Fellow researchers--I, too, have enjoyed this discussion. From where I stand, it seems this discussion is a very good example of what happened when the Brethren living in the eastern portions of our nation moved westward. Each of us carries with us a halo of our experiences and interpretations of life. And, we come in contact with those who disagree with us on one or more issues. Then, we either develop ways to resolve the issues together or we do not. Frontier accommodation in patterns of living, religious understandings, and cultural heritages faced all those who ventured from "home" to a new living environment. Brethren were not exempt from these issues. How they resolved their religious understandings, cultural and living patterns is one example among many other groups of peoples. History has recorded some of these experiences, but I doubt all the experiences, since all of us "see" the experience differently from others and will describe the same experience from their own standpoint. We have not all had the same teachers. Neither have our life's experiences been duplicated by all others. Each of us will interpret our experiences differently, just as those who recorded the history of the Brethren who have lived before us today. We can only interpret from the material we have researched, we can never say with certainty that we have the only answer. One early Brethren historian has described historians as beggars picking up the crumbs left from the meal. Whatever "crumbs" we have picked up allows us to interpret what we see. None of us can be completely correct, or completely wrong. There is some truth in all the interpretations. How the Brethren in Missouri who arrived while the area was still under Spanish, later French rule, then Americanized after 1804, accommodated to these changes will be different from those who arrived in other areas of the country earlier in our national or religious history. The Brethren who arrived in Missouri just prior to the Border Warfare of the 1850's and the Civil War beginning in 1861 will have different experiences from those arriving after the war. Many of those who came to Missouri had some previous experiences in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas, as well as the more northern states and accommodations were again made. Change continues to happen, both within our own Brethren history and our nation's history. We do not remain static. Just think of the changes in our own lifetimes. Whoever our teachers were, they taught as they understood history. I ask the question, "Will we teach and write our history with openness?" We have a choice. Jane Davis. _________________________________________________________________ Making the world a better place one message at a time. http://www.imtalkathon.com/?source=EML_WLH_Talkathon_BetterPlace