{"id":310,"date":"2017-08-17T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/bhla\/?p=310"},"modified":"2023-06-15T21:18:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T21:18:26","slug":"studebakers-brethren-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/hiddengems\/studebakers-brethren-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Studebaker\u2019s Brethren connections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fred Miller, archival intern<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Studebaker was a major American automobile manufacturer in the early to mid 20th century. The Studebaker brothers who founded the company were all raised as German Baptists, also known as Dunkers1<\/sup> and later the Church of the Brethren. Their mother, Rebecca Mohler, was a member of the Ephrata community before she married John Clement Studebaker. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Rebecca Mohler and John Clement Studebaker. http:\/\/stude100.com\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

John supported his family of thirteen children through some very hard times by blacksmithing and building wagons, which was a long practiced family trade.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1849 to 1851, this branch of the Studebaker family moved to South Bend. In 1852, Henry and Clement, who was previously a schoolteacher, founded a joint blacksmithing and wagon-building venture with $68. In 1852, John Mohler Studebaker chased the Gold Rush to California and got rich building wheelbarrows for the miners. When he returned in 1858, he bought out his brother Henry\u2019s share and invested $8,000 in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Brethren and therefore a pacifist, Henry wished to leave the company because they had signed contracts to supply wagons to the U.S. Army who was at that time engaged in establishing federal authority over the Mormons.3<\/sup> Given his moral stances, Henry greatly objected to such a warlike use of the product of his labor. Nevertheless, afterwards he maintained good relations with his brothers. Henry was the only one of the Studebaker brothers who remained Brethren his whole life. He returned to farming, which according to his daughter Adelle he didn\u2019t enjoy. Their father too, who while old was still strong and in good health, declined to become involved in this family venture.<\/p>\n\n\n

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http:\/\/stude100.com\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The best known Church of the Brethren Studebaker is Ted Studebaker<\/a>. Ted\u2019s five times great grand-father and Henry and sibling\u2019s great grand-father were brothers who emigrated from the Brethren stronghold of Solingen in Germany in 1736. For more about Ted, see this Hidden Gems page<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Di Linh, South Vietnam — Ted A. Studebaker, a Church of the Brethren agricultural specialist for Vietnam Christian Service, works with Montagnard refugees in a rice paddy in South Vietnam\u2019s Lam Dong Province. Religious News Service Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\nFor most information stated above, source is The Studebaker Family in America – 1736-1976. Most unattributed photos courtesy stude100.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Dunkards, Dunkers, and Tunkers are generally interchangeable. These terms were considered derogatory at that time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. For further context, read about the Panic of 1837 and the Utah Expedition, 1857-58.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. For further context, read about the Utah Expedition, 1857-58.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
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    http:\/\/stude100.com\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Studebaker was a major American automobile manufacturer in the early to mid 20th century. The Studebaker brothers who founded the company were all raised as German Baptists, also known as Dunkers1 and later the Church of the Brethren. Their mother, Rebecca Mohler, was a member of the Ephrata community before she married John Clement Studebaker. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3,2,89,10,88,90],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-gems","tag-bhla","tag-brethren-historical-library-and-archives","tag-henry-studebaker","tag-hidden-gem","tag-studebaker","tag-ted-studebaker"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bhla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}