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Henry Geisinger, and Samuel Koppes.
Mennonite migrations of the nineteenth century into Ohio were not limited to groups from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Canada. There was also a large and important migration from Switzerland. In 1817 Swiss Mennonites came to Wayne County, Ohio, and in 1834 erected the Sonnenberg church building at Kidron in southern Wayne County. They had previously organized between 1825 and 1834 with Peter Steiner and Daniel Steiner as ministers.
A group of Swiss Mennonites settled in Green Township of Wayne County and were a part of the Sonnenberg congregation and worshiped in its log meetinghouse. However, in 1850 the Green Township settlement built a meetinghouse of its own. Known as the Chippewa Church it was located on the farm of Christian Steiner. In 1883 the congregation built a new church building one mile away and in the new location was called Crown Hill.`
In Western Ohio
A congregation to grow out of the movement into western Ohio was the Blanchard congregation (later called the Mt. Pleasant Church) in Putnam County. Located on the banks of the Blanchard River it was founded soon after 1830 by Myers and Shenk families from Leiters Ford, Maryland. Other families to join the group were the Spitnales, Fyers, Strites, and Leathermans. The congregation built a log building for worship in 1840 and a second one in 1866. The present edifice dates from 1918. The congregation did not grow to be large in its early years. It was scattered and frequently without a resident minister after 1885, being served by ministers from Elida, Bluffton, and New Stark."
That leadership was important in planting religious communities on Ohio's frontier is clear in the role played by John Thut in the founding of the Riley Creek (later called Zion) congregation.` John Thut was born in 1801 in Canton Bern, Switzerland, and came to America in 1825. He united with the Longenecker Church in Holmes County and later became a charter member of Kolb's. Here he married Christina Bechtel in 1832 and on September 25, 1843, he was ordained a minister. In 1848 he moved to Allen County in the quest for land and opportunity. He purchased 148 acres of improved land and settled in the community with fellow Swiss neighbors.
Thut served as a minister in the Allen County community. He
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