Summary Of Chapter 3: Roanoke's Brethren

Chapter 3: Roanoke’s Brethren: “That Souls May Be Saved”
Roanoke City, and even the Roanoke Valley as a whole, operated as a Southern “Hebron,” giving its citizens an assortment of choices for their spiritual inclinations. The same may be said about those who are referred to as the “Brethren,” though as it will be shown, there are several different groups who have adopted the title of “Brethren.” On his eighty fifth birthday, Elder Jonas Graybill preached a sermon in Troutville, a nearby town to Roanoke, at a Church of the Brethren congregation. In it, Graybill stated, “I heard a man tell of a good country, what fine farms it had. It was good for wheat, and all that kind of thing, but there was no church there. People do not like a place like

This is likely due, at least in part, to the dominance of other groups, particularly the Baptists, who have similar beliefs and practices. The Old German Baptist Brethren even have “Baptist” in their title. However, as the Brethren of Roanoke make clear, there is quite a bit of diversity among the different Brethren groups, which originally coincided around the time of Magic City’s beginnings as well. Clearly, more work can and ought to be done in the field of Brethren history, but at the same time, this case study of Roanoke provides one of the best possible examples for Brethren in the South. Roanoke, after all, was a brand new city, but it was also situated in an area with Brethren communities already present, though in mainly rural contexts. Although the different groups of Brethren, especially the more outgoing Church of the Brethren and United Brethren, helped shape Roanoke from its origins, it might also be supposed that the city also shaped the Brethren. Although it is true that the Church of the Brethren retained their practice of washing fellow members’ feet, which was followed by a “Holy Kiss” and the shaking of hands, they adapted to a changing culture with newer forms of education, music, public gatherings, and the like. The same could not be said about the Old German Baptist Brethren, who likewise tended to congregate in settings outside of the city. According to The Roanoke Daily Times, they were “of that class that make the best and most reliable citizens of a community. Men who love the farm and know how to run the business.” On the very opposite spectrum, the United Brethren were active members in Roanoke and outside of it, who likewise felt free to experiment with new methods of outreach. Rather than being a homogenous group, the Brethren contributed in a variety of ways, as a diverse lot, to the religious makeup of Roanoke, the very soul of Magic