Ida (Rudd) Shelton (born 1858), daughter of Albert W. Rudd, remembers a family named Hartle moved onto a small farm adjoining her father’s farm. There were 4 boys and one girl. Ida remembers the family being Dunkards and wearing the white capes to church and black bonnets to town.* She also remembers that Hannah Hartle’s maiden name was Dale as her brother, Paul, often visited with 2 nieces, Polly and Phoeba. She also remembered them moving there from Indiana.

They were in Urbana Township by 1880. Jacob and Samuel, their sons, bought the 20 acre farm northeast of Urbana, Illinois for them. The farm was about 1/4 mile west of a house were a Mrs. Kopeck lived. Their son, Jake, lived in the house to the west. Mrs. Kopeck’s place was where Dell Scott and family lived about 1910 or so. Grandfather (Archie Hartle) remembers that his grandmother smoked a clay pipe.

*Dunkards were a Swiss/German pietistic sect much like the Mennonites, Moravians, etc. They were called Dunkards, or Dunkers, or Tunkers--because they believed in baptism by dunking (immersion). They wore plain clothing, coats with standing collars for the men, plain bonnets and hoods for the women. Men were urged, but not required, to wear beards; they should not wear mustaches alone. Women should not wear jewelry.

They were to avoid narcotics, including tobacco. They did not use instruments of music in the house of God. They observed the Lord's Supper (full meal, with the soup eaten from a common dish), and communion of the bread and cup after the meal. This was usually held once in the spring and once in the fall. They did not pay their ministers a salary. They did not celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas.

They were to obey civil government as far as its laws did not conflict with their religion. No Dunkard was to participate in politics. They were not allowed to affiliate with secret societies or lodges. They would not take nor subscribe to an oath. They considered slavery abhorrent.

They believed in nonresistance, so they were much maligned in the New World. Their neighbors were often at odds with the Dunkards because they would not participate in the Revolutionary War. Indians soon learned the Dunkards would not resist, so they raided their homes.

There was one Dunkard who had a store which was raided three times. After the third time, he armed himself with a gun. He was excommunicated from his church for this act.

They stayed to themselves, spoke only German and stayed out of trouble. Mainly they were farmers and weavers. Because they did not speak English, other residents thought them illiterate, although the printing presses of Germantown, Pa. were a product of the Dunkards.

Tracing genealogy in this group is a daunting process. Since they were pacifists, there are no war records to pursue. There are few marriage bonds prior to 1820, as both the Dunkards and Mennonites took a dim view of paying the state a fee for the performance of a Christian ordinance. Prior to 1800, Dunkards could be excommunicated for obtaining a marriage license or bond.

Basically, they began life in the New World in Pennsylvania. Their pacifism caused persecution and sometimes imprisonment. So they started fleeing local pressure, generally going first to Virginia and 
then the Carolinas. Then they moved to the remote West, being among the first to enter the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

Much of the history of the frontier was written by Presbyterian ministers, so little is heard about these Dunkards--a peaceful, industrious, plain-clothes people who were among the first white inhabitants.