Dunkards - group of seven

Handwritten on reverse: "Dunkard Group. FWP - Dayton, Ohio." This photograph shows a group of seven people, wearing the traditional Dunkard clothing. Men usually wear a long, black coat, with a flat-brimmed hat and 'barn door pants' that button up the side, as well as plain-toed (Congress) boots. Women traditionally wear a grayish brown dress with a shawl, apron and bonnet. Old German Baptist Brethren (OGBB) descend from a pietist movement in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, when Alexander Mack founded a fellowship with seven other believers. They are one of several Brethren groups that trace themselves to that original founding body. These emerged from the German Reformed and Lutheran Churches, and are historically known as German Baptists rather than English Baptists. Other names by which they are sometimes identified are Dunkers, Dunkards, Tunkers, and Täufer, all relating to their practice of baptism by immersion. They are part of the post-reformation Anabaptists (which include, among others, the Amish and Mennonites), who rejected baptism of infants as a biblically valid form of baptism. Because of persecution, many Brethren emigrated to America with the greatest influx being in the 1719 and 1729. As of 2008, almost 54% of the members live in Ohio and Indiana.