Have you ever wished that you could go back in time and experience life in a typical Brethren farming community? When life was at a much slower pace, without the vibration of noisy over crowded highways, and the word filth referred to something in a barnyard. Here is at least one opportunity to discover what simple family life was like during the 1840-1850's, in and around the small farming community of Boston, Indiana. For some this will be a chance to discover former ways of more simple living and for others it will be a refreshing trip down memory lane, because of stories that grandparents used to tell. Brethren church historian Merle C. Rummel has graciously permitted several chapters of his book, "Four Mile Community" to be placed online, so that people in the modern world may discover what life was like in a more simple time, when people knew almost everyone in town. It was truly a time of sheltered existence for many, a time for cultivating a rich heritage of family experiences when the outside world - was still the outside world.

Written by Merle C. Rummel ~ Published April, 1998 ~ Last Updated, April, 1998 ©
This document may be reproduced, only if remaining intact, with full acknowledgement to the author.
[Brethren Community] [The Dunkers] [Brethren Farmer] [Brethren Wife]

Written by Merle C. Rummel ~ Published April, 1998 ~ Last Updated, April, 1998 ©
This document may be reproduced, only if remaining intact, with full acknowledgement to the author.
[Ohio Brethren] [Obannon] [The Frontier] [Settlement Life]

Written by Merle C. Rummel ~ Published April, 1998 ~ Last Updated, April, 1998 ©
This document may be reproduced, only if remaining intact, with full acknowledgement to the author.
[Introduction] [Bullskin Road] [Zane Trace] [The River] [Kanawha Trace] [Moving West]
[Monocacy Road] [Valley Road] [Carolina Road] [Braddock Road] [Wilderness Road]
[Canada Road] [Forbes Road] [Delaware Road] [National Road] [Wayne Road]

Written by Merle C. Rummel ~ Published April, 1998 ~ Last Updated, July, 1998 ©
This document may be reproduced, only if remaining intact, with full acknowledgement to the author.
[Frontier Life] [Brethren Pietism]

Written by Merle C. Rummel ~ Published April, 1998 ~ Last Updated, July, 1998 ©
This document may be reproduced, only if remaining intact, with full acknowledgement to the author.
[Brethren Journal]

About the Author

    Merle C. Rummel was born on October 27, 1934, the son of Elder Glenn I. Rummel and Martha (Burns) Rummel, and lived on the home farm near Nappanee, Indiana, until the age of six, when his father accepted a pastorate at the Mineral Creek COB in Leeton Missouri. In 1948 the Rummel family moved to the Florence Church of the Brethren, Centreville MI, where Merle graduated from High School, and then attended Manchester College. He received an AB degree in Secondary Education; Social Studies/History, Physics, and General Science. He was an intercollegiate player of Table Tennis and active in the International Relations Club.

    Merle was accepted for Brethren Volunteer Service to Puerto Rico, but was then asked to go instead to Bethany Biblical Seminary. Merle holds an MDiv degree with emphasis in Bible and Church History. During summer pastorates in North Wilkesboro NC, Merle built the Friendship Church building and started the congregation. After seminary, he accepted the Fruitdale Church of the Brethren pastorate in southern Alabama. In 1961, Merle moved to New Windsor, Maryland, where he pastored the old Beaver Dam Church of the Brethren, and worked on the staff at the Brethren Service Center as carpenter and Spanish translator.

    Due to sickness, he returned to his parents home, at Camp Woodland Altars, Peebles, Ohio, and taught at the Sinking Spring School on the Zane Trace. After regaining his health, Merle first drove the Trace weekly to Zanesville, Ohio, as pastor of the White Cottage Church of the Brethren, and taught at Glenford Elementary as the assistant principal. In 1968, Merle married Madelaine Olt, of Richmond, Indiana, a returned nurse, from the Nigerian mission field, and lived at Muncie, Indiana, where Merle accepted a position at Ball State University as a television engineer. Merle worked at the university for fifteen years, obtaining a masters degree in History and Physics, and later acquired an Indiana Secondary Teaching License-Life, plus an FCC 1st Class Commercial License -Life. A back injury on the job led him to a position as chief engineer of WKOI-TV, Channel 43, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Richmond, Indiana, where he also started teaching physics for the Indiana Vocational Technical College, and received a full-time professorship of physics, math and electronics. When the college changed it's requirements for doctorate degrees, Merle took a teaching position at the New Creations Center for Trouble Teens, teaching science and math in the high school, and Bible and Church History in the Bible College.

    Merle retired in 1997 and became active in his hobbies: Brethren Church History Research (especially of the Ohio Valley), and Amateur Radio, W9LCE, as Moderator for the Microwave Forum at the Dayton, Ohio, HamVention. He accepted the pastorate at the Stonelick Church of the Brethren, Clermont County, Ohio, a meeting house of the old Obannon Baptist Church, founded 1795.

    Merle has authored or co-authored several books: Three Sons of Steffan Petri; The Toney Family; The Virginia Colony (Four Mile Church in Indiana), and several articles of original research, among which are: the Kanawah Trace; the Elder Jacob Miller family. He is currently working on the History of the Stonelick/Obannon Church and its part in the Brethren Migration down the Ohio River and to the Dayton OH area, as well as Early Brethren Settlements in Highland Co OH, the Early Kentucky and Indiana Churches, and his own ancestry, the Brethren migrations to Elkhart Co IN from the Obannon, and from Upper Canada. In recent years, Merle gave a presentation on the Brethren Migration from the East to the Ohio River Valley areas, especially to Southern Ohio, to the Southern Ohio Heritage Festival at Camp Woodland Altars.