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doctrinal emphases and concerns of the Mennonite Church during the decades of 1900-1930. John S. Umble's research notes contain much factual data on the extinct churches, the rise of the Sunday school, and the various activities of the church, including tensions on disciplinary matters. The J. C. Meyer papers are invaluable for an understanding of World War I experiences of drafted men; the response of church leaders to the war; the rise of the young people's movement; and projected plans for theological training.

All the above manuscripts are in the Archives of the Mennonite Church, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, excepting the papers of A. D. Wenger and J. B. Smith which are in the Menno Simons Historical Library and Archives at Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg, Virginia; the Joseph Kennel records which are in the possession of his son, Vernon Kennel, at Atglen, Pennsylvania; and the John S. Mast records in possession of the author.

Congregational Sources

In 1956 the Historical Committee of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference issued a Handbook of Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference Historical Committee for Pastors, Regional and Local Historians. The handbook gave clear instructions to local. and regional historians on how to collect data; how to record data in order; and how to route them to a central depository. Nearly every congregation cooperated or was accounted for in the quest for data. Thus the dates, personalities, activities, and movements were collected into the set of documents referred to in this work as the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference Records. The writer found these documents to be reliable and trustworthy source material in the construction of the history. The standardized forms were carefully filled in and frequently supplemented by letters with additional information, photostatic copies of deeds, and summaries of congregational history and enterprises.

The church records which Joseph Kennel kept from c. 1911 to 1946 are a detailed account of the congregational life of the Millwood and Maple Grove congregations in eastern Pennsylvania. They also contain much factual data on leaders of other congregations in the conference, especially the Conestoga congregation at Morgantown.

Church Periodicals

Much of the life and thought of Mennonites in America can be quarried from the periodicals they have published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Of these the Herald of Truth (1864-1908) is invaluable for the period it covers. It began as a monthly and finally became a weekly periodical. Its pages contain correspondence from church communities, notices of church conferences, and numerous articles that reflect the church's inner life and etc. The weekly Gospel Witness (1905-8) overlapped the last years of the Herald of Truth, yet contains similar items. The Gospel Herald (1908- ), also a weekly periodical, is the major source of general church life for the twentieth century and contains much on the personalities, activities, and viewpoints of the conference. From 1909 to 1953 the Christian Monitor was published monthlc to provide a medium for the promotion of family and community interests. It contains frequent articles on congregational histories.