A man who is revered by all Brethren groups as a martyr of the faith and an example of the best of the Brethren tradition is John Kline (1797-1864). Kline’s forebears were Brethren; they originally settled in Pennsylvania, but his father moved the family to northern Rockingham County, Virginia, around 1811. In 1818 he married Anna Wampler. Their only child did not live to adulthood.
It is not known when Kline was baptized, but in 1827 he was chosen as a deacon by the Linville Creek congregation at the same council meeting that elected Peter Nead to the ministry. He was eventually elected to the eldership of his congregation in 1848. Typical of most Brethren, Kline earned his living as a farmer. His hard work led to prosperity, while his devotion to Christ and the church led to a generous spirit toward the needy and toward his church. His donation of land to the church led to the construction of the first meetinghouse of the Linville Creek congregation in 1828.
Kline displayed a progressive spirit during his lifetime. His diary (see the photo of the title page) records his commitment to evangelism and to serving the Brethren scattered in the mountains of western Virginia (eventually to become West Virginia during the Civil War). It has been estimated that he traveled as much as 100,000 miles on these journeys, mostly on horseback. His diary details the people visited, sermons preached, funerals conducted, baptisms performed, congregations organized, and sick treated. Kline had studied the medical practices of Dr. Samuel Thompson of Vermont and sought to pair his spiritual ministry with a ministry to the physical needs of the people he encountered.
Kline was a supporter of higher education. Between 1857 and 1859, Kline, along with other Brethren, sought, unsuccessfully, to establish a secondary school called Cedar Grove Seminary, near Broadway, Virginia. He also supported the effort to bring a railroad into his part of the Shenandoah Valley.
When the Brethren faith needed to be defended against those who opposed elements of it, Kline was quite willing to take up his pen to support Brethren practices. In the 1850s Mennonites in Rockingham County wrote an extensive defense of their form of baptism by sprinkling or pouring. Kline responded with a sixteen-page pamphlet defending immersion baptism. The Mennonites then responded with a 309-page tome to which Kline answered with a comparatively succinct 74-page publication. Though he may not have been as theologically gifted as Nead, he was every bit as ready to defend and explain the Brethren faith.
Kline had certainly become a recognized Brethren leader by the 1850s. His leadership in the denomination was underscored by his being elected as the moderator of Annual Meeting through the years of the Civil War; all these gatherings were interestingly held in the North. These were difficult years for the Brethren and Kline, especially for Brethren living in the South. Not only were the Brethren nonresistant, they also opposed slavery. Kline, along with other Virginia Brethren as well as the Mennonites, prevailed upon the authorities in Virginia to grant exemption from military service. Their perseverance led eventually to the provision of exemption upon the payment of a fine of up to $500 per person. Kline’s counter-cultural stances and the fact that he had to cross military lines to attend Annual Meeting led to suspicions about his loyalty to the Southern cause. This distrust led to his ambush by Southern guerillas on June 15, 1864, who killed him near his home. Kline serves as a model of unwavering commitment to his faith, even when that faith put him at odds with prevailing cultural norms.