There and Back Again: The Journey of the Dunker Bible

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam raged near Sharpsburg, Maryland, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan. At the southern tip of the Confederate line was a small Dunker church. At the end of the battle, the church was badly scarred from bullet holes and an artillery shell had done serious damage to the walls and roof. The day after the battle, a truce was arranged there for the collecting of the wounded and dead. While searching for the missing men of his regiment, Corporal Nathan Dykeman of the 107^th New York Volunteers ventured inside. There, he helped himself to the large bible resting on the lectern, setting off a 40-year odyssey that would take the bible from Sharpsburg to Elmira and back again.

Truce at Dunker Church by Alfred Waud (Courtesy of National Park Service) 

The Dunkers, also known as the Schwarzenau Brethren or the German Baptists, are a Christian sect founded in Germany in 1708. Their nickname comes from their practice of triple full-body immersion adult baptism. After suffering religious prosecution, a group settled in Pennsylvania in 1720 and soon spread into Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia. They eschew drinking, swearing, war, slavery, and, today, certain aspects of modern technology. The church in Sharpsburg was established in 1852 on land donated by local farmer Samuel Mumma. At the time of the battle, the congregation consisted of a half-dozen local farm families. It would take them several years to repair the battle damaged church and many more to recover their stolen bible.

Its thief, Nathan Dykeman enlisted in the 107^th New York Volunteers at age 24 in July 1862 along with his younger brother James. They both joined Company H in Havana (now Montour Falls), Nathan as a corporal and James as a private. Both fought with the regiment for the rest of the war with Nathan being promoted to sergeant in 1863. He was killed on May 29, 1865 when he was struck by a train just outside Washington, D.C. following a victory celebration. His comrades saw to it that his personal effects made it home to his sister, including the stolen bible.

The bible remained with the Dykeman family until 1903 when Nathan’s sister gave it to James H. Arnold, one of her brothers’ former comrades in arms. He presented it to his fellow former soldiers at the annual reunion of the 107^th New York Volunteers on September 17, 1903 at the Elmira Armory and they agreed to pay the sister $10 for it. The original plan was to add the bible to the records of the regimental association, but it was ultimately decided that someone would contact the church in Sharpsburg instead. But who?

Enter John T. Lewis of Elmira. Mark Twain buffs might better know him as the man who saved Twain’s sister-in-law and niece from an almost certain death by runaway carriage in 1877. Lewis was a Black man who was born free in Carroll County, Maryland on January 10, 1835. He was baptized as Dunker at a church in Pipe Creek, Maryland in 1853. He first came to Elmira in 1862 where he owned a 64-acre farm and occasionally worked as a coachman for the Langdon family. Although he had long been separated from his religious brethren, he kept in touch via church publications and personal correspondence. Lewis used his contacts in the wider Dunker church to track down the pastor John E. Otto of the Sharpsburg church and arrange the return of the bible. It was officially returned to its proper place in the church by the hands of Elder Daniel Miller on December 4, 1903.

 

Mark Twain and John Lewis, ca. 1900

The bible still resides in the church today…after a fashion. After the war, souvenir hunters kept taking bricks off of the building. Fearing that someone might try to take the bible again, it was placed in a vault for safe keeping in 1917. In 1921, the church collapsed following a particularly violent storm. By then, the congregation had built a new church in town and the land and ruins we sold to new owners. In 1951, the site was donated to the National Park Service to be part of the larger Antietam battlefield historic site. In 1962, a restored church was built atop the original foundation using as much original material as possible. The bible was also donated to the Park Service where it rests on display at the Antietam National Battlefield visitor center…in a case so it can’t be stolen again. 

Dunker bible (Courtesy of National Park Service)