Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1889 — A DESCRIPTION OF THE DUNKARDS. [ARTICLE]

A DESCRIPTION OF THE DUNKARDS.

A Peculiar People with Peculiar Customs. V The following description of that very peculiar people known as Dunkards is from the October number of Harper’s Magazine. The description, although written for the Dunkards of Pennsylvania, will apply just as.correctly to the members of the sect elsewhere, including the large numbers now settled in various parts of Jasper and Newton counties: Here one meets the Dunker per se in every by-road and lime men with long beards and flowing hair parted in the middle. At the farmhouses are pleasant, matronly faces, stamped with humility and gentleness, while an air of almost saintly simplicity is given by the clear-starched cap, the handkerchief crossed on the breast, the white apron, and the plain gray or drab stuff of the dresses.

The style of living of these people, their manners and customs, are of the most primitive type. Their aiin is to imitate the early Christians in their habits of life as well as their religious tenets. There is absolutely no distinction of caste among them. They settled at first near Philadelphia, in a spot which has since been called Germantown, from the various German religious refugees who settled there in the early part of'the last century. The sect is now chiefly confined to central and western Pennsylvania, but has spread to other states, principally those of the Northwest though there are churches established in western Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Their dress is of the simplest description, quaint and old-fashioned in its cut; they offer no resistance to injuries; they observe no conformity with the world and its manners and customs; they refuse to take oaths in courts of law; in these and many other ways resembling the Society of Friends. Some of their religious ceremonies are exceedingly curious. They celebrate the Lord’s Supper after the manner of the primitive Christians. The feast begins about the time of candle-lighting. The men are seated upon one side of the meeting-house, the women upon the other. The first ceremony is that of the washing of feet, each sex performing this duty for its own. Those who are to engage in the ordinance presently enter the meeting, carrying tubs of lukewarm water, anti each member on the front benches removes his or her shoes and stockings. A man on the men’s side and a woman on the women’s then wash the feet one by one, taking the right hand of each individual, as they finish the washing, and giving them the kiss of peace. After the one who performs the washing follows another, with a long towel girded around the waist, who wipes the feet just washed, at the same time giving the light hand and the kiss of peace. As one benchful has the ceremonyjjerformed, it gives place to another. While this ceremony is being conducted, the minister or teachers make a brief speech or read appropriate portions of Scripture, relating to the subject

The next ceremony is the supper itself. Each third bench is eo arranged that the back can be turned upon a pivot at each end, so as to form the top of a long table. This is covered with a white cloth, and presently brothers and sisters enter, bearing large plates or bowls of soup, which are placed upon the tables. Three or four persons help themselves out !of the same dish. After this the communion is administered, and by the singing of hymns and preaching. This the brethren hold is the only true method of administering the ordinance of the Last Supper, and also hold that it is similar to that ceremony as celebrated in the earliest Christian church. Another peculiar ordinance among them is that of anointing the sick with oil, in accordance with the text in James, v, 14. The sick one calls upon the elders of the meeting, and at a settled time the ceremony is performed. It I consists of pouring oil upoir the | the head of the sick person, of lay. ing hands upon them, and praying over them. The ordinance of baptism is administered in running water and by threefold immersion, the officiating minister then laying his hands upon the recipient, who still kneels in the water, and praying over him or her. The ministers or teachers, who receive no stipend whatever, are elected by the votes of the mem- „ beta of the church, he who re-

ceives the largest number of votes being pronounced elected. These elections are summoned by the eiders of the church, who preside over them and receive the votes of the people, either viva voet - in whispers, or by closed ballots. If no candidate has a majority, or if there are a greater number of blank votes cast than for any one candidate, the election is pronounced void.

account of these people, and of their religious customs and ordinances. They are called Hunkers, or Tunkers, from the German tunken, which may be interpreted to dip, or probably “to sop” is a better equivalent’word. They assume for themselves the name brethren on account of the text, Matthew, xxxni. 8, “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” They also sometimes call themselves ‘"God’s Peculiar People.”