View Collections | Browse Cultural Objects | Browse Oral History
Plate with photograph of frame Topeco Church building.
Images (click to enlarge)
County Life, Cultural Objects

Topeco Church of the Brethren Commemorative Plates

People
Maker/Creator: Unknown
Date
1974
Places
Topeco (Courthouse District)
Material/Medium

Porcelain

Specifications
  • Diameter: 10 inches
Description

These porcelain plates feature photographic images of 1898 and 1972 church buildings constructed for the Topeco Church of the Brethren congregation.  They were manufactured by the Preston-Hopkinson Company which marketed them as “Fotoware.” The plates have gold rims and the bottom of each plate is stamped with “Preston-Hopkinson Co. Appomattox, Virginia For Decorative Use Only.”

Keywords
Souvenir plate, commemorative plate, "Fotoware"
Notes

A 2005 article in the Church of the Brethren Messenger sited Floyd County as the “Most Brethren County in the USA”  with over ten percent of county residents identifying as Brethren. The first Brethren communion and Love Feast is thought to have been held around 1800 at Benjamin Weddle’s cabin (roughly a mile from the current church). In the early years worshippers hosted meetings in their homes. The 1972 plate shows the third Topeco Church, a building that replaced the frame structure shown on the first plate. The frame structure was built in 1895 to replace the original 1857 Brick Church. Descendants of Benjamin Weddle were foremen for the construction of all three buildings.