114 / The Rise of the Sunday School

County known as the Blanchard River settlement. Records are meager on this settlement. It is known to have had a Sunday school though it closed in 1894, only to be reopened in 1907. In that year A. J. Steiner, brother of M. S. Steiner, was ordained minister and became the first resident pastor in twenty years. Until his removal to North Lima in 1908 he revived the life and activities of the congregation.

In the Wayne County Churches

The coming of Sunday schools in the Amish Mennonite settlements of Wayne County dates from 1871." Knowledge of Sunday schools elsewhere of course reached Wayne County and the influence of Bishop John P. King from Logan County was important. On one of his visits to Wayne County he explained to the Oak Grove congregation something of the benefits of the Sunday school.

The American Sunday School Union conducted a Sunday school in the area and the Dunkers were also attracting some of the Amish youth. There is evidence that these "outside" forces hastened the coming of the Sunday school in this Wayne County community. Opposition to the Sunday school was slight, apparently. It was "sold" to the members because it promised a method to teach the German language and the German Bible.

Here as elsewhere leadership played its role. Bishop John K. Yoder was in favor of the venture. 12 His son, Christian Z. Yoder, was to become quite prominent in the work and he did not fail to point out its values in the Herald of Truth. By 1892 the Sunday school was "evergreen." English was first used in about 1889 when Lina Zook (later Mrs. Jacob A. Ressler) taught a class in that language."

The Swiss settlers in the Crown Hill congregation proposed a Sunday school, in part as a result of their youth attending a Methodist Sunday school." Then known as the Steiner Church (also the Amstutz Church) the congregation worshiped in a meetinghouse built in 1850 one-half mile north and one-half mile west of the present Crown Hill Church.

David Amstutz apparently deserves credit for starting the work despite opposition from some who feared the loss of the German language." Since other Sunday schools in the area were in English, a certain number of persons were sure that a Sunday school would