Dunker Church (Lower Stillwater) Cemetery Madison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio

Dunker Church (Lower Stillwater) Cemetery
Madison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio

The Dunker Church - Lower Stillwater Cemetery, located in what is now Madison Township, has also been known as the Old German Baptist Cemetery and Old Order Cemetery. The location of the cemetery was formerly Randolph Township. The book titled Ohio Cemeteries, published by the Ohio Genealogical Society in 1998, describes the cemetery as follows:

W1/2 S2 T4 R5E. N side of Salem Bend Dr., 330 ft se of Nantucket Rd.

The church and cemetery were described in the History of Montgomery County, Ohio by W. H. Beers & Co. 1882, page 60. Here is an excerpt from that article:

German Baptists - The Dunkers, or Dunkards, as they are commonly called, were the next to organize a church inside of the present limits of Randolph Township. In the year 1800, Jacob Miller came from Flat Rock Valley, Va., and settled on the west side of the Miami River, near Dayton, Ohio. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1735; was a man of ability and labored earnestly for his church. He was much revered by the red sons of the forest, who said that he was "the good man the Great Spirit sent from the East." He raised a family of nine sons and three daughters, three of the former becoming able ministers in the Dunker Church. The earliest pioneer Dunker preacher in Randolph Township was Emanuel Flory, who, in 1810, organized a congregation of his co-religionists...

They have two churches, one in Randolph Township, the other in Clay, and are known as Stillwater, near Dayton, and Salem Congregations; have each a membership of 275. The former is presided over by the Rev. Abraham Flory, Rev. Samuel Kinsey, Rev. John Smith and Rev. George Garver; the latter by Rev. Abraham Deitrich, of Miami County, Rev. Samuel Shellebarger, Rev. John Sollenbarger and Rev. Jesse Kinsey, "all gentlemen of ability and refinement, and are doing good work in the advancement of Christianity and enlightenment..."

More history about the church itself can be found on Pages 91-97, including a picture of the church on Page 92 of this document: History of the Church of the Brethren.

The cemetery inscriptions on this page were graciously provided by Mr. Jon Moore, who read the stones in the cemetery. Mr. Moore is personally researching family who is buried in the cemetery and had included some of his own notes along with the cemetery inscriptions. Although these notes should not be considered primary evidence when extracting information from this document, they may be helpful to others researching these names. It is also important to note that these inscriptions have not been verified by the Montgomery County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society or any other cemetery association.

Mr. Moore's sources for the data provided on this page were:

• Visual review of headstones recorded as follows:
  • Rows 1-6 read on 17 Oct 2003
  • Rows 7 and 8 read on 18 Oct 2003
  • Rows 9-12 read on 19 Oct 2003
  • Rows 13-17 read on 21 Oct 2003
• Old German Baptist Brethren Obituary Summaries from The Vindicator 1870-1990 - Reference Volumes at the Dayton Metro Library, 215 East Third Street, Dayton, OH 45402

The inscriptions are recorded in order by row, then graves within the row. You may want to use the Search Engine on the Montgomery County OGS home page to locate names. If you have questions regarding any of this information, please contact Mr. Jon Moore at JonDMoore@aol.com.