Dunkard's Bottom, Virginia
Dunkard's Bottom was a Schwarzenau Brethren religious community established on the New River in the mid-1740s by brothers Samuel, Gabriel and Israel Eckerlin and Alexander Mack Jr. It flourished for only a few years until most of the settlers decided to return to Pennsylvania because living conditions at Dunkard's Bottom were too harsh. The Eckerlins sold their property in 1753 and moved to what is now West Virginia. The property changed hands several times until the construction of the Claytor Dam in 1939, which submerged the area of Dunkard's Bottom under Claytor Lake.
Chimney from the home of William Christian, built in 1772. The stones were relocated when the dam inundated the site, and this monument was erected at Claytor Lake State Park by the New River Historical Society and the Virginia Division of State Parks.
Traditional religious Love Feast among the Schwarzenau Brethren.
The Schwarzenau Brethren, the German Baptist Brethren, Dunkers, Dunkards, Tunkers, or sometimes simply called the German Baptists, are an Anabaptist group that dissented from Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed European state churches during the 17th and 18th centuries. German Baptist Brethren emerged in some German-speaking states in western and southwestern parts of the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the Radical Pietist revival movement of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Brethren emphasize simplicity and humility in their life, including their architecture—as exemplified by this simple church built by Dunkers in Germantown, Philadelphia, pictured c. 1905.
