Devotional Booklet Reprinted
in 1835
Originally published in 1786 in the Palatinate, Germany, Kleines Hand-Buechlein was reprinted at Osnaburg (now Canton), Ohio, in 1835 by Heinrich Kurz. The booklet, a 2 x 3 inch pocket companion of 104 pages, contains prayers and hymns and was published by Bishop Daniel Steiner and Minister Peter Steiner, both of the Chippewa (Crown Hill) Swiss congregation in Wayne County. The Steiners came from the Normanville congregation in Alsace Lorraine, France, and settled in Wayne County in 1825.
From Archives of the Mennonite Church.
in Switzerland. It was in this year that Peter Lehman, Isaac Sommer, Ulrich Lehman, and David Kirchofer arrived with their families. Church services began in 1821, and in 1854 the first meetinghouse was built, serving also as a community school.
Another Swiss Mennonite settlement was located in Wayne County at Rittman, Ohio, in 1825 and known as Chippewa. The Chippewa settlement changed its name to Crown Hill in 1883 when a new church was built on the land donated by D. C. Amstutz.a" In 1914 Crown Hill applied for and was granted membership in the Ohio Mennonite Conference."
Still other Swiss immigrants settled in Putnam, Hancock, Paulding, and Allen counties of Ohio. Not all of these became or remained affiliated with the Ohio Mennonite Conference, though the Chapel congregation at New Stark in Hancock County was affiliated with the Ohio Conference till 1926. The Zion congregation in Allen County was founded by John Thut in the 1840's, and it remained a part of the Ohio Conference till 1925. Large numbers of the Swiss affiliated with the General Conference Mennonites, a less conservative body, and they became active in the Mennonite
