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

to the growth of the church.'' Christian Yoder of Logan County in 1894 "preached with power to a large number of very attentive hearers." Benjamin Gerig of Wayne County preached eleven instructive sermons in 1905. Others to occupy the pulpit in the Central Church during these years were D. D. Miller of Indiana and David Plank of West Liberty, Ohio. D. J. Johns of Indiana held meetings over Christmas and New Year of 1905-6.

Bible meetings and Bible conferences were started and consolidated the gains of the evangelists. Temperance teachings became effective with consciences developing against the use of tobacco and alcohol. A women's sewing circle was organized.'"

As large numbers of mature people came into the church and with families still quite large in the rural community the church grew. When the thirty years of Stuckey's bishop oversight drew to a close, the brotherhood in the Fulton County community was a growing one in the midst of transtitions that could have divided the church as was sometimes the case in other communities under similar circumstances. In the opinion of Orland Grieser, the "wellloved and kind-hearted Bishop Stuckey" deserves much credit for the orderly change. Grieser writes concerning Stuckey:

He was concerned that the church remain a true church. He tried to keep the old ways because he believed they were good, especially in principle. He believed in keeping these things in the spirit and not in the letter of the law. He stood between the ones who thought there should be no change and those who wanted to go to the other extreme."

Transitions in Eastern Pennsylvania

The changes in the Ohio churches, especially in the Amish communities, were not confined to the areas in which they took place. They had a definite influence on the older Amish communities in Pennsylvania. As the Ohio settlements began to worship in meetinghouses, the news of this innovation reached the older Amish settlements in Lancaster, Chester, and Mifflin counties in Pennsylvania. So also did the word about Sunday schools, changes in dress, and other practices. The question arose finally as to whether the Pennsylvania churches would continue pulpit fellowship with their Ohio brethren who had seen fit to make innovations and drop certain traditions. In Pennsylvania in the Conestoga Church near Morgantown and in thé Millwood Church near Gap, the question