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Church of the Brethren historian Donald F. Durnbaugh has described John Kline as "arguably the most beloved personality in Brethren History."

Born in Pennsylvania in 1797, John Kline moved at age eleven with his parents to Virginia where they farmed along the west side of Linville Creek in Rockingham County. As a young man, Kline married Anna Wampler and purchased a farm on the east side of Linville Creek within what is now the town of Broadway, about five miles north of Harrisonburg.

Activities

John Kline joined the German Baptist Brethren and, in time, advanced from deacon to minister to elder. In 1827, he was chosen to serve in the deacon's office by the Linville Creek congregation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was called to the preaching ministry in 1830. Elder Kline served the church without remuneration throughout his adult life. He contributed land and money for his congregation to build the Linville Creek Church. He frequently traveled on horseback to western Virginia (now West Virginia) and beyond on lengthy and arduous mission trips, visiting Brethren families, preaching, baptizing, and establishing churches. The writer in The Brethren Encyclopedia says that "according to [Kline's] records, he may have covered as much as 100,000 miles during his lifetime, mostly on horseback." The folks he visited were delighted to provide hospitality and to hear him preach. Kline also learned herbal medicine so that he could treat the sick using herbs that he gathered. He had studied and practiced the medical procedures of Dr. Samuel Thompson of Vermont. Thus Elder Kline was a firm believer that the sick could benefit from his medical skills as well as his counsel in spiritual matters. John Kline was a wonderful counselor and an effective evangelist.