What's In A Name
Deep History Immersed in Dunkard Water
Morgantown Dominion Post
28 February 2011
By Evelyn Ryan
Dunkard Creek starts in Pennsylvania west of Brave, Pa., and zigzags
its way 38 miles east along the Mason-Dixon Line into the Monongahela
River at Poland Mines, Pa.
It was named, not for an individual family, but for a religious faith,
according to Earl L. Core in “The Monongalia Story,” Volume 1.
Dunkard Creek and Dunkard Bottom “were named for settlements by members
of the German Baptist Brethren, who were called Dunkers because of
their practice of baptism by immersion,” he wrote.
The best known local settlement of the German Baptist Brethren was that
of the Eckerlin (also spelled Eckerling and Eckarly) brothers, Core
said.
He credits the Pennsylvania German Magazine, volume 15, with “what
seems like the most nearly correct account” of the tale of four
brothers: Samuel, Emanuel, Israel and Gabriel, Alsatians by birth, who
emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1725.
After some travels, Samuel and two of his brothers, with some
associates, in 1751 settled along the Monongahela River at the mouth of
a creek, which other frontiersmen came to call “the Dunkars’ Creek”
(now Dunkard Creek), Core wrote.
They lived peaceably with the local Delaware Indians until hostilities
from the French and Indian War edged into the area. The Delaware
advised the Eckerlins to relocate as hostile Indians were moving into
the area.
The group moved up the Cheat River, finally settling at Dunkard Bottom,
now Camp Dawson, Preston County.
In August 1757, Samuel went east for supplies, but was stopped on his
way back and accused of being a spy for the French, Core relates. He
convinced the governor to release him and, with a squad of soldiers to
check the truth of his story, started homeward.
They arrived at the scene of a tragedy. The cabins were burned to the
ground, and the mutilated corpses of 27 of the 30 settlers were
scattered about the clearing. His brothers Gabriel and Israel, along
with another settler, Johann Schilling, were missing and presumed to
have been taken by the Indians.
An undated Preston County history by Robert Jay Dilger, WVU professor
of political science, recounts two different versions of the Eckerlins
story at http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Pre
ston/prehistory.html.
Evelyn Ryan researches and writes this column. Submit ideas and
suggestions to newsroom@dominionpost.com.