Between adhering to the Mennonite faith and joining the United Brethren Church, Samuel Hiestand's family associated with the Primitive Baptist. They had belonged to the Mennonite congregation at the White House Church, which became the Mill Creek Baptist Church under the mennonite Minister Martin Kauffman (Coffman) Sr. and the Baptist preacher Elder John Koontz (Countz, Koonts,) who owned land next to the Hiestand's. Rev. John Koontz officiated the marriages of Samuel's siblings; Jacob (1784), Abraham (1787 to the widow of Mennonite Minister Jacob Strickler), Elizabeth (1784), Magdalena(1788) and John Hiestand (1794 to the daughter of Mennonite Minister Jacob Strickler). Martin Kauffman Sr. and other former Mennonite members withdrew from this Baptist church during the Revolutionary War when its leaders called for their armed participation. "In 1793 Martin Kauffman, in the name of the 'Separatist Independent Baptist Church,' petitioned the government of Virginia for military exemption for his people similar to that accorded the Mennonites and Quakers."