288 / Footnotes

30. Ibid., XXIII (Jan. 15, 1886), p. 25.

31. Ibid., XXIII (July 15, 1886), p. 217.

32. John Umble, "Extinct Ohio Mennonite Churches: The Churches in Ashland County," MQR, XIX (January 1945), p. 48.

33. Ibid., p. 52.

34. Ibid., p. 234.

35. John Umble, "Extinct Ohio Mennonite Churches: Seneca County," MQR, XVIII (October 1944), p. 236.

36. John Umble, "Extinct Ohio Mennonite Churches: Wood County," MQR, XVIII (April 1944), pp. 112, 113.

37. John Umble, "Extinct Mennonite Churches in Ohio: The Church in Williams County," MQR, XVIII (January 1944), pp. 41, 42.

38. Wilmer D. Swope, "The Mennonite Church in West Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, 1805-1885," MHB, XXV (January 1964), pp. 4, 5.

39. For a perceptive summary of the reasons for the extinct congregations the reader should consult John S. Umble, "Why Congregations Die: A Summary of the Causes for the Decline of Certain Ohio Congregations," MHB, Vlll (October 1947), pp. 1-3. Umble cites the following causes: emigration in search for cheaper land; lack of indoctrination in the faith; aggressiveness of pietistic forms of religious teaching and experience; reactionary leadership that refused to adapt worship and church life to new situations; refusal of youth to accept the faith of their elders.

40. Something of the difficulties in establishing Protestant churches on the frontier can be seen in the experience of the Congregational Church as recorded in Roswell Chapin, "History of the Medina Conference, 1853-1900" (Papers of the Ohio Church History Society, XI; Oberlin; Delwan L. Leonard, ed,), pp. 100-2. The hope of Congregationalism to plant churches in the Western Reserve area and Medina County was frustrated by the shift in population which caused the vacated farms to fall "into the possession of those who were utter strangers to the principles and traditions of the Pilgrims." This apparently took place at Wadsworth where Methodists, Baptists, German Lutherans and Reformed, and Campbellites, were "early on the ground." Chapin notes, too, that "to cap the climax of division and confusion, the Mennonites too appeared upon the scene with increase and differentiation occurring until no less than three subdivisions of this sect were 'holding the fort'; to wit, the Old Mennonites organizing in 1833, the New Mennonites setting up for themselves in 1852 and the Evangelical Mennonites attaining to a local habitation and a name in 1873." Besides the Mennonites, other German groups such as the Winebrenners and Evangelical Association (or Albrights), "thrust themselves in for the furtherance of piety and morals" and added to the "confusion worse confounded." In this chapter Chapin then regretfully records the demise of five Congregational churches.

41. OEMCR: Walnut Creek congregation, Walnut Creek, Ohio.

42. Melvin Gingerich, "Henry Egly," ME, 11 (1956), p. 164; Orland Grieser, op. cit., p. 66.

43. F. H. Wenger, "John Holdeman," ME, 11 (1956), p. 789.

44. Orland Grieser, op. cit., pp. 63, 64.

45. J. C. Wenger, "The Mennonites in Clark County, Ohio," GH, LII (Nov. 24, 1959), pp. 1009, 1021.

46. Orland Grieser, op. cit., p. 71.

47. Letter from Elmer Nusbaum, Bluffton, Ohio, to Grant M. Stoltzfus, Nov. 13, 1963.

48. For background of Jacob Wisler and his time see J. C. Wenger, "Jacob Wisler and the Old Order Mennonite Schism of 1872 in Elkhart County, Indiana," MQR, XXXIII (April 1959), pp. 108-15. Wisler 's influence in the Ohio churches was doubtless related to the fact that he lived in Columbiana County, Ohio, from about 1820 to 1848, when he moved to Elkhart County, Indiana. He was both married (1827) and ordained to the ministry (1833) in Columbiana County.

49. Ibid., pp. 114, 115.

50. Ibid., pp. 116, 117.

51. Ibid., p. 117.

52. Ibid., pp. 120, 121.

53. Ibid., pp. 123-29.

54. John C. Wenger, "Jacob Wisler and the Old Order Mennonite Schism of 1872 in Elkhart County, Indiana," MQR, XXXIII (July 1959), pp. 229-35. Wenger evaluates the schism as tragic on several counts: (1) It became churchwide in its impact with a similar division in Ontario in 1889, in Lancaster Conference of eastern Pennsylvania in 1893, and in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1901; (2) the loss of a conservative element "hastened the cultural accommodation of