Mount Olivet Church (Huron, South Dakota, USA)
In 1942, J. W. Kleinsasser urged the Northern District Conference of the General Conference Mennonite Church to establish a Mennonite church in Huron, South Dakota. The Northern District's Evangelization Board investigated and eventually appointed Jacob A. Friesen to start the church by gathering people, purchasing land, and finding a building.
The Conference completed a foundation and basement, and in March 1945, found a building in Frankfort, South Dakota, that it purchased and placed on the foundation. It dedicated the facility on 17 June 1945. It purchased a parsonage the following year.
The congregation planned to remodel and expand the building in 1955 but then decided to build a new church at the corner of 6th and Lincoln in Huron. It dedicated the completed church on 14 June 1959.
On 13 November 1994, the congregation voted to withdraw from the Northern District and the General Conference Mennonite Church. It did not state a reason for the withdrawal. It continued as an independent Mennonite church until about 2010 when it changed its name to Mount Olivet Church.[1]
In 2023 it described itself as an independent Bible church.
Notes
- ↑ 2010 was about the time that local obituaries began to use the Mount Olivet Church name.
Bibliography
"The Mount Olivet Mennonite Church,..." The Mennonite (10 January 1995): 16
Schmidt, Diena, ed. The Northern District Conference of the General Conference Mennonite Church 1891-1991. Freeman, S.D.: The Conference, 1991: 159-160.
Additional Information
Address: 638 Lincoln Avenue SW, Huron, South Dakota
Phone: 605-352-2293
Website: https://www.mtolivetchurchhuron.com/
Denominational Affiliations: Northern District Conference
General Conference Mennonite Church
Pastoral Leaders at Mount Olivet Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Jacob A. Friesen (1909-2002) | 1942-1946 |
| Alfred Regier | 1946-1949 |
| Bernhard J. "Ben" Nickel (1918-1989) | 1949-1954 |
| Vernon H. Buller (1924-2012) | 1954-1961 |
| Edward Wiebe (1916-2007) | 1961-1969 |
| Melvin R. Friesen | 1969-1975 |
| Richard D. "Dick" Tschetter (1918-2014) | 1975-1977 |
| Melvin Koehn | 1978-1991? |
| Tom Whistler | 1991?-1993 |
| Leonard Reiss | 1993-1998? |
| David Erdman | -2020 |
Mount Olivet Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1945 | 17 |
| 1950 | 58 |
| 1960 | 94 |
| 1970 | 157 |
| 1980 | 140 |
| 1990 | 149 |
| 1994 | 164 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Vernon H. Buller. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 759. All rights reserved.
Mount Olivet Mennonite Church, located at 2nd and Ohio Streets in Huron, South Dakota, was organized on 17 July 1945, under the Evangelization Board of the Northern District Conference (General Conference Mennonite Church) with 17 charter members. On 12 May 1946 this congregation joined the General Conference. In 1956 the church had a membership of 85, and was building a new church and parsonage. Four ministers had served the church to 1957 in the following order: Jacob A. Friesen, Alfred Regier, B. J. Nickel, and Vernon Buller.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | October 2023 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Mount Olivet Church (Huron, South Dakota, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. October 2023. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mount_Olivet_Church_(Huron,_South_Dakota,_USA)&oldid=177648.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (October 2023). Mount Olivet Church (Huron, South Dakota, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mount_Olivet_Church_(Huron,_South_Dakota,_USA)&oldid=177648.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.