Daniel Sommer

Daniel Sommer (1850 – 1940) was a key figure in the Restoration Movement and in the separation of the Churches of Christ from the Christian Church.

The roots of the division that led the Churches of Christ to consider itself separate and distinct from the Christian Church were both secular and spiritual. The American Civil War divided the pro-slavery Southern churches from the anti-slavery northern churches in sentiment. After the war the wound was not healed and spiritual issues became the focus that made the division a reality.

Sommer's conversion to the Churches of Christ occurred long before the formal division from the Disciples of Christ in 1906, so that references to the Churches of Christ in this section must be understood to refer to the older, larger body.

Born in Queen Anne, Maryland, and raised as only a nominal Lutheran by German immigrants, Sommer had identified himself as a Methodist in 1864. His conversion to Restoration Movement Christianity began in 1868 in Harford County, Maryland under the influence of his employer, John Dallas Everett. He was baptised after being inspired by a gospel meeting presided over by elder T. A. Crenshaw. It was said that in 1869 while enrolled at Bethany College in West Virginia, Sommer began his emphasis on doctrinal conservatism. One biographer, Larry Miles, put it thus: "It was while a student at Bethany that Sommer began what others would call being a "watchdog" for the brotherhood. If he saw, what he deemed a deviation from the apostolic order he felt compelled to attack it." In 1871 he met and came under the influence of conservative Restoration Movement figure Benjamin Franklin after receiving permission from the College to spend time with Franklin at a series of gospel meetings Franklin was holding in Wellsburg, West Virginia.

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