By Rev. Merle C. Rummel

II. The FOUR MILE CHURCH

III. The Virginia Families

IV. The Settlement on the Four Mile

V. The Frontier

VI. The Dunkers

VII Four Mile Journal

                General Anthony Wayne named it the Four Mile Creek, he crossed it four miles after he left Fort Hamilton as he moved north against the Indians.  It came down from the northwest, from the stateline area of the new State of Ohio.

                In 1803 the first settlers came to the headwaters of the creek, and settled on the Little Four Mile, at the Ohio state line.  They were:  two brothers, James Huston (w. Sarah) and Samuel Huston (w. Elizabeth Brown), who had heard of the area from their cousin, Matthew Huston, a wagoner for General Wayne.  They came from Bedford Co PA (brother, Thomas Jr -w. Tabitha Wright came later).  Then there was Joseph Kingery and his brothers-in-law, John Miller and Abraham Miller.  Elder Jacob Miller came out from Franklin Co VA to the Miami River Valley (Dayton area) in 1802, where John and Joseph then lived.  Now, they were  surveying the "Gore" -"Indiana" east of the White Water River, inside the Greenville Treaty.  There was the Indian Road from Fort Hamilton (it went on to Muncytown in IN) that ran right through the area.  This was the west extension of the early settlement on the Miami River and on Twin Creek in Ohio.  This is the west edge of Huston Woods State Park, just east of College Corner OH.

When the Gore opened in 1805, "Potter" John Miller (w. Phoebe McClure) was the first settler, south on the state line, but others of the children of Elder Jacob were with him.  Philip Lybrook (w. Anna Miller) went north on the Little Four Mile.  Joseph Kingery (w. Eve Miller/Ritter), remained on their farm inside the Ohio line.  Tobias Miller (w. Sarah Henderson), Abraham Miller (w. Nancy Huston), Daniel Miller (w. Elizabeth Shidler) and an assumed cousin, Col. John Miller (w. Nancy Capper), settled west and south of Potter John.  Aaron Miller (w. Elizabeth Hardman) bought land here, but returned to Dayton, then in 1819 with his brother David Miller (w. Sarah Hardman), followed the Indian Road to the edge of the 12 Mile Purchase to the new Nettle Creek Church.

This was the opening of a major settlement.  The Lower Four Mile Church was established among the Millers and other families near College Corner.  The building was constructed in 1845, one mile north of town.  Among its fellowship were:  Peter Ridenour (w. Margaret Darcuss), with his brother Joseph (w. Susanna Troxel), of Hagarstown MD.  He returned to his original stop on the Indian Road at the Little Four Mile.  (Peter had come in 1800, but there were just too many Indians!  His place is now part of the Huston Woods State Park (Ohio).  From Franklin Co VA were:  Jacob Kingery, father of Joseph and Jacob, came with his children and their families:  Martin (m. Mary Webb), Christian (?m. Jennie Abshire), John (m. Anna Richardson), Samuel (m. Sarah Hickman), Abraham (m. Mary Huston), Eve (m. William Brown) and Catherine (m. Jacob Huston).  They settled just west of now College Corner.  Peter Eikenberry came to the Twin Creek in Preble Co OH, with his brother Henry, but several of his children came on to the Four Mile.  They settled just north of College Corner.  Henry (m. Elizabeth Kingery), Daniel (m. Sarah Kingery), Samuel (m. Martha Crawford), Mary (m. Baltzer Lybrook), Lydia (m. Daniel Miller).  Edmund Moss (ws Elizabeth Barnett/ Elizabeth Boyer), father of William, came with his children:  John (m. Elizabeth Landis), Francis (m. Mary Webster), Edmond (m. Nancy Kingery), Mary (m. Jacob Fisher), Henry (m. Francis Wilderson), Ray (m. Hancy Hopper), Fanny (m. Joseph Ellis).  Two brothers of Elizabeth (wife of Peter Eikenberry) and Mary (wife of Henry Eikenberry) came to the Four Mile:   Daniel Landis (w. Francis ?) and David Landis (w. Elizabeth Peckleshimer), and their sister Rebecca (m. David Shideler).  David and Rebecca lived in the north, Upper Four Mile Church.  Christopher Witter (w. Mary Ulrey) came from Cocalico Creek, Ephrata PA and settled on the Indian Road at the ford over the Little Four Mile.  (His was the farthest north of the Lower Four Mile settlement.)  His children were: John (m. Anna Moyer), Elizabeth (m. John Moyer), Samuel (m. Mary Brown), Jacob (m. Agnes Huston), Mary (m. Isaac Miller), Sarah (m. Jacob Ritter), Susannah (m. Henry Brown), George (m. Fanny Kingery), and Catherine (m. John Coffman).  John Moyer was a first minister here.

                Upper Four Mile Church centered around the Lybrook family:  Baltzer (m. Mary Eikenberry), John (m. Fanny Toney), Jacob (m. Elizabeth Crawford), Philip (m. Hannah Pentecost), Barbara (m. Jacob Kingery), Catherine (m. Poindexter Toney), Elizabeth (m. William Moss), Nancy (m. John Nelson), Eve (m. Jesse Toney), Phoebe (m. Martin Kingery) and Sally (m. James Toney).  John returned to Franklin Co VA to marry his sweetheart, and brought back his mother-in-law Susannah Toney.  Soon her family came:  Edmund (w. Malinda Chastain), Carey (w. Betsy Doran), Jesse (w. Froney Sink), Avirilla (widow of William Thompson), Hannah (m. Matthew Peters).  Daniel Brower (w. Sarah Shively), with his son John (w. Rebecca Marshall) came to the Four Mile and lived on the Ohio side of the State Line Road. [Daniel's sister, Barbara, married Tobias Miller, bro of Elder Jacob, at the Coventry Church PA]  His dau, Elizabeth, married Daniel Eikenberry.  Others who settled in the Upper Four Mile include:  Daniel Hart, from Wilkes Co NC;  David Rinehart (w. Magdalena Fellers) from Maryland (1815), a deacon at the Four Mile Church, he lived in Ohio;  John Rife (w. Francis Crist) from the Upper Valley of VA (1816), lived northwest of the church, near Boston.  The two congregations were separated by about 7 miles (horse and buggy) and meetings alternated between them.  The Upper Four Mile Church was built in the 1850's and is the existing congregation.  The building has been slightly remodeled.  There are several family Cemeteries that hold the early members of the Four Mile Community:  the major one is the Railsback-Lybrook Cemetery on Elder Baltzer Lybrook's farm just south of the Upper Church; and the Kingery Cemetery on Joseph Kingery's farm northeast of College Corner.  Others include the Witter Cemetery at the ford on the Indian Road; the Keffer Cemetery on Thomas Huston's farm (Cottage Grove); the Universalist Cemetery on the Franklin Co line; the Concord Church Cemetery in Ohio; and the College Corner Cemetery.

                The Indian Road crossed a ford over the Whitewater River about 8 miles west of the Upper Four Mile Church.  Daniel Fiant settled there in 1802 (Squatter!!  He actually lived west of the Treaty Line, in Indian territory!)  His wife was Salome Gaby, daughter of Elder Martin Gaby of the Oley Congregation, PA.  The Whitewater Meeting House was established among their children and neighboring families.  This included Daniel Fosher (w. Marillis Eckel) of Bedford Co VA, a medical doctor.  This church was served from the Upper Four Mile.

                As Indiana Territory began to open for settlement, the Four Mile families went across the state.  In 1809 the 12 Mile Purchase opened new lands and many Dunkers, including Aaron and David Miller, poured up the Old Indian Road to the Nettle Creek Congregation at Hagerstown IN.  In 1818, Potter John Miller's son, Tobias (ws. Jane Wolverton/Margaret Robinson), moved to the Wabash River in the west of the new state.  Soon others from the Four Mile went there, including Potter John and old Elder Daniel Miller.  This was the Raccoon Creek Church.  Michigan Territory (northwestern Indiana) opened about 1825, Squire Thompson (w. Charity Florea) and Jacob Huston (w. Catherine Kingery) were earliest settlers there, with many others following them, including ministers Aaron and David Miller of Nettle Creek.  In 1833, Tobias Miller and family moved to LaPorte.  His son, William (w. Mary Miller) lived in South Bend IN and was a state Legislator.  The Indian Road went to Muncytown, then from there trails went west and northwest to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers (Kokomo, Peru and Lafayette IN).  Many younger children of the Four Mile families settled on the Wild Cat Creek, including children of Elder William Moss.  He began circuit preaching for them, and buying up good available farmland in the process.  In 1839 he moved to Mexico IN, partially as a result of the 1831 Cholera Epidemic (he lost his wife, then married Mary (Eikenberry) widow of Elder Baltzer Lybrook and they moved).

                Four Mile families went west with the front wave of settlement.  Squire Thompson was one of the early '49ers, although he died in the Cholera Epidemic in San Francisco shortly after he arrived.  Several of his sons are early settlers in California.  Samuel Eikenberry (w. Martha Crawford) went to Danville IA (1837), was a '49er, came back to Nebraska, served on the state Constitutional Convention and in its first legislature.  Samuel Miller (ws. Elizabeth Kinzie/ Margaret McKenzie), son of Tobias, was a genius in many ways.  He designed and built his uncle Potter John's stone house, and earliest buildings on the Miami University campus, then he was a trustee of the Village of Chicago, with his brother John (w. Jane Crane), then after his wife died he moved back near his father and built the Lighthouse at Michigan City IN (a state historic monument) for his grain shipping business.  James Toney (w. Martha Thornton) moved to St Joseph MO where he split shingles, then in 1847 took the Oregon Trail, in time to arrive for the massacre of the Whitmans.  Daniel Leedy (w. Mary Huston) went to Jefferson Co IA before going as the first Brethren Minister to Oregon in 1854.  Jesse Toney (ws. Eve Lybrook/Anna Marrilla Doran) moved to Illinois after his wife died (in 2 wagons, with the dog under the second), split logs with Abraham Lincoln, and started out for California in 1849.  His only son died at Neosha MO, and he stopped there.  Minister Thomas Miller (ws. Susan Young/Susan Ronk) moved from Raccoon Creek to Missouri and was killed at Ft Scott KS by Civil War Raiders.  In 1855, both Elder Daniel Millers led a settlement to Monroe Co IA, including many Four Mile children and Elder Philip Moss (w. Barbara Moyer) (from Wild Cat Creek) led a similar settlement to Butler Co IA.

                The New Light Revival of the 1830's had an affect on Four Mile, with the formation of Christian Churches on both the east and west sides of Upper Four Mile Church.  Carey Toney (Sr) was a charter member of the Concord Church of Christ, and John and Nancy (Lybrook) Nelson donated the land for the Hannah's Creek Christian Church.  The Universalists had a major Center at Philomath, just  past the ford at the Whitewater River, northwest on the Indian Road.  Whether Peter Han, Dunker Universalist minister of Kentucky, came here is unknown, but most of Col John Miller's family went Universalist, and Tobias Miller became a minister in the Universalist church before he moved to LaPorte IN in 1833.

                With all the migration away from here, the Lower Four Mile Church closed, and the congregation centered in the Upper Church.  Elder Abraham Moss (w. Nancy Rife) remained as Elder until his death in the 1860 Typhoid Epidemic.  Elder Daniel Brower succeeded him and held the church in love and fellowship through the tumultuous days of the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and the Division of the Church, there seems to have been little discord and problem among the Brethren on the Four Mile.  Elder Jacob Rife (w. Esther Stanley) moved from the family farm to a farm just north of the church until just before he died in 1903.

Elder Carey Toney (w. Sarah Moss) succeeded him and in turn he was followed by his son-in-law, Elder Cornelius Petry (w. Emma Luella Toney).

[from The Virginia Colony, by Merle Rummel, unpublished manuscript/book]

V. The Frontier

There were probably as many reasons for moving to the new frontier as there were people who came. A very common reason was financial. Land in settled Virginia cost. There was only so much land, and families were large. One son could inherit the home place, frequently it was the youngest, who then had the responsibility of the parents. Sometimes enough land would be divided between a couple sons. Some daughters might marry a young man who would similarly qualify, or a son to a young woman who was heir to her father, and thus remain locally. There was always the man who didn't make it and would go west to try again. His land could be obtained for a reasonable price for some few local sons. But what could the rest do? Some would die in childhood, God forbid, or even youth. An occasional son would run off on his own, to sea, or went west, and never be heard from again, whatever the reason: Indians, murdered, the far mountain trappers, lost at sea in storms, or just settle down in some distant community and never send word home. Some daughters would never marry. But what about the rest? To these the open frontier was a blessing, no matter what the work and suffering. In many instances one son would be left the home place and all the rest of the family "went west". Land was cheap in cost, it just took hard work. A person could get a good start with his own labor.

For the Dunkers in Virginia there was another reason. They had fled Pennsylvania to escape the pressures of the War against England. Now the conflict was rising again. But even more distressing to these peace-loving people was the conflict rising over the ownership of their fellow man. Virginia had slavery. True, the poorer people seldom afforded such, but the acceptance was there, even back at the edge of the mountains in Franklin County. The Dunkers could not accept the idea of slavery. They looked for a place to go where they could live like they felt life should be lived, and the North West Frontier beckoned. Tobias Miller inherited a group of slaves when his father-in-law died, he freed them, bankrupting himself, and came west to this new good farmland. They were farmers, at least by now, good farmers and those lands on the frontier were fertile, so very, very fertile: topsoil two feet deep. Those lands gladdened the heart of a good farmer.

So they came to the Four Mile, for those and other reasons. They came alone and with others, till many came, including many kin and neighbors, for many hands make light work and there was much work to do. They came in wagons, Conestoga wagons, pulled by yokes of oxen and teams of horses, four horse teams. Peter Ridenour came in first, from Maryland, with a pack horse train. They brought an ax and a plow and a scythe, at bare minimum, but many brought more and enough. The Lybrooks brought cherry bedsteads and cherry cupboard cabinets that are still in the family. They weren't rich, but they had what they needed and it was good. Some came with little, but they helped each other to make do. Martin Witter loaned Daniel Brower a bred heifer, and when she had her calf, it was his to keep, to start up his own herd.

The Lybrooks came to a dense forest country. It is called a climax forest, mostly Beech and Maple, with Oaks, Hickory, Tulip and even some Walnut. They were huge trees covering the sky. Trunks were often 4 or 5 feet through, and the limbs intertwined high overhead, so one walked in the twilight underneath. It was fairly open beneath the tall trees. The sun was virtually shut out and little underbrush grew, except in openings where one of the forest giants had finally fallen. The accumulated leaves formed a thick humus as they decayed and the resulting soil was fertile and rich, and wet. The streams ran full, deeper then they are now, and steady, constant water to mill corn or flour. A miasma lay common over these wet lands, they called it "chills and fever", we call it malaria. The white flowering ageratium (white snake root)* grew prolifically in this moist soil, and cattle ate it, but children and even adults suffered from drinking the milk, they called it "Milk Fever", many died. The ageratium is cousin to the deadly nightshade and the ground cherry.

First, clear the ground. Small trees were cut down and trimmed out. They made brush piles out of the trimmed out tops and brush, these were to be burned come winter. They usually were piled around the too large trees, or at the edge of the field to be planted. Large trees were girdled, the bark cut through, in a ring around the trunk so the tree would die standing upright, for the sap runs up just below the bark layer. They were too big to cut down and too big to use. The tops died, and the sun touched the ground through the dead branches. The settler broke the soil for the first time, plowing around the stumps and standing trunks, planting his hills of corn by hand and hoe, and adding squash or pumpkin and potatoes to produce food for next winter. It was work, hard work, tearing up a man's insides as the plow hooked on roots, jerked the team to a stop, and slammed the plow handles against a man's ribs. Then it took an ax to cut the root at the stump, and maybe the yoke of oxen to get it pulled out of the ground and over to the growing pile of brush. Maybe the first winter, maybe not till the second, after the majestic trees were thoroughly dead and after the crops were all harvested and away, then the brush, the dead tops of the smaller trees were piled around the trunks of the girdled trees and set on fire. It was called "niggering". Fire would do what a man could not take time to do. Fire brought the great trees down and fire cleaned them up. The ashes were plowed back into the soil, it was richer still. The first year a man might clear 5 or 10 or maybe even 20 acres, maybe half of that would be plowed and planted. It made a scanty crop to supply food for a family that first winter, and families were large, but times were hard for everyone.

The first cabin was built, it was all a man could do, even with help. The longest maneuverable log would be 20 feet. That was the long side of the cabin. The short side would depend on how much space he needed, how big a family he had. The height was enough to stand, and enough more to make a loft for the children. Those small trees made the cabin logs. They were a foot, to one and one-half feet thick. A man would square them off with an adze. The Yellow Popular or Tulip Tree was naturally straight and would lay tight together with only a minimum of chinking. They were thick enough to give decent protection against the cold and the chinking kept the winds out. The ends were cut to overlap with special angle cuts, so they would lock together and hold fast. The angles were shaped so water would drain out and not rot the wood. Clay and flat stone built the chimney and a fireplace in one end of the cabin. The roof was big clap-board shingles, rived out of oak or ash. They were 4 foot long, six inches wide or more, and one inch thick. They were held down with cross poles. They kept out most of the rain, partly because the roof sloped enough so the water ran off quickly. In time they warped badly and let in considerable air, but at first they were reasonably tighter.

The actual construction was a neighborly thing that would take three or four days. It took several men together to cut the logs and roll them to the cabin site. Or a man with grown sons might already have the logs cut and adzed square. The logs were raised into place with hand spikes and skid poles. The higher it went the more work it took, and accidents did happen. The gables were made of logs that the ends were cut into a bevel to fit the roof slope, each shorter than the one below it. Several cross poles, the length of the building, held the gables in place and also served as a type of rafter to support the clapboard shingles. If the family were large, the log walls were raised higher, a loft gave sleeping space to the children, especially the boys. The picture of William Moss' cabin shows an outside ladder to the loft, the Templeton Cabin at Liberty has an inside stairway to the loft or upstairs. The door and windows would be cut out of the logs after the cabin was up. A hole would be augered through the logs and the opening sawed out. Hewed lumber three or four inches thick, was fastened by wood pins to the opening in the cabin logs to make a framed doorway or window. Large clapboards would be pegged to split cross poles to make a door. It would swing on a hinge made of a pointed pole, with corresponding holes augered into the logs top and bottom. A latch bar on the inside closed it shut, but the latch-thong was allowed to hang outside through a hole in the door during the day so the latch could be raised and the door opened. At night it would be drawn inside, to prohibit entry by unwanted guests. This is the basis of the saying, "the latch string is always out!" Inside above the doorway hung the rifle, on two wood hooks, or a deer's antler rack. Most families could afford to bring glass panes out with them from the east, carefully packed, enough for maybe 3 small four-paned windows. Heavy wooden shutters, made of clapboards, like the doors, would protect the glass from night or storm damage. The floor might originally be tamped clay, covered with white sand, but a puncheon floor of split logs smoothed off was a quick improvement. Much of the furniture would be homemade. An upright post in the floor, connected by poles to two walls at a corner made a bed, or covered made a table. A split log with sticks for legs made a stool or bench, and if a little larger, would make a table.

Once the cabin was built, the settler himself proceeded on property improvements. A shed would shelter his horses or even a cow. Eventually this would be succeeded by a barn. Another shed sheltered the chickens, ducks and geese. The ashes from the fireplace would be gathered into a type of bin, or hopper close to the house where water from the roof could be run into, and through it. A split log made a trough with one end open. Clapboards shaped it into a funnel and covered it. When full, water running through it made lye, and when boiled with bear or hog grease in an iron kettle made a soft soap or lye soap for the frontier. Somewhere close a well would be dug if a spring was not available. Whichever was available, it would be walled up to protect the water from dirt and wild animals, and the children from falling in. An outhouse would be built, since indoor running water was not of that day. A picket fence would protect the garden, and another the chicken yard. A rail fence or snake fence would now close off a field or several. Winter storage could be simply a barrel buried in the ground, covered with straw, to a buried covered cellar, such as the Frontier Farm Museum at Hueston Woods State Park portrays the Doty family when they settled there. With new buildings and improved living, the original frontier cabin was now becoming a settled farm.

For the new settler, wild game provided a major part of the food supply. In the earliest days, the buffalo, or bison, still roamed the country. But the winter of 1800 decimated them and they were only occasionally seen in the succeeding years. Venison, deer meat, was another good source of meat. Again the winter of 1817 trapped the deer, and while it made easy food provision for settlers during that hard year, it removed another reliable food source for future years. Possom, coon, squirrel, wild turkey, pheasant, wild pigeon and ducks were continuing food. Wild turkeys roosted in the beech woods. They were fat from December to February. When scairt by dogs, they would fly into a tree where they were stalked, or they might be shot at roost at daylight. They would run 12 to 15 lbs. Pigeons would roost at night and were hunted by torch and club. They made a tasty meat dish. After 1830, squirrel became the main table meat. From the wild were many edible plants, "greens" and roots that the settler's wife scrounged and even stored for winter. Lambsquarter, Mullin and Cattail Roots, even the lowly nettle were edible and a tasteful changed to winter fare. Some plants gave natural medicines well in advance of medical knowledge. Many a woman had her loft hung roundabout with drying "weeds" like dock, mullein, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, poke root, mint, catnip, pennyroyal, wormwood, calomel, horehound, plants which stopped a winter cough, or brought down a fever. Some plants were preserved for their flavoring properties. Onion, garlic, mustard, sage and red pepper can season food when salt is run out and nowhere available.

As time passed the garden and farm produced more and more self sufficiency. According to the way it was cooked, corn made johnnycake, cornpone, corn bread and corn fritters. Corn mush was just corn meal cooked in water. When stiff it could be fried, maybe eated with honey or syrup. When hot mush was eated with milk it was called "hasty pudding". Johnnycake was a corn dough baked on a smooth board, corn pone was raised some with yeast and baked in a dutch oven. Corn and beans became succotosh. There was the lye soaked corn, called hominy. Beans just naturally dried themselves if left out in the field. When harvested they could be kept all winter. When the brush pile was burned in early March, cabbage, tobacco and pepper seed were started in the warm ashes, covered against the frost, then transplanted to the garden. Winnigstadt cabbages were for summer use, but Drumhead Cabbage would store for winter buried in the barrel. Boiled cabbage was cooked with fat to give it seasoning. Chopped up cabbage, in the crock, was covered from the flies, and allowed to ferment into saurkraut. Then lard would seal the crock from the air and preserve the food till winter's lean season came. Of course, there was always some to eat now. Potatoes would keep in free air, but usually by February they would give out from rot and wrinkles. Pumpkin and squash could be cut into strips and dried in the loft. Turnips would keep in the barrel, just like potatoes, (but use a different barrel).

The inner bark of the Sassafras root made a good tea, normally used as a spring tonic, it "thinned the blood": Sassyfras tea and 'lassas cookies, a spring treat, that was good for you, it thinned the blood and replaced the iron. The new leaves of Blackberry or Wild Raspberry made a tea that tasted of horehound. Spicewood and the inner bark of the Sycamore made drinks. Blackstrap molasses boiled in water made a man of you. But coffee seems to be something that people must have, even if it is not available. The frontier found many coffees substitutes: bread coffee, crust coffee, meal coffee, potatoe coffee and later, wheat and flour coffee. These were roasted to give a more appropriate flavor. One major drink on the frontier was cider, hard cider. A normal family might use as much as a hundred gallons of hard cider. It was used all year around. A mixture of regular and crab apples made a good hard cider. Realizing that hard cider soon turns to vinegar, the question was how these people had hard cider available all year around. It was discovered that hard cider was a low alcohol fermented apple cider. It was prepared using the same equipments as for the various fruit wines. Peter Ridenour had a distillery at his mill, for whiskey, and it brought results the year of the bad wheat. The early Dunkers accepted the temperate use of alcoholic beverages, they called before council any one who imbibed in excess. Wines and beers were acceptable. Whiskey was marginal, although they did process their corn products into whiskey, as did many of their frontier neighbors. The Methodist Temperance movement of the 1850's brought a major change to the Dunker thought.

Then there were deserts. In the spring, when the maple bush was tapped for syrup, during the cook off, the skimmings, or even a little syrup, would be thrown onto the snow, which the children avidly grabbed for candy. Maple syrup would also be cooked down into a cake of sugar. Honey or maple syrup would make a good custard, or with boiled wheat it made "firmities". Everyone loved to find a "bee tree", even those who suffered most from the bee stings. Apples make good pies, and everyone likes apple pie. No wonder Johnny Appleseed was such an American Hero. He planted apple trees out onto the frontier, where the settlers were not yet come, and there were apple trees bearing fruit when they arrived. Potter John Miller was almost a Johnny Appleseed, he had brought a whole orchard of fruit tree starts with him from Virginia.

The frontier lady brought with her flowers from back home. Hollyhocks, marigolds, verbenias and bachelor buttons bloom around the house. Many a cabin site still retains the white rose bush and red rose bush on either side of the old front door, entirely innocent of the significance from English history and the War of the Roses and the Royal Stuart Family. The trumpet vine or honeysuckle grew on a pole trellis at the door. The morning glory grew so proliferously, that today it is often considered only a weed. The various gourds were grown on vines for their novelty and also for the variety of their use: dippers, bowls, cups, cans, containers of all kinds. Seeds were preserved for next year's planting. You didn't eat your seed crop, no matter how lean the winter became. Seed swapping didn't just happen between the housewife. A good seed corn was prized and traded for share. The weather was closely watched and records kept. The right time to plant was important, to avoid excessive weeding of the crop or particular insect larva as well as to assure proper growin0g temperature. Even the moon and the stars might give the right signs and many read the "almanac" to determine when the time was right.

Money was a problem on the frontier. Most local trade was by barter. Many a doctor or midwife received payment in chickens or a ham. It was normal to consider that it would be 5 years before the farm would yield a surplus. But the land office still wanted paid and there were taxes. While a man might own a quarter, half or even whole section (640 Acres - one mile on a side), most of it was still in forest. A man could only do so much work, and for one man, that usually meant that he had 40 acres that he was tilling. The 40 acres raised all his food, and the extra hay for the cows and horses. Some of his land might be cleared, used as pasture. The rest of his land was woods, still forest. Hogs were allowed to run wild in the woods. Beech mast, acorns and other nuts or seeds, made good food for them and they would root through the woods after mast, seeds and roots. The slop trough was the frontier garbage disposal and fattened the hogs, too. The hog was not as fat as we like today, but a ham is a ham, and bacon is bacon, and while the "wild" hog was a lean hog, the meat was redder and better for a man, even if it did tend to be tough and stringy, and it made lard. The hog could protect itself against the forest preditors, including the wolf but not the bear, better than other domesticated animals like the cow or horse. Hogs were one cash crop on the Four Mile frontier. Herds of hogs, with geese and turkeys, were early driven to Cincinnati/Hamilton where they were cash income that could be exchanged for products not available by local effort. Hog butchering was a late fall activity, since the winter cold would preserve the meat better than any method the frontier provided. Some of the hams might be barreled and shipped by wagon to Cincinnati to ship to New Orleans by flatboat. Venisen hams brought 25 cents and deer skins brought a dollar in Cincinnati in 1820. The deer were stalked at dawn and twilight, or by a bright torch at night, maybe from a boat, called "shining their eyes". They were bled, gutted and hung up, then a pack horse was brought to take them home. Potter John Miller is said to have killed 11 deer one night and gone out the next morning and gotten 7 more. He got his friend and neighbor, William Crawford, to help care for them.

There were predators on the frontier, animals and not the Indians. The rattlesnake and copper head were constant dangers in their respective territories. The wolf was not such a danger to man as to his livestock. Bears ate young pigs. The hunter would loose his dogs, follow and when they chased the bear up a tree he would come for the kill. Bear meat was wild but edible. Bear fat usually made several gallons of grease. The bear skin made a good robe, especially for the children up in the cold loft. The panther, called painter or lion, would follow his prey overhead in the trees. His blood-curdling yowl terrified the young. His cry sounded like a baby or small child. His pelt made a glorious robe or rug. The coon (raccoon) raided the corn and could not be endured. He still is hunted at night by "coondogs". His meat is edible but fatty, and his skin brought 50 cents in frontier days.

"Man works from sun to sun, Woman's work is never done". The man and boys on the frontier had plenty of work to do. There were the crops to plant and harvest. There were endless weeds that must be hoed out. The horses and cattle need tending morning and night. Fences need built or repaired, new buildings built, or roofs tightened up. The forest provided lumber and firewood, work normally done in the wintertime so the snow could help skid the timbers out. In season there were special jobs, like driving the herd of hogs to market. Man's work started as soon as it was light enough to see, and went till it was too dark to be able to see to do the work. Then the men came home. But for the women and girls, work started even earlier, food was ready before it was light outdoors, so the men could eat before they left to work. Food was prepared and ready for them to carry with them to eat during the day. While the men were out working, the woman had endless chores to do. Feed the chickens, hoe the garden, cook dinner for those at home, get supper ready for when the men returned home. Then there was flax and wool to ready for the spinning wheel to make thread, then for the loom to make cloth. The cloth made shirts and pants for the men, and dresses and shawls for the women. There were underclothes to make, and endless socks to knit. Deer hide or bear skins could make good robes or rugs, or even jackets and coats, but someone had to do it. Wood ashes had to be carried outdoors, even if there wasn't a ash rack. And lye had to be cooked into the lard to make soap. Apples needed to be peeled and cored before they could be squeezed for cider, or cooked into apple butter. After the harvest there was still the preservation of the food. And mostly it devolved on the woman. As if this wasn't enough, there always seemed to be another baby. Yes, the younger girls could watch him (or her) during the day. Feeding time was another matter, that invariably was something only mother could handle. It might be delayed with a pacifier, a "sugar nipple" made of maple sugar wrapped in a piece of cloth and sucked. Those days didn't have throwaway pampers, and a dirty diaper was just exactly that. Even the wash wasn't easy like today. The big iron kettle was heated for boiling water. Lye soap was peeled into the water and the clothes were stirred by a stick and beaten by hand until they got clean. Baby's diapers, yes, but the dresses and shirts and pants for the whole family, every week had its wash day. After wash day was done and the clothes were dry, came ironing day. Another day was cooking day, bread for the week. By night all the women were tired, but they still weren't done. The men came home, expecting supper to be ready, and it was, nourishing food even if not fancy. Then after the meal there were still dishes

to clean up. Even after the family was in bed, the baby always demanded attention, and the 2 and 3 year olds weren't that big yet. Big sister really helped, but mother had it all. The best frontier families had large families, with boys to help on the farm, and girls to help in the house. Yes, the cabin was only 20 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide, but there easily were 12 or 16 children in it. Elder Baltzer Lybrook died in the Cholera Epidemic, hardly middle aged, but he was worked to death, because he seems to have had 8 daughters and no sons. But many was the home that had the second or even third wife. "Man works from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done."

The frontier life was a time of hard work that sometimes never seemed to show much result. It seemed like the work never stopped. Everyone worked hard, for the whole week. Even the nearest neighbor was seldom seen, because he was working also. There were times that work could be shared and that made it seem easier, with the companionship of another person. All the neighbors got together for a house raising, or a barn raising. The women brought food, and prepared it all together. The girls tended the little children, but they shared their time and it was not at all like at home. The young boys found plenty of mischief to get into, and even a fistfight or two to prove the pecking order. The men had work, no easier than at home, but not alone.

Every week had the Sabboth Day. That was "go to meeting day". No work was done, except what couldn't be not done. Cows had to be milked and the livestock fed, but there was no cooking on the Sabboth, it was already done the day before. The horses were harnessed to the spring wagon or surrey. Everyone was in their "go to meeting clothes" whether extra, or just clean. Food was packed in a hamper or basket. There was a meeting, at one house or another, according to whose time it was and everyone was there. Maybe it was two hours away, clear up at Lybrooks or clear down at Potter Johns. Maybe Brother John Moyer would preach, or Brother Daniel Miller, or Brother William Moss, or Brother Baltzer Lybrook, or maybe three or all four if the Lord led them. Maybe Elder Jacob Miller had come over from Bear Creek in Ohio, that was a special time, even if he wasn't YOUR grandpa or great grandpa. Maybe it would be Elder John Hart from the Twin Creek from the other side of Preble County. Some were better than others, and those times the crowd might be quite large. If too many came it might move outdoors, to the barn, or even under a tree. The young boys usually managed to slip out of sight, and many a young man, to his parents dismay, gathered with the others outside the door. They could see the girls inside, and the girls were well aware of being observed. They knew better than to make much noise, but sometimes a bottle got passed around, and they knew that some of those sermons were directed at their sinning souls. After the service was over, then the food was put out. It would be late by then, well into the afternoon. Once grace was said, the little children were served first, then the ministers, then the men, then it was whoevers turn. Usually the women waited to last, maybe because someone had to feed the little children, or just because someone had to be last. There would always be some fellow off sparkin' some particular girl, and some parent always managed to keep an eye on a daughter, just so they didn't get too far off by themselves. It was still a time of fellowship and good will, and gossip and getting the latest news. If one wasn't kin to most of the people there, you were still kin of kin. Go to meeting Sunday was a big event to the frontier Four Mile Community. It was even more grand than politics.

Maybe that was because politics was only for the men. The women didn't involve themselves in dirty politics. They had plenty to say about the events and people. but that was at home, to their man. Then he had to go to the polls or to a political rally. Maybe a younger son, or several would tag along with dad. Some young men would strike off on their own, but only after the chores were done for the day. But the Dunkers even then, did not involve themselves too much with electioneering and all that went with it. America in that day was very close to its beginning. The election of a neighbor to office was a very intense action, one due considerable deliberation and consideration comparing him to the capabilities of his opponent. Ones own choice then became a matter for one to champion. America was a representative democracy. There was no such thing as direct election. The election was for your representative, who then carried your vote to the state level. There he voted for the national candidates. You listened to his statements to determine if that were your own opinion, if his party representations were what you wanted. Then you voted for him. You watched his vote and you sure enough let him know if he was not representing what you desired. Read the letter in the appendix from Benjamin Miller to his brother-in- law, William Miller of South Bend, who was a member of the state legislature. Benjamin expresses very strongly his opinion about a candidate, because he knows here is someone who will listen to what he wants and can do something about it. There was much in electioneering that was counter to the Christian beliefs of the Dunkers. Liquor was always present, with the coarse language and bullish aggressiveness that can accompany it. As differing opinions were strongly expressed, the aggressiveness would invariably result in fighting. Always some would end up in enemy camps and the disruption could last a lifetime.

Many were still living who had fought in the Revolution, Carey Toney was one of these on the Four Mile. They carried the fervor of their new country to this new land. It was very personal to them, and as a result to those about them. The Fourth of July was their celebration. It was a gala affair, the biggest event of the year. There was a hog and maybe a couple deer roasting on spits over the fires. Families brought in covered dishes and their own utensils, food was on an open table. There were shooting matches, for a turkey, maybe even for a ham. There were tomahawk throwing contests, Knife throwing contests, and sometimes even an archery shooting contest. Some of the watching Indians could be encouraged to show their skill, if it be better than the wild frontiersman. The Declaration of Independence would be read. There were speeches by important people, and by those old veterans who had "fought there". Toasts were drunk to the nation, and those popular as leaders past and current. There was liquor passed around, and it didn't take liquid refreshment to make one want to fire one's gun in the air to add to the glee of celebration. Typically, a peddler would be present to show his wares, and sell his goods. The young boys went crazy running from one event to another as a sudden roar attracted their attention from what was currently being watched, the girls weren't far behind, they were just a little more demure and trying to quell their excitement to act like young ladies (little girls didn't even care). For many of the older Dunkers of the Four Mile, the Fourth brought only remembrances of hurt and persecution, it was not their celebration. The new county seat of Liberty, and Boston, to the north, held the gathering of area celebrants.

The Old Indian Road was the first pathway into the Four Mile community. It was really only an Indian footpath, used so frequently for many years, that it was trodden bare. The ford over the Whitewater River was originally a buffalo trace (bison), trodden down till the muck in the river bottom was a solid layer.

Many of the ongoing portions of the paths were similarly game trails that the Indians had followed and connected together. The Gaars and the Coxs had followed the path to the Whitewater, they had blazed the trees, cutting bark off so bare white inner wood showed boldly. As time passed the blazed path was widened so wagons could travel it. The long curving incline in Hueston Woods leading up to the Campgrounds shows how the path had to be adapted for horse drawn wagons. (No, its not a gulley, or it wasn't originally, but after 175 years of non-use it has washed in some.) Similarly, the ford over the Little Four Mile at the Witter Cemetary has continued in use as a farm lane, but has not changed drastically from the wagon road used originally by the early settlers. While many lived along the Old Indian Road, others did not, so connecting roads were built. One of these was called the Kingery Road, although now it is closed off. It forked off the Old Indian Road in Hueston Woods Park on the south side of Little Four Mile Creek and followed near the creek through Peter Ridenour's land, acrossed that of Abraham Miller and Joseph Kingery and between James and Samuel Huston into Indiana. Parts of it are still used. The west exit from Hueston Woods, at the Park headquarters goes to Oxford and College Corner. This exit is part of the old road, until the modern road turns south and climbs the hill. The residential driveway there going on west is along the original roadway. The park residence at the end of the driveway, is the site of Peter Ridenour's two story log house, and below it, along the Four Mile, is the remains of the millrace used in the later years by the Ridenour Sawmill. Leaving College Corner on the Eaton Pike, you drive on part of the old roadway. At the sharp corner where the Eaton Pike turns north, the dead end road going on east is the Kingery Road, it passes the Kingery Cemetary, to the old Kingery farm where it stops.

Philip Lybrook is recorded as petitioning for a road to the south. An old road that could have been this petitioned one, is traced along the west banks of the Little Four Mile. At some point south of the Lower Four Mile Church site it broke from the creek and went nearly straight to the south, then jogged east to pass between the barn and house of the old William Smith farm and into College Corner on the far west edge. Parallel to this, running almost due south for much of the Lower Four Mile community was another road about a half mile west of the Four Mile Creek Road. Driving on Nine Mile Road this is most obvious in noting that many of the farmsteads to the west are far back on long lanes. Some of them are obvious that the original house likely faced the opposite direction. As previously stated, another old road came over from the "Quaker Trace" coming through Gratis in Preble County. Ohio State Highway 725 becomes Indiana 44 at the state line, the old road by the settlers coming to the Four Mile is likely this same modern road. The "Boston Pike" (Indiana 227/Ohio 177) or the Richmond-Hamilton Pike became an early turnpike, graveled, with toll gates. It probably came into existance about 1835. About the same time the Liberty-Oxford Pike (now US 27) was formed, and the Old Indian Road ceased to be used and went out of existance. The Lower Four Mile Church was built in the early 1840's on the road along the Little Four Mile Creek. The Upper Four Mile Church was built in 1857 on the corner of the Nine Mile Road. Effectively, this indicates that the Nine Mile Road was built sometime about 1850 and it replaced the two earlier roads on either side.

At the Treaty of St. Marys (OH), 1818, after considerable pressure, the Delawares agreed with the other Indiana Indians to cede their lands to the government and take new lands in Missouri. (While the tribes moved to Missouri, there were individual families of Indians that remained in their old homes. These wandered the various communities and lived much as they could in their old ways despite the increasing presence of white families. There was begging and thievery by some, especially those overcome by fire water, sometimes even murders by one side or the other.) The Delawares moved away in 1820. The Indian "threat" was removed, Indiana Territory, from the White River south, was open to white settlers. Tobias Miller, son of Potter John, had already moved to these new lands in western Indiana, on Raccoon Creek in what became Parke County. His brother, John, was sent over to live with him. The legislature plotted their new capital, Indianapolis, at the mouth of Fall Creek on the White River, where a number of Indian trails met and crossed.

The Four Mile was the frontier. Then the frontier became lands some miles west of the Four Mile, then even more distant lands. The Four Mile was not a tamed area. It was still the deep forest, with only enclaves opened in it. Life was hard, but things were better than at first.

************************ Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, 1899, Vol. I-II, Lewis Publishing Company

Biographical History of Preble County, Ohio, 1900, Lewis Publishing Co.

Centenial History of Butler County, Ohio, 1905, B V Bowen & Co.

History and Biographical Cyclopedia of Butler County, Ohio, 1882, Western Biographical Publishing Company

History and Geography of Union County, Indiana, 1884, W H Beers and Co.

History of Fayette County, Indiana, 1885, Warner Beers and Company

History of Montgomery County, Ohio, 1882, W H Beers & Co.

History of Preble County, Ohio, 1881, H Z Williams and Brother

Young, Andrew History of Wayne County, Indiana, 1872, Robert Clarke and Company

Memoirs of the Miami Valley, V I-III, 1919, Robert Law Co.

Memorial Record of Butler County, Ohio, 1894, Record Publishing Co.

Thompson, Charles N.

Sons of the Wilderness, John and William Conner, 2ed, 1988, Conner Prairie Press. p.142-3 (The general mercantile store of John Conner in the frontier town of Indianapolis, 1823) "as was customary, every kind of merchandise was carried for which there was demand. This embraced dry goods of all sorts, cotton, silk, wool, and linen; personal articles such as combs, umbrellas, parasols, and shawls; cutlery, queensware, hardware, tinware, saddlery, schoolbooks, groceries, shoes, etc. it was customary to keep in stock whisky, the usual price for which was twenty-five cents a gallon, if bought by the barrel. ...`An empty whisky barrel was set up on end in front of the counter, with a hole in the upper head for the drainage of the glasses. On this barrel was set a half gallon bottle filled with whisky, a bowl of maple sugar, and a pitcher of water and often in winter a tumbler of ground ginger...' The whiskey was not aged in wood and the fiery stuff aroused the tempers of the customers. Animosities thus heightened provoked scuffles and brawls that were complacently accepted by the town's inhabitants as ordinary happenings, ... he frankly urged his customers through the newspaper columns to settle their accounts `as frequent settlements should take place for the purpose of remaining long friends.' The added statement that `cash will not be refused' can be understood only when it is recalled that trade and barter were still the common mode of exchange and the currency had been so debased and discredited that indiscriminate acceptance of it was not general."

*Wigginton, Eliot & Bennett, Margie

Foxfire 9, Anchor Press, 1986, Doubleday, p. 77

Milk sickness is poisoning by milk from cows that have eaten White Snakeroot. ...The sickness has been called pucking [sic] fever, sick stomach, the slows and the trembles. ...In man, the symptoms are loss of appetite, listlessness, weakness, vague pains, muscle stiffness, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, severe constipation, bad breath and finally coma. Recovery is slow and may never be complete. More often an attack is fatal.

VI. The Dunkers

          The central group of settlers on the Four Mile were the children of Elder Jacob Miller of the German Baptist Brethren Church, nicknamed Dunker.  About 1773, he moved from Maryland to southwestern Virginia, Franklin Co., on the face of the Blue Ridge.  In 1802, Elder Jacob Miller moved west from Franklin County, Virginia, to near Dayton, Ohio.  In 1809, he with Elder John Hart of the Twin Creek Church, organized the Four Mile Church in Indiana.  This is the basis of the statement about him:  "He was the first Dunker Elder in Virginia, in Ohio and in Indiana."

          The German Baptist Brethren started at Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, when a group of 8 persons decided that they wanted to practice as their belief what they read in the Bible.  These eight were part of the movement in Germany at that time called the "Pietist Movement".  Pietism had started at the University of Halle in the late 1600's and swept acrossed Germany.  Its basic premise was to pattern one's life as close as possible on the teachings of Jesus Christ, the life Jesus told us to live.  Gottfried Arnold's writings showed that the early church of the New Testament was a best example for this, hence the term "primitive christianity".  The acceptance of the New Testament as the pattern of faith and practice was as complete as these people could learn and understand.  Many of them learned to read the original Greek, using the best manuscripts available.  They accepted the teachings of Jesus and the early church as their code of life and faith.  They believed the Bible was literally the Word of God, and practiced it.  They knew the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and practiced the gifts.  As such they were like the later Pentecostals and Charismatics.  They were considered radical, and they demanded a radical change in the life and practice of the church about them, and in its leaders.  The change was to have life be a daily practice of the literal Word of God.  They were thus a challenge to Christian Life in the established church, which the established church refused to accept.

          Germany was then just stabilized from the Reformation starting with Martin Luther and John Calvin which had resulted in the 30 Years War.  Luther and Calvin had formed two churches, the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church.  With the Catholic Church, these three became the established churches.  The princes of the various states would personally choose which of the established churches would dominate in their state.  In any state, Sunday attendance at the legal church was demanded.  Tithing to it and specified offerings were required.  Infants were baptized into it at birth, and the dead were buried from it in the sacred burial grounds.  Marriages were only legal when sanctified by the clergy of the church.  The church was the center of the whole of life, even that of the prince and his family.  On this foundation, many of the abuses that led to Luther's 99 Thesis, continued.  The Pietist movement called for a revival in the church, and especially among the clergy.  The demand for change, and the resistance to change came into conflict.  The result was persecution.  As the zealots of change met stoney resistance to their faith, actions escalated and extremist activities occurred.  The Pietists were labelled by such violence, and jail and death were the result of holding to the new faith.  The local established church, and its faithful, reported the pietist meetings to the sheriff and the military.  It was a matter of faith and reward to root out this "heresy".  It became a matter of life or death to attend a Pietist Bible Study.  They hid away, their teachers came in secrecy, yet lives were touched and new life begun, the movement spread widely, despite the threat of jail or death.

          Ernst Hochman von Hochenau was such a teacher, and Alexander Mack, the miller, was a leader of a local group that met in his mill.  There the noise of the water wheel would drown out the noises of the service.  This small group of eight accepted the scripture:  believe and be baptized.  An infant could not believe, it was incapable of the mental processes.  Baptism was thus for adults who would accept Jesus as their Savior, believe on Him as the Son of God, and be baptized as the cleansing of their sins.  Even the Greek meaning of Baptism as baptidzo, was proclaimed.  It meant put under the water, not sprinkled or water poured over the head.  Following several scriptures, this small group determined a practice of Trine Immersion Baptism, "in the name of the Father, ‑and of the Son, ‑and of the Holy Spirit."  If this was right by the Bible, it should be the practice of the believer.  So they went down to the nearby River Eder.  Someone, unnamed, baptized Alexander Mack, then he baptized the others.  Ernst Hochman was elsewhere on his teaching tour, and when he heard what this group had done, he was very unhappy.  He believed in these scriptures, but typically Pietistic, he also believed that the believers should work inside the existing churches to try to bring true faith and revival to all there, not to separate themselves apart.  The service had not been done in secret, and these Baptizers (still known by that name today in Schwartzenau) were labelled, they were Pietist Separatists.  This group were not quiet about what they believed, and they won others to their faith.  Schwartzenau was in Wittgenstein, one of only a couple states where no state church was proscribed, but even so they quickly brought themselves to the attention of the authorities.

          As believers were won from other states, persecution was directed at them.  Many were asked to leave, give up their family homes and be gone.  That was not simple in those days, many had never been more than a few miles from where they were born and except for the students at the University, a man worked in his father's shop, until it became his, and someday his son's.  Some younger sons might be apprenticed out to learn a different trade, if there was no more room in the family shop.  They had to have legal passes to travel outside the state (our township or county in size), and work was not there for them.  Some few moved about illegally, and suffered the consequences when they were caught.  Schwarzenau was a center for those who had no where else to go, and Alexander Mack was wealthy enough to provide for those who could find nothing to do to earn food.  Creyfeld was another such center and the Baptizers fled to it.  Following 1720, when Count Henry of Wittgenstein died, persecution arrived at Schwarzenau and they fled to Holland.

          There had been another group who came out of the Reformation.  They were not accepted as one of the established churches and were outlawed and persecuted.  They were popularly called the Anabaptists, (to baptize again) since they held to adult, believers, baptism.  They believed in the "imitation of Christ".  This was an emphasis on self‑denial, renouncing earthly comfort and glory, thus the "simple life" and the refusal of all that could be deemed "worldly", that would detract from Christ‑likeness.  They held to brotherhood and lived together in communities of faith.  In such the Baptizers found common grounds.  Creyfeld was their town, and the Anabaptists of that area followed the teachings of Menno Simons (a contemporary of Luther and, like him, a former Roman Catholic priest).  They were popularly called Mennonites.  The Baptizers, in German‑ Tunkers (or Englicized‑ Dunkers), found refuge among the Mennonites, and saw truth in many of their teachings from the Bible.  But the Dunkers saw their young people beginning to joining the Mennonite Church, as various youth from both groups began to marry.  While there was much truth in the Anabaptists teachings there were many vital differences, and the Brethren decided to move.  Alexander Mack put up the money to send one shipload to the New World.  William Penn, and the Quakers, were asking for good settlers in the New World colony, Pennsylvania.  Just outside the city of Philadelphia was a whole colony of German settlers, Mennonites from Creyfeld had gone there early, so the Dunkers learned of it and were welcome.  There these persecuted people could find a true refuge, a home in this New World where they had freedom to worship.  In 1719, Peter Becker led the first group of Dunkers to Germantown, Pennsylvania.  We do not know their names, but in some cases we know Dunkers of the Old World who were now in Pennsylvania.  There were others than those who came on the first ship, and persecution did not stop just because these had left.  Alexander Mack finally sold out his mill and entire estate and in 1729 brought another shipload to Germantown.  There were still others who did not come with him.  Some arrived on their own, later, while others fled to other areas to avoid persecution.  For the Dunkers in America, the Germantown Church is the mother church.

          The first shipload scattered, some stayed in Germantown, others followed a recent band of Mennonites to the western frontier, called Lancaster County, and its available land.  During their first years, these new colonists found their lives absorbed with establishing home and means of life, then in 1723 the rumor of the arrival of the great preacher, Christian Libe, gathered some of them back to Germantown.  The rumor was false, but they fellowshipped with the Germantown Brethren at Peter Becker's.  Association followed and the church became established.  They began to reach out to neighbors and friends and on Christmas day of that year, there was a baptism out of Becker's house, among them was Henry Landis and wife.  They were from Coventry, and the church began at Germantown and reached out to these members there.  Later names at Coventry also include Miller, Brower, Rinehart, Moyer, Fisher, Garber, all with connections to those who came to the Four Mile.  (Elder Jacob Miller's brother, Tobias, married Barbara Brower and lived at Coventry at first.)  Oley, in Berks Co., was another early settlement.  Martin Gaby became a minister there, living at Pricetown.  (His youngest daughter married Daniel Fiant and came to the Four Mile.)  From Coventry and Oley moved a large group to the Conacocheague, the valley west of the Ridge, near Hagarstown, Md, and into Franklin Co. PA.  George Adam Martin, from Coventry, was leader here, and the Millers still live around.  George Adam Martin went on to Stoney Creek, in Brothers Valley, Somerset Co. PA., and the young Jacob Miller with his family followed to there.

          The east side of the Blue Ridge, in Maryland, was called Germanland from the movement of the German speaking Dunkers into it.  Two congregations were formed, named after two branches of the Monocacy River:  the Pipe Creek and the Beaver Dam.  When Elder Jacob Miller lived on his land on the east face of Catoctin mountain, he was in the Beaver Dam Church.  Michael Danner of the Codorus Church had officially established a road from York Co., Pennsylvania, down along the Monocacy to the Potomac, at the crossing now called Harper's Ferry.  Some of his children lived along it.  It became a major migration path to the Valley of Virginia and the Great Indian Warpath that went the length of the Valley.  At the head of the Great Valley, west of the Blue Ridge, in Maryland and into Pennsylvania was the Conacocheague Church, Antietam was one of its congregations.  The Valley land was extremely fertile farmland due to the underlying limestone rock, the Dunkers were now good farmers.

          Peter Becker had taught the weaver's trade to one Conrad Beissel, and later baptized him.  Conrad Beissel was a radical pietist, particularly, a solitary or hermit.  He became the leader of a community of his followers at Ephrata, on the Cocalico, in Lancaster Co.  It was a Seventh Day Baptist community (their holy day was on Saturday), built around extreme simplicity, the solitary life, and Beissel's own teachings of the Christ‑like life.  It was attractive to the pietist Dunkers and led to considerable controversy and division.  George Adam Martin was a Seventh Day Baptist and Snow Hill Community still exists on the Conococheague as a branch of the Ephrata Cloisters.  Alexander Mack, Jr. son of the founder, lived at Ephrata for a while, before he fled to the "far west".

          There had been individuals and groups who followed the Monocacy Road to the Valley of Virginia and found settlement there, some followed the Great Indian War Path down the Valley and there were Dunker settlements extending down into the Holstein and Clinch valleys in Tennessee and along the face of the Blue Ridge from the Roanoke River down into the Carolinas.  This was the far west where Alexander Mack Jr. had come, to Dunker's Bottom, south of the Roanoke River, on the New River.  The disagreements between the English colonists and their mother country were of little concern to the German settlers, especially the non‑violent Dunkers.  Verbal strife became physical persecution against those holding differing opinions, and the Dunkers became recipients of abuse and violence.  A result was:  the trickle to the far west, it became a flood.  Elder Jacob Miller was only one of this flood of Dunkers from Pennsylvania.  Others that went on to the Four Mile were such families as:  Kingery, Eickenberry and Landis, Brower, Ritter, Rinehart, Becktelsheimer, Rife, and Crist.  In the same migration, but not known to be originally Dunkers, were Hart, Huston and Moss.

          In the Carolinas, an early tendency of the Dunkers united with an English religious movement, the Universalists, and most of the Carolina Church was lost.  The Dunkers as Pietists tended to accept the tenant of "universal restoration", that a loving God would not permit his creation to be punished forever for their sins, that in his own way, at his own time, the salvation brought by Christ would extend to all men.  The Universalists believed that no man would be condemned to the Hell, which was the future abode of Satan and his angels.  This was another matter altogether to most of the Dunkers, as actions and papers out of the Annual Conferences of 1794 and 1800 state.  They banned Brother H(endricks?) of North Carolina and the churches there left with him.  The borderline between Radical Pietist "universal restoration" and Universalism was fine and many Dunkers wavered along it, with continuing loss of families or individuals.  In 1821 the Universalists began preaching near Contraras.  Tobias Miller, son of Elder Jacob, became a Universalist Minister and moved to LaPorte IN.   A society was organized in 1847, charter members included many of the Col. John Miller family.  (Read Benjamin Miller's letter, Nov. 18, 1841, in Appendix A.)  Philomath, on the old Indian Road, in north‑western Union County, was a center of Universalism.

          The Universalist Preacher, Elhenan Winchester, in 1803, said of the Dunkers that they "take the Scripture as their only guide, in matters both of faith and practice.  ..such Christians I have never seen as they are:  so averse are they to all sin, and to many things that other Christians esteem lawful, that they not only refuse to swear, go to war, etc. but are so afraid of doing anything contrary to the commands of Christ, that no temptation would prevail upon them ever to sue any person at law, for either name, character, estate, or any debt, be it ever so just.  They are industrious, sober, temperate, kind, charitable people;  envying not the great, nor despising the mean, they read much, they sing and pray much, they are constant attendents upon the worship of God, their dwellinghouses are all houses of prayer.  They walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless both in public and private.  They bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  No noise of rudeness, shameless mirth, loud vain laughter is heard within their doors.  The law of kindness is in their mouths; no sourness or moroseness, disgraces their religion;  and whatsoever they believe their Savior commands, they practice without requiring or regarding what others do.  Rev. Morgan Edwards, formerly minister of the Baptist Church in Philadelphia, once said to me, "God always will have a visible people on earth;  and these are his people at present, above any other in the world."  (from Roger Sappington, Brethren in the Carolinas.)

          The Dunkers were hard‑working farmers, who believed in Christ‑like living.  They mostly spoke German, but many of the families from Franklin Co. VA., were English, so among the Four Mile families German soon died out, (at least, we find no record of it).  They were community oriented, which is shown in the way the several major families intermarried and given names are repeated constantly in so many families.  They lived the "simple life", as opposed to "fancy" or "worldly".  This meant jewelry and sharp clothes, makeup and hair stylings for both men and women were not accepted.   There was no "garb" as was later adopted when the Industrial Revolution crossed America, and as is still seen in the Old Order Dunkers in nearby Ohio.  This Old Order garb of today is typical of the common dress of working man in that day, and as such was like that worn on the Four Mile.  Being "plain" did not mean being out‑of‑date, indeed, the Dunkers were progressive in their advanced methods of farming and useful improvements to the home.  Christ‑like living in the daily life meant some activities of their neighbors were not part of their life.  Swearing and loose language were rejected.  A phrase of description about the Dunkers typlified this: " A Dunker's Word is as good as his Bond!"  Freemasonery, and the various Masonic Lodges, was creditably popularized by President George Washington and others of the Virginia Society.  The Dunkers objected to the oaths required of the mason, and even more to the evidence of heathen beliefs about Jesus Christ incorporated in the higher levels of this secret society.  Joining such was forbidden.  Another was dancing.  The waltz, popular in Virginia, was prohibited, as were the coarser folk dances or round dances of the frontier.  Dunkers did not go to a dance, let alone participate.  Playing with cards, besides being a waste of time, was almost completely associated with gambling, and was prohibited.  Since professional gamblers wore long bar handle mustaches, the mustache was rejected for men, although the beard was expected.  The loaning of money or usury was forbidden, also.  A Christian did not take advantage of his brother in need, indeed, it was common to give aid to another, expecting no return.  One method of earning money was available on the early frontier in Indiana, land would be purchased and held for later sale at a considerable profit.  Some such lands went to sons or sons‑in‑law on marriage, many went to new migrants into the community.  It should be noted that many of these were Brethren from back east.  Such lands would be sold at or a little below current prices, but still at a profit to the seller.  Itinerant Music Teachers came into the community and would hold a singing school, at night, often in the school building.  Since the singing school would include popular or profane music, not singing in worship to the Lord, but actually having "leading" verse ("Sweet Adelaine"), the singing school was prohibited.  It wasn't a case of denial to fun, it was a decision of where the importance of one's life should be placed.  There was plenty of work to be done, there was not enough time left over to waste on things of ill repute.  Scripture said, "Give no place to the evil one."

          John Moss, son of Elder Abraham was put on the "ban", because he had a "Devil's Row" or "spite fence" with his neighbor (no agreement of property line, actually two parallel snake fences were built, some 18" apart, neighbor ‑likely Baltzer Lybrook), then he went to a singing school!  The Ban was the threat and punishment of the local church.  Because of the community atmosphere of the Dunkers, the center of life was in the church.  The Four Mile was basically a family community:  a few separate families, intermarried, and the kin of their spouses.  The Ban prohibited association with an individual by any of the community, even his own family.  He was not spoken to, even by members of his own family in his own home.  He was not seen when he was around, or heard when he spoke.  He became like a non‑person, and was effectively isolated from everyone.  It was a very lonely exile.  Man is not made to live alone, and as a result the ban was invariably effective, even to the most innocent or stubborn individual.  The anticipated result was the confession of the individual of his sin, publicly, in front of the church, and his receiving forgiveness by the church.  John Moss quit the church!  (While the event of John Moss occurred several years following the time of this study, it shows the power of the ban on the individual in that day, and a result that did occur possibly too often.  It was very similar to the "excommunication" of the Catholic Church.)  The Ban became more common as the struggle of the church with the "world" became pronounced, during the Industrial Revolution following the Civil War.  This struggle resulted in a more rigid, or legalistic, attitude about the beliefs and practices of the Dunkers, and disagreements concerning these beliefs were a primary cause of the 1881‑2 splintering of the Dunker Church into its several branches.

          The Dunkers did not accept "Clergy".  Their leaders were their neighbors, possibly the hardest type of ministry possible.  If a person showed true Christlike living and had ability, they could be elected to be a deacon.  From among the deacons, were called the ministers who showed ability to preach, or special concern for their brethren, some few ministers were ordained to the eldership on showing wisdom and outstanding ability.  Each church had a Presiding Elder.  They were not paid for their pastoral work, nor did they take schooling for the position, except as the man studied the Word of God himself and learned from the teaching of the Elders. It was called the "free ministry".  Membership in the church was for adults.  A young man was considered to be an adult when he could show evidence of ability to grow a beard.  By then, possibly he was beyond many of the temptations of teenage rebellion and peer group pressures.  He would choose to accept Christ and join the church.  Consideration to the deaconship and ministry could not come until after the young man married.  A minister especially had to show the scriptural order in his life.  This included the admonition of the ability to control his own family, before he could control the church of Christ, so ministers, and thus elders, were normally older, after they had children.  Many a minister never was considered for the Eldership because of the rebellion and misbehavior of his teenage children.  Christ had to rule in the home and life of the minister.  (The author's grandfather wanted to become a minister, he let his beard grow and it came out half red and half black, he shaved it off.  He never became a minister, he had too much pride.)

          The early Dunkers did not have church buildings, but met in the various homes as the individual's turn came, and his house had space to hold the gathering.  Frequently meetings were held in the barn, or even outdoors under a spreading tree, weather permitting.  Sunday Schools were unknown, although there was a special emphasis on teaching the children:  Sower's Press, in Germantown before the Revolution, had printed special cards for the children.  Depending on how the Spirit led, there might be more than one sermon at a Sunday Meeting, and services could last for several hours.  Later, when church buildings were constructed (1840 for Lower Four Mile and 1857 for Upper Four Mile), some special features evolved.  Remodeling at the Upper Four Mile Church has covered it up, but the signs of the customary double entrance were still visible until recent years.  The front of the church had two separate doors, the one to the right was for the women, the one to the left for the men.  Inside the church, between the doors, was the preachers' bench.  Against the wall was the ministers bench with a long table in front of it.  The active ministers (sometimes only those who would participate that day, sometimes all ministers, including visiting) would be sitting facing the congregation.  (You didn't arrive late, you made sure you were early, else you had to enter church right up front, on either side of the ministers, neither did you get up during the service to go to the restroom.)  Directly in front of the ministers' table was deacon's bench, also facing the congregation.  In the service the deacons read scripture and led the singing.  Since no musical instruments were in the church and often few hymn books, lining of the songs was common.  A Deacon would read one or a couple lines, then the congregation would sing them, then a couple more would be lined.  (One result might be that the tune would be pitched low, often far too low, another, that the timing of the song would be lost, and the beat of the song so slow that the song would drag interminably.)  To the left of the ministers, beyond the mens' door, was the Elders' corner, often called the Amen Corner.  Here were several benches facing toward the ministers, for the Elders, where they could also observe the whole church congregation.  Opposite, beyond the womens' door was a similar set of benches of ministers' and elders' wives.  The church body sat separately by sex in front of the ministers and deacons.  Some Dunker churches placed a wooden partition, or at some high enough to be a wall, down the center of the church between men and women.  (Of course, young folks will always find a way around ‑ like a knot‑hole that a finger can unobtrusively be stuck through, knowing that a certain One had chosen the opposite side.)  The men had pegs in the wall around their side on which they hung their broad brimmed hats.  In the back of the church was a huge fireplace, used for preparation of Communion, and of course for heating in the winter.  The church building would be kept spotlessly clean, painted white inside and out.  Following the service would be a church dinner for all, with fellowship and socializing, then home.  For those from a distance, it might be dark till they were home.  Services did not meet in every church every Sunday,  Whitewater, and later New Bethel, met only once a month.  Likely Upper and Lower Four Mile congregations alternated Sundays.  Attendance was expected at the local church and those that could, attended at the farther churches.

          Church organization in the Dunker church is basically congregational.  The Presiding Elder of the local church moderated the council meetings and overviewed all church activities.  He was directly responsible to the body of elders and ministers that were members of the local church, and to the collective body of elders of Annual Meeting.  Local matters were decided by vote of the church in council.  The vote was to be unanimous.  This was based on the concept of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit speaks with one voice.  To be sure of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, each person must seek to know His will.  A matter of concern or decision is brought up before the council meeting of the whole church membership.  The elders speak, giving direction about the matter, others may speak also, then the matter is prayed over and brought to voice vote.  If the vote is not unanimous, it means that the guidance of the Holy Spirit has not become known to all the congregation.  Further discussion is not accepted, but it is again brought before the Lord in prayer (sometimes the prayers were addressed more to the congregation than to the Lord), then another vote is taken.  If the vote is again not unanimous, then further guidance must be sought and the matter is postponed to the next council meeting.  The intervening time is used to seek the Lord to know His will on the matter.  At the next meeting the same procedure is followed, first the elders speak on the matter, summarizing what has gone on previously, possibly presenting any insights that the Lord has given them.  Others are allowed the right to similarly speak (with restraint), then the matter is brought to prayer and then a vote.  Church council meeting records and Annual Meeting records of this time on occasion have shown a matter brought up again and again for several years before a unanimous decision is reached.  Some cases have only one or a few for or against a measure at the start, but in the end received the unanimous decision.  In others, the matter is finally left undecided because no unanimous decision was reached, and likely, because the matter was so inconsequential that the Lord wasn't interested in the church wasting more time on it.  If a matter was too devisive, or of critical importance beyond the local church, it would be brought to the Annual Meeting for final

decision.  (Please remember that all Four Mile Church records were lost in a house fire in the 1890's, but similar records of other churches are available.)

          The local church was responsible to the decisions of the total church denomination.  Their decisions must be within the acceptance of the Annual Meeting.   Annual Meeting was held each year at the time of the New Testament Pentacost and moved among the various areas where the Dunkers lived in strength.  With so many prestigious elders present from distant states, people flocked to hear them preach.  Outstanding sermons were heard from the most eloquent of preachers.  Great teachings were heard from the best of the Bible scholars.  The services were at least as important as the business conducted.  It was a huge revival to the local community, and also carried on the work of the church and consolidated its position on questions facing the church.  The elders in attendance at Annual Meeting would elect from among themselves 12 who would be called the "Standing Commitee".  These would be the official body for the coming year.  Each year one of these elders was chosen to moderate the Annual Meeting and be the foreman of the Standing Committee for the coming year, thus becoming the head official of the church for that year.  According to the nature of the business of Annual Meeting, other committees might be formed, they would complete their assignment, and report to the next year's Annual Meeting.  The elders, ministers and some deacons formed the voting body, representing their local churches.  Decisions were made according to scripture.  The same procedure was used at Annual Meeting as at the local council meeting.  One or several elders would speak on a matter or issue facing the church, then there was prayer and then a vote was taken.  One interesting result of this was the importance that was put on the presentations of leading elders.*  Annual Meeting ended with a communion service.

          There were several special services of the church that are unique to the Dunkers.  The Trine Immersion Baptism is one of these.  For baptism, the whole assembled church went down to the nearby Four Mile Creek (at Upper Four Mile it was on the Hart farm, just below the Boston Pike.  Lower Four Mile Church was built on the bank above the stream.)  Running water was originally part of the scriptural demands.  There the candidates together give their affirmation of faith by answering three questions that affirm their faith in Jesus and his salvation for them, and their surrender of their life to him.  Then, one by one they were taken into the stream (where the water was about waist deep) and baptized.  The candidate for baptism knelt down in the water and the minister standing beside them, had them cover their nose and mouth with their own hands, then he placed his hands one behind their head and the other covering their hands.  He then dipped them forward into the water (Christ bowed his head in death) once each for: "in the name of the Father, ‑and of the Son, ‑and of the Holy Spirit".  Before they rose up out of the water, a prayer for the infilling of the Holy Spirit was made over the new‑born Christian.  If the group of candidates was large, several ministers might successively baptize the candidates, so that one was being baptized while the previous was removed from the water and the next brought in.  To the horror of one old Dunker Elder at Beaver Dam (MD.), the author was only able to immerse one candidate twice for baptism, taking well over a half hour for that, due to her size, and to her horror of water.  The old Elder would have commanded her to go home until her fear of hell was greater than her fear of the water.

          Communion is another service of the Church.  The Dunker Communion Service consists, according to scripture, of five parts:  the Examination Service, the Footwashing, the Holy Kiss, the Love Feast and the Communion.  The Examination Service was essentially a sermon, or several, reminding people directly if the occasion demanded, generally otherwise, of sin and need for forgiveness.  Such might be the subject of the afternoon services ahead of Communion, but was part of the service that night.  Implicit to receiving forgiveness from the Lord was the scripture that we must forgive those who sinned against us.  Some who were not ready to forgive another would refuse to attend, for kin and neighbors knew the problems between brethren (and sisters).  To forstall this, previous to the Communion was a Deacon's Visitation to each member, to work out differences and feelings.  The Examination Service concluded with beseaching the Lord for

forgiveness.

          The Footwashing Service followed with the scripture that Jesus washed the Disciples feet, then commanded them to do as He had done to them.  The eastern Brethren, and this likely included the Four Mile, practiced what is called the "double mode" of footwashing.  Here (men and women are seated separately and so wash their neighbor's feet) a basin of water is provided at the end of each table, with a long towel "with which he girded himself", long enough to wrap around the waist and hang down to be used for wiping.  The feet are washed by gently running water over them, dipped up by hand out of the basin, or sometimes the feet are immersed in the water.  Then the feet are dried with the towel, following which the brothers stand and exchange the holy kiss.  When a brother is finished washing feet, the towel is passed on to the next brother in line.   A minister or another begins by coming around the end of the table to his left and washing the feet of the brother.  He may continue to wash the feet of several consecutive brothers and finally retakes his seat.  Once a brother's feet are washed by all before him, he then proceeds to wash the feet of those brothers after him, seated along the table and around the opposite side.  This continues until all have washed the feet of their brethren.  Any one individual will have his feet washed several to many times.  Simultaneously, the same has been occuring among the women on their side of the church.  Normally, hymns are sung during the feet washing.  In some churches the Holy Kiss was not bestowed during the Foot Washing service, but once it was completed, then all the brethren practiced the Holy Kiss.  The Far Western Brethren practiced what is called the Single Mode of feetwashing, (they were predominant in early Illinois, seeming to have come out of Washington Co. PA.,  where the Shideler's were from, and Tennessee/Kentucky.).  They washed the feet of only the brother next to them at the table.  All else was similar.  (This is the customary procedure now, as a result of the compromise between the eastern Dunkers and the Far Western Brethren in settling their differences.)

          There had been some discussion whether the Love Feast (meal) should take place before the foot washing or following it (Christ "rose up from the table and took a towel‑"  Again, practiced by the Far Western Brethren).  The custom is that the meal follows the foot washing.  A prayer was offered for the meal, and frequently the custom was to offer one of thanks following the meal.  The Love Feast is a shared meal consisting of meat and sop.  While originally the meat was mutton according to scripture, beef replaced it on the American frontier. (There is no record to ascertain if mutton was ever used on the Four Mile, although records from Ohio, nearby, indicate the change took place about 1830.  Because of the close association of the Four Mile with the Ohio churches, the change of meat probably took place here about the same time.)  Bread is added to the beef broth and cooked together to form the sop.  Modern affluency permits each communicant to have a plate to eat from, communion utensils remaining from early Four Mile include tin plates, but these would have come from manufacturing of the Industrial Revolution (after the time of this study).  Some customs have carried through that indicate that early churches did not have the ware to do this.  A dish of sop, a plate of meat and a plate with a thick sliced loaf of bread sat on each table.  These were passed around the table.  Each person took a thick piece of bread to form their own dish and dipped meat and sop on it, and then ate.  Cups (laterly often tincups) were available to drink water.

          The Communion closed the meal.  Following appropriate scriptures and prayer, specially prepared unleavened bread was broken to each communicant.  The bread was about 1/4 inch thick and in strips about 1 inch wide.  It was lightly cooked so it was whitish in color.  Fork prong marks down the strip allowed for easy breakage.  Scripture was read, then a minister or deacon with a tray of bread (strips) started a strip on each table by breaking it for the first person, then handing him the strip of bread, that communicant broke a piece for the next, handing it to him and then giving him the remainder of the strip of bread.  This proceeded around the table, followed by the minister with a tray of bread, so a strip could be replaced when it became too short to break another piece from it.  In some churches, each repeated the scripture from Romans as he broke the bread for the next person.  Once the bread was broken for all, some churches now said the scripture from Romans in unison, and each solumnly ate, (what the custom was at Four Mile we have no record).  The Cup of the New Testament normally held a low alcohol wine, although about 1850 the temperance movements, and especially from the Methodist Church, challenged the Dunkers, so that Annual Conference determined that grape juice was appropriate.  One Cup of wine was on each table.  Following scripture and prayer, the corresponding scripture from Romans was again said in unison and the cup was passed slowly from communicant to communicant around the table.  Each in turn took a sip and turned the cup slightly before passing it to the next.  (The alcohol and turned cup provided relatively sanitary conditions.)  Again a minister followed the cup around the table, carrying a pitcher of wine to refill it when necessary.  A hymn was sung, prayer of dismissal was given, and "they went out".

          The Communion was a Church service.  It normally was celebrated at any church only once a year.  At Four Mile it was held on Saturday night with preaching starting in the afternoon.  Local and visiting ministers and elders took turns preaching.  Four Mile Communion drew brethen from distances around to the service.  Visitors would likely have come from the Twin Valley area of Preble County and included Miami Valley churches, along with the Nettle Creek Church in Indiana.  Four Mile members would have traveled between the Upper and Lower congregations and come over from the Whitewater.  With slow horse and wagon transportation, there was no possibility for these distant brethren to travel following the night service, so lodging had to be provided for them.  Upper Four Mile does not contain the attic sleeping facilities of some of the old Dunker Churches, neither did Lower Four Mile.  The lodging was provided by the local members in their houses and barns, sleeping on the floor when bedspace ran out.  For the children, this was a festive occasion.  During the afternoon the church was rearranged for Communion.  Benches were reversed to face the next bench.  These benches were especially made such that the back of the bench could be laid on top of the bench supports to form a table.  The tables were placed between a pair of benches.  Food had been collected to serve the guests as well as prepare for the Love Feast.  The big fireplace in the back of the church gave off delicious aroma.  Arriving hungry visitors could satisfy their starved young ones, then proceed for themselves.  An evening meal was served before communion, as the Corinthians scriptures encouraged.  Since Communion thus became an overnight meeting, there was breakfast at the church the next morning.  It was a Sunday:  morning service was held with church dinner following.  It was not uncommon for non‑Brethren visitors to observe the communion, in fact, the records show that the whole community came, if not to observe, at least for the food and visiting.  They were not allowed to participate in the service if they were not Dunker members, but they sat on benches around the outside wall and watched.  Children and youth who were not yet members were also observers, although frequently young men found alternate activity outside.

          The Dunkers hold the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God.  God does not changing, he is the same from everlasting to everlasting.  What he has said, he will fullfill, even if you or I do not agree with what is said.  Men can offer explanations of this and exceptions to it, to obtain their own desires, but that does not change God's Word.  Accordingly the Dunkers hold the sixth commandment to be true as the Bible says it:  "Thou shalt not kill."  The Dunker belief in Pacificism has set the church apart throughout its history.  It has led to persecution and ridicule, imprisonment or worse through every conflict and war our nation has faced.  It has led to condemnation and violent attack by neighbors and even personal friends.  It has brought arguments and splintering within Dunker families, as youth faced by the peer pressures of the community in the hysteria of war fever, decided against their own family's faith.  Many of these separations have never been reconciled.  This belief was instrumental in the movement of the Four Mile Dunker families down the Valley of Virginia just previous to our Revolution.  It has faced the Brethren on the Four Mile, when there was Indian threat during the War of 1812 and local militia were formed, and again as the cries arose against slavery and the slave holder and the nation girded itself to fight its own countrymen.  The Dunkers have faced violence for obeying scripture and showing love to the enemy, as well as the friend.  For this they are not understood.  They do not condone evil, but attempt to resolve the problem behind the conflict, which the use of force has never managed to do.  This follows the teachings of Christ, it is called Peace Making.

          There are two religious movements that had direct effect on the church on the Four Mile during this time.  Both drew some of the Dunkers into leaving the Four Mile Church and joining with other beliefs.

          Peter Han brought the Universalism practiced by many of the Dunkers in North Carolina with him into Kentucky.  The Brethren at Annual Meeting condemned it as a false belief, and told its people that they should no longer accept it as part of our belief.  As a result, most of the Churches in the Carolinas and Kentucky were lost to the Denomination.  Whether Peter Han ever came to the Four Mile, in his preaching missions in Southern Ohio, is unknown.  The Universalists did establish their major center at Philomath in Wayne Co, just west of the White Water River on the Old Indian Road.  The Col. John Miller family in the south of the Lower Four Mile congregation were principals in the formation of a Universalist Church on Pleasant Run about 1845.  Tobias Miller, son of Elder Jacob, became a Universalist Preacher, before he moved to LaPorte IN in 1833.

          The New Light Revival swept across the Ohio Valley in the 1830's.  It became the Christian Churches:  Congregational Christian and Disciples of Christ, esp.  In the Four Mile, the Concord Church of Christ is some 3 miles east of Upper Four Mile, and Carey Toney Sr was a charter member of it.  Many present members of Four Mile are buried in the Cemetery there.  Some 3 miles west of Upper Four Mile is the Hanna's Creek Christian Church.  John and Nancy (Lybrook) Nelson lived there and gave the land for the church.  These do not seem to be many, who left their home church, but it is unknown how many carried the disaffection with them in the migrations of the 1830's and 1850's that left for more distant regions.

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*  The author, as a youth, at Richmond, VA, Annual Conference, heard the old elder, I.N.H. Beahm, a very leading elder for the whole denomination, present on a vital matter.  Repeatedly he used the status of his name and position:  "I.N.H. Beahm says ‑ ‑ ‑ ".  Interestingly, when the vote went against his leadership, his disappointment was obvious.  He came out of the meeting very rapidly for an elderly man, seeing the author and his brother in the entrance he started for us, we separated around some large pillars.  He caught my brother (about 16 yrs old) and gave him the kiss of brotherly love very forcefully, something neither of us wanted at that time.  I now suspect that it was a reminder to him by himself that he still loved the brethren, even if they didn't follow his insights.

Brown, Dale

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          class on Pietism, Bethany Biblical Seminary, 1958

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Cover, Joseph and Murray, Samuel

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Durnbaugh, Donald

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Durnbaugh, Donald, ed.

          The Brethren Encyclopedia, Vol 1‑3, 1983, The Brethren Press

Garst, Jesse, ed.

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Mallott, Floyd

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"Four Mile Church of Brethren to Mark 130th Anniversary Sunday",

Richmond Palladium‑Item, September 14, 1939

Sappington, Roger

          The Brethren in a New Nation, 1976, The Brethren Press

          The Brethren in Virginia, 1973, Committee for Brethren History in Virginia

          The Brethren in the Carolinas, 1971, Bridgewater, Virginia