Photo by Gary Smucker
The Mathias Mennonite Church as it stands today.
Photo courtesy Hardy County Heritage Weekend
The Cullers Run School as it stands today.
Photo courtesy Linden Wenger Collection
The Mt. Hermon Mennonite Church as it was in the 1950s.
Photo courtesy Linden Wenger Collection
The Buckhorn Mennonite soon after it was built in 1949.
Photo by Gary Smucker
The Whitmore Schoolhouse, now located at the Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center in
Harrisonburg, Va.
By Gary Smucker
Beginning in the 1860s, small Mennonite congregations were located in rural areas of Hardy
County. This enabled people to walk to services. Several of those congregations met in Hardy
County School buildings. They included the Cullers Run congregation, which met in the Cullers
Run School, the Buckhorn congregation, which met at the Buckhorn Schoolhouse and the Cove
Mennonite Church, which met in the Whitmore School.
By the 1970s, roads had been improved and most families had automobiles, so forming a
centrally located church building made sense. This led to the formation of the Mathias
Mennonite Church, currently located on Route 259, south of Mathias. Originally, three
congregations joined together to form the Mathias Mennonite Church. They were the Cullers
Run, Mt. Hermon and Buckhorn Mennonite Churches. The Cove Mennonite Church decided not
to join because of the distance to the new location.
The Mathias Mennonite Church building was dedicated on Sept. 16, 1973. John F. Shank and
Linden Wenger spoke in the morning. Grace Showalter, a local historian and college teacher at
Eastern Mennonite College (now University) in Harrisonburg, Va., presented a history of
Mennonites in the Mathias area. Showalter’s mother was a native of Mathias. The dedication
was held in the afternoon with David Augsburger bringing the sermon.
Mennonite services and Sunday School at Cullers Run School were usually held in the
afternoon and pastors from Buckhorn Church or Mt. Hermon Church met with that group when
they didn’t have a pastor.
“Cullers Run School is one of the most complete restorations of a one-room school in the
nation,” according to the Hardy County Heritage Weekend Guide, 2024. “It is chock full of
authentic memorabilia; the original bell, pot-bellied stove, teacher’s desk, student benches,
lunch buckets, textbooks, papers and photographs.”
The original Cullers Run School was a log building, built in 1879. A new building was
constructed in 1989 and an addition was built in 1914. Ken and Ann Shifflet restored the school
and donated it to the Cullers Run School Association, which continues to maintain the school.
The Mt. Hermon Mennonite Church was located on a hill next to Route 259 near the West
Virginia/Virginia line. Church work began there in 1937. Beginning in the late 1940s the Linden
Wenger family lived near the church and Linden served as pastor. Over the years, many other
pastors served the congregation. After the congregation joined the Mathias Mennonite Church,
the building became a private residence and is still being used as a home today.
Itinerant Mennonite ministers began holding services in the Buckhorn Schoolhouse in 1930.
During the 1930s and 1940s, young adults in the Virginia Conference taught Summer Bible
School there.
The congregation grew and the Buckhorn Mennonite Church was built with volunteer labor and
was dedicated in 1949. John and Katie Shank provided leadership in the early years of the
congregation.
The Buckhorn Mennonite Church was located on Dove Hollow Road, adjoining Lost River State
Park. Today, the renovated building is a vacation cabin.
The Whitemore School served as the Cove Mennonite Church building from 1954 through 1997.
The building was located on Upper Cove Run Road. Charles and Alice Hartman provided
leadership to the Sunday School.
When the Mathias Mennonite Church was being discussed, plans were for the Cove Mennonite
Church to join the Mathias Church. Bertha Halterman told the church district leaders that there
were people living near the Whitemore School who walked to services and they would have
nowhere to go to church if it was closed. The decision was made to keep the Cove Mennonite
Church as it was. Upon the Hartmans’ retirement, Linden and Esther Wenger provided part time
leadership.
In 1997, the Northern District of the Virginia Mennonite Conference working with the leadership
of the Cove Mennonite Church decided to discontinue the program and the congregation
merged with the Mathias Mennonite Church.
As the old Whitemore schoolhouse was an ideal representation of a building which had been
used as both a school and for worship, the Board of the Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center
decided to move the building to its Harrisonburg, Va. campus.
In the summer of 2004, the bell tower, the front porch and a rear classroom were removed by
volunteers. The 20 x 23-foot building was sawed into three parts and in December, was moved
to the BMHC. Volunteers dug and poured a foundation on the top of a hill near the woods at
BMHC. The building was carefully reassembled and the front porch and bell tower reinstalled.
Today, school groups, tourists and busloads of visitors tour the BMHC to learn the history of
Mennonites and Brethren in the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding mountains and valleys.
Students sit at the desks in the Whitmore Schoolhouse and learn about education in a one-room
school. The 120-year-old classroom continues to educate a new generation of learners.
