At 01:42 PM 07/24/2000 -0400, Sandra Ferguson wrote: >This is the strangest sect I've ever heard of. It existed in Chester in the >1840s, and had a number of followers in the northern part of the county. That's my neighborhood! Many of the group lived in the vicinity of Shenkel Church (aka 2nd German Reformed) in Coventry Twp; some of Shenkel's members became part of the Battle Axe group... one of the tales in the neighborhood is that some of the more conservative members of Shenkel church were unhappy with the church's position of tolerance & patience regarding the Battle Axes (among other things) and, feeling the congregation was generally too liberal, split off and formed Temple Methodist Church a "country block" away. Here's the biblio data for a fairly comprehensive book about Theophilus Gates & his followers: Sellers, Charles Coleman. Theophilus the Battle-Axe: A History of the Lives and Adventures of Theophilus Ransom Gates and the Battle-Axes. Philadelphia: Patterson & White Co., 1930. 67pp. This book is not easy to find... rare booksellers might be able to scare one up, or try ILL. Here's a web address for an article that mentions Gates & his activities: http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/exhibits/oneida/umifilm.htm hth robin