Some of you seem to be interested in the Dunkards/Brethren. They are also known as German Baptists because they practice immersion. Over the years many of them joined mainstream Baptist or Methodist churches as they became anglicized. My father told me stories of the Baptist church he grew up in that was in Southeast MO. They practiced footwashing and other things that seemed to have come from the Brethren. His grandfather was from a family that were Dunkards back in NC but then they came to MO in the early 1800s as did a whole group of Dunkards from NC. In PA there were 2 German Baptist Churches and both of these sent out missionaries to the frontier in MD, VA, and NC. One were the Epratites which was a splinter group from the Dunkards and they were headquartered in Ephrata PA. Their original buildings are still there, wooden buildings called The Cloisters, and are a fascinating place to visit. They were called Seventh Day Baptists because they celebrated the Lords Day on Saturday. They believed also in some who took a vow of chasity and lived just like European monks and nuns, and wore habits. The Brethren were first day Baptists who celebrated on Sunday. The books say that when they got to the frontier the two groups often cooperated. Having been a Moravian when I lived in NYC I am familiar with their forms of worship and they are very different from the Brethren. Here in PA the Brethren men wear beards and while they drive modern cars they do wear very conservative dress. Back in 1750 there must have been a lot of friction between the Brethren and the Moravians because in that year the Brethren had some kind of a conference and several books list my Phillip Earhart and several others in York/Adams Co PA, who became missionaries to NC, as signing a petition which excommunicated a Joseph Mueller for his association with the Moravians and trying to proselyte the Brethren. I have never been able to get a copy of that petition. For those of you who may have a Brethren background here is a list of NC references: "Dunker Beginnings in North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century" by Roger Sappington in The NorthCarolina Historical Review Vol XLVI July 1969 Num 3 (Found in the Catawba Co Lib.) "Two Eighteen Century Dunker Congregations in North Carolina" by Roger Sappinton As above Vol XLVII Num 3 April 1970 (Found in the library of Bridewater College in VA) "The Brethren in North Carolina During the Revolution" by John Scott Davenport Brethren Life and Thought - A Quarterly Journal Published in the Interest of the Church of the Brethren Vol XXII Winter 1977 Number one ( This was sent to me by a historian in NC an R. Carpenter ) There are other books on the general history of the Brethren but I was not sure of any general interest, but I can give more resources if anyone is interested. Betty Silfies