Written by Forrest Moyer on July 27, 2017
This post is by our summer intern, Reid Myers, who is a member of Souderton Brethren in Christ Church and is studying history at Messiah College. He’s finishing up his internship this week. We’re very thankful to Reid for the the time and careful work he’s given to the Mennonite Heritage Center this summer, and we wish him the best as he returns to school.
The Brethren in Christ are a historic Anabaptist group who often live in the same communities
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Written by Forrest Moyer on July 19, 2017
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This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
The Moyer/Meyers/Myers family is one of the most widespread in the Mennonite community of eastern Pennsylvania. Virtually everyone with roots in the community is descended from a Moyer immigrant, and often
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Written by Forrest Moyer on July 12, 2017
Last year Alma Shelly of North Newton, Kansas donated several family Bible registers that belonged to her late sister-in-law, Griselda Gehman Shelly (1925-2014), wife of Mennonite minister and author Maynard Shelly. The registers document four generations of Griselda’s ancestors, a unique and gifted family of the Berks-Lehigh community.
Griselda Gehman was an only child, born in Newark, Delaware to parents of Pennsylvania Mennonite origin. Her grandfather, William Hiestand Gehman, had moved from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania to the state of Delaware, where
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Written by Forrest Moyer on July 6, 2017
A beautifully-written local memoir is now available on Kindle. If you’re interested in 20th-century Mennonite culture, this is a great read. You can purchase the book here.
Cynthia Yoder was a graduate student in New York City when she began to suffer from depression. Crazy Quilt follows her quest for meaning — a return to Berks County, PA, and visits with her grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth “Betts” Kulp Yoder. Enjoy the excerpts below.
…One night on the phone with my mother, I
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Written by Forrest Moyer on June 29, 2017
This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
Henry and Magdalena
The immigrant ancestor of the Bucks-Mont Ruth family, whose name was Henry, came to Pennsylvania probably in the fall of 1717 and purchased 200 acres of land at Salford in February
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Written by Forrest Moyer on June 21, 2017
This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
A large pioneer family
Christian Allebach, a weaver, had three stepchildren when he and wife Margaret immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1719. The family came from Dühren, Germany, near Sinsheim in the Kraichgau, and likely
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Written by Forrest Moyer on June 14, 2017
In 2016, the MHC received not one, but two collections of digital photos from local Mennonite cemeteries.
The first contains photos of all gravestones in the Deep Run Mennonite East Cemetery in Bedminster Township, Bucks County. The donor, Daryl W. Rice, shot the photos in 2015. He did an excellent job, selecting a time of day when the sun created the best light for reading inscriptions, and getting down to the level of the stones for a good angle.
Most 18th-century Mennonite
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Written by Forrest Moyer on June 8, 2017
This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
The old Clemens family of Lower Salford
Immigrant Gerhart (or Garret) Clemens (b. 1680) was among the first settlers of Lower Salford Township. A vinedresser and weaver from Nieder Flörsheim, Germany (just up the
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Written by Forrest Moyer on May 24, 2017
This series of posts highlights families descended from 18th-century Mennonite immigrants to eastern Pennsylvania, in connection with the MHC’s exhibit Opportunity & Conscience: Mennonite Immigration to Pennsylvania, on display through March 31, 2018. The stories reflect the enrichment brought to communities over centuries by the descendants of immigrants.
An old world devotional
John [Johannes] Detweiler (1721-1806) was born when his immigrant parents, Hans and Susanna, were in the first years of trying to carve out a life in the Skippack woods. They
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Written by Forrest Moyer on May 19, 2017
In 2016, two sets of beautiful 19th-century dishes were donated to the MHC.
The first is a full table setting of “flow blue” dishes, circa 1870, that belonged to Susan Godshall Frederick Rosenberger (1854-1932) of Souderton, PA. She married first, in about 1873, Benjamin H. Frederick (1852-1891) of Franconia Township; then Amos Rosenberger (1852-1924). Susan was a member of the Franconia Mennonite Church and is buried there with her first husband. The dishes may have been a wedding gift at their
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