PA-FRANKLIN-SNOWHILL-L Archives

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Subject: [SNOWHILL] Mt.Zion Church/Falling Spring Brethren
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 18:07:53 EDT

Cheryll:

In answer to your question re: Mt. Zion.       >  

"Can someone help me understand the interworkings of these various
> churches and meetings houses, most of which seem to have been used at >>
>> varying times by a number of the same families?  It would appear fromthe date
>> of the church's (Mt. Zion) erection and Elizabeth's (Knepper) death that the
>> graveyard preceded the church. Or was there a previous building on the
>  site that was replaced in the early 1840's."
>
>        Answer: 
>
>        The German Baptists entered the Antietam region to resist the
> incursions of the Seventh Day Baptists who were drawing Brethren into their
> membership.  George Adam Martin, a friend of Beissel, was involved in both Snow Hill
> and Bermudian (Brethren) for a time.  The Mack family (Brethren) and others
> entered the region  (1749-1751)  and attempted to stabilize the church.  This
> was a period of migrating families including the Kneppers who arrived with
> Mack on the "Allen".
>
>        For convenience,  the families made their settlements and identified
> either with the Ephrata (Snow Hill) movement or the German Baptists.  One
> account says that the Knepper's Burying Ground was given by Veronica Bloom
> Knepper (wife of Wilhem) and her daughter Elizabeth.  German settlers are said to
> have made settlements in this region as early as l762. A church was built on
> the ground but was razed.  Veronica gave a warrant for the land under the
> date of August 30, l763. Part of this land was transferred to Peter Knepper on
> January 2, l8ll.
>
>        Antietam, as an early congregation, had a widely scattered membership
> and therefore had many meetinghouses. Some of the  members identified with
> the Snow Hill movement. Later, Snow Hill members intermarried with members of
> the Antietam Brethren congregation and became German Baptists.
>
>        "Members of the Antietam Brethren congregation shared a union church
> with other groups of the area.  This union church, located near Mont Alto,
> was known as the Mount Zion church.  It was shared by members of the Snow Hill
> Seventh Day Baptists, who arrived in Franklin County in 1764;  by members of
> the Old Order Brethren (ultra conservative) who separated from the Church of
> the Brethren in 1881-1882;  and by the Church of the Brethren.  The Mount
> Zion Church house was used by the Falling Spring congregation until 1960."  p.
> 191, "Change and Challenge"
>       
>        Falling Spring was one of the daughter congregations of the
> Antietam/Brethren started in 1866.  The building was apparently constructed in1869 and
> reconstructed in 1962. The Brethren Antietam congregation served the greater
> part of Franklin Co., and Washington Co., MD.  Many of these meetinghouses
> were led by a particular family group, like the Kneppers.  They lived nearby
> as they could not travel far during the winter months and intermarried among
> the different faiths/denominations.
>
>     Where the original Wilhem (William) Knepper was buried remains a
> mystery. He was in York-Adams County after l729 and belonged to the Big Conewago
> congregation (See the  book "Along the Big Big Conewago"). Whether he moved on
> to Mt Zion (Quincy, PA) is not known.

Put together by my Dad, Elmer Q. Gleim, and me.
Dianne

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