240 / Development of Church Life in the Older Congregations

the aid of Daniel Kauffman of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, a discipline was drafted and submitted by Frey to the congregations for ratification.'-a The discipline was approved by a vote of 849; it was disapproved by 6, and 67 persons were undecided. The document, as seen in retrospect, was quite restrictive in matters of dress, recreation, business enterprises, and social activities. It may be considered as a heroic attempt to insulate and isolate this large community from the encroachments of social change. Doubtless it achieved some success in this regard, but in the years ahead many modifications took place.

It should be recorded that under E. L. Frey's leadership the Fulton County churches grew and had many expressions of vigorous congregational life. In 1932 a winter Bible school was started which was well attended as a yearly community function until it was discontinued in the late 1930's. On April 16, 1933, baptismal services were held in the Central, Lockport, and Clinton churches and on this day E. L. Frey, then in his seventy-eighth year, baptized 118 persons.' When he died in 1942 he had served the church as an ordained leader for a total of fifty-eight years.

The Fulton County church communities were always strongly rural, and formal education was limited to the eighth grade for most persons. However, in the 1920's participation in the economic and business life of the community increased, and the Archbold area moved in the direction of becoming a notable industrial as well as an agricultural community. The changes in this area comprise a most interesting study. E. L. Frey as bishop, and his brother Jacob C. Frey as deacon, did much to guide the congregations in the transitional period. Edward B. Frey, son of Jacob C. Frey, was ordained as assistant bishop in 1933 and continued the emphasis on the past patterns. Yet Grieser notes about E. B. Frey: "He knows that the church that does not change to some extent with the culture and practice of its time and environs becomes static."''

The Fulton County churches from 1929 onward furnished the financial support of Dr. C. D. Esch, a medical Mennonite missionary in India, and in the following decades became quite active in local missionary activities as noted in the following chapter. The Fulton County churches produced a large number of conscientious objectors in both World Wars, approximately twenty-five in World War I and about one hundred in World War II. Since the drafted men of World