SDB Migration Noted In New Book

Last year, the Historical Society received a request from S. Scott Rohrer, an independent scholar. Rohrer was seeking information about the migration of the Shrewsbury, NJ church to its current location in Salem, WV for inclusion in a volume about Protestant migrations. With the approval of the Salem church, transcribed copies of the Shrewsbury/Salem minutes were sent to Mr. Rohrer, along with other SDB history works. We wished Mr. Rohrer success on his project, and were anxious to hear how his book turned out.

The result of Rohrer's efforts is Wandering Souls, recently published by the University of North Carolina Press. The 328 page volume details religious migrations by several different protestant groups, including Pietists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Seventh Day Baptists. The migration of the Shrewsbury congregation to Salem is detailed in Chapter 6 of the new volume, compared with an earlier migration of a Congregationalist group. Rohrer details the difficult circumstances which led the SDB's in Shrewsbury to move, including the fallout of the Revolutionary War, economic difficulties and personality conflicts. In the end, Rohrer argues that all of these migrations were an extremely important part of American history, and that the Protestant convictions of all the migrating groups helped to form part of the heritage of the nation.

The book is available for purchase at the UNC Press website, listed for $39.95.

The Society takes the work of assisting scholars seriously, and we are given frequent opportunities to provide such assistance. Our collection provides unique resources into the group life of Seventh Day Baptists, and we are always eager to see scholars include our shared history in their writings!