born: Bertha A., Lottie R., Emmert S., Elsie D., Loretta V., and Olonzo P. The third, the fourth, and the fifth child died in infancy. The last one now serves in the ministry.
His second marriage was to Ruey Pearl Guthrie Frazee, on May 26, 1940.
He was baptized by Elder Z. Annon on February 15, 1885, near the Maple Spring church, elected to the ministry November 30, 1895, forwarded to the second degree June 6, 1896, and or- dained to the eldership December 2, 1905, by Elders D. B. Arnold and T. B. Digman.
He has had charge of the following congregations: Red Creek, 1907-12; Cheat River, 1910-13; Greenland, 1912-18; Oak Grove, 1922-28; Pine Grove, 1918-28; Eglon, 1927-33. He has also served the church of the district in many other ways, among which are the following: member of the general welfare board, 1926-28; secretary of the Maple Grove Child Rescue Home for seventeen years; member of the district ministerial board since 1917. He has held one hundred ninety-two evangelistic meetings, receiv- ing over one thousand members into the church, officiated in one hundred forty anointings, conducted two hundred thirty fu- nerals, solemnized fifty-two marriages, assisted in licensing and installing eighty ministers and ordaining twenty-four elders, and has represented the district nine times on Standing Committee.
Fike, Ezra
Ezra Fike was born February 17, 1884, and united with the church in 1894. He served as Sunday-school superintendent from June 1902-June 1906. He was elected to the ministry in December 1905, but because of ill-health was not installed until March 1906. He was advanced to the second degree in December 1906 and ordained to the eldership December 29, 1912. He was elected district treasurer in October 1912 and still serves in that capacity. In June 1905 he was elected a member of the district mission board and still serves in that office. His interest in mis- sions, both home and foreign, has always been great. His prayer
Fike, Jonas
Inadvertently this biography was omitted from the original manuscript until too late to have it included in the regularly printed text. Because of the outstanding contribution of Bro. Jonas Fike to the district it is now placed here near its proper alphabetical place.
Elder Jonas Fike, son of Elder S. A. and Rachel Snyder Fike, was born October 15, 1851, and departed this life June 24, 1925. At the age of sixteen he united with the Church of the Breth- ren, to which he diligently gave his thought, time, and talent in the promotion of the Lord's work, at first serving as deacon, then as minister, and later as elder.
He was one of the pioneer preachers of West Virginia, travel- ing hundreds of miles on horseback in his earlier years helping to establish and organize a number of congregations. Some of these chose him as their elder, so that for a number of years he was presiding elder over as many as six churches. In his later life he resigned his official duties in connection with all of them except his home congregation (Eglon) and the Harman congrega- tion. He was the presiding elder at Harman until a little over a year before his death, thus completing thirty-seven years of service for that church.
His record of ministry shows 126 marriages, 363 funerals, and 440 baptisms. He loved the Gospel Messenger and the Gospel Visitor and never missed an issue of either. He had decidedly optimistic views regarding the church and the world in general. He gave much of his energy in the prohibition fight and in later years worked for the time when wars would be outlawed and universal peace would prevail.
He was a leader in his district, yet never attended Annual Conference unless sent; instead he made it a rule of life that when others were enjoying the great Conference he would go to some neglected place among the mountains and preach the gos- pel to some who otherwise would not hear it.
He was united in marriage to Caroline Henze in 1871 and to this union were born three sons and six daughters. After her death he married Melissa D. Hamstead in 1882 and to this union were born two sons and two daughters. He preceded his com- panion in death. Funeral services were conducted from the Eglon church by Elder Jeremiah Thomas assisted by Elder George S. Arnold. Some estimated the crowd attending the funeral to be the largest ever gathered at Maple Spring. It was an indication of the love and esteem in which he was held.
135
BIOGRAPHIES
had long been that missionaries might go out from the home congregation to foreign lands. He lived to see that prayer an- swered a number of times. He served the district on Standing Committee several times. He was always interested in the young and served as a promoter, and for some years as trustee, of Camp Galilee. For a number of years he served as president of the district council of boards. He is of the third generation of faithful servants of the church, his grandfather, Sam Fike, and his father, Jonas, both having been faithful pioneer traveling preachers in the district.
Fike, Galen K.
Galen was born to Elder Ezra and Virgie Hamstead Fike on January 1, 1918, being of the fourth generation of a line of minis- ters who have faithfully served the church in West Virginia. He was licensed to preach November 30, 1935, installed June 17, 1937, and ordained September 10, 1943. He graduated from Bridgewater College in 1939 and served that summer at Crab Orchard, West Virginia. Since that time he has helped in the store at home, and has done some evangelistic work; he has been serving in the Eglon congregation, in the Seneca congregation, and in various other places. He has been much interested in young people's work and has exerted a leadership there, having also promoted and worked in the camps at Galilee. He is a prom- ising young minister with most of his ministry still before him. On August 20, 1944, he was married to Lorraine Texier of Harri- sonburg, Virginia.
Fike, John S.
Bro. John S., son of Samuel A. Fike, was born September 24, 1859, at Eglon, West Virginia; baptized in 1878; married to Flora Strawser on November 6, 1884; elected to the deaconship in 1891; elected to the ministry in 1893; advanced to the second degree in 1894; and ordained to the eldership March 15, 1921. During his ministry he married one hundred twenty-four couples, baptized one hundred sixty-seven persons, conducted seventy-five fu- nerals, and held seventy-five revivals. He does not know how long, but thinks it probable that he has served on the district mission board for fifty or sixty years. (Deceased December 1944.)
He is not a strong pulpit orator but has a pleasing personal- ity and is much loved through the mountains of West Virginia.
136
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
People like to have him in their homes, and young ministers like to have him as adviser. He trusts them and gives them responsi- bilities. He loves the church and has the work of the mission field at heart. To many he is known as "Uncle John."
Fike, Lorenzo H.
Lorenzo Fike was born May 20, 1875, one mile east of Eglon to Aaron and Rebecca Rudolph Fike. He united with the church in 1887 at a meeting conducted by Samuel A. Sisler and George Bucklew at the Maple Spring church, and was baptized by his father. While in the teens he served a number of years as Sunday-school superintendent and read the first Sunday-school report ever read in the Maple Spring church, in order to show the need for regular attendance. He was married to Laura T. Myers on March 27, 1898. He was elected to the deacon's office December 5, 1895, elected to the ministry December 2, 1905, ad- vanced to the second degree in 1906, and ordained to the elder- ship December 29, 1912, by Elder S. N. McCann. He faithfully served many small and distant churches. While preaching at the Rehobeth and Mt. Pisgah churches in the Allegheny con- gregation he drove a distance of twenty-five miles each way. He also preached in the Red Creek congregation and in the Canaan Valley church, where he baptized a man one Sunday and drove home, a distance of twenty-five miles, by horse and buggy, with- out a change of clothing. He also preached in the Cheat River congregation, and one time arose on Sunday morning at one o'clock and walked a distance of twenty-three miles, preached at 10:30 A. M. and also at night, after which he was brought to Terra Alta in a car and then walked home, a distance of fif- teen miles, arriving home at three the next morning. He has served his turn faithfully in his home congregation and managed his farm near the Glade View church.
Fike, Moses
Elder Moses Fike was born July 15, 1837, and died at the ripe age of ninety-six years, ten months and twenty-five days. He was a son of Peter Fike, who first settled at Somerset, Pennsyl- vania, later moving to New Germany, Maryland, where Moses was likely born, then to Indian Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1838 and to Sang Run, Maryland, in 1850 because of a depression forcing them to sell. Cows then brought five to eight dollars per head and sheep seventy-five cents. At Sang Run Moses joined the
137
BIOGRAPHIES
Church of the Brethren at the age of fifteen, which was con- sidered very young. His father learned to read and write both German and English.
.In 1854 the family moved near to what is now Eglon, West Virginia, where they became the nucleus around which the Maple Spring church was built. Three of the sons, Samuel, Aaron, and Moses, became ministers, as did also a son-in-law. In this home was held the first council and the first election of a deacon and a minister in 1856. From this family have come fifty-five ministers of the Church of the Brethren up to 1934. When Moses was asked why this family was so religiously in- clined he replied that his father never stopped work in the field unless he told them a Bible story, and that he was a great Bible reader, at evening time reading aloud to his family, in musical German, so that even the whip-poor-wills came up close to hear.
Moses purchased a part of his father's farm and spent most of the rest of his life there. He was elected to the deaconship at the age of twenty-eight and in 1874 to the ministry; two years later he was advanced to the second degree, and served sixty years in the ministry. He kept few records, but in an entry in an old Bible the following was found: "In the year 1874 the brethren told me to preach and these are the miles that I traveled. In the year 1876 they put me in the second de- gree. These are the miles I traveled the first two years I preached." The page is partly torn and the figures are partly lost, but it must have been from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred miles per year.
On March 26, 1860, he married Sophia Rudolph, who died in 1903. To this union were born five sons and eight daughters. On April 19, 1905, he married Rebecca Beeghly, who died in 1927. On October 15, 1928, he married Betty Digman, widow of Elder Thomas Digman. He died in June 1934 and the funeral was conducted by Brethren Dan Spaid and John S. Fike from the Maple Spring church. From the age of ninety to ninety-five he preached nearly one hundred times, but at ninety-five he lost his voice for preaching, though he could still talk. At the age of ninety he would walk to Brookside, preach, and walk home, a round trip of eight miles before dinner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.