Isaac Long & Effie Showalter

Status: returned!

Harrisonburg: a small historic town nestled near the Virginia/West Virginia border in Shenandoah Valley, and a mainstay of our getaway to this beautiful region of the world. We rented a cottage-like Airbnb overlooking the green rolling hills of Shenandoah outside of Harrisonburg and made frequent trips into town to explore the many breweries and, of course, the Rolling Hills Antique Mall.

This antique mall had photo after photo after photo: beautiful old cabinet cards and cartes de visite awaiting their permanent place in the hands of their descendants. Unfortunately, very few had names on them. The only two which did, in fact, were a cabinet card labeled "Cousin Isaac Long" and a portrait of the same Isaac posing with who I could only presume was his wife: a woman by the name of Effie.

But they were pricey, and I wasn't particularly smitten with them, nor did I think a name like "Isaac Long" would return results specific enough for me to narrow down the correct individual. So I left, empty-handed.

But in the car ride back to the Airbnb, I was curious, and I did a quick Google search: "Isaac Effie Long". It was then I immediately regretted not taking Isaac and Effie home.

It was A History of the Brethren in Virginia that first came up: a book published in 1908. Isaac Long, it turns out, was a member of the Mill Creek Congregation of the Church of the Brethren - a Christian denomination with a strong stance of pacificism, alongside Mennonites and Quakers. The Mill Creek Congregation was founded decades before by his own grandfather, also named Isaac Long, a minister. Our Isaac, too, was elected a minister in 1895 and, together with his wife Effie, they served as missionaries in India.

But that's not all. The book included a photo.

Okay, so now I had to go back to the store to buy the photos. I had no other choice. So I did, and here is Isaac and Effie's story.

Isaac was born on May 13, 1875 to William Long and Eliza Carpenter in Port Republic, VA, a tiny little community just south of Harrisonburg. Effie was born not long after, on September 25, 1875 to Peter Showalter and Magdalene Heatwole in Rockingham County, VA.

The couple married on October 3, 1903 and it appears that not long after that, they were off to India. They don't appear in any US censuses until 1930. Based on this census, it would appear that Isaac and Effie had four children:

Esther V Long, born 1909 in India
Albert. E Long, born 1911 in India
Madaline Long, born 1913 in Virginia
Elizabeth, born, born 1917 in Virginia

Isaac died on April 30, 1963 in Harrisonburg and is buried in the Mill Creek Church Cemetery. Only five months later, Effie followed.

Upon finding their obituaries, a few wonderful little details came to light - like, they left for India only a day after they married. I'll just let the obituaries do the story telling:

These life stories might just be my favorite that I've come across yet on the Forgotten Faces Project - and to think I almost left the photos behind.

Benjamine Long