Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-08
THE DUNKARDS.
Immense Gathering of the German
BapIists OF the United states
Men of Peace In Council
Habits and Customs
OF Peculiar
People.

Broadway Church, Rockingham county,
Virginia, correspondence of the New York
Herald, second instant: Tomorrow will
witness in this part of the Shenandoah
valley the greatest collection of christian
German people ever gathered together upon
any occasion IN the United States. 1t is the
beginning of what Is known as the National
annual conference of the German Baptists of
the United States. They were originally
and for long time known as Dunkards, or
Iunkers, but these designations were dis
tasteful TO them, and they now prefer to be
called German Baptists. They are an agri-
cultural people, plain and simple in their
habits and manners, sincere and cordial IN
their hospitality and friendships, and adhere
with great tenacity TO the forms and usages
OF their church. 1t IS church whose minis
ters receive no pay for any services rendered,
furnishing the gospel of Gods Son without
money and without price. They cling
with strong attachment to what they
esteem the usages of the primitive church
established by the Savior. At their extra
ordinary meetings they engage In washing
each other's feet, the brethren greeting each
other always when meeting with the holy
kiss. Their dress Is as PLAIN and as simple
as their manners are artless. They are
scattered all over the world, and are found
in almost all the best agricultural districts in
the United States. The great body of the
church ia the United States is found 10 the
richer portions of the interior of Pennsylva-
MIA, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, ard
IN the territory composing the States of the
great west There are not many members
Of the church Ia the more remote southern
States, bot they have commenced to settle In
portions of Tennessee, In what Is known as a
continuation of the great valley stretching
from the Potomac river TO the southwest.
These national annual conferences are the
greatest of all the convocations known in the
-E,T
known people. Hence, on all these occasions
they turn out in immense force, their assem-
blies numbering thousands upon thousands.
1t is really almost multitude which no man
can number. The number confidently ex-
pected on Tuesday, Wednesday, ThursdaYand
Friday, the four days of the sessions of
the conference, Is seven or eight thousand,
a large proportion Of whom are preachers,
the number of preachers In the church be-
ing larger In proportion to the laity of the
society than II any other christian denom-
nation. Their preachers are all elected by
the church, and undergo no training for the
duties to which they are elected. These peo-
pie do not take an oath, always affirming by
holding up their right hand IN court when
testifying to any fact. They do not hold
Office, excluding themselves from the cate
CORY of shice-seekers. They do not fight or
engage in war. Hence in the late collision
between the States Of the American Union
they were all for peaceful settlement, and
suffered as church and people less damage
and Generalization than any other church in
the United States. They do not sue or APP
peal TO the courts for any sort of legal set
clement that can be arranged by the church.
The church at Broadway is IN one of the best,
one of the richest PORTIONS of the LnYille
creek valley. During the war II suffered
terribly by FIRE and sword. In October, 1874,
when General Sheridan determined to lay 1t
waste, three hundred barns and mills To-
Gated IN this valley were set on FIRE, and
might have been seen burning at one time
from the surrounding hills looking down
upon the scene below. This now peace
full, prosperous, happy, smiling coantry was
then literally a sea Of FIRE. This immense
meeting of this independent, simple minded,
unostentatious body OF christians is the Sec
oId national annual conference held at this
place within the last thirty-seven years. The
last annual conference held in the Shenan-
doah valley convened at Beaver creek church,
in Rockingham county, in 1861, after the
commencement OF the war between the States.
The conference was imposing IN members,
and aggregated an immense religious influ-
ence; but the railway did not then pierce the
center of the Shenandoah valley, and the at
tendance was greatly smaller than it will now
be. Immense structures have been reared on
the ground for cooking and dining purposes,
and for the meeting of the conference. Eight
hundred persons will be seated at the tables
at one time, and two hundred waters have
been selected from the church to see that they
are served. Taken altogether, IN its huge
proportions, this national annual conference
of the German Baptists bids fair to be the
largest religious body ever convened in the
southern States"