108 / Growth-and Some Decline-of the Churches

Kaempfer of Wood County. In Mahoning County, Samuel Good, a minister, and Deacons Christian Lehman and David Weaver united with Wisler.

The important centers in Ohio where Wisler's followers continued were in Medina, Wayne, and Mahoning counties. A majority of the Mennonites in Medina County followed Wisler. Both the Maple Hill meetinghouse (built in 1833) and the Guilford meetinghouse (built in 1855-56) were claimed by the Wisler group. Jacob Kreider, a deacon who remained with the Ohio Conference, had a following of only twenty-five members. Apparently this group used the Guilford meetinghouse on alternate Sundays until 1893 when it erected its own building for worship, the Bethel Church, which was remodeled in 1939 and again in 1961.

In Wayne County, Bishop John Shaum of the Chester Mennonite Church in Chester Township had cast his lot with the Wisler movement, and with him went the congregation and three preachers, Peter Troxel, Peter Y. Landis, and Peter Imhoff. In 1873 they erected a meetinghouse."

The other congregation of the Wisler movement was located east of Orrville and came to use two meetinghouses, County Line (built in 1891) and Chestnut Ridge (built in 1908). These congregations were made up of members who transferred from the Pleasant View and Martins congregations of the Ohio Conference. Previous to building their own meetinghouse they alternated in worship with the Ohio Conference members in the Pleasant View and Martins congregations.''

In Mahoning County the followers of Wisler worshiped for twenty-five years in the three meetinghouses of the county, Oberholtzer's (later Midway), Metzler's (later North Lima), and Nold's (later Leetonia), all within a seven-mile radius. In 1897 they built the Pleasant View meetinghouse west of Midway. Sixteen families had followed Wisler in the 1872 division."

The later history of the Wisler group in Ohio deserves a careful study-one beyond the scope of this work. Suffice it to say that the Wisler following in Ashland, Green, Montgomery, Crawford, Seneca, Wood, and Williams counties passed away in the course of time, either as a result of migration or loss of young people or both. There are at present five Wisler congregations in Ohio which number a total of about 300 members who live in Wayne, Medina, Columbiana, and Mahoning counties."