Bossler Mennonite Church (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA)

Mennonites from Europe began to settle in the future Donegal Township area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by the 1720s. In the 1750s, the names of families later associated with the Bossler Mennonite Church began to appear on land records, though they began arriving in the 1730s. Historian John Ruth has given the date of 1735 for the founding of the Bossler/Bassler Mennonite congregation. Early leadership, which was shared among the Mennonite congregations of the district, is unclear because of the lack of records.

The congregation built a brick meetinghouse in 1811 and a larger frame meetinghouse in 1881. This, too, became too small. It was dismantled, and a new meetinghouse was constructed in 1902 and remodeled in 1915. In the 1950s, the basement was dug out and completed to provide Sunday school rooms. The church experienced extensive renovations and expansion in the late 1980s. In 1959, the church purchased the nearby Washington School from the Elizabethtown school district. It used the building for sewing circle meetings and other events.

Bossler's became part of a new church district in 1823 that included Good's, Risser's, Stauffer's, Strickler's, Shope's, and Kraybill's congregations. John Mumma was an early 19th-century minister and bishop who served the Bossler congregation along with others in the district. Martin Rutt was the first minister known to be ordained from within the Bossler congregation.

Bossler advocated Sunday schools quite early, with newly ordained Bishop Martin Rutt serving as the first superintendent in 1881. The women's sewing circle began in 1923, making quilts or clothing for city missions or a local children's home. The congregation met for worship on Sunday mornings every four weeks into the 1940s, when it changed to every two weeks and eventually to weekly.

By the early 1900s, more Mennonites were working and living in the nearby village of Elizabethtown. Bossler members helped to found the Elizabethtown Mennonite Church in 1905. In the 1930s, its leaders carried responsibility for a time at the new Marietta Mennonite Church. John H. Kraybill, a Bossler member, helped to launch Mennonite missions in New York City in the 1950s.

In 1942 and 1952, potential military projects threatened the farmland around Bossler Mennonite Church and the church itself—the first for a large ammunition factory and the second for an Air Force base. Bossler Mennonite held meetings, including prayer meetings, in opposition to those prospective projects, which finally did not proceed.

Bossler Mennonite Church has continued as part of the Elizabethtown District of LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches. Numerous bishops who were based at other congregations in the district served Bossler.

Bibliography

Minnich, Christine. The Church on Bossler's Corner: the history of Bossler Mennonite Church. Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania: The Church, 2011.

Ruth, John L. The Earth is the Lord's: a narrative history of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2001: 1177.

Weaver, Martin G. Mennonites of Lancaster Conference: containing biographical sketches of Mennonite leaders, histories of congregations, missions, and Sunday schools, record of ordinations, and other interesting historical data. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1931. Reprinted Ephrata, PA: Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church Publication Board, 1982: 208-224. Available in full electronic text at https://archive.org/details/mennonitesoflanc00weav_0/page/n3/mode/2up.

Additional Information

Address: 2021 Bossler Road, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania 17022

Telephone: 717-367-5169

Website: https://www.facebook.com/BosslersCorner/

Denominational Affiliations:

LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches

Mennonite Church USA

Pastoral Leaders at Bossler Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
John Mumma (1776-1859) (Bishop)	1815-1825 1825-1859
Peter R. Ebersole (1790-1870) (Bishop)	1830-1850 1850-1870
Nathaniel Shope (1815-1877) (Bishop)	1858-1864 1864-1877
Martin N. Rutt (1841-1905) (Bishop)	1871-1880 1880-1905
Simon E. Garber (1863-1952)	1906-1942
Martin R. Kraybill (1893-1979)	1932-1970?
Harlan M. Hoover (1919-1992)	1959-1985
Glenn H. Martin (Assistant)	1975-1980
Fred M. Garber (1948-2020)	1983-2018
Clair Good (Associate) (Bishop)	2003-2005 2005-2010
Delmar J. Glick (Interim)	2019-2021?
Stephen Jaynes	2021-
Sarah Garber (Associate)	2022-

Bossler Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1913	125
1920	130
1930	65
1940	134
1950	147
1960	113
1970	145
1980	87
1990	87
2000	124
2009	80

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

By Ira D. Landis. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 395. All rights reserved.

Bossler Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church (MC)), located in Lancaster County between Elizabethtown and Maytown, Pennsylvania, is a member of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. The first meetinghouse was built perhaps in 1811. In 1881 and 1902 new churches were built and the latter was remodeled in 1915, 1948 and 1988. This was the home congregation of Bishop Martin Rutt. In 1950 the congregation was served by Simon Garber and his son-in-law, Martin R. Kraybill, as ministers, John R. Kraybill as deacon. The membership in 1950 was 105

Author(s)	Samuel J Steiner
Date Published	October 2024

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "Bossler Mennonite Church (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. October 2024. Web. 28 Oct 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bossler_Mennonite_Church_(Elizabethtown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=179954.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (October 2024). Bossler Mennonite Church (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 28 October 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bossler_Mennonite_Church_(Elizabethtown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=179954.

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