Broadway, Virginia, developed into a small frontier town located south of the confluence of Linville Creek and the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in present-day north western Rockingham County after the end of the French and Indian War. The oldest house in the town, referred to as the Winfield House, was built circa 1760. A century later, by the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, the village had at least two saloons, a mill for grinding grains, numerous shops and houses. The population included at least a few owned Negroes. Prosperous farms nearby contributed to the rich agricultural reputation of the Shenandoah Valley. During the Civil War the strategic importance of this "Bread Basket of the Confederacy" and its topography attracted Federal attempts to conquer it. The end of the fighting in April of 1865 began the period of The Reconstruction. The Broadway Presbyterian Church was founded in this community which had been ravaged by war and by individuals who had experienced that war firsthand.

In 1867 a Sunday school was organized for several area families by Sarah ("Sallie") Winfield and Miss Isabella Spence, governess for the Winfield children. The Sunday school began meeting in the dining room in the home of Sarah and John Winfield. (The Winfield House still stands just west of the present church building across Linville Creek). John Winfield, M.D., had served with distinction as a cavalry captain under General Turner Ashby throughout "Stonewall" Jackson’s famous valley campaign of 1862. Opposition to the advance of Banks’s Army up the Valley precipitated actions in Mt. Jackson and on Rude’s Hill within a short horseback ride of Broadway. The sounds of the 1864 Battle of New Market were audible in Broadway. Soon after the defeat of General Early’s Confederate forces at Cedar Creek, General David Hunter’s army used the Valley Pike (modern Route 11) on his way to take Staunton and to burn the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. The Valley Pike is only a few miles east of Broadway. Later, during the fall of 1864, Harrisonburg was again occupied and the valley suffered the "burning." During the burning, which was directed by General George Custer and commanded by General Sheridan, the large mill known as Custer’s Mill, which stood beside Linville Creek a stone’s throw from the Winfield home (and from the church’s future location) was burned, along with scores of barns, other mills, and a number of houses in the region. Federal soldiers searched the Winfield House, hoping in vain to capture John Winfield. Fortunately, his young family and the house were spared. But throughout the region because of the war most families experienced the loss of loved ones, and all experienced the scarcities and hardships of an unsuccessful struggle and the stress and uncertainties of invasions, defeat, occupation, and the collapse of the economic system. After the horrors of the war, clearly, many local families must have hungered for the influence of Christianity in their lives. Existing churches in the immediate area were Mennonite and Brethren, denominations that advocated pacifism. The Presbyterian church that developed from the Sunday school, now with twenty members, was formally recognized on June 5, 1870, by the Lexington Presbytery. The founding members were of seven families, the Alexanders, the Basores, the Cooteses, the Caslers, the Gailys, the Slaymakers, the Winfields, and four individuals: Mr. P. W. Pugh, Mrs. Elizabeth Rader, Dr. James R. Stout, and Mrs. Sallie F. Williams. The Reverend Thomas Bell was the first pastor. On land donated by the Winfields, a frame sanctuary was constructed. Elders during the formative years included individuals, many of whose names resonate with current families of the church: Branner, Hawkins, Aldhizer, Hulvey, Whitmore, Kline. The Town of Broadway was incorporated in 1880 and chartered in 1886. Three of the town’s first five trustees were Presbyterians: Samuel Williams, P. W. Pugh, and J. W. Basore. Members have frequently been elected to public office. C. R. Whitmore was Town Clerk. George Aldhizer served many terms in the State Senate. Elder Tim Proctor has served on the Town Council.

The railroad line connecting Harrisonburg to Mt. Jackson was completed on a route beside the church site, and the town began to prosper. A major lumber yard processed timber harvested nearby. A large pottery factory became a major business in town. Before the turn of the century, Miss Nannie Fletcher, daughter of the Reverend Mr. Patterson Fletcher, pastor 1883-1892, served as a teacher for six years in a school in Yokohama, Japan, in a period noted for great interest in foreign missions. Miss Fletcher married Elder and Clerk of the Session John Wesley Basore in the church in 1885. During the pastorate of Samuel Oliver (1900-1902), new members included Ollie Branner, Minnie Pugh, Edgar Whitmore, and Harvey Whitmore. Other early members of that decade were Lena Hulvey, Charles R. Whitmore, Henry Aldhizer, and Hattie Williams, who lived to the age of 101. (Members of the church who have died within recent times include their direct descendents: Neola Whitmore Behrens, Virginia Aldhizer Brainard, Sidney Lou Brainard Sommerville, George Aldhizer, Mary Moore Aldhizer, Sidney Aldhizer Beeson). Paulina Winfield, daughter of Sarah and John Winfield, became a published author of poetry and gave piano lessons to many children of the congregation, including Eddie Branner, who made music and the teaching of music his life’s work. The congregation was led by ten pastors during the decades between the church’s founding and the coming of World War I. Members William M. Hulvey, Gaylon Orebaugh, Haller Vaughn, and Kirby Moore served their country during World War I. All returned. In the mid-1920s construction of the present brick church building , designed by architect John Wagner, was begun. The building was finished in April 1926, with the aid of the voluntary carpentry efforts of members and especially of the Reverend Andrew J. Ponton, pastor 1924-1927, and Deacon Harvey A. Whitmore. Once the building construction was finished, Harvey Whitmore served as its custodian and caretaker for the remaining forty years of his life. The indebtedness for the new building spanned the years of the Great Depression. Members have fondly passed down the story of enterprising women of the Women’s Auxiliary who quickly made baskets of sandwiches and transported them to Daphne Station to sell among the crowds of on-lookers at the site of a spectacular train wreck south of town in 1930. And in other ways, during hard economic times the members raised money to pay off the building debt. Beverly O. Shannon was installed as pastor in1931 and served the congregation for the next seventeen years. The church building was dedicated November 1936.

During the years of World War II, many men of the church served in the armed forces. Donald "Toady" Branner was a gunner in a B-24 bomber in the Pacific. E. H. Brainard, George Aldhizer, Durwood Whitmore, Lawrence Pence, Philip Pugh, William M. Hulvey, Jr., Samuel Everett Brown, Ernest Acker, Everett Showalter, Francis Proctor, Paul Garber, Roy Hawkins, Jr., John Homan Kline, Dorsey Pence, Roy Black, and George Clark served. All returned. Members who joined the church after the war and who were veterans included Frank Moyers, Carlyle Lynch, Robert Schuler. Marion Simmons, later to be pastor from 1951 to1953, had served with Patton’s Third Army.

Periods of national crisis, such as the Great Depression and military conflicts serve as milestones because they profoundly affect the lives and memories of people. But throughout most of the history of the Presbyterian church in Broadway, daily life was routine. Young people met, courted, and were married in the church. Children were born, baptized, brought to Sunday School. Some learned the Shorter Catechism. Many earned Perfect Attendance pins and bars. Children grew up, and the cycle repeated. The church was a constant in the lives of many individuals and families. In the bosom of the church family and in the sanctuary of the church, lessons were learned, the Scriptures were studied, minds were challenged, hearts were touched. There were times of thanksgiving, times of grief, times of joy. God was praised in song. Forgiveness was sought and received. And, we must also believe, souls were saved. Each of the churches on the corner of Lee and Louisa Streets has been sacred to those who said their wedding vows in it or held their child to be sprinkled there or heard in that place Jesus’ words of comfort quoted in the presence of the coffin of a loved one. The ambitions of reaching out to the world and spreading the Gospel could scarcely be more important than the Christian nurture of each other and imbuing the on-coming generation with the knowledge of God’s love and the habit of seeking God’s will. Such have been the major, historical accomplishments of the Broadway Presbyterian Church.

After the WWII, the church grew. Worship service music was enhanced by electronic organ music, played by Edgar Branner and by music of the adult choir he founded. "Eddie" Branner was to be the church’s voluntary musician for decades until his death. The partitioned sections of the sanctuary balcony were crowded with classes of children. Through its history, the Broadway Presbyterian Church had shared its pastors with other small churches in the Presbytery--Edom, Cross Keys, Massanutten Cross Roads. Only in 1954 did the church have the full-time services of a pastor beginning with the installation of Ellsworth Orndoff. Miss Brownie Lester formed a youth fellowship group which influenced a large and active group of teenagers in the Fifties. In 1955 an addition for the church school and fellowship hall was added. After the ministries of Ellsworth Orndoff (1954-1963) and Roger Elliot (1963-1969), Marion Simmons returned and served as pastor from 1969 until his retirement in 1985.

In 1970, the congregation staged a pageant entitled "Between the Seventies" to commemorate the church’s 100th anniversary. The pageant, conceived, written, and directed by Marion Simmons, has become a high point in the memories of participants. The pageant, which portrayed events in the church’s history against the backdrop of world events, was performed on the front steps and portico of the church before a large crowd of local citizens seated in folding chairs on the lawn. The trained voice of Scott Black, the narrator, sounded professional. The pageant presented interesting events of the church’s history drawn from the minutes of the Session. For current members who participated in the pageant, knowledge of the church’s history is generally based on the pageant. For example, the suspension by Dr. Bell and Elder Slaymaker of a member for "flagrant immorality" due to drunkenness in the church’s early years was portrayed. No one who saw the pageant can fail to remember S.E. "Peanut" Brown as Teddy Roosevelt arriving in a Model T Ford. In a white suit Elder Wayne Long was Franklin Roosevelt. But the pageant is most fondly remembered by its participants for the unity of effort and cooperation it required and for the sense of accomplishment that followed its successful presentation. Every active member of the church at that time had one or more assignments with costumes, on-stage acting or in tableaus, special effects, lighting, or music.

Over the years since Charles and Emma Hockman joined the church, a number of major improvements to the church facilities have be accomplished, usually with Charlie as the visionary, the designer, the crew foreman, and always the hardest worker. The furnace of the church’s steam heating system was replaced when the original furnace failed. Later the unit was converted to gas. Insulated walls were built in the Fellowship Hall. The addition of new lighting and carpeting and the renovation of the kitchen made the Fellowship Hall so much more inviting, that outside groups have used the facility. The properties of the congregation--the manse, a rental residence, and the church building all show also the work of Elder John Myers, a building contractor by profession. The restrooms were renovated. A restroom was added on the main floor of the building. The projects that most clearly required Charlie’s expertise as a retired member of the Army Corps of Engineers were the replacement of the massive concrete front steps and the creation of a handicap accessibility ramp from the street to the first floor at the rear of the building . A cantilevered roof over the entrance to the Food Pantry is an engineering marvel of Elder Hockman’s creation. A structural problem that could have caused the disastrous collapse of the church’s vaulted roof was detected, diagnosed, and remedied by Charles Hockman. In the original design of the building, the weight of the balcony in the sanctuary was bourn by the massive timber trusses supporting the roof. Now steel pillars extend from the foundation to the underside of the balcony and bear the weight. The roof trusses are not longer deformed. Jobs performed by contractors have been completed under the expert supervision of Charles Hockman or Elder John Myers. The church’s wiring has been modernized. Remote fire detectors were installed. The adult Sunday school classroom was renovated to accommodate cabinets and shelving to house the church’s records and the library. Insulation in the sanctuary ceiling and the installation of ceiling fans and improved lighting fixtures improved the energy efficiency and comfort of worshipers. The installation of air conditioning is recognized by many members as the most significant recent improvement to the building. Elder John Harper guided the specification and installation of a new sound system.

But the projects supported by the giving and labor of the congregation have not been limited to repairs and improvements to the church and manse. For many members the creation and operation of the Food Pantry and Clothes Closet to serve the needs of critically poor families in the Broadway-Timberville area has been this church’s most significant activity and accomplishment in modern times. Support from other churches and civic groups and individuals outside of the membership testifies to the community stature of the on-going project. At Christmas time, church members provide Christmas presents for the children of the needy families.

Elders Dick and Sara Stewart have led the congregation into activities that proved to hold a special place in people’s memories of things they were glad they were a part of. The Stewarts were among the organizers of a Day Care Center in Broadway and involved some of the members in helping to create a center that is now fully accredited and self-sufficient. The Stewarts were instrumental in arranging for a "sister church" in Ethiopia for the Broadway Presbyterian Church. Leaders of the Gori church visited Broadway and spoke to the congregation. The Stewarts and others from the Presbytery of Shenandoah traveled to Ethiopia. On several occasions the church has helped Dembelli Dula, an Ethiopian girl, who has been a student at a local college. In turn Dembelli has visited the church on several occasions. On one occasion she prepared a native dish for a church meal. The Broadway church served as the official immigration sponsors of a Russian family, escaping persecution. Dealing with the housing, transportation, employment, health and dental problems of a newly arrived immigrant family with children, including an infant, was a challenging, but rewarding experience for the members involved. The Dronov family is now well-established and independent.

Several members were heavily involved in the recent construction of a "Habitat for Humanity" house built within a block of the church. For these members, the time and effort expended are remembered with pride and satisfaction.

As in the case of probably all small churches, there have been high tides and low tides in the history of the Broadway church. Past efforts to recruit new members have had but modest success, since most residents who have any interest in church participation already are church members of one of the area’s many churches. New members have generally been Presbyterians who have come to the community from elsewhere. The number of members has changed in small steps. The vibrancy associated with having a number of young families in the church fades as the children grow up, mature, and go to college or to work elsewhere. The steadying influences of members like George Aldhizer, John Zirkle, Francis Williams, Vesta Zirkle, Adie Pence, Phyllis Proctor, and Neola Behrens are not easily replaced after their deaths. However, the church has been regularly blessed by influxes of the talent and energy and humanity of newcomers to the church community. The influence of even one or two new families, experience has shown, can be significant. For example, in the ‘70s the Robert Greathead family joined the church. Betty organized a youth choir which involved all the young children of the church for several years. (The image of the children in robes is a cherished memory of a number of members). Bob was an efficient and effective leader and teacher. The two Greathead children were as involved as their parents. Also in the 1970s Elmer and Carolyn Kettler bought a farm at Daphne, joined the church, and immediately contributed to the vitality of the church in many ways. Carolyn created the church library, which is named in honor of Miss Hattie Williams. Carolyn and Elmer, a retired Army band musician, were important members of the choir and were elected elders. The Kettler children were active in the activities of the church. In the 1980s Sue and Jerry Johnson and their three daughters were an active family of the church. Jerry was chair of the pastor nominating committee of 1986. Lester Bonesteel and his wife Betty moved to Broadway after Lester retired from the Internal Revenue Service. They became active members, and Lester was elected Elder. In the 1990s Bob and Dianne Johnson bought a house near to the church, joined the church, and became very active members, both serving on the Session. Bob chaired the Finance Committee and brought a corporate level of organization to the work of the Session and of the committee. Dianne headed the host committee which planned the successful accommodation of a meeting of the Presbytery of the Shenandoah at the Broadway Church in 1998.

Every member and family has made contributions that have furthered the work and impact of the church and continues in many devoted efforts too numerous to attempt to mention! But in all the cases just cited, the entire family is gone. Bob Greathead tragically died due to heart problems. Eventually, Betty moved out of the area with her children and remarried. After Elmer Kettler’s death, with the youngest of the children of college age, Carolyn moved to Arizona. Jerry Johnson was transferred by his company to North Carolina. The Robert Johnsons returned to her home area of Williamsburg after Bob’s second heart attack. After Betty’s death Lester continued his devotion to the church for years. Finally, in the Spring of 2001, Lester felt impelled to prepare for the time when he would need medical care, sold his house, and entered a retirement home in Arizona. A small congregation knows and acutely feels the loss of every member. A number of faithful members have died in recent years. Divorce has struck in a few instances, inevitably causing at least half of the affected family to leave the church. A few families have left the church for reasons of their own.

The church sustained a double shock with the resignation of the Rev. Dr. John McDonald effective Christmas 2000 and the decision of organist and choir director Charity Knighting to seek full time employment in Virginia Beach in April of 2001.  Special music programs under Charity's talented leadership had attracted and engaged the children of all ages for a decade. Suddenly the number of children in the church seemed to have decreased to a critically low level.  In January of 2001 a careful update of the Active Member Roll of the church revealed that the active membership had decreased to eighty-seven, a number only ten greater than the number reported in 1900: seventy-seven. The total (active and inactive) membership in 1970 was167.

During the 18-month interim pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Donald Allen, the session, the church's committees, and the members benefited in un-measurable ways from his wisdom, experience, and never-resting diligence to prepare the Broadway Presbyterian Church for its future under the leadership of a new pastor.  On September 1, 2002, Sarah Lockridge Hill began to serve as pastor.  Her ordination and installation on November 10, 2002, began a new and exciting chapter in the history of the Presbyterian church of Broadway, Virginia.     

Sources:

Member comments on a Self-Study questionnaire submitted by nineteen members on April 1, 2001.

Between the Seventies, a pageant written by Marion L. Simmons, 1970.

Stonewall in the Valley by Robert Tanner. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York.

The Burning: Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley by John Heatwole. Rockbridge Publishing. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1998.

The Lexington Presbytery Heritage by Howard McKnight Wilson. McClure Press, Verona Virginia, 1971.

Hunter’s Fiery Raid in Virginia’s Valley by Gary Walker.

Old Houses in Rockingham County: 1750-1850 by Isaac Long Terrell. McClure Press, Verona Virginia, 1970.

The Heartland: Rockingham County by Nancy B. Hess. Park View Press, 1976.