MENNONITE I LIFE SEPTEMBER 1982 In this Issue This issue features a study of the sandstone tombstones which the Swiss-German Mennonites who immigrated from Pennsylvania to the Waterloo Region of Ontario decorated with ornate carvings. Nancy-Lou Patterson is Professor of Fine Arts and Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. Peter Penner, Associate Professor of History at Mount Allison University, Saekville, New Brunswick, shares his research on Henry S. Voth, a leader in the Canadian Mennonite Brethren Church dur­ ing the first half of the twentieth century. Voth began his career as a Reiseprediger (itinerant minister) and was among the last of the Mennonite farmer-preachers among the Mennonite Brethren. J. Denny Weaver, Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Bluffton College, explores the implications of recent shifts in the interpretation of Anabaptist origins for contemporary beliefs. Mennonite Life has occasionally included selections in Low Ger­ man in an effort to acquaint readers with this aspect of Mennonites’ linguistic heritage. Robert H. Buchheit, Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, discusses his extensive study of “Plautdietseh,” Menno­ nite Low German. The annual bibliography continues to grow in length and indi­ cates widespread research in Anabaptist-Mennonite studies. We ap­ preciate the assistance of our colleagues in preparing this important aid for scholars. Among the book reviews is John II. Yoder’s extended essay on Theron Sehlabaeh’s Gospel Versus Gospel, a book which has aroused considerable interest since its publication in 1980. Robert Kreider has returned from sabbatical and will resume the editorship with the December issue. MENNONITE September 1982 Vol, 37 No. 3 LIFE Editor Death and Ethnicity: Swiss-German Mennonite Robert Kr eider Gravestones of the ‘‘Pennsylvania Style” Associate Editor (1804-54) in the Waterloo Region, Ontario 4 David A. Haury Nancy-Lou Patterson Front Cover Cemetery, Germantown Mennonile Church. Germantown. Pennsylvania. Guardian of the Way: The Farmer Back Cover Cemetery, Germantown Mennonile Church. Preacher, Henry S. Voth (1878-1953) 8 Germantown. Pennsylvania. Peter Penner Photo Credits Pp. 4-7 Nancy-Lou Patterson; pp. 9, 10, 12 Peter Penner; and covers, Robert Kreider. The Anabaptist Vision: From Recovery to Reform 14 J. Denny Weaver MENNONITE LIFE is an illustrated quar­ terly magazine published in March, June. September and December by Bethel Col­ “Plautdietsch” : Some Impressions about Men- lege, North Newton, Kansas. Second Class postage paid a t Newton. K ansas 67114, nonite Low German in Kansas and Nebraska 16 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, S8.00: Robert H. Buchheit Two years, S14.00 (U.S. Funds) Statement of ownership and management as required by the Act of Congress of O ctober 23. 1962, Section 4369. T itle 39. As of O ctober 1, 1977, M ENN O N ITE L IF E is Radical Reformation and owned and published quarterly by Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas. Tiie own­ Mennonite Bibliography 1981 21 ing corporation is a nonprofit educational organization, has no stock and security holders and carries the publishers own ad­ Marva Hiebert, Assisted by Nelson Springer, vertising. Editor Robert Kreider, North Lawrence Klippenstein, Rachel Hiebert, and Newton. Kansas. Signed Paul Harder. Business Manager. North Newton, Kansas Grace Schowalter 67117. The total number of copies of MENNO­ NITE LIFE printed during the preceding twelve months has averaged for each issue Book Reviews 27 a total of 1500 w ith a paid circulation as of O ctober 1. 1982, of 950. T he balance of the number of copies from each issue is Theron Schlabach, Gospel Versiis Gospel, available for free distribution as samples, Reviewed by John H. Yoder and complimentary copies, deferred sales Sanford G. Shetler, Preacher of the People, and library holdings. and Urie A. Bender, Four Earthen Vessels, ISSN 0025-9365 Reviewed by E. Morris Sider. Death and Ethnicity: Swiss-German Mennonite Gravestones of the ''Pennsylvania Style” (1804-54) in the Waterloo Region, Ontario by Nancy-Lou Patterson The best known tombstone in tion brought from Pennsylvania a- found at Petersburg Cemetery, Pe­ Waterloo County has the earliest long with the early Swiss-German tersburg, Ontario (circa 1840). date: John Bricker (1795-1804). He Mennonite settlers, whose ancestors These stones offer a rare opportunity was the second son, and the first of had come to North America by way to observe and document the gradual three Johns, born to John Bricker of the Rhenish Palatinate. disappearance of a specific ethnic and Anna Erb, who settled near Cemeteries containing these form, the "Pennsylvania Style’’ Blair, Ontario in 1802 and raised stones are, in the order of their stones erected during the first fifty twelve children. In 1970, former earliest known or estimated dates: years of settlement by Swiss-Ger­ members of the Blair Union Sunday Blair Cemetery, Blair, Ontario man Mennonites in the Waterloo School erected a memorial to John (1804); Kinsie-Biehn Cemetery, Region, Ontario. Bricker, incorporated his stone. Doon, Ontario (1806); Eby (First A regularly striated sandstone (Fig. 1) He was the first person Mennonite) Cemetery, Kitchener, from the Whirlpool Formation in of European descent buried in Ontario (1809); Limerick Ceme­ the Georgetown area of Ontario Waterloo Region. John Bricker’s tery, now located at Doon Pioneer was commonly used to build in nine­ stone is one of several hundred of Village, Kitchener, Ontario (1812); teenth century Ontario: Hart its type, which are found in nine Wanner Cemetery, Hespeler, On­ House, Knox College, and Trinity Waterloo County Cemeteries. Mixed tario (1817); Freeport Cemetery, College, all at the University of among the many conventional white Kitchener, Ontario (1817); Hagey Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, were quartzite stones of Ontario Vic­ Cemetery, Cambridge (Preston), built of stones quarried from this torian Style, these sandstone slabs Ontario (1820); and Martin’s Meet­ formation, which is situated at the show themselves to be derived from ing House Cemetery, Waterloo, On­ base of the Niagara Escarpment an eighteenth century ethnic tradi- tario (1831). One stone is also and was laid down by an Ordivican Fig. 1: The earliest dated stone in Fig. 2: Contour with convex arch Fig. 3: Contour with convex arch Watei-loo County: gravestone for flanked by concave forms: grave­ flanked by smaller arches: grave­ John Bricker (d. 180k), Blair Ceme­ stone for Samuel Clemens (d. 1836), stone for Elizabeth Eby (d. 18kk), tery. Eby (First Mennonite) Cemetery, Eby Cemetery. Kitchener. 4 MENNONITE LIFE sea. Originally cream or rust-colour­ types. As an architectural feature, stone were born in 1806 and 1813, ed, it is now weathered to dark both single arches flanked by scroll and died within a day of one an­ grey. The laminated structure of the buttresses, and tripled arches, form other, along with their sister Mary Whirlpool Formation, called “reed” central features of facades in Ger­ (b. 1809). The marking of the by stone-cutters, is well-suited to man Baroque and Rococo churches. graves of children with distinctive the making of flat slabs for grave­ The gravestone contoured in this elements such as lambs is not found stones. Slabs from this source were manner suggests a door with an in the “Pennsylvania Style,” but sawn into shape (see the saw-marks arch above it: a ceremonial portal many of those with symbolic motifs on Figure 10) for use in Waterloo which combines two related sym­ were for children’s graves, suggest­ County, and given distinctive con­ bols. The door opens to receive the ing an extra care in memorializing tours which are part of their style. dead into the afterlife, and the them. At Eby (First Mennonite) Ceme­ arch suggests the overarching sky, A second inscription of interest tery, which with some 110 slabs to point their destiny heavenward. calls attention to the trek from contains the largest deposit of these The meaning of this spatial form is Pennsylvania to Ontario, a unique stones, at least twenty-four differ­ reinforced by the images which are feature of this stone. The memorial ent contours were counted—twelve placed there. is for Elizabeth Schwartz, in Blair unique, and twelve repeated with The inscriptions on the stones Cemetery. Translated from the varying frequency. The basic form are lettered in both Roman and somewhat phonetic German inscrip­ of the stone is always a vertically Gothic forms. These include a Mixed tion, it declares: “She was born rectangular slab, and in most cases Roman, containing upper and lower in Billtown ( IBildaun) in Bucks this is surmounted by one or more cases, circa 1804-1836 (Fig. 1) ; County, travelled to Waterloo (Wa- hemispherical lobes or convex Gothic, circa 1816-1845 (Fig. 3); derloo) in the year 1822, died 20 arches. Roman capitals, circa 1823-1841 March 1833 . .” No other stone of The two most popular contours (Fig. 9); and Italic, circa 1840- this type reveals so much personal are 1) a form composed of a cen­ 1854 (Fig. 12). Apparently the Ro­ history, though the travel narra­ tral arch flanked by two concave man forms span the entire period, tive is a feature of many local curves which suggest scroll but- while the Gothic is earlier and the family records in handwritten and treses (Fig. 2), and 2) a trilobar Italic, influenced by the encroach­ printed form. form in which a central arch is ing popular style, is later. Both Ger­ Many of the surmounting arches flanked by two smaller arches (Fig. man and English inscriptions ap­ of these stones contain the words 3). These contours, and the decor­ pear throughout the period: about Hier Ruhet or “Here rests,” as if ative motifs which occasionally orna­ half of the German inscriptions are to suggest a rest not only in the ment them, most closely resemble in Roman and half in Gothic.