The Old Country Parson

Rev. William Cecil "W.C." Dunson (1901-1994)

 

 

In small communities where I grew up in West Virginia, the local minister often becomes an iconic symbol of leadership.  This stems back to the old days when for the most part church meetings were the pivotal activity of the week in many isolated communities, and in many cases, the local pastor was often also the most educated person who was looked up to in order to fill a number of roles besides just preaching, marrying, baptizing, and burying.  In many cases too, churches didn't have the luxury a lot of times of having a full-time minister, so in many cases the local preacher served a "circuit" of churches in the area that he visited on certain days of the month.  This was true of many denominations in the hills, in particular the Methodists, but also even Catholic priests had to serve their parishioners that way a lot of times.  The person I am about to talk about was a living testimony to those times, as he exemplified the classic mountain circuit-riding parson in his day.  

Rev. W.C. Dunson is a name that many people in eastern Preston County from a couple of generations back will know well - his name brings back a lot of fond memories to many of the older folks who did know him, and to this day he is still an integral part of the history of the area.  Rev. Dunson belonged to what was then called the Evangelical United Brethren denomination, and before I talk about him I feel a little history lesson is in order, as many reading this may not know much about this denominational tradition.  In around the year 1767, a revival meeting took place in a barn owned by one Isaac Long near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the spiritual direction of a Mennonite clergyman by the name of Martin Boehm (1725-1812) - it was at the time of the First Great Awakening when a revivalistic fervor was touching much of the nation then, including the Pennsylvania Germans.  Attending this meeting was a German Reformed pastor from Maryland, Rev. Phillip Otterbein (1726-1813) who had recently taken over the pastorate of the German Reformed Church in Lancaster.  Otterbein somehow received a dramatic spiritual awakening at the Isaac Long barn meetings, and at one of those services, according to an account recorded by Henry Spayth, Otterbein arose and embraced Boehm, uttering the classic proclamation, "Wir Sind Bruder!" which resulted in an outbreak of emotional joy in the meeting - this is historically credited with being the birth of the United Brethren movement, although it was not officially established until the early 1800's (Paul R. Fetters, Trials and Triumphs - History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ {Huntington, IN: UB Dept of Church Services, 1984} p. 45).   The United Brethren movement later developed close ties, via its Great Awakening involvement, with the emerging Methodist movement, even adopting Wesleyan doctrine and spirituality from their Methodist peers.  The movement was also part of a larger German Christian movement in the US at the time called the "River Brethren," although a split happened early on which formed the Brethren In Christ, a Mennonite/Wesleyan denomination which in time identified closely with the Holiness movement.  Another group of Wesleyan-doctrine Mennonites in the 1800's called the Albright Brethren also were birthed out of the Great Awakening, and from them emerged a denomination in 1811 called the Evangelical Church.  As the United Brethren continued to grow, some issues began to arise, and one of the big issues led to a split in the movement in 1889 over the issue of membership in secret societies - the party that supported the inclusion of Freemasons into membership were called "New Constitutionalists," while the party that opposed participation in secret societies were called "Old Constitutionalists."  In time, the "Old Constitutionalist" party retained the name United Brethren in Christ, and are today still a separate denomination.  The "New Constitutionalists" though would undergo more evolution and in 1946 would merge with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church (Behny and Ehler, A History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church {Nashville: Abingdon, 1979} p. 357).   Due to much common ground with the Methodists, in 1968 the EUB and the Methodist Church effected a merger that created what is today known as the United Methodist Church.  

That brief history lesson has significance for West Virginia for two reasons.  First, the Holiness/Wesleyan revivals found fertile ground in the West Virginia mountains.  Second, in the area of northeastern West Virginia, a large population of Germans settled, and many of them were members of the United Brethren Church almost from the beginning, as well as bringing in later a large number of non-German converts in the region.  In many cases, the United Brethren had a very ecumenical attitude toward other churches, in particular the Methodists (with whom they shared many doctrinal convictions), the Dunkards, and the Mennonites, as well as German Evangelicals of the Albright tradition.  My great-grandfather, Rev. Charles Judson Strahin, for instance was credentialed by both the Dunkards and the United Brethren back in the earlier part of the 20th century.  Many of the United Brethren in West Virginia chose to be part of the majority "New Constitution" faction after the 1889 schism, and later on many of them became EUB churches (and subsequentially United Methodist congregations).  My great-grandfather, as well as Rev. Dunson, were both part of that group.  It is at this point we pick up with Rev. Dunson's story.

William Cecil Dunson was born on March 27, 1901, near the community of Queens, in Upshur County, WV.  He met and married his wife Elva in 1920 in Oakland, MD.  Being as many preachers in those days were bi-vocational, the young Rev. Dunson and his schoolteacher bride supported themselves by his working at first a lumber store and later at the state hospital in Weston, WV, as an orderly.  After working a couple of other small jobs in the region, the young W.C. was called to the ministry and in the late 1920's he was licensed with the state United Brethren conference to minister a circuit of churches in Gilmore County.  It was in 1937 that the young minister accepted a call to the Terra Alta area, and he accepted the Terra Alta Circuit of churches which he pastored for many years while also supplementing his family income as a clerk for the Post Office until he retired in 1965.  He also served many of the local Dunkard churches as minister on several occasions during those years, and he was noted as being a caring, honest parson who got to know many of his flock personally.  (information taken from an old undated news clipping I had in my files from the local paper, The Preston County News, that commemorated the 48th anniversary of his ministry)

The old Pine Grove Church on Salt Lick near Terra Alta, WV, one of the EUB (later Methodist) congregations in Rev. Dunson's Terra Alta circuit.

 

My own personal experience with Rev. Dunson came much later, in the late 1980's.   By that time, Rev. Dunson had long retired full-time ministry, although at the request of many of his older flock he still conducted funerals and guest-preached on occasion.  He and his wife then were content with being members of Trinity United Methodist Church in Terra Alta, which at one time was a EUB congregation on Rev. Dunson's former circuit years previous.   I didn't get the chance to talk to Rev. Dunson a lot then, although a nonagenarian lady my mother took care of, Myrtle Masters, was one of his former parishioners and still really close with him, so he would come to the house to visit her on occasion.  What I did know of him though was that he was a very humble man, soft-spoken, but at the same time he had a reverence about him that drew people - to put it in religious terms, the Spirit of God was with this man in a way that you couldn't describe but just knew.     He was spoken highly of by many residents of Terra Alta, Rowlesburg, and the surrounding communities, and his reputation today is still a fascinating piece of the local history.  The church he chose to be part of upon his retirement, Trinity in Terra Alta, was founded in 1904 as a EUB church, and Rev. Dunson actually pastored it for several years starting in 1945 (History of the Trinity United Methodist Church, Terra Alta, p. 4).  Overall, Rev. Dunson's life is a rich legacy as well as an inspiring testimony of how God used a country parson to touch so many people, and his influence continues today.

Rev. Dunson passed away at the age of 92 in January 1994, roughly six years after his wife Elva predeceased him in 1988.  Although I never got the chance to know him as well as I would have liked, he still impacted me with his own testimony in a good way, and I only hope that the spiritual legacy I leave will be even a fraction of his.  Rest Eternal, Parson.