View source for Smucker, Jonathan P. (1834-1903)

[[File:AMC_HM-.4-136._1_25.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Jonathan P. Smucker.<br />
Scan courtesy [http://www.mennoniteusa.org/executive-board/archives/ Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen] HM 4-136, Box 1/25'']]     
Jonathan P. Smucker, a leader in the [[Indiana-Michigan Amish Mennonite Conference|Indiana-Michigan Amish Mennonite Conference]], was born in [[Wayne County (Ohio, USA)|Wayne County]], [[Ohio (State)|Ohio]] on 8 May 1834, the son of [[Smucker, Isaac (1810-1893)|Bishop Isaac Schmucker]] (1810-1893), the first Amish bishop in [[Indiana (USA)|Indiana]], and the great-grandson of Swiss immigrant Christian Schmucker from [[Bern (Switzerland)|Bern]] and Barbara Stoltzfus of [[Zweibrücken (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany)|Zweibrücken]]. Jonathan Smucker's first wife was Salome Pecht (died 1893). To this union 11 children were born. In 1895 he married Mary Stutzman Kauffman, and then located east of Goshen, where he died 23 November 1903. He was buried in the Union Center Cemetery northeast of Nappanee.

Jonathan moved with his parents to [[Knox County (Ohio, USA)|Knox County]], Ohio in 1838, where his father was ordained preacher. In November 1841 Isaac Schmucker and family located in [[Elkhart County (Indiana, USA)|Elkhart County]], Indiana, where two years later he was ordained bishop. In 1873 Jonathan Smucker joined the small [[Amish Mennonites|Amish Mennonite]] settlement at Grovertown in Starke County, Indiana, where he was ordained deacon and later preacher that same year by Bishop Jonas D. Troyer (Troyer was the leader of the progressive Amish Mennonite schism from the [[Old Order Amish|Old Order Amish ]]in Elkhart County in 1854). In 1875 Smucker moved to west of [[Nappanee (Indiana, USA)|Nappanee]] and took charge of the small Amish Mennonite congregation which worshiped on [[Nappanee Old Order Amish Settlement (Nappanee, Indiana, USA)|West Market Street]] in Nappanee. In 1878 he was ordained bishop in this congregation by bishops [[Stuckey, Joseph (1825-1902)|Joseph Stuckey ]]and Isaac Smucker. He was active in Amish Mennonite circles from [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]] to [[Oregon (USA)|Oregon]], and was a strong promoter of church unity.
= Bibliography =
Johns, Gladys. “Christian Heroes, Biography of Jonathan P. Schmucker.” <em>Youth's Christian Companion</em> (21 June 1936).
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