{"id":3442,"date":"2025-03-07T21:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T01:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3442"},"modified":"2025-03-05T10:41:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T14:41:34","slug":"the-dunkards-of-appalachia-a-story-of-faith-and-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3442","title":{"rendered":"The Dunkards of Appalachia: A Story of Faith and Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of the Stories podcast, we journey back to the mid-1700s to uncover the story of the Schwartzenau Brethren, also known as the Dunkards, who established one of the earliest settlements in the New River Valley of Virginia. Join us as we tell the story of this fascinating religious community, their unique beliefs, and the challenges one family of Dunkards faced while trying to create a self-sustaining life in the wilderness.<\/p>\n<p>From their roots in Germany to their journey to Pennsylvania, then on to the New River in Virginia, then finally to the Cheat River in what\u2019s now West Virginia, this family\u2019s story is one of faith, determination, and the harsh realities of frontier life. <\/p>\n<p>Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app to catch all our stories. <\/p>\n<p>You can also support our storytelling journey and access exclusive content by becoming a patron here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/podcast\/stories-of-appalachia--5553692\/support\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/podcast\/stories-of-appalachia&#8211;5553692\/support<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8094\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3442-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/64711954\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/64711954\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/64711954\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/64711954\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3442-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/64711954\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of the Stories podcast, we journey back to the mid-1700s to uncover the story of the Schwartzenau Brethren, also known as the Dunkards, who established one of the earliest settlements in the New River Valley of Virginia. Join us as we tell the story of this fascinating religious community, their unique beliefs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,63,318,13],"tags":[917,104,918,909,920,905,913,914,922,921,908,919,912,726,907,910,915,906,911,916],"class_list":["post-3442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploration","category-faith","category-settlers","category-the-appalachian-frontier","tag-18th-century","tag-appalachian-history","tag-claytor-lake","tag-communal-living","tag-dunkard-traditions","tag-dunkards","tag-dunkards-bottom","tag-early-american-settlements","tag-ephrata-community","tag-german-baptist-brethren","tag-german-settlers","tag-historical-markers","tag-israel-eckerlin","tag-native-american-relations","tag-new-river-valley","tag-pacifism","tag-religious-communities","tag-schwarzenau-brethren","tag-triple-immersion-baptism","tag-virginia-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-Tw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3444,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions\/3444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}