USA > West Virginia > A history of the Church of the Brethren in the first district of West Virginia > Part 2
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
2 Dove, F. D., Cultural Changes in the Church of the Brethren. Pages 41, 42.
18
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
he died in 1721. "No other reformer was so closely associated with Alexander Mack, or had as much influence over the first members of the Church of the Brethren as Hochmann."3 He with Mack made many preaching tours over Germany. In 1702 he was arrested and thrown into the castle at Detmold, and was not released until he had written out a confession of faith, a statement of great importance since it shows the position of the church at that time.4
Alexander Mack exerted a great influence over the organiza- tion of the Church of the Brethren. He believed the ordinances of the New Testament could not be carried out without a church organization. He was born in 1679, was well educated in the universities of his day, and was the possessor of valuable prop- erty near Schriesheim. With others he prayerfully and care- fully searched the Scriptures. In 1708 he and seven others met by the side of the Eder River near Schwarzenau, Germany, and after prayer and consecration, they directed one of their number to baptize Bro. Mack, and he in turn baptized the other seven. That marks the beginning of the Church of the Brethren, and Bro. Mack is considered to be her founder. Under his care the church increased rapidly and in seven years there were four other congregations. But Elder Mack did not desire to be known as the founder of the church. The Great Master is the Founder and Bro. Mack only a minister and servant.
There were two cardinal principles that led to the organiza- tion: spirituality in worship and observance of all the ordinances of the New Testament. If the New Testament taught a thing, the Brethren wanted to do that thing. Christianity was the Way as revealed in the New Testament. As a protest to the state reli- gions of the day they proclaimed the maxim, "No exercise of force in religion." They have been loyal to this principle of noncoercion. Thus since infant baptism could not be of the free will, they opposed it; since oath taking implied pressure, they opposed it; since war is an interference with the rights of oth- ers, they forbade members to participate; since God is recognized as being above the state they sustained freedom of conscience and would obey God rather than men. They resented all perse- cution, were much persecuted themselves, but they never perse-
3 Sharp, S. Z., Educational History. Page 26.
Ibid. Page 27.
19
BEGINNINGS BEYOND THE SEA
cuted a single soul. The church was born to persecution. Her members were chained in galleys, cast into prison, suspended by thumbs and toes, exiled, dispossessed, but her days of greatest persecution were also her days of greatest strength and growth.
The number of members in Europe will never be known. That they were numerous is certain. The largest list yet made contains only two hundred and fifty-five names; but it is evident that this is but a fraction of the whole number.5
Amidst the hardships and persecutions in Germany it was not remarkable that they looked with longing eyes toward America and spiritual freedom, which their souls so much longed for. So in 1719 the first group, a part of the Creyfelt congregation, with Peter Becker as their leader, took the first venture. Definite in- formation is lacking, but the voyage is said to have been a hard one.
They landed at Philadelphia and made their way to German- town, with which place the Brethren have been inseparably connected from that time to this. Here was organized the first congregation and here the first house of worship for the Brethren was erected in America. This was the first center and from here they moved out to form other settlements and churches.
The first love feast in America was held Christmas Day, 1723, and then the first organization of the Brethren in America was effected. Bro. Becker was chosen leader and minister. That day six were baptized and the day was closed with a communion service with twenty-three members participating. The church had taken root, and was now organized, but organized for work. The next fall an evangelistic party of fourteen men pushed into the woods to visit scattered members, encourage believers, and preach to unbelievers. As a result of this first missionary jour- ney in America eleven were baptized, two new congregations were organized and two ministers were elected. Thus in Amer- ica, as in Germany, the church had become a missionary church.6
Up to the time of the Revolutionary War the Brethren seem to have spread over Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Reaching out beyond and into the broad expanse of the West and the South was the task of postcolonial days.
The Church of the Brethren at that time was an aggressive body, small in number, but generous in spirit. It stood for
5 Flory, J. S., Literary Activity of the Brethren. Page 25.
6 Moyer, Elgin, Missions in the Church of the Brethren. Pages 19, 20.
20
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
higher education, earnest evangelism, pastoral care of the churches, Sunday School work, and sincere piety and devout living among its members. The church of today will do well to inform itself about the history of this early church and revive its spirit in our modern life.7
Such a study would be fruitful for our day as would also be a study of the apostolic church. The Church of the Brethren, like the apostolic church, was born and thrived in a dark day, a day of adversity. This is again her day. May she again be true to her great opportunity.
7 Cable and Sanger, Educational Blue Book. Page 27.
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA
(A) THE OBERHOLTZERS
From the records of the Idleman families of Greenland in- formation is secured about the first Brethren family in West Virginia.
Somewhere in Germany Elizabeth Bussard married a man of the name of Oberholtzer, and there these two joined the Church of the Brethren. A son was born to this union. About 1740 they decided to come to America. They took voyage as redemption- ers, as they likely did not have money to pay the fare; thus upon arrival they would be bound out for about three years to one who would pay the passage for them. But because of the crowded and ill-ventilated condition of the ship and bad food and water, both husband and son died on the voyage.
Sister Oberholtzer, upon arrival, was sold for three years' servitude to a man living near what is now Moorefield, West Virginia. He was an honest man and no doubt she was a good worker for she was set free after serving only half her time. So far as is known she was the first member of the Church of the Brethren to make her home permanently in what is now the state of West Virginia, though the Eckerlins, later spoken of, resided here, as did Alexander Mack, Jr., but little later. Sister Oberholtzer later married John Stingly, and they had a son named William who later moved into what is now the territory of the Greenland congregation, and now is numbered among the ancestry of the Idlemans. He is buried about one-half mile north of the Idleman residence at Greenland.
At the time of her arrival the country must have been very thinly settled, for a few years later, in 1748, "there were about 200 people along the entire course"1 of the South Branch of the Potomac.
(B) THE ECKERLINS
The Eckerlins, and later with them Alexander Mack, Jr.,
1 Callahan, J. M., Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia. Page 17.
22
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
were the second to bring the Dunker name to West Virginia. Around this Eckerlin family, so closely connected with the his- tory of the Church of the Brethren in Europe, at Germantown, at Ephrata, in the First District of West Virginia, and with the very early history of Preston and Monongalia counties, hangs a fringe of romance more inspiring than the dreams of poet or novelist. Michael Eckerlin was a Counsellor of Strasbourg, Ger- many, and a Catholic. Touched by the message of truth from the lips of some pious preacher on his way to Switzerland, Eckerlin resigned his office, left his church, fled with his wife and four sons to Schwarzenau, the birthplace of the Church of the Breth- ren, was baptized by Alexander Mack, Sr., founder of the church, and triumphantly died in the faith.
There is some confusion of evidence as to just when the fam- ily became members of the church, but Brumbaugh lists among those who joined the church in Europe Michael Eckerlin and his wife, Samuel Eckerlin, Israel Eckerlin, Imanuel Eckerlin, Daniel Eckerlin (a friend of Alexander Mack, Jr.) and Gabriel Eckerlin.2 This would seem to establish the fact that they were members of the church before leaving Europe. In 1725 the widow, Sister Michael Eckerlin, and her four sons, Israel, Sam- uel, Imanuel, and Gabriel, came to America and settled near Germantown, Pennsylvania. One day Bro. Michael Wohlfahrt visited the family and spoke eloquently of the new awakening under Beissel in the Conestoga country. The oldest son, Israel, in 1727 went to see for himself. He was pleased with the coun- try, and at first worshiped with the Mennonites. He liked their simplicity of dress but could never adapt himself to their mode of worship. He began working for Christopher Sower, who later became prominent in the early history of the church, and was taken to the meetings of Beissel by Sower. He tells the result.3 On Whitsuntide of the year 1728 he and his master, Christopher Sower, were incorporated into the new congregation by holy baptism. As this was before the division between the early Brethren and the Beissel party this may seem to indicate that he had not been baptized previously in Europe. He was soon joined by his brothers: Samuel, Imanuel, and Gabriel. The pious old mother followed her sons and died in the Conestoga country in
2 Brumbaugh, M. G., A History of the Brethren. Page 56.
8 Chronicon Ephratense. Pages 41, 42.
23
THE BEGINNINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA
1729. The four sons became prominent members of the Ephrata movement, and with Beissel removed to Ephrata in 1732. This was the beginning of the monastic Society of Ephrata and the break with the early German Baptist Church or the early Breth- ren. But it was not the end of the Eckerlin influence on the church. The four brothers were known in the monastery as Brothers Onesimus, Jephume, Jotham, and Elimelech. Gabriel became the first prior of the monastery, but was succeeded in 1740 by Israel.
Israel was an exceptionally good businessman, and under his management the mystical dreamers became a colony of toilers. He added to the equipment most of the mills, built the convent on Zion and planted an orchard of one thousand trees. He was much loved and had close followers, but his prominence turned Superintendent Beissel against him, and it was agreed that he should leave the society for a while. During his absence all hymns written by him, everything that had originated with him, were collected by the society and burned. The convent built by Eckerlin was no longer used by Beissel. A large church bell the Eckerlins had bought was sold to the Lutherans. Even the or- chard they had planted was cut down, much to the chagrin of the whole community. The sawmill they had brought to Ephrata, which had brought much prosperity, was destroyed, thus ending the mammon of the Eckerlins, Beissel said. But among the common people they left a good name. Even Superintendent Beissel said, after they had been gone some time, "God can judge the Eckerlins for they came so near to him, but your quar- rels he cannot judge for they are too far removed from him."4
It was the year 1744 when this Eckerlin-Beissel controversy reached its height. In that year Israel Eckerlin and his brother Samuel, next to him in age, together with Alexander Mack, Jr., who was in the convent at the time and took sides with the Eckerlins, and Peter Miller went on a preaching tour through the northeastern states. Upon their return, peace still did not pre- vail at Ephrata and on September 4, 1745, Israel and Samuel Eckerlin, with Alexander Mack, Jr., moved into the wilderness about four hundred miles toward the setting of the sun. They stopped at the Funk settlement near Strasburg, Virginia, but only briefly. However, then or later they bought the farm now
Ibid. Page 222.
ยท
24
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
owned by Major Newell, opposite the present town of Strasburg. Thence they moved on up the Shenandoah and came to the New River in what is now West Virginia where they founded the set- tlement which they called Mahanaim, the precise location of which is unknown, though it was probably near Dunkard Bot- tom, a place much mentioned in the Revolutionary War. They had nine hundred acres there. There upon the fertile soil was erected a cabin and a settlement started which was the first to leave the Dunkard name in West Virginia. Later Samuel re- turned to Ephrata and brought Gabriel back with him. From here in 1747 Alexander Mack, Jr., returned to Germantown and made complete reconciliation with the Brethren there.5 He soon became one of the outstanding leaders at Germantown.
Israel was now devoting his time to theology and mysticism, writing industriously. Samuel was practicing medicine among the border settlements and Indians, winning for himself the title Doctor, by which later historians speak of him. Gabriel became a hunter and trapper, supplying the household with needed food. But all.did not go well. In 1748 the Ohio Company was formed, having received a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land lying along the Ohio, between the Kanawah and Monongahela, and planned settlements to divert the Indian trade from Pennsyl- vania. Plans for settlements by Germans from Pennsylvania were prevented by Virginia's law against dissenters. These legal difficulties with the state of Virginia were perhaps also accom- panied by an unfriendly attitude on the part of surrounding settlers who were settling for the Ohio Company and the state of Virginia.
So in 1750 when Israel and Gabriel returned to Germantown to trade their wares they remained for several months with the Brethren there. They again visited Ephrata but found recon- ciliation impossible. How successful was the effort at German- town, I do not know, but it must have been friendly, and they found Peter Becker and Gants sympathetic. A number of Brethren from Germantown were considering returning to West Virginia with them and would later have done so had it not been for the breaking out of Indian ravages so soon with the coming of the French and Indian War.
Israel had fellowshiped much with the Brethren and was es-
5 Ibid. Page 226.
25
THE BEGINNINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA
pecially friendly with Peter Becker and the two Macks. It was he who definitely left his lasting impress upon the Church of the Brethren by being the one who made the remarks which resulted in the formation of Standing Committee as we now have it at our Annual Conference. At that time all the Baptist denomina- tions, of which we were one, had annual meetings. Endless dis- cussions would arise over matters of controversy. Upon the observation by Israel Eckerlin that useful time was wasted by having open discussion upon all personal grievances,6 it was agreed that a committee from all denominations should hear all the questions and decide which ones should come before the main body, and further that the question should come up as from the congregation and not from the individual. These two de- cisions evidently gave precedent for our Standing Committee and for our manner of sending queries to Annual Conference. That occurred in 1742 while Israel was still prior at Ephrata.
After having remained for about five months at Ephrata, but completely renouncing that society, and having restored friendly relations with the Brethren at Germantown and having com- pleted their trading, Israel and Gabriel started back to West Virginia in the fall of 1750. However, when they came to the Allegheny Mountains they met with such masses of snow and such severe weather that it was with great difficulty and great danger to themselves that they crossed those fearful mountains and came to regions inhabited by the Delaware Indians. These Indians were the tribe with whom William Penn had established his treaty of friendship and with whom the nonresistants of Pennsylvania had been having friendly relations. These In- dians now showed the two Eckerlin brothers from the pacifists of Pennsylvania the greatest of friendship and gave them pro- tection for the winter. Here in the spring of 1751 the Eckerlins were joined by Dr. Samuel Eckerlin, and their first home in the wilderness of West Virginia was for a while abandoned.
The hospitable 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 below the present site of Morgantown, at the mouth of the creek which now bears their name, Dunker Creek.
At this time the bloody war between the French and Indians
6 Brumbaugh, M. G., A History of the Brethren. Page 479.
26
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
and the English was in progress. The Delawares therefore told the Eckerlins that they could no longer guarantee them safety here as the French savages would overrun this region. They led them to a region across the mountains, on the east side of Cheat River, where they believed the enemies would not come, saying at the same time that whenever danger threatened they would warn them. This was a place on the Cheat River, near where Kingwood now stands, called Dunkard Bottom. Here the broth- ers built their cabin, about one mile above the present Cadell Bridge. In all likelihood their cabin stood at the mouth of Buf- falo Creek. A small clearing can be remembered as having been at this point, and also fragments have been found.7 Here the Eckerlins again left the Dunkard name at another place, Dunk- ard Bottom. This bottom begins at the Old Fairfax Ferry and reaches well up the valley to the railroad crossing at Trowbridge. It is the largest area of truly level land in Preston County and includes an island of some size. It became a historic spot. These were likely the first white men to set foot in Preston County. Here founded by the Eckerlins was the first settlement in that county; here was the first settlement as such by the Dunkards, though they at the time were perhaps not considered as members of that church now called the Church of the Breth- ren, then called the German Baptist. But they were at least an offshoot of it and so closely associated with it that their history is a part of the history of the Brethren in West Virginia.
This historic settlement is mentioned in all histories of trans- Allegheny pioneers and histories of West Virginia and of Pres- ton County; however, it is usually misspelled Eckarly or Eckerly and Samuel is miscalled Thomas. Their places of settlement, the dates, their names, their standing with the German Baptist or Brethren Church, and their final end have been so differently given and confused that I have gone to long and careful research to establish their true history. This chapter is long because I feel that the matter is important enough that we of West Vir- ginia should know the facts as best we can establish them.
Here on Dunkard Bottom along the Cheat lived the Eckerlins for four years. Here they built a large home and kept a number of servants. Here they raised all their needed vegetables and kept their larder supplied with meat from the wilderness. Here
7 Morton, O. F., History of Preston County, Part I.
27
THE BEGINNINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA
they raised a large number of horses and were comfortably sit- uated. From here they likely made frequent trips to Virginia, for they were purchasing land and having deeds and land sur- veys made. Often they traded with the Brethren and members of the Ephrata Society of Strasburg.
In the surveyor's books of Augusta County, in which all of this territory was then included, is the following entry:
Surveyed for Samuel Eckerlin 360 acres of land in Augusta County, Lying on ye East Side of Monongalo River Between the mouth of Indian and Eckerlin's Creek. This 20th ap. 1753.
By Andrew Lewis assts. Thomas Lewis, Sur.
This actual surveyor was Gen. Andrew Lewis, who fought and won the battle of Point Pleasant and whom Washington thought the proper man to lead the American armies in the Rev- olution. He also surveyed for Samuel Eckerlin four other tracts, aggregating eight hundred twenty acres. Two of the entire five were on the east side of the river. One is mentioned as "three miles below where Eckerlin now lives." On the ninth of No- vember, 1754, five thousand acres of land were granted to Samuel Eckerlin and others, "part of the vacant land lying between Lord Fairfax Line and the line of John Blair and Co.'s and thay of ye Ohio Company."8 Although this grant did not go into ef- fect, because of the Indian wars that broke out the following sea- son, it is highly probable that this land was to include Dunkard Bottom. From this extensive planning and purchasing of land it seems evident that the Eckerlins were planning to establish a settlement or colony of their co-religionists, not the Ephrata monastics, but the Brethren from Germantown, with whom plans were pretty well underway before the war with the French and Indians broke out.
At one time during this war the Iroquois went to war against their northern neighbors, but were defeated and fled naked. In fleeing they took the clothing and the carpets from the Eckerlins. This should have been a warning. The Delawares also sent word that they could no longer guarantee them security at that place. But they heeded it not. After some of their journeys to Virginia the Indians invaded these eastern settlements. This created suspicion that the Eckerlins were spies. The Virginians did not want them to live there any longer, but Samuel tried to
8 Survey Book of Augusta County, Va.
28
FIRST DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA
get permission from the governor of Virginia. It was refused. Braddock's defeat in 1755 left all the western frontier open to the ravages of the French and the Indians. Often they came down east as far as the South Branch Valley. In 1756 Dr. Sam- uel Eckerlin went back to Strasburg for supplies, likely follow- ing the famous old Indian trail called the "Great War Path" which crossed the Cheat River near their settlement on Dunkard Bottom and went eastward through what is now Cranesville, in Preston County, through a corner of Maryland and on into the South Branch Valley and the Shenandoah Valley. Having ob- tained his supplies he stopped at Fort Pleasant, which was erected in the Indian Old Fields, now in Hardy County, on the South Branch of the Potomac, one and a half mile above what is known as The Trough. Here he was arrested as a spy. The sus- picious settlers would not believe his tale of a settlement out in the midst of Indian territory. They had suffered much and would take no chances. By earnest pleading, he obtained his freedom on these conditions: he was to pursue his journey under armed guard, and if they found his statements false, they were to bring him back as a renegade and Indian spy.9
While Samuel was gone the bloodthirsty Indians under a French leader had come to his home on the Cheat. Israel did not allow his writing to be disturbed until they tied his hands to his back. They packed all the property on horses, of which the Eckerlins had a great number, set fire to the house and left. Meanwhile Samuel and the soldiers arrived while the embers were still glowing. Likely he believed and hoped that his brothers had been killed and their bodies burned with their home, but, though many histories tell of their being scalped and murdered, the best evidence points to another end. Bowed down with this crushing grief and disappointment, Samuel stepped out alone to let the tears flow unchecked. It seems most of his life had been bitter disappointment. An Indian hidden there to see, as was their custom, whether there would be pursuit, was moved by his tears to spare his life. Probably the goodness of these nonresistant children of God who had given all for con- science' sake was remembered, and perhaps they would have lived on unmolested by the Indians had it not been for their white French leader. Thus was crimsoned with blood the first
9 Wiley, S. T., History of Preston County. Pages 22-24.
29
THE BEGINNINGS IN WEST VIRGINIA
chapter of the history of the Brethren in West Virginia, and of the English occupation of Preston County.
Samuel was now glad to accompany his guard on their return, and the valley of the Cheat seems to have known him no more. Little is known of his later life. But in 1767 when the war was over and the English controlled this frontier Samuel Eckerlin took action to recover his New River survey. In his bill he stated that he had left his bonds with his brothers, and that they were destroyed when the brothers were murdered and the ef- fects burned. It is curious that two river tracts, some two hun- dred miles apart, should have received the same name from the same person.
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.