Written by Forrest Moyer on November 6, 2019
John S. Coffman (1848-1899) of Elkhart, IN was one of the first evangelists to hold a series of meetings in Franconia Mennonite Conference, in November 1896. His tour lasted three weeks, during which he preached in all but one congregation in the conference. In his diary, he recorded impressions of the places and people he met, giving us a rare view of local Mennonite culture. The diary is archived at the Mennonite Church USA Archives in Elkhart and was published
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Written by Forrest Moyer on October 16, 2019
On Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 7:00 p.m., the MHC is hosting a special Community Harvest Home program in the Nyce Barn on our campus. All are welcome! Please bring a nonperishable food item to share with the food bank at Keystone Opportunity Center. Click here for more information.
Director Sarah Heffner wrote the following background on Harvest Home for the MHEP Quarterly in 2004.
Harvest time was highly significant for southeastern Pennsylvanians in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and Harvest
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Written by Forrest Moyer on August 22, 2019
In January 2018, the MHC received a surprise package in the mail from Lois Beun Callaghan of Santa Fe, NM, a descendant of John Meyer/Moyer (1799-1877) of Skippack Township. It contained several 19th century German newspapers with Meyer’s name on them — Der Morgenstern (Doylestown, PA), Der Neutralist (Skippack, PA), and Montgomery County Presse (Lansdale, PA) — and a separate file of hundreds of obituaries (and some marriage notices) clipped from these papers in the years 1844-1893. We’re thankful to
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Written by Forrest Moyer on July 23, 2019
Republished from the MHEP Newsletter, May 1986. Mrs. Heebner’s full memoir is available in the MHC library.
This history is a reflection of Susie Freed Heebner (March 7, 1892-December 6, 1984) as she thought about things that happened throughout her lifetime. Susie always enjoyed writing things down. Over the years she kept diaries. Her son, Steward, suggested that she write this life history. He bought her the spiral-ringed notebook into which she recorded her remembrances. For him we are thankful;
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Written by Sarah Heffner on July 10, 2019
Mennonite Heritage Center staff have been exploring and developing a major exhibit on the topic of food, a daily and essential part of our lives. Food touches on creation, celebration and community. Food is also increasingly a concern, as we hear daily news about extreme weather cycles and global strife impacting the production of food and people’s access to adequate food.
Museum exhibits about food have ranged from reproducing nostalgic food themes as a reflection of culture to more participatory
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Written by Forrest Moyer on June 6, 2019
Mennonites, like other Protestants, do not typically venerate special or powerful “saints” canonized by the Roman church, but occasionally, Mennonites and other Pennsylvania Germans would appeal to saints in medieval prayers associated with folk healing. Saint Mary, the mother of Jesus, was especially present in these prayers.
In 1830, a local Mennonite created a beautiful piece of fraktur titled “Die Mutter Jesus [The Mother of Jesus].” The Mennonite Heritage Center has exhibited this piece in the past, and happily we were
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Written by Forrest Moyer on May 23, 2019
MHEP published the will of Andrew Lederach in 1983. The notes below were written by Joel Alderfer at that time.
Andrew Lederach immigrated, with his brother, John, to Pennsylvania in 1717. The Lederach family was originally from Worb, Switzerland, but had lived in the Palatinate in Germany before coming to this country. Andrew and John both settled in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, where Andrew bought 102 acres of land from David Powell in December of 1717, and where John bought
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Written by Forrest Moyer on April 24, 2019
Alma Ruth (1900-1975) was the daughter of bishop Joseph and Mary Kratz Ruth of Line Lexington. She was a long-time worker at the Diamond Street Mennonite Mission in Philadelphia. These memories were transcribed by John L. Ruth from a manuscript purchased at the auction of the property of Clarence Ruth, Alma’s nephew. The manuscript is now archived at the Mennonite Heritage Center, along with Alma’s scrapbooked memories of Philadelphia mission work (Hist. Mss. 518).
Alma Ruth (front left) with a group
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Written by Joel Alderfer on April 9, 2019
Last fall, Sarah Godshall Hunsberger, one of our members in Harrisonburg, Virginia, called to say that she had some old family papers and artifacts to give to us, but wanted to send them with someone from the Souderton area who might be traveling to the Harrisonburg area and back. Eventually, through the Mennonite “network”, an old wooden box labeled “Keystone Watch Case Company” showed up at the front desk here at the Mennonite Heritage Center. It was half filled with
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Written by Forrest Moyer on March 22, 2019
My last blog post introduced Jacob Gross, an early Mennonite bishop of Deep Run. He had many descendants, including myself, who lived in eastern Pennsylvania; but some of the most interesting characters lived elsewhere.
An affluent and influential branch of the family were descendants of Jacob Gross Jr. (1780-1865) of Canada. Like his father, Jacob was a Mennonite bishop who was progressive and evangelical. Unlike his father, the younger Jacob was eventually silenced and left the Mennonite Church to join
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