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Archiver > BRETHREN > 1998-09 > 0904948556


From: Merle Rummel <>
Subject: Thank You
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 18:35:56 -0400


A great big thanks to Bruce Jagger <<>, who sent me
a whole collection of information he has collected on the White Water
Church in Missouri (while researching his Wigle family that went
there!)(family moved Kentucky -> Missouri -> Illinois -> west)

There were some things he was proud of, and sent me faceplates on: turned
out to be as/or MORE important than the information we had discussed.

I took the faceplate of an old Bible he has, belongs to his family clear
back to Missouri, or at least Illinois. A German Bible, printed Halle,
1804. Now -I recognized Halle --Thats the University in Germany, where our
Brethren Pietism started - in c1680. So I went in to Bethany Seminary (its
moved down here to Richmond, is on the Earlham College Campus (Quaker) -and
I hunted down Dr Jeff Bach -Professor of Brethren History. I asked him why
a Lutheran Bible would be printed in Halle. He explained that the press at
the University made its operating money back then, by printing German
Bibles for the Lutherans in Germany, and then they began selling them to
German speaking people in America.

Then he got a funny look on his face --"You say he's Wigle?" -yes -"Is
there any other writing in the Bible?" -yes, the family births and data.
(means -its certainly the real thing!)

"Why, this I'm going to have to Remember! --will you give me a copy? --We
didn't know that they were still speaking German out there in Missouri and
Illinois! we thot they had probably given it up! this is something new!
--Some of that family went to Oregon!" Yes, he included some of their
journal writings --"I want a copy of that too!"

In History -some of these little things YOU find -while you research you
ancestry --mean LOADS to us Historians! And it very likely WE aren't going
to find them, unless we just stumble on them. Yes, I've been looking up
some of the Books, Bruce mentioned to me, and he sent me copies of some
that I hadn't found yet. I sure do appreciate all that You sent me! But
it got me thinking --How MUCH MORE -have some of the rest of you found
--that would BLOW ME AWAY!

Some of you have already done that:

---There's a Berleburg Bible, in a family down at Lexington KY! (e-mail on
it -from Bill Alverson) that is the BIBLE of the Radical Pietists --at the
Tate's Creek Church!? Our Brethren were Radical Pietists out here in the
Midwest?? Well yes, now I see it, not everybody, but they certainly were
more Pietist, than back east -and because of that e-mail - from it I put
together a whole bunch of bits and pieces -that before that were just -bits
and pieces!

---Sharon Mills <<> gave me a lead on the Boone
family in Kentucky, and a church there in Shelby Co that I hadn't heard of!

---Lisa Hazen <<> asked me about Jacob Sigler, went from my
church up to hers (Beaver Creek) -and in the process of hunting for him,
I found another family --probably the earliest one here!! (Xxx Aukerman,
1789 son John was first to Gratis OH) And it started a whole line of
research about my church -that I had only partly considered --Where EXACTLY
did all those people go? -who moved from my church up to Dayton in the
early 1800s. (Next Years Project -for the Southern Ohio Heritage Festival,
at Camp Woodland Altars! [Labor Day weekend (Saturday)] -if I get it done
in time.)

---Kathy High <<> asked me about her branch of the
Hendricks family (Thomas) --they moved to Indiana. And that answered a
question that Dr David Eller asked in his Dissertation: "Why did they
describe the Brethren Association (1826) -as being Universalist?" Well
-suddenly, I'm finding Hendricks families in Indiana and Ohio --and
Universalism in every community I find them --drawing members from the
Brethren! I sent this information on to Dr Eller, with some of the other
details that connected to it.

I could keep on -and bore you --but the point I'm making, for us Historians
-there are so many pieces of information -that connect to little hooks
-that help build a BIG Picture. Sometimes the picture gets tremendous!
And YOU are finding those pieces --and I never hear of them -till you tell
me about them! Then -you should see how excited I can get!

If you want to send me some of these tidbits that you have found --please
do! I'll accept them gladly, and neither one of us knows what the results
might be! And I do forward information on -especially when it is something
really BIG (history)!

With my new computer -I can take lots more info off the internet. Or
"snail-mail" to my home address -if you would send me copies some of the
things you've found --

and Yes! Thank you, Bruce! again!

Rev Merle C Rummel
PO Box 14
Boston IN, 47324

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