WATERLOO ONTARIO

No. 3 November 1970

Higtliights of Mennonite History in the Ma am Community

Prepared and presented by Paul H. Burkholder at the 1969 Fall Meeting of the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario at the Cedar Grove Mennonite Church.

Much of what I say today about this names owning land in Vaughan Township as church and Hennoni te community life in early as 1798. A large group of settlers York County was told to me by my father arrived in York County in l804.many of them Le\vis J. Burkholder. He possessed a very relatives who travelled together. There was keen interest in local history and genea­ Christian Reesor and hi s four sons and two logy. He also collected many old books daughters, one of whom was married to Abra­ and records, preserving some of the most ham Stouffer. the family for which Stouff­ ',7aluable in the "Mennonite box" at the ville is named.Christian's eldest son,Peter Provincial Archives in Toronto. He ,vas had been to this area earlier. as evidenced commissioned by Ontario Conference to pre­ by his barter of horse, saddle and bridle, pare a written record of Mennonite settle­ for 400 acres of Whitchurch Township. ment and life; the resulting book. A Brief HistoT.z of Mennonites in Ontar!.E? was pub­ There were three Hoover brothers. Casper lished in 1935. Sherk was a brother to Joseph Schoerg. who settled on the Grand River in 1800. These TDtroduct ion all came to the Markham area in 180(,. Abra­ ....-_ ... _---- ham Nighswander and his fami 1y came about The early Mennonite settlers who came the same time. from Pennsylvania to York County, or the Home District, as it was known in 1800, The Groff (Grove) and Barkey families were motivated by the same reasons that came a few" years later .. The Ramer family was brought their brethren to other parts of detained for two years on the American side Ontario, or "Canada \-Jest." It has often of the Niagara River and did not reach Mark­ been suggested that they turned east at ham until 1809. The Deacon Jacob Schmitt Dundas tmvard York, because of the land family came to Vaughan soon after the war of title difficulties experienced along the 1812. This brief struggle marked the only Grand River in 1803. However, it seems interruption in a slow, but steady, flow c{

almost certain that a few hardy fellows settler S 0 had made trips to York and scouted into the woods north of that town, prior to 1803, By 1826 over thirty heads of Mennonite \jlhen the Henry Wideman family arrived at families had arrived in the Markham area. I..Iarkham. The following is a list of names found in York County in 1830: Barkey, Byer, Eyer, Earlv Arrivals Brownsberger, Brillinger, Burkholder, --~--~--- Erundage, Detweiler, Break, Eby. Grove, We find people with Pennsylvania German Herr (Hare), Hoover. Horner, Kindy, Koch, -2-

K.reider, Lehman, Miller, Mishler, Mussel­ Saw mills, grist mills, flour mills, and man, Nigh, , Oberholtzer, Pike, woollen'mills ,,,ere found at many a turn In Ramer, Reamau$ Reesor, Sc.hmidt the big and little Rivers. Shaffer • Shirk, Shunk, Strickler, Stouffer, The Reesors were active in mil Witmer, Wismer and Strohm. Peter built .a mill just down the hill from this it was later his son, Simeon Reesor operated a l11111 one half mile farther south: this was ta­ st all of these early settlers were ken over by his youngest son, Dav who. farmer s. This was the life they had known with his sons, established Reesor s Mar­ in Pennsylvania, so moved onto land mill in Markham, which still manufactures which they began clearing, and a complete line of stock feeds. were soon gr to support them- selves and their Two married mil­ lers: one an the other, a Governor Simcoe had ordered the survey- White, of the Home District. This in the late 1700s and completed in Town in 1796. Much of the land had al- rea been granted by the crown when the the children of Ludwig Huber. who fir st Mennonites arrived. landed in Philadelphia in 1764, were three sons, all of whom came to in 1804. Many of these crown te were held by Martin, who was born in four people who were non-resident, perhaps liv­ years old when he came to Amer when ing in York, or favorites of officials. he came to Upper Canada, His brothers were Some were ed to soldiers in the servi­ John and Daniel. ce of the British army which had access t~ more land than money. The soldiers much The story is told that Daniel and his the solid silver of the Pennsylva­ wife had lost a child by drowning in their nia Dutch to 200 acres of wilderness no mat:- mi 11 pond in They had ter how the soil was under the trees. begun to settle on their new land, Lot 22, Con. 8, thr which the Ri.ver And it was good soil: a loam over winds, when Mrs, Hoover observed her hus­ g:cswelly clay that provided good drainage. band studying the lay of the river valley In the whole of Markham Township there is and assu..'lled he was a new mi 11 DO' waste land such as sand hills or swamps, site. Out of concern for her remaining children, she brought pressure on her hus­ There were great pine trees cover band, and they soon re-located three farms some of the knolls of lighter land. and the north on the brow of a hill with no stream s used these in home building. It is nearby, said that when Chris. Wideman was about to bui house on Lot 33. fifth con- This farm is still owned and operat;ed e ssion of Markham, he bought standing Willis Hoover, whose son, Kenneth, is the pine tree OVer on the third, cut and sixth 'of Hoovers in Canada. sawn. It provided all the needed lumber and trill! :for the large brick home nm.,r occupied descended from the German by h:!s great Ken Reesor. Wideman , Sebastian. His Henry had paid the sum of One Dollar for the tree, was born in Bucks Pennsylvania in 1757, In 1803 he came to with his family: six sons and six er s. One son, Christian, was a another, Som~ of the businesses which grew up a­ was a minister. Ada.m' s son, Jacob, was with the farm community were mills. also a minister and the father of - 3- minister and later bishop,. Samuel was the oldest son. Peter, nO"¥J took charge of the father of Jaeoh, a deacon who still serves esta t(:; and divided their extensive hold - cb". VJideman congrega.tion. ings among the family, He was a man of strong will and many stories are told of (,ue branch of the Hideman family moved his rather unique character. An example . Jacobs. others to Michigan, and the of his direct way of dealing with a prob­ 31\actia.;.1 tvest. Henry himself was killed by lEnD is the following: a fall tree in 1810. His homesread was adjacent to the church which bears the fam­ One very warm day as he was attending .Lly name, The Hideman name has conti.nued the Sunday morning meeting at Wideman's strong in the community, being numerically church, he was seated in front of a wind­ second only to Reesor in the local tele- Ow 1ilhich was either not built to open, or directory. was jammed shut. He mopped his hrowwith his handkerchief again and again. Flnally T will deal on briefly with the Rees­ he wrapped it around his flst and poked orG here. The four brothers and two sist­ out one of the panes. then leaned back to ~rs with their parents, Christian Reesor oy the fresl::. air. Fir st thing Monday and Ruff came in 1804. John, the sec­ morning, he went to the village, bought a (md sou, married Armie Grove and they had pane of glass, drove his horse the eight,­ fifteen children. een miles round trip to Wideman 1 s to in­ stall it. {, seems their family had reached number thirteen when one child married and left He built the stone homestead on the home, Later another child was born and died. west river bank in Cedar Grove. His wife After their fifteenth child was born, there was Esther Ehy, a sister to "Indian Sam"

" ct COmml'ilL1::y s5.ying, "Drei mal dreiZ(~hn Ehy of Wate~loo. and a cousin to Benjam­ kLr.1der cot Q" Literally this means, H Three in Eby. tinH,,;:; thirteen chi ldren had," or "Three ti.·· a t had thirteen children. li The descendants of Christian Reesor Sr. now nwnber nearly six thousand, ha\re It is told that when John ",lent courting maintained a family genealogical record • he asked her father, Bishop Abraham and a fami. reunion has been held appro- ~' . fot- the hand of his daughter, The ximate every ten year s. be;,: thought she "ms too young: shl3 \flaS sixteen. Reesor asked if she could ma~ The Ramer fami became numerous in t~ and the a 11 s\\rer wo. s af £ irnla t i.ve., So community., The first generation was known insisted [hat she was old enough and th~ for longe\;·ity. Among them have been ca.r'­ '.fete ma.r:r ie d, penters. beekeepers and farmers. Some of the Ramers were very musical incline';J" Abraham Reesor. another of Christian!s SG(lS., married a Detweiler. This couple. was Speaking of music, there is a man we Mennonite. but their children became Angli­ should mention: Adam Break. His grand~ OF2; of the most notable was David, a father. Hannas, left Switzerland in 1751. successful businessman and politician, and nlS father, John,died in Pennsylvania became a senator in the year of Confed- in 1802 I-lis "vlidovJ'ed mother with four ;.1:.on. He founded the Markham Economist, children started for Upper Canada in the ·1' (,rL·;·yc"~_/"_"_' 'ch __ ha" ,_ <::J b<,;p.r,r)u·b'_,-.,.. _ l' l'. b.'-_.c..·-'hod-we·~lK]Y· t ... ,for ,.. l,p-::;~r:l·\."_.1. __ , ...., . . ~! spring of 1806, They had their own four­ 100 years. He also directed a very active horse team and wagon, but travelled in Bible Class in the Village of Reesorville. company with the Christian Schneider fa­ s >:larkham was called in the early days. mily and others (about 40 in al and se~ tIed near Breslau, Her oldest son, Adam, The youngest son of Christian was a boy came to York County one weekend, saw a twelve when his father was killed by ~ girl he liked, and soon married l5-year- fal t.ree: he; ~·18.S Christian Junior. T'he old Haria Mu.sselman, daughter of Peter Husselman of Vaughan Township. In 18 1 Sunday at the same place. Abram Reesor of settled two miles west of the Cedar Locust Hill said he could not "see reason Grove Church, just north of Box Grove in driving past. four Methodist churches to attend a Mennonite church, when we are all Adam Break saw and examined a pipe or- striving to reach the same Heaven." 5~~~"§'> th,'?-il set about building his own. ms,de four of these instruments: three found their way into churches (not Mennon­ it ! but a 11 ha v e n 01" bee n 10 st. He a 1. so To come 'back to families of the COlllmUil'· composed words and music and compiled these i ty: John Di 1ler, a young widower, came into several books, all hand-written, with from Ohio with his teenage daughter at the a feather quill. time of the Civil War. He married John Eby Reesor! s only daughter, Susannah, John He always farmed for a livelihood. but D1 11er' s daughter marr :Led Ur iah t is said he carried a paper and pencil Drudge who came to Upper Canada from Clar" to jot dm"n the inspiration that came to ence. New York, to escape being drafted i~ his mind while resting the horses. His to the Federal Army. So draft-dodgers are large family scattered and none reside in nothing new. This had been one of the rea­ this area most of them having become act­ sons why m,:my of our ancestors fled Europe. ive in the Methodist church. Both the Drudges and the Dillers became The Influence of Other Faiths and Cultures strongly established families in the Mark­ ham-Scarboro community. The Hethodist church gained many memb­ ers at the expense of the Mennonites.There Two brothers from Jordan. Michael and were a number of reasons for this. In the Mannasah Fretz, married Reesor sisters. ea.rly years, the German language was used daughters of John Reesor and Annie Grove exclusively in our ehurch, so if there was (the little "porridge maker"), so theFretz intermarriage with their English -speaking name came to Markham. The Hyer s cO.me neighbors, the couple often went to a chu­ ectly from Switzerland and marr:i_ed into rch where English was used. the Hoover and Wideman families.

The Methodist and Evangelical churches Two sets of Reesor brothers--Isaac and carried on a more active program. At one David, aad Jacob and Albert, married four time a new minister came to Locust Hill Rittenhouse sisters from Jordan. The par­ M~thodist church. He opened a six-week ents, Preacher av_cl Hrs, Abraham Rittenho"!sc sccies of "protracted meetings, "preaching, moved to Scarboro in their later years.Two Bib le study and prayer, seven nights a wE£,k of their sons ma.rried Markham girls and 1~ C{,ne! people,vere converted. cated on farms here. Abraham Rittenhouse Jr. is 96 years of age and still active. The Mennonite settlement in York County was more scattered than, say, Woolwich, so The heaviest concentration of settle­ the influence of other faiths and cultures ment was along concession 8, north of Mar­ more inroads. kham, or Reesorville. as it "JaS known in the ear 11' 1800 s. The Boyer s, now Byer, wet' e Jvlennonite influence did reach into other a Tunker family who lived just south of denom.inations but usually through our: young theV[ideman church. J\.lin brothers, John people affiliating with other groups. By and David, lived across the road. from on.8 tradition, our Bishops would not marry a another. One was a minister and services couple unless both were Mennonite. so bapt~ were held in their homes. srn often did not take place until marriage. DIer ic young people were attracted to Benches were stored on an upstairs ver­ the churches of their more evangelical nei- andah for use on these occasions. This was ors. These churches held meetings every at the farmhouse now owned by Oliver Shanl), - 5-

rb.'2 last sever:al generations of Byers meetinghouses. There was the Schmicc chu" have been noted for their skill as apiar- rc.h in \!augban .. This ch~rch was built in

1. S t: s ~ l82Lf.

A little farther south were Koch farms. In the meeting calendar of the 1850s Hu­ l~ descendents drifted away from the her and Steckli.n are listed as appointments. 1"lt,cDonite church and very few are found lo­ These must have been in individual homes ~ cally. were discontinued when the Almira meeting­ house. was b .. lilt in 1860 on the fiftli COI1Cf;-· The Ramers were mentioned. but I should sSlon of Markham. The land ,,7as donated by explain that there were many Ramer farms Adam WI.dem~n. This building is still used around North Markham or. as it came to be by the Wissler branch of the Mennonite hEmrm, Mount Joy. Among this fami.ly have church, been threshers and mechanics. Daniel was cl eom.~non name among them, so at one time UIE:re was ".Farmer" Dan, "Thresher" Dan, "Si Dan, and "Honey" Dan. The origiDal building on this sice ar Grove) was erected by Samuel Reesor, cl This custom of attaching a prefix to a son of Peter and Esther Eby. He liVed just Christian name was common among all the down the hill on the mill road and took oV(Jr Pennsylvania Dutch. South of Stouffville, the mills from his father. LLled "Swamp" lake Hoover. There was !1Stump" Chris and "Sp litter" Chris Hoover, 1824 is the earliest marked grave in the "Hush" Sam and "Yankee" Sam Hoover, Three cemetery. which has been used by people of Abraham Burkholders were distinguished as other faiths in the community. "sli.m" Abe~ "Fat" Abe and "Little" Abe, T1H" last one W3S my grandfather. The original meeting house stood fif feet east of this location with the le The '[unker s runnin~ east and west. frame building, the vertical joints of the I mentioned the Byers as having belong­ wide pine boards were covered by nice sh~ ed to the Tunker or Brethren in Christ ped batten strips. There were three large

chu.rc.h o This fellowship grew side-by-side windows on e<'3.ch side, made up of small pa.nES !!,5th. the, Mfmnonite community. They were in the old st.yle. A long "stoop" t?xter,ded situated more in the western part of Mark­ across the east end of the bui Idi1ig filcir'g ham l'ownship and eastern Vaughan Township" the road, rei eritage and practice they were similar to the Mennonites. Ih6re were two doors from the stoop: one enter~d the main room,facing a centre aisle There has been intermarriage between tha.t: led to the. raised puLpit at the Vole st. 5(0 groups. The two denominations de- end of the church. The other outside door eloped and made transition to new \vays at entered 2 small anteroom,separated from the about the same pace. Their family names ineE:t i~l.g room an eight-foot-high wooden jnclude: Winger, Heise, Caber, Boyer, partition. Sreekly, Baker. Doner. Sherk, Sider. and others. Their greatest concentration has This partition was built around a large a s been around Gormley. ::lOX s[on~ which extended through it wil~h the fuel door in the anteroom and the stove pipe at the other end, going up and then running the full length of the building to The Mennonites in this district rotated the chimney. Needless to say, this heating their Sunday services between the various plan was less than adequate, blistering hot -6- by the stove and nearly freezing at the far 1940 to 1957, George Elsasser 1957 to 1960, end of the building. Lawrence Martin 1960 to 1963, and Glen Bru­ bacher since 1964. The membership has nev-' In the anteroom was a large wood-box, er been large, averaging around forty. with a hinged lid. The warmth of the stove made it an ideal place to care for a baby. A rather notable incident took place 1n This was the "Mothers' room." Attached to 1913. Samuel G. Reesor, a deacon. was con­ two walls of the anteroom were low benches. ducting the opening of the service,with my I remember this as my first Sunday School father in the pulpit beside him. After classroom. Scripture reading, they all knelt,anddur­ ing the prayer Brother Reesor paused and The pulpit was raised three steps above said, "Lord, you know how weak we are.1! the main floor and was flanked on both There was another pause and he collapsed m sides by several rows of cross benches in the floor. He was lifted to a bench but that end of the building. These, together had already expired. with the benches facing the pulpit, gave seating to about one hundred and twenty. The congregation at Cedar Grove is in These benches had only one board for a the process of acquiring land to the west back rest; this was nearly a foot above of our existing property for additional the seat and small children, myself inclu­ property expansion and perhaps a parsonage. ded, often fell out the back. Pulpit , benches, partition and flooring, were all of wide pine boards. The whole structure gave an impression of functional simplicity. Rissers church was built in 1857 on the farm owned by John Eby Ree sor, another son When the building was moved and re-mod­ of Peter. He was a minister, having been elled in 1950, it was found that the sills ordained in 1836. The earliest servicesin had been laid across large pine stumps" this part of the settlement were held in These had carried it for nearly ninety his home or in a small schoolhouse just years. south of the present church.

Samuel Reesor, Peter!s son, had built John's son, Christian, succeeded him as the original meeting house at his mITE ex­ minister and later became the bi Af­ pense and donated it and the land to the ter the division of 1889 this meeting­ HSociety of Mennonites." It served as a house was used exclusively by the Wissler shelter for funerals, as the adjoining branch of the church. cemetery VIas used by community families as well as by the Reesors and local Mennoni­ It, too, was remodelled in 1950 .. At the tes, present time the Steeles Avenue congregat­ ion of the Ontario Conference shares its Cedar Grove VIas included in the , early use with the Wissler Mennonites. Calendars of Appointments, as one of the meeting houses among which services alter­ nated. Weekly Sunday morning services were held here in the l880s. One of the earl­ Another meeting house was at Altona in iest Summer Bible Schools i.n the province Pickering Townshi.p. One Christian Stouf­ was held here i.n 1934. fer gave the property for a church .build­ ing which was erected in 1852. There had Ministers who served this congregation been a school on this site previously and specifical after the rotating type of a grave in the adjoining cemetery is dated services were discontinued, were: Lewis 1835. It would seem this burial had been Burkholder until 1939, A. Lorne Burkholder, made in the school yard. .. 7-

This building is still used every three A Philip Wideman was arrested after the weeks by the Wiss1er church. rebellion was crushed at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern. It was at this time Wideman Meeting House that Martin Hoover and his family moved to Ohio and later to Indiana, and Daniel .'-'~2. first. Wideman meeting house was Kreider s moved to Ohio. Thus the comrnunity built about 1817. It has been rembde1led lost two very able ministers. and enlarged several times, the present building having been constructed in 1928. Mennonites generaily leaned toward che Liberals. Some families ..,ho left the Menno­ Preacher Henry Wideman was the first nite faith sided with the Tories. Of cour~ Hennonite minister in this community in there were exceptions to this. Senator 1803. Martin Hoover came in 1804 and set­ David Reesor was a Methodist and a Liberal tled nearby. and on election day he was supported by tvJenty- two Ramers lien masse" at one of the Bishop Abraham Grove came from Pennsyl­ polls in North Markham. vania in 1808, having been ordained there, for his new home in Canada. Schism

After the death of Henry Wideman, by a In the late 1840s the schism led by Dan­ falling tree in 1810, Martin Hoover and iel Bach of Jordan, came to a head and re­ Abraham Grove were ministers in Markham, sulted in divisions in each of the Confer­ Daniel Kreider in Pickering, and Chris. ence districts. Abraham Ramer began to Troyer in Vaughan. Widemans and Hoovers preach in the Markham area, as did John have been ministers and deacons at this Steckley and Joseph Ramer, although none congregation; Groves and Barkeys have also of these men were ordained in the old served. The Wideman congregation has al­ church. ways been the largest in the Markham area. Christian Troyer of Vaughan joined with It will be noted that most of these Boch in the early fifties. John Lapp of buildings were erected after 1850. Prior Clarence, New York, ordained a Jaccb Burk­ to that time, Widemans and Schmitt were the holder of Whitchurch'rbvmship as Cl minist·· only meeting houses and other appointments er in 1852. Later, when Burkholder retur­ "Jere likely held in the homes. ned to the "continuing" church, he was al­ lowed to continue preaching, and ..JaS repo­ Conference rotated between the Waterloo rted to be one of the first to use the En­ district, Markham and the Niagara district. g li sh language. There ,vas a bishop chosen for each of these districts, preaching was in German, and These men and their sympathizers of vk1cm there were no regular meetings,besides Sun­ there were quite a few, supported Daniel day morning, the one local exception being Hoch and John Oberholtzer of Pennsylvania. a Christmas Day meeting at Peter Reesor's They favoured a more vital Christian expe­ home when the group sometimes stayed for rience and pursued policies which were ad~ dinner . Peter ' s birthday was on December pted later by the remaining church. 25th~ The followers of Hoch and Oberholtzer Political influences later became the General Conference of 11en- nonites. These early local dissenters The rebellion of 1837 had its effect on seem to have continued, loosely organized, the Mennonites of York County.Feelings ran until the early 170s when they identified strong among the rural people and although with the group that became known as the they traditionally kept aloof from politi~ "Mennonite Brethren in Christ.1! Christian their sympathies must have been divided. Troyer was one of the four ministers who - 8- were the original ordained body of the New ded as to which side they should support. Mennonites, as the M.B.C. were first known. so when meet ings were announced <.by both Joseph Ramer continued as one of their pre­ groups they set out the first Sunday morn­ achers at Markham. ing still undecided, and when they came tn the end of their lane, they just left it This denomination has been very active up to the horse to turn whichever way it in York County, and has grown numerically, chose. Doubtless many decisions were made surpassing the Old Mennonite church. They with more conviction than was this one. have congregations at Gormley, Stouffville, Dicksonls Hill, Mount Joy and Altona, as Locally, the denominational factions well as several churches in Toronto. took on family names. The Mennonite Bre'­ thren in Christ were often referred to as Some of their families are of Pennsylva­ "the Ramerleute", the 'old' Mennonites as nia Dutch origin, but a larger proportion the "Hoover leute", and the Wissler Menno­ of their membership are not of German eth­ nites as the "Reesorleute." nic background. I quote from A Brief His­ ~2EY of Mennonites in Ontario by L. J. Christian ReesoT continued a bishop in Burkholder: "So it was that in 1874 the the later group until his death in 1915. most aggressive element of the church was removed, and became the M.B.C. This schism Levi Grove ,.;as ordained bishop in 1927, taught the church that more active intere­ Abraham Smith succeeded him and still ser­ st must be taken in the gathering of the ves this group, which now numbers about 30. young into the fold. Samuel Wideman was called as bishop iof "Some of the methods of the M.B.C. group the Ontario Conference Mennonites in 1885, in a modified form, would have been accep­ and served until 1912. Bishops from "i'ater'~ table to a large section of the church,but loo County supplied until 1954 when Emerson there were others of a more conservative McDowell wa s ordained as bishop or over seer, type who opposed any measure or method to which they had not been accustomed. This Cooperation among groups conservative group was strongest in Wool­ vlich TovlUship in Wa ter loo County, but had During the past fifty years there has sympathizers in the other districts also." been a greater working together and spiiit of cooperation among all these groups, es­ Attitudes toward Sunday School and Eng­ pecially the last two mentioned. Relief lish preaching were two of the questions m work following both world wars and aid to which there was strong disagreement. So in the Russian Mennonite irrmtigrants of the the summer of 1889 another division took 120s were efforts on which there was full place in the local Mennonite community. cooperation.

Christian Reesor who was the bishop in In 1965 a large proportion of the Mark­ York County at this time, led the conserv& ham Wissler group united with the Ontario tive group, who soon affiliated with the Conference Mennonites and formed the Steeles Wissler Mennonites of the United States. Avenue congregation. They worship regularly in Rissers Church. There were some very strong feelings on both sides and if each had shown more<.pa­ Mission Outteach tience and charity, this split need not have taken place. During the early 1900s a Mennonite Mis­ sion was established in Toronto. Sam The division sometimes went through a Honderick of Indiana was the first Super­ family circle. The story is told of a br~ intendent. After several locations, a ther Grove. who with his wife was undeci- church was built in 1910 at 2174 Danforth 9-

Avenue. The Markham churches supported Bible Conferences have been held this work with personnel and as annually since about 1920. Singing scho­ well as by their prayerful interest. ols have been held at different times through the years when there was someone The William Wr family from Toronto qualified to give this leader and their son-in­ Floyd Sdunucker, mo­ ved out from the church during the German classes were held in the ear 30s, and began hol School in years and there was also German s their home at L J. Burkho lder school. with others, gave ment to this work and F ordained to the ministry in thful served this growing In looking back we may say that until were transferred to Monetville tion played a large part in several years ago. }iennonite church community t there is more emphasis on individual ex­ Emerson HcDowell is present minister perience and corporate commitment to the at Hagerman. Christian ethic.

Other churches have come into be in It is a marvellous fact that the Henno­ East Toronto, sponsored by the Ontario nite church survived at all in York County. Mission Board, but having their It was an isolated communi ~ torn in­ in the labours of istian families of ternal schisms, weakened by the loss of the Danforth church,through SundaySchoo~ many of its to other denominations, in their homes and Summer Bible Schools in and still it has survived, contribut these ne'!;; communities. much to the church of Jesus Christ I feel, still holds within it a great po- "country churches" of the Markham tential for good. There have been many district e assisted their breth- mistakes and failures in the past. but ren" in many ways, although there now also successes and victories. seems to be a trend to more independent congregational Hfe, in both city and coun we pray God, together, to use each try churches. of us in our communities to build His church here on earth. In 1917 a "York County Mission Meeting!! was held to stimulate interest in fore missions, This has continued as a twice­ yearly convention, being held on Good Fr and sg days.

Several local young people have gone to South America and Africa and have been sup- Published the Hennonite Historical ported by these churches. Fretz Sny- Soci.ety of Ontario. Available upon der served many years in Ar and request from Conrad Grebel College, Puerto Rico. Esther Reesor was in Brazil Waterloo. Ontario. Price $1.00. for a number of years. Dr. Joseph Burkho­ Ider is present in Ethiopia and Merlin Grove served in Somalia unt il he met __ a martyrls death in 1 2 a the hands of a Moslem fanatic.