The Black River Brethren Colony, (German: Die Kolonie der Schwarzflüßen Brüder) was a religious community centered on the pious lifestyle of the German Baptist Brethren. For nearly a century, the settlement sought to provide a religious parallel to the local township system of government in Ohio, who self-separated from the secular world as did the Mennonites. They were commonly known as the Plain folk. When it was founded in 1852, it was mostly self-sufficient and isolated, hence the name Colony. By the 1880s, it had dissolved into nothing more than a social circle centered around the Black River Brethren Meetinghouse. Twenty years later, a new Elder Council was established under Bishop Aaron and until the Great Depression was an authoritative voice in Lorain and Medina Counties, across w