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From:
Subject: [BRE] Virginia Brethren
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 10:25:20 EDT


In a message dated 5/2/01 6:05:07 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
writes:


> The problem with Virginia was that it was a Royal Colony --and the Church
> of England (Anglican/Episcopal) was the established church. The tithe had
> to be paid to it monthly, whether you were a member or not. All marriages,
> baptisms and burials had to be through it --with the appropriate fee. The
> Brethren had just escaped that persecution in Germany. They came back and
> settled the Valley of Virginia just before the Revolution -when English
> laws were breaking down.

Merle,
I am aware of posssibly 2 Brethren churches in the greater Shenandoah
Valley that I know personally I would personally love to find more about.
The one would have large import on my Moyer family of Naked Creek
which is the dividing line for present day Page and Rockingham counties in
the Valley. There is a family history for my family which lived on the creek
that before St. Peter's Lutheran church was founded that the church was
originally a Mennonite/Brethren church that was the continuation of an
earlier church that we call the Naked Creek church.
Evidence is now coming to light that as part of the Germanna colony of
which Hebron is the more known church that as part of the colony there was an
associated Brethren church. The actual date is not known but in the 1770 time
frame there was a Brethren Minister there. If you also study the church
records of Hebron you will also discover that a significant portion of the
known colonists are not represented in the church records which in the early
days was a Union church.
I do know that of my Moyer family of Rockingham county that 2/3 of his
children seem to have been Mennonite/Brethren as these individuals had close
ties to the Harnsberger and Conrad families which were Brethren. This also
applies to the Germanna Moyer family who had dealings with know early
Brethren families in Orange and Culpepper county.
Unfortuantely these Brethren churches are not even known of today and
research would have to be done on the families much like the Whipps in
present day Centerville, Bedford county, Pa.

Wayne
Visit my web site at:
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/spiwebb/">Montgomery County, Ohio Research Services</A>

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