138 / Transitions, Leaders, and Changing Churches (1865-1900)

John M. Brenneman (1816-95)

One of these leaders was John M. Brenneman of the Allen County community. Brenneman was born in Fairfield County, the son of Henry Brenneman who had migrated from Virginia in the early nineteenth century. Young Brenneman married Sophia Good in June of 1837, and shortly after this they united with the church. In 1844 he was ordained to the ministry and in 1849 he was ordained bishop. In 1855 he moved to Allen County, after living for seven years in Franklin County.

The remaining forty years of John M. Brenneman's life were years of remarkable activity for the welfare and prosperity of the church. Brenneman wrote, traveled, and evangelized. Every phase of the church's activities had his strong support. In 1863 while the Civil War was going on he wrote his first pamphlet on Christianity and War. It was due in good part to his vision that John F. Funk ventured to launch the Herald of Truth as a monthly periodical in 1864. He was a frequent contributor to the Herald, and his writings showed a burden for the doctrines of the church and a deep concern for gospel piety. His other pamphlets were in both German and English and were: Pride and Humility (1867), Plain

Teaching (1876), Aufmunterung der Bussfertigen Sünder (1877), and Hope, Sanctification and Noble Determination (1893).'

Brenneman was an untiring traveler. His journeys were done at great personal sacrifice to his family of six sons and six daughters and at much sacrifice to his temporal affairs. It was John M. Brenneman who visited the small and struggling congregations throughout the Midwest, baptizing, preaching, counseling, and ordaining. On one occasion he took a train to Iowa to the end of the railroad, then rode eighty miles on a two-horse wagon and returned by another railroad. In 1869 he visited Pennsylvania with his brother George. En route he stopped in Holmes and Wayne counties. While in Pennsylvania he spent time in Conemaugh Township and Cambric County and was rewarded by good attendance at meetings. Important to note was the presence of Amish at some of his meetings. Concerning this he wrote:

I always rejoice to meet these brethren and sisters; they are generally vet so plain in their manner of dress and I must believe that if they preserve the same non-conformity to the world, or separation from it, in all other respects

as they do in their manner of dress it will be well with them in the world to