64 / Pioneer Mennonite Communities

Services were in the German language in the early decades and continued in this language for the first generation and more. A willingness to change from German to English can be seen in a communication in the March 1865 Herald of Truth when Englishspeaking ministers from Virginia were invited to settle in Wood County. The invitation stated: "We have here a small and weak congregation and should be very glad if some such one would come among us and settle here, especially one who can speak both the English and German language. I think he could do a great deal of good in our church." The occasion for inviting Virginia ministers was the Civil War when Mennonites left Virginia to avoid service in the Confederate Army. No Virginia minister responded as far as is known. The future of the Wood County settlement saw the language question come to the fore again.

The westward trek of pioneering Mennonites reached Ohio's northwest region, that of present-day Williams County. Into this Great Black Swamp area, heavily timbered, came one Peter Burkholder from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in late May of 1843. He moved into a log house and by fall had cleared five acres of land on which he sowed wheat.

Other settlers also came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but only a few were directly from the county. Others had lived for periods of time in Ontario and in the Ohio counties of Medina, Wayne, and Columbiana. A few came from points westward in . Elkhart County, Indiana, and also in Illinois.

The familiar Mennonite names were: Daniel Lehman who came from Ontario in 1842; Isaac Hoffer who arrived in 1843 after moving from Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to Wayne County, Ohio; Peter Borkholder who made a three weeks' trip from Lancaster County to Williams County, stopping at Mennonite settlements en route; Jacob Delp who arrived in 1843 from Medina County, Ohio."

Still others to move to Williams County were the Kilmers from Crawford County, Ohio, who arrived between 1845 and 1874. Isaac Hoffer who arrived in 1843 apparently was a minister when he came to the county. He was ordained bishop before 1864, perhaps by Henry Stemen of Fairfield County though he may have been a bishop in 1843.''

Mennonites came into northwestern Ohio in the wave of westward migration that was encouraged by the building of two canals from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.