John Kline Homestead

John Kline Homestead. A Martyr for Peace. , "All good citizens must deplore such a lawless wreaking of vengeance upon the person of an unarmed old man. Such things show how rapidly we are drifting into scenes which must be full of terror for us all." , Rockingham Register, June 24, 1864 (Reprint in August 1864, Gospel-Visitor, the Brethren national periodical.), John Kline was a local minister who opposed slavery, military service, and the Confederacy for religious reasons. His home lies down this lane., Kline, a prosperous farmer, was the elder (senior preacher) for the Linville Creek congregation of Dunkers, also known as Tunkers and German Baptist Brethren. A talented and popular preacher, he was elected by the congregation, did not attend seminary, and was unpaid. He was prominent in an 1854 conference of Virginia Dunkers that denounced slavery. He also practiced organic medicine., During the Civil War, Kline helped Shenandoah Valley Dunkers and Mennonites, also nonresistant, achieve draft exemption. After the Confederate government granted this in exchange for a $500 fine, he collected donations for those who could not afford it. Confederate authorities arrested Kline several times for his anti-draft activities, most notably in April 1862 when he and approximately twenty others spent several difficult weeks imprisoned in the Harrisonburg courthouse., During the war, Kline served as Moderator of the Dunkers' Yearly Meetings, the denomination's highest position. These gatherings met in the North, and Kline crossed lines to attend, suggesting to Confederate loyalists that he was a spy., By 1864, local law and order waned. A few weeks after Kline presided over the Yearly Meeting in Indiana, Confederate irregulars ambushed him as he returned from a nearby medical visit and shot the sixty-seven-year-old preacher dead., (captions) , In 1862 Catherine Bowman (left) and Sarah Bowman delivered food to Kline and others imprisoned in the Harrisonburg courthouse. This photograph shows them reenacting their mission of mercy years later. Public domain, This memorial, approximately four miles west of here, marks the spot where Kline was killed. Photograph by Steve Longenecker