Written by Joel Alderfer on March 26, 2021
This article was published in the MHEP Newsletter in November 1995, and has been updated to include church records added to the collection since that time.
Researchers at the MHC Historical Library often ask, “Where are the early Mennonite church records?” or “What church records do you have?”
This is not a simple question. First of all, what does the researcher mean by church records? There are membership, baptismal, ministerial, burial records, alms records, property and land records.
I explain that generally,
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on June 18, 2020
Silas Manasses Grubb (1873-1938) was longtime pastor of Second Mennonite Church, Philadelphia, a congregation founded in 1894 as an outgrowth of First Mennonite, Philadelphia, where his father, N. B. Grubb, was pastor.
These were progressive congregations of the Eastern District of the General Conference Mennonite Church, and both father and son were educated and well-spoken. Both served as editors of The Mennonite, the denominational paper. Their congregations were filled with Mennonites who sought a modern city life rather than
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on January 10, 2020
Mahlon G. Moyer (1853-1939) was raised in a Mennonite family of New Britain Township, Bucks County. As a young man he moved to Philadelphia and became a telegraph operator; married and started a family. Later he settled in North Wales, where he lived the rest of his life.
Unwilling to join the conservative Mennonite Church of his parents, Mahlon was baptized in the Presbyterian Church at age 28. His great-grandson, Robert “Bob” Walters, returned to the Mennonites and served as
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on November 8, 2018
Recently the MHC participated in a pop-up exhibit at the Free Library of Philadelphia, called “Drinks in the Archives”. The event was part of Archives Month Philly, an annual month-long celebration of the rich archival resources in the Philadelphia region. The evening brought together sixteen archives and nine departments of the Free Library, to share items from their collections that relate to beverage creation and consumption.
Photos courtesy of Free Library of Philadelphia.
The Mennonite Heritage Center’s display focused on
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on September 18, 2018
“…we went up in the steeple of the State house, where we have seen the greatest part of the city….”
Photo above: View southeast from the State House, 1867. Scrapbooks. Free Library of Philadelphia.
This account of a trip (mostly pleasure, a little business) from rural Berks-Montgomery County to the city of Philadelphia was written by 15-year-old Enos Gehman in 1871. Over a hundred years later it was published in the MHEP Newsletter April 1978, and is now republished here, with photos
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on July 11, 2018
Republished from the MHEP Newsletter April 1977. Author unknown; if anyone can identify the author, please contact MHC collections manager Joel Alderfer at alderferjoel@mhep.org.
Editor’s note (1977): In the July issue (Vol. 3, No.4) of the MHEP Newsletter, several acquisitions from Mrs. Detweiler Stolzfus [Anna Landes Detweiler Stoltzfus] were noted. Among them was the following biography of William G. Detweiler, founder of The Calvary Hour in 1936. The title page from the biography is missing so that we do not know
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on December 1, 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.
Hans Jacob, Hans George, and Abraham
A number of immigrants with the Swiss name Bechtel came to Pennsylvania in the colonial era. Two of these, Hans Jacob Bechtel (d. 1739) and Hans George Bechtel
Continue Reading
Written by Steve Diehl on September 5, 2017
For three years, Beny Krisbianto faced the fierce opposition of close-knit, deeply entrenched neighbors, difficulties with four contractors, and the intransigence of City Hall. One contractor told him to stop trying to build his church for recently arrived Indonesians in South Philly. Now people ask him in amazement, “How is it that you have a relationship with the mayor?” Mayor Kenney recently visited, and the city council held a meeting in the new church. Neighbors who once opposed him invited
Continue Reading
Written by Forrest Moyer on August 30, 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.
Hunsberger roots of Franconia and Souderton
Brothers Ulrich, Jacob, and John (Hans) Hunsberger were some of the first settlers in the area that became Franconia Township. They each at one time owned parts of
Continue Reading
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
Continue Reading
