Growth-and Some Decline-of the Churches / 101

it would seem, another reason for the decline-that of adherence to the German language in services after it could no longer communicate to the oncoming generation. In 1910 the trustees of the Mennonite Cemetery Association deeded the cemetery to the "trustees of Perry Township."

The Williams County community was also one of those that followed Wisler under the leadership of Bishop Abraham Lehman. The founding families of the community were large: Bishop Lehman had ten children; Levi Eberly, a minister, had six by his first marriage and nine by his second; Martin Myers had seven; and Jacob Eberly had eight. Had all the children been gathered into the church, it should have grown. However, this did not happen. Other churches, especially the Dunkers, attracted them. Some of the families removed to Elkhart County, Indiana. Strict adherence to traditions without sympathetic attitudes toward the problems of youth probably entered into the picture. The last minister was Joseph Borkholder who was born in Manheim, Pennsylvania, in 1830. Ordained in 1894 at the age of sixty-four he served till feebleness of old age came on. After his death ministers from the Amish

The Hoffer Meetinghouse in Williams County

The Hoffer meetinghouse was built in 1855 near West Unity in the western part of Ohio. It was one of the frontier congregations which became extinct after leaving the Ohio Mennonite Conference in the Wisler division of 1872. A well-kept cemetery by the church remains to the present time.