BRETHREN HISTORICAL LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

Title:                Colorado, Hygiene

Series:              8/

Boxes:             1 large flat box

History:  In 1874 James R. Gish led the first Brethren services in Hygiene, Colorado.  In 1873, Jacob S. Flory came to the area and in 1877 he organized the first congregation in Colorado, the Saint Vrain (Hygiene) congregation.  Flory encouraged other Brethren settlers to move to the area through the publication of the monthly periodical, A Home Mirror.  The congregation built the first Brethren meetinghouse in the state of Colorado in 1880.  George Fesler (d. ca. 1874) arrived in the early 1880s and began to serve as a minister in the congregation.  In the 1890s, some Brethren from the Hygiene congregation migrated farther west to California.  The congregation faced tension over issues of dress and members discontinued services in 1907; sometime later the congregation officially was disorganized.

Description of the Records:  These records from the Hygiene-St. Vrain congregation consist of photographs, newspaper articles, two large portraits, and other documents related to the establishment of the congregation in the nineteenth century.

            These records included a display of photographs and text about the history of the church mounted on cardboard.  The photographs were removed from the cardboard and placed with the Local Church Photographs collection under the congregation Colorado, Hygiene.  Photocopies of all the photographs and the text from the display can be found in the file folder labeled “Photographs and Display Text.”

            The file labeled “Church History” contains a brief history of the congregation, a list of members, and a document from the St. Vrain Valley Historical Society.

Provenance:  2009.060.  These records were transferred from the Western Plains District Office.

Restrictions:  None.

Separations:  Photographs were removed and placed in the Local Church Photographs under the congregation Colorado, Hygiene.

Processor:  Denise D. Kettering, January 8, 2010

Container List:

Box 1 Folder 1         Church History

                      2         Newspaper Clippings

                      3         Photographs & Display Text

                                 Portrait of I.S. Runyan (1821-1896)

                                 Portrait of Mary Runyan (1824-1905)