Previous Next


434 / Bibliographical Essay

church history from Virginia colonial days to 1920. Pages 412 and 413 contain thirty-seven references to Ohio churches and denominations and additional references to Ohio in the second awakening are found on pages 330-32. The efforts of Robert T. Handy, H. Shelton Smith, and Lefferts A. Loetscher produced two volumes on American Christianity: An Historical Interpretation with Representative Documents (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960, 1963). A careful blend of interpretation and documentation, these volumes also contain ample bibliographies at the end of each chapter. For comprehensive coverage and listing there is now one incomparable work by Nelson Burr, A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961). Here the bibliographical guides, survey, and histories are listed. In this work are sources for tracing the evolution of church history in America; the relation of religion to society; the relation of religion to the arts and literature; and the interaction of religion in America to theology, philosophy, and science. Abundant references to doctoral dissertations in every field enhance the value of this work to the specialist in American religious history. Burr and the volumes of Smith, Handy, and Loetscher recognize the way American religion is structured by the existence of "establishment," sectarian, and cultic bodies. Their handling of the respective documents and sources is discerning and provides any historian of a sectarian group with valuable perspectives in religion and society, church and state confrontations, and the uniquely American traits of revivalism and pluralistic faith.

A basic guide to sources for the study of Ohio is W. D. Overman, "Index to Materials for the Study of Ohio History," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIV (1935), 138. Vol. XLV of the Quarterly should be consulted for lists of Ohio history works by counties. Valuable also for a study of county history in Ohio is the compilation of Clarence L. Weaver and Helen Mills,

County Historical Material in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Library (Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1936).

Official Church Records

Though the Ohio Mennonite Conference appears to have begun in 1834, there are no known records till 1843. The next recorded minutes were in 1868. Later minutes were recorded in Herald of Truth of June 1870; June 1873; July 1875; July 1877; June 1878; June 1880; and April 1881. Minutes have been preserved for the year 1884. The record for 1888 is in the June 15, 1888, Herald of Truth; 1689 and 1890 conferences, are also in the body of official minutes, though the 1892 conference was recorded in the June 15, 1892, Herald of Truth. For 1893 the historian can consult the official files, though the following year found the record in the June 1 Herald of Truth and in 1895 in the June 15 issue; in 1896 the minutes were also in the June issue. From 1897 to 1900 the conference's minutes are found among the conference official records, but the June 1, 1901, Herald of Truth contains the minutes for that year. 1902, 1903, and 1904 are in the conference records while the 1905 record is in the Herald of Truth for that year. Thereafter for some years (excepting 1906, 1908, and 1909 which are in the.official custody of the conference records) the Ohio Mennonite conference records appeared as follows:


Previous Next