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Archiver > BRETHREN > 1999-03 > 0920401033


From: Jewel & Willard McDaniel <>
Subject: Re: Virginia, 1766
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 10:57:13 -0800


martha gates wrote:
>
> I am researching my husband's family lines Kauffman/Coffman
> and Roads/Rhodes. In
> a book coyrighted 1833, History of Valley of Virginia, I
> find that his 4th grgrandfather,
> Rev. John Roads was said to be a "Menonist preacher of the
> Gospel". Does that probably mean Mennonite minister?
> Rev. Roads, his wife Eve Albright and some of their children
> were killed by Indians (led by a white man) at Powell's Fort
> Mountain,
> on the south fork of the Shenandoah in 1766. Two daughters
> and a son escaped.
> Daughter Esther married Jacob M. Coffman . They are the 3rd
> grgrandparents. Jacob Coffman is referred to as "Dr." Was
> he a minister or some other kind of doctor??
> If the name Roads is German was it Rhodes or what other
> spelling originally?? So many questions? Hope someone can
> help. Thanks
> Martha Gates
>
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Martha,
Do you have the Kauffman-Coffman Lineages by Lawrence P. Kauffman, JR.?
On page 288 is the story of the massacre to which you referred. I can't
answer all of your questions; however, Dr. Jacob Coffman very likely was
a medical doctor because, in those days, the church had a free ministry,
meaning that they had no salary. If a young man appeared to be versed
in the Bible enough to be a minister, he was chosen by his home
congregation to be a minister. One congregation might have a dozen or
so ministers and, as my grandfather told me, they might all be seated
in front of the congregation and speak as the spirit moved. My
grandfather was an elder in the Church of the Brethren, when the office
of elder was elevated above that of minister.
Jewel McDaniel

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