Pleasant Hill [Illinois]

Pleasant Hill [Illinois]. Ethel Harshbarger Weddle. Hardbound, 8.5" X 11" (2002), New, Illus., Index, 377 pp.

One does not need to be acquainted with the Pleasant Hill community and with the constant stream of church and national leadership which has emanated from it to realize that Pleasant Hill is a chronicle of a new type. It might well be termed a saga of the Brethren.

Those interested primarily in the history of the Church of the Brethren will find here source material of the finest kind. The Pleasant Hill church dramatically symbolizes, through the facts as they obtained in one congregation, the story of the entire Dunker group for the years under consideration. The establishing of new homes in new areas, the founding of churches, the migrations farther west, the beginning of the Sunday school, the changing emphases as to the outer expression of the inner Christian experience, the giving of leaders to the church and the wider outreaches of life - these and other interests crowd the pages of this book. But alongside them and intricately intertwined with them are many other details of interest to the student of American history: the Civil War, the death of President Lincoln, the westward movement of the country's population, the discovery and mining of coal in southern Illinois, the development of the automobile, the development of heavier-than-air craft - these and other details combine to create Americana of the truest variety, all portrayed with the Brethren community at Pleasant Hill as a focal center.

Coupled with all that has been mentioned is the intense human-interest appeal of the book. The life of the nation, the community, and the church is seen through the eyes of those who actually witnessed and experienced these trends in humanity's onward surge. You too will identify yourself with the ongoing currents of life in the period of history in which this story is set as you read Pleasant Hill.

Also included is a listing of burials in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, and numerous photographs of residents in the late 1800s. A beautiful book, filled with history, information, and photographs of ancestors!