Zuidveen (Overijssel, Netherlands)

Zuidveen, a hamlet in the Dutch province of Overijssel, until 1848 the seat of a Mennonite congregation, which in that year was named Steenwijk. The Zuidveen congregation in the 17th and 18th centuries belonged to the Danzig Old Flemish Mennonites, a branch which included a small number of congregations in the Netherlands and which had regular contact with some Mennonite churches in Prussia, including Danzig. Concerning the history of the Zuidveen congregation there is not much information. Leenaert Bouwens is said to have founded this church cl560, but it is more likely that the neighboring Giethoorn-Noord congregation was the mother church of Zuidveen, which became independent after a number of Giethoorn members had settled here. Some of the members lived at Steenwijk as early as 1600. About 1600 these Mennonites at Steenwijk and Zuidveen were harassed by the Reformed magistrates of Steenwijk. Though exact figures were not available, it can be assumed that the Zuidveen membership was very small. In 1768 some dissensions arose in this congregation between a conservative and a more progressive part, which led to a schism in 1774. There were then two congregations at Zuidveen: (a) Danzig Old Flemish (Oude Huis) and (b) Flemish (Nieuwe Huis). In the (a) Oude Huis congregation, which held to the old principles and continued to practice footwashing, in 1775 consisting of only three families, Albert Hendriks (Bakker) was the last preacher serving 1761-1806. In 1819 the Giethoorn-Noord congregation took over the property of the Zuidveen Oude Huis and the care of the three remaining members. The meetinghouse was completely washed away by a flood in February 1825.

The separated (b) Nieuwe Huis congregation, which was closely connected with that of Giethoorn-Zuid, built a small meetinghouse, to which an old sister of the church, aged over 100, laid the foundation stone in early March 1774. This meetinghouse obtained an organ in 1806 and was enlarged in 1816. Ministers in this Nieuwe Huis were Reinders Pieters (Veen), from 1746 a preacher in the Oude Huis, from 1774 in the Nieuwe Huis, elder from 1796, serving until d. 1801, followed by Floris Engel 1802-1807, C. Leendertz 1808-1814, and K. Hovens Grove 1814-1862, during whose ministry the meetinghouse and parsonage at Zuidveen were abandoned in 1848 for a new church and parsonage at Steenwijk. Thereupon the dilapidated meetinghouse of Zuidveen was demolished (last service 4 May 1848). In 1774 the baptized membership of the Nieuwe Huis congregation numbered c20, 44 in 1804, and 135 in 1840. For the history after 1848 see Steenwijk.

Bibliography

Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Groningen, Overijssel en Oost-Friesland, 2 vols. Leeuwarden: W. Eekhoff en J. B. Wolters, 1842: v. I, 102, 104, 218 f, 239; v. II, 68.

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1878): 1-37; (1901): 16, 47.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Zuidveen (Overijssel, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zuidveen_(Overijssel,_Netherlands)&oldid=112054.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Zuidveen (Overijssel, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zuidveen_(Overijssel,_Netherlands)&oldid=112054.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1042. All rights reserved.

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