Editor's Foreword

The life of the church is lived and nourished mainly in the local congregation. It is therefore necessary, if the church is to understand its heritage and mission, for competent historians to write congregational and regional church histories. Such a regional history is this one, based as it is upon thorough research, and written with sound judgment and interpretation. Until the present time, the largest district conference of the (Old) Mennonite Church without a published regional history has been Ohio and Eastern. Professor Grant M. Stoltzfus has now met this need, and he has done it in a thorough and excellent manner.

As the book indicates, the Ohio and Eastern Conference of the Mennonite Church is the result of a merger, consummated in 1927, of two clusters of congregations: those affiliated with the former Ohio Mennonite Conference, and those affiliated with the Eastern Amish Mennonite Conference. The latter included not only the state of Ohio, but a number of congregations along the eastern seaboard, especially in southeastern Pennsylvania. This accounts for the present distribution of the Ohio and Eastern congregations.

The congregations of the Ohio and Eastern Conference were richly blessed in the past century and a half through the ministry of a number of effective leaders. Worthy of special mention would be Jacob Nold, Henry Stemen, John M. Brenneman, M. S. Steiner, John K. Yoder, John S. Mast, S. E. Allgyer, A. J. Steiner, E. L. Frey, I. W. Rover, and many others.

The discerning reader will find this monograph much more than a source of information; it will also inspire and instruct.- For those living in the latter twentieth century have much to learn from the faithful and farsighted leaders of the past. Worthy of mention is the courage and vision of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference in underwriting the publication of this study. The members of the

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