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)

 

The Diarists of the 107th New York Volunteers

 By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

The past is a foreign country, but, if you’re really lucky, you might just find a pen pal. As archivist at the Chemung County Historical Society, it is one of my great, and admittedly a little weird, pleasures to read historical letters and diaries. When it comes to the history of the Civil War, I am so lucky to work at the museum with the largest collection of diaries and letters from the 107^th New York Volunteers. History can be so dry with the dates and the facts and the battle casualty statistics. Letters and diaries though are intimate. They reveal not only what happened, but how the author felt about it in ways which help you get to know them as actual human people.

Although there were multiple Civil War regiments raised out of Chemung County, the 107^th is the only one to have a statue here in Elmira. The regiment was raised in the Summer of 1862 in response to Abraham Lincoln’s call for 300,000 more men. Two local congressmen, Robert Van Valkenburg of Bath and Alexander Diven of Elmira, personally raised and commanded the 1,021 men from Chemung, Schuyler, and Steuben counties.  The regiment fought at the Battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg and participated in the Georgia Campaign and Sherman’s March to the Sea. They arrived home to Elmira on June 8, 1865 to a feast, a parade, and the start of the rest of their lives.

107th monument in front of the Court House on Lake Street

Here at the Chemung County Historical Society we have the letters and diaries of 18 different members of the regiment. In some cases, we have multiple accounts of the same day or battle from multiple people. What an author chooses to include (or not) and the way that they describe it, reveals interesting things about their personality, priorities, and education. We have several diaries from the regiment which cover the start of the battle of Chancellorsville. While they describe the same events, they are stylistically quite different.

One of my favorite diarists from the 107^th is Arthur S. Fitch of Company B. He was 18 when he enlisted as a corporal in July 1862 and quickly rose through the ranks. By Chancellorsville, he was a sergeant and ended the war as brevet captain. After the war, he opened a book store in Elmira and was a founding member in several veterans’ organizations. He described the first day of the regiment’s involvement in the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1, 1863) like this:

“We had no more than got under way than the boom of the Artillery broke upon our ears not a mile in our front and we knew the ball was open. We went rapidly ahead, our Reg. having the advance. We were soon up with the artillery and the shot and shell flew over us pretty lively. No casualties, however and after an hour or two cannonading we were ordered to retire. It was only a move to feel the enemy’s position and no general engagement took place except in the left wing where the 5^th Corps had some fighting. Our Reg. had quite a skirmish for our knapsacks; while out, we had laid them off before entering the woods and on returning for them we were fired upon by Rebel skirmishers. We brought them all away, however, but ran a narrow chance of being captured, as the Rebs planted a battery on the very ground we had just left before we were out of range. We got back to camp about noon, quite fatigued as the weather was very warm. Nothing more transpired until near sun down when the enemy advanced and a fight commenced. Our Regt. and the 13^th N.J. were formed in the edge of a wood with the rest of our Brig. in our front. We were to support them and if they were forced to retire relieve them. Soon the Artillery joined in and then it became quite lively, the musketry volleys were rapid and we lay anxiously awaiting for our turn at the enemy, but the Indiana & other Regts. in our front held them in check and we lay quietly on our arms that night. Only casualty of Friday is Capt. N.E. Rutter of Co. I who was mortally wounded by a shell about sundown and died less than an hour after.”

Arthur S. Fitch, ca. 1880s

 Bartlet Bennett enlisted in Company E at age 25 along with his younger brother Sylvester in July 1862. He joined as a private, but was a sergeant at the time of the Battle of Chancellorsville. I don’t know much about his life before the war. After it, he lived in Elmira and worked as a railroad flagman. While Fitch practically wrote a novel, Bennett wrote a poorly-spelled haiku. “May 1, 1863, The enemy atact us; laid on arms all nite. Built brest works.”  

Bartlet & Sylvester Bennett, 1862

 Russell M. Tuttle was a 22-year-old from Almond, New York who enlisted as an orderly sergeant in the 107^th immediately after graduating from the University of Rochester. He joined Company K, which was under the command of his uncle, Allen Sill. Tuttle had been promoted to second lieutenant shortly before Chancellorsville. After the war, he went on to be the editor of the Hornellsville Times and founder of the Hornellsville Public Library. His diary entry is happy medium between Fitch’s and Bennett’s.

“May 1st: Advanced on the road to Fredericksburg to cover a movement of Gen. Mead on Bunk Ford. Came back, and then went back to get knapsack. Slight skirmish. Back to camp and had a fight. 27^th Ind. ahead of us. Capt. Rutter was struck by a shell. Poor fellow, a sharp fight along the line. Slept on our arms.”

Russell M. Tuttle, ca. 1860s

I keep a diary myself every night. On the scale between Bennett and Fitch, I’m more of a Tuttle.  

Operation Elmira

By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, just as the sun was setting, two waves of Douglas C-47s towing Horsa and Waco CG-4A gliders flew east over Utah Beach in Normandy, France. They were headed for Ste-Mére-Eglise, just a few miles in from the coast. Loaded aboard the 176 gliders were 1,190 troops, 59 vehicles, 25 anti-tank guns, and 131 tons of ammunition. It was Operation Elmira and they were flying into trouble.

The first glider combat operation was carried out by the Germans on May 10, 1940 when they used them to land troops inside Fort Eben-Emael, Belgium, allowing them to take what was supposed to be an impenetrable fortress. The United States Army Air Corps began its own glider program in February 1941 in response. In May 1941, army glider pilots began training at Harris Hill in Elmira, New York, on the east coast, and Twenty-Nine Palms, California, on the west. These early trainees were trained on commercial sailplanes, including the Schweizer SGS 2-8, manufactured here in Elmira. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the war in December 1941, the Air Corps began training its glider pilots in earnest. American forces first used gliders during the Sicily campaign of 1943 and again in Burma in 1944. 

 

Gliders proved a valuable tool during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Operation Elmira was the third and final mission flown by the 82^nd Airborne Division on D-Day. The goal of Operation Elmira was to bring in reinforcements and equipment to paratroopers who had parachuted in earlier in the day. The mission consisted 36 Waco CG-4A gliders and 140 Horsa gliders towed by 176 Douglas C-47 airplanes. They left England around 6:30 pm and arrived in France in two waves. The first wave arrived around 9pm while the second arrived two hours later around 11pm. 

Horsa glider being pulled by a tow plane on its way to Normandy, June 6, 1944

 Things went wrong fast. The original plan called for the gliders to land at two different zones, LZ W and LZ O, but troops on the ground were unable to secure LZ W. Ground forces attempted to communicate with the in-coming pilots to warn them to divert all gliders to LZ O, but the message never went through. Instead, the C-47’s and their gliders flew into a barrage of German ground fire as soon as they began their approaches over LZ W. Of the 176 airplanes, 92 were damaged and five are shot down. Eight of the pilots were injured and one was killed. Things were even worse for the gilder pilots.

The gliders came down hard. One pilot, Ben Ward, touched down in a field only to realize that his break line had been shot out and they were headed for a pair of trees at 90 miles per hour. Their Horsa glider slid between the trees, sheering off the sides of the fuselage and killing one of their passengers. All told, most of the gliders were destroyed upon landing. Ten of their pilots were killed on impact with 29 injured and 7 missing in action. Of the 1,190 troops they carried, 157 were killed or injured. 

Horsa glider with rear open for loading

 The glider crews and passengers were still in danger even after they landed, considering many of them had landed behind enemy lines. Glider pilot Clifford Fearn had barely unbuckled his safety harness when his glider was overrun by Germans and they were all taken prisoner. He was freed a few hours later by advancing American troops. Another pilot, Rollin B. Fowler, found himself in a similar situation but managed to free himself with a grenade he had stuffed down his pants.

Despite the initial issues with the landing zones and resulting casualties, Operation Elmira was largely considered a success. Most of their cargo was delivered undamaged, as were the reinforcements. Seeing the first wave arrived in daylight hours helped boost American morale, even as it demoralized the Germans. Gliders continued to be used throughout the war, including on the very next day. Despite how useful they had been in delivering men and supplies, the sun soon set on combat gliders. They were never used again after World War II. Instead, they were replaced in their role by helicopters which had the advantage of being able to fly in and out under their own steam.  

 

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If you’re interested in learning more about Operation Elmira, the Chemung County Historical Society has a collection of first-person accounts of men who participated as compiled by researcher Adelbert Sahlberg in 1998.

A Woman in Uniform

 By Curator, Monica Groth 

During World War II, some 16 million Americans served in the military, over 350,000 of whom were women. Chemung County is home to a number of remarkable female veterans. An upcoming exhibit features the uniforms of 4 local women who served their country in different ways during WWII, the single deadliest conflict history had yet witnessed. 

U.S. Marine Capt. Marie Snow (1921-2016) was born on a farm in Norfolk, New York. She was living with her sister in Syracuse when the Women’s Reserve of the Marine Corps was established in 1942. The Women’s Reserve placed women in stateside positions within the Marine Corps, freeing men for combat duty. When Marie’s brother-in-law, a veteran of WWI, teased her that she couldn’t make it as a Marine, she enlisted to prove him wrong. 

U.S. Marine Capt. Marie Snow, c. 1945

In 1943, Marie reported for boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She then studied accounting, or store-keeping, at Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, Georgia and was promoted to sergeant. 

Marie, known to her friends as “Sergeant Snowy,” was posted to California, where she helped organize supplies and wages for troops shipping off to the Pacific Theatre until the end of the war. She also occasionally appeared as an extra in Hollywood morale films. 

Marie met her first husband Marine Sergeant Raymond Doyle on the train home, when she sought his protection from a drunken airman giving her trouble. Marie attended Syracuse University on the GI Bill before moving with Raymond to Elmira in 1948, where she lived until her death. 

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Army Nurse 1st Lt. Clara Peckham (1917-1996) grew up on Laurel Street in Elmira. She graduated from the Arnot-Ogden Hospital School of Nursing in 1938 and worked at the Veterans Facilities at Bath and Batavia. 

Determined to serve when war broke out, she concealed a heart murmur when enlisting. As the story goes, Clara would shift her position when the stethoscope neared her heart, attempting to disguise its irregular rhythm. It worked and in 1943, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force, leaving that summer for training at Mitchel Field in Long Island. When Clara later fainted from over-taxing her heart during her time in Long Island, the doctor who had examined her when she enlisted reportedly asked, “who let you in?” To which she replied, “you did!”

1st Lt. Clara Peckham, c . 1944
Image courtesy of the Star Gazette 

By December of that year, Clara had been assigned to active duty abroad providing medical care to wounded soldiers and civilians. As of February 1944, Clara was one of 19 Elmira nurses serving overseas. She worked in the contagious diseases unit at Kuakini Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. Following training which included learning how to shoot a carbine and swim with her boots and helmet on, she was sent to a field hospital near Okinawa, Japan. She served in Japan until the war ended and was discharged in November of 1945. After returning home, Clara worked as a nurse at Arnot-Ogden Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the Chemung County Nursing Facility, retiring in 1982.

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Army Cpt. Rita Eisenberg was born in Binghamton, where she taught high school history classes before deciding to make history herself. As a first-generation American in a family with no sons, Rita believed it was her duty to join the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in 1942. A year later, the WAAC was made an official part of the US Army and became known as the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). 

Rita was assigned to the Air Force. Following training at Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, she worked suppling the WAC base in Orlando, FL. After further schooling at Fort Leavenworth, she prepared to go overseas as a member of the general staff. However, a friend feared for her safety and used his influence as an army chaplain to have her orders rescinded. Rita was extremely angry about this. She served in Orlando until the war ended and recalls traveling to the Pentagon to finalize supply reports for her area’s bases. 

Following the war, she settled in Elmira, where she and her husband Jess Shapiro were in business on Water Street.

Rita Eisenberg Shapiro at 90, 2006
Image courtesy of the Star Gazette

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Jennie Reid (1919-2006) grew up on Elmira’s Eastside. During WWII, she took her civil service exam so she could work at City Hall, where she got a job operating the elevator. Jennie also joined the Women’s Ambulance Defense Corps (WADC).

The Elmira chapter of the WADC was organized in January of 1942, when 300 women assembled at the Elmira College gymnasium. Women of every race and ethnicity, excluding Japanese, were accepted. 

Jennie Reid, c. 1943

The WADC served many roles in civilian defense and preparedness. They trained in first aid; conducted air-raid and blackout drills; and practiced blackout driving and field maneuvers. Members also studied rifle and pistol use and radio communication. The WADC operated canteens for service men at the Erie and DL&W Railroad stations in Elmira.

Jennie was a member of the AME Zion Church, the Eastern Star, Neighborhood House, and the NAACP. 

Numerous women in the county also served in other areas of civil defense, working as air raid wardens or volunteers. Women helped the war effort on the homefront by selling war bonds, planting victory gardens, and organizing scrap metal drives. Many also worked in factories making war critical technologies, and took on jobs previously held by men then serving overseas.

Stop by and take a closer look at these women's uniforms to appreciate the many ways that women assisted their country during WWII.

Helen Booth Sprecher

By Phoenix Andrews, Alfred University Intern

Helen Booth Sprecher was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania in 1913. She attended Slippery Rock State Teachers College (now Slippery Rock University) where she got her Bachelors of Science and then the University of Pittsburg where she got her Masters of Education. She pursued a career in teaching Physical Education. However, after America entered World War II, she was determined to help in any way she could.

 In June 1942, Booth took the exam to enter the Officer Candidate School for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). In August, she was accepted and sent to Fort Des Moines where she would complete her training. At that time, her rank was Third Officer, the equivalent of a 2^nd Lieutenant in the regular army. 

 During her time in the WAAC, she was stationed in various locations in California, Iowa, Florida, and Georgia. In July 1943, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps became the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). While WAAC members could only serve stateside, WAC members could be posted overseas. Booth was sent to serve in both in Australia and the Philippines.

Booth held many positions during her service. She had worked as a Unit Commander in the United States and overseas holding the position as Assisting Commanding Officer of the WAAC Headquarters. She worked as a Personnel Officer in the United States. She also received addition training and became an Administration Inspector and WAAC Inspector in both the United States and overseas. Booth had occupational specialty as Non-Tactical Unit Officer and Administrative Inspection.

 Booth would continue to rise in the ranks. While stationed in Santa Maria, California she would become 1^st Lieutenant. Later, while stationed overseas in Australia, Booth’s commanding officers would request that she be given temporary rank as Captain, which would be granted and later given to her permanently.

Her time in the WAC would end in January of 1946, four months after then end of the war. She was award the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Philippine Liberation Ribbon, and the WAAC Service Medal. After the war ended, Booth taught Physical Education at one of the California naval bases where she would meet her future husband, James Sprecher.

 

Together they moved to Elmira, New York so Booth could live closer to her family in Pennsylvania. She worked as a Physical Education teacher for the Elmira City School District. In 1950, she joined the Air Force Reserves. In 1996, at the age of 82, Booth died at her home in Elmira.