Growth-and Some Decline-of the Churches / 85

those who desired to escape both the church taxes and the "puritanical" restraints of the East. Whether religious infidelity was more common on the frontier than in the older settlements may be a matter of dispute but certain it was that the newly settled regions were a battleground where different faiths vied for members. These conflicts and rivalries penetrated even the isolated and separatistic Mennonite communities.

There were the Dunkers (known since 1908 as the Church of the Brethren) a kindred religious group, similar in most respects to the Mennonites though baptizing by immersion instead of pouring as was the usual Mennonite practice. In the opinion of John Umble, "Probably no other one denomination has made such serious inroads into the membership of the Mennonite Church as has the Dunkers. Henry Stemen of Fairfield County, Ohio, had two daughters who married Dunkers. Apparently his son John also united with the Dunkers. John's son became a Dunker preacher."'

In Williams County a number of the younger people never united with the Mennonite Church, attending instead the nearby German Reformed Church. In Crawford and Richland counties "the majority seem to have left the church of their forefathers and to have united with other denominations."'

In Fairfield County the United Brethren attracted youth of Mennonite parentage. In some instances entire families left the Mennonites to join the United Brethren. The War of 1812 saw defections from Mennonite ranks as a certain number discarded their nonresistant faith and left the church.

For the most part it was German-speaking religious groups that attracted Mennonites in their frontier setting. While the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists were present and sometimes quite active, they did- not draw very heavily from the Mennonites.

The reasons for these losses to other religious groups are complex, and in the perspective of more than a century cannot be given with complete certainty. Yet a few factors in the loss, especially of the youth, can be cited. There was in the Mennonite Church of the time a tradition of joining the church after marriage. Prior to marriage the young people made social and economic connections outside the religious communities of their parents. They even attended Sunday schools of other churches. Frequently they wore the dress of the society around them instead of the simple garb of their parents. All these contacts and affiliations in the form-