Hartzler, Jonas S. (1857-1953)
Jonas S. Hartzler: (Mennonite Church) author, teacher, and preacher; born near Topeka, Indiana, on 8 August 1857, the eldest son of Samuel and Sarah (Smucker) Hartzler. Jonas was twice married: in 1880 to Fannie Stutzman (1857-1929) of Johnson County, Iowa, and 1930 to Mrs. Catharina (Christophel) Bauer, who survived him. He had one son, Vernon (1881-1907). Jonas died at the Mennonite Home for the Aged near Rittman, Ohio, on 1 April 1953. His maternal grandfather was the immigrant minister Christian Brandt (1783-1866), who moved to Wayne County, Ohio from the canton of Bern, Switzerland in 1818.
Reared on a farm; Hartzler early became interested in education, attended Wooster College and the Cook County (Illinois) Normal, and taught school in Noble and Lagrange counties, Indiana, before he was called to the Elkhart Institute as instructor in Bible in 1895. There and later at Goshen College his industry, his practicality, and his varied talents and endowments enabled him to render a unique service to the educational, missionary, and organizational activities of the Mennonite Church as minister, teacher, business manager, treasurer, and secretary. He had been ordained minister in 1881 and became known as an exhorter, evangelist, and Bible teacher even before coming to the Elkhart Institute. At this school and later at Goshen College he served as instructor, but he also helped to carry a large share of the heavy financial burdens of the Board of Education and its schools for nearly a quarter of a century.
Hartzler was the first pastor of the Goshen College congregation, served as secretary of the Mennonite General Conference from the date of its organization in 1898 until 1924, was secretary of the Indiana-Michigan Amish Mennonite Conference from 1888 to 1896, when his connection with the Elkhart Institute dictated the advisability of uniting with the Prairie Street Mennonite Church, secretary of the Indiana-Michigan (united) Mennonite Conference from its formation in 1916 until 1924, member of the Mennonite Board of Education 1895 to 1917 and treasurer (and member of the executive committee) of the Mennonite Board of Education from 1907 to 1917. Always keenly interested in foreign missions, he began in 1911 a long period of service as a member of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities. After ending his connection with Goshen College in 1917 he returned to Elkhart where, in 1923, he accepted the pastorate of the Prairie Street Mennonite Church and served until 1940.
For many years Hartzler was editor of Rural Evangel, published by the Indiana-Michigan Conference. He was the author (with Daniel Kauffman) of Mennonite Church History, published in 1905, and (with J. S. Shoemaker) of Among Missions in the Orient and Observations by the Way (1912). In 1921 he wrote Mennonites in the World War or Nonresistance Under Test.
| Author(s) | John S Umble |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Umble, John S. "Hartzler, Jonas S. (1857-1953)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hartzler,_Jonas_S._(1857-1953)&oldid=113404.
APA style
Umble, John S. (1956). Hartzler, Jonas S. (1857-1953). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hartzler,_Jonas_S._(1857-1953)&oldid=113404.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 670-671. All rights reserved.
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