Maple Grove Church (Topeka, Indiana, USA)
By 1854, fissures had appeared in the Amish community in LaGrange County, Indiana. Bishop Isaac Smucker and Jonas Troyer no longer supported some restrictions followed by those who became Old Order Amish. Smucker and Troyer helped to establish Amish Mennonite congregations with a less strict "Ordnung."
Bishop Smucker established the Haw Patch Amish Mennonite Church (after 1890, called Maple Grove Amish Mennonite) in May 1854 with 18 charter members. Haw Patch was an early name for Topeka, Indiana. For two years, the group continued to meet in homes, but in 1856 it erected its first meetinghouse. The first services in it were held on 18 September 1856.
In 1879, the congregation built a new brick meetinghouse; the former building was moved a little north of Topeka and used as a literary hall. The first worship services in the new building took place on 11 January 1880. In 1915 the building was raised so a basement could be placed underneath.
The first Sunday school began in 1868, led by Deacon George Z. Boller (1828-1883). It was held in German and served to teach the German language to the children.
The Indiana-Michigan Amish Mennonite Conference, to which Maple Grove belonged, merged with the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference in 1916. This led to divisions in some of the Amish Mennonite congregations, including Maple Grove. The 90 dissidents, including minister Raymond L. Hartzler, took over the 1879 building, which they used until 1926. They built a new building and, in 1930, joined the Topeka Mennonite Church, which was a part of the Central Conference Mennonite Church. The 1879 building eventually became a private residence.
The members who lost possession of the 1879 building built a new meetinghouse on the south end of Topeka in 1924. It added a fellowship hall in 1973.
In October 1995, Maple Grove announced it would not participate in the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference because it had failed to adequately discipline Southside Fellowship for accepting non-celibate homosexual members. Still not satisfied, Maple Grove withdrew in December 1996 from the conference and the Mennonite Church (MC).
Maple Grove became an independent community church and dropped the "Mennonite" from its name.
In 2007, David Eugene Troyer, the longtime pastor, was relieved of his position when it was discovered he had misappropriated large amounts of church funds. He was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2009.
Bibliography
"Former pastor jailed." KPC News. 30 August 2009. Web. 20 June 2024. https://www.kpcnews.com/article_8e02f070-47a8-57e8-983d-265691d98970.html.
Gingerich, Harold. "Maple Grove Church." Mile 146 10, no. 3 (Summer 2017): 1-2. Web. 18 June 2024. https://topekahistoricalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/3Summer2017NewsletterVol103-revised-2.pdf?189db0&189db0.s
Preheim, Rich. In Pursuit of Faithfulness: Conviction, Conflict, and Compromise in Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. Harrisonburg, Va.: Herald Press, 2016: 132-134, 275-277, 310.
Wenger, John Christian. The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961: 161-165.
Additional Information
Address: 806 South Main Street, Topeka, Indiana 46571
Telephone: 260-593-2844
Website: https://mgctopeka.org/
Denominational Affiliations:
Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference (Until 1996)
Mennonite Church (MC) (Until 1996)
Pastoral Leaders at Maple Grove Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Isaac Smucker (1810-1893)(Bishop) | 1854-1880s |
| Joseph Yoder (1822-1908) | 1854-1869 |
| David F. Hertzler (1816-1889) | 1858-1889 |
| Joseph Kauffman (1804-1868) | 1850s-1860s |
| Gideon Plank (1841-1870) | 1869 |
| David Morrell (1828-1904) | 1870-1881 1894-1904 |
| Jonas S. Hartzler (1857-1953) | 1881-1895 |
| Jonathan Kurtz (1848-1930) (Bishop) |
1882-1888 1888-1930 |
| Andrew J. Yontz (1864-1938) | 1903-1915 |
| Irvin R. Detweiler (1873-1946) | 1905-1908? |
| Raymond L. Hartzler (1893-1988) | 1916-1923 |
| Edwin J. Yoder (1889-1972) | 1925-1935 1935-1961 |
| Clyde "C. Norman" Kraus (1924-2018) | 1950-1958 |
| Ellis B. Croyle (1930-2006) | 1954-1961 |
| Harvey J. Graber (1930-1978) | 1962-1967 |
| Joseph "Joe" J. Swartz (1917-2011) | 1967-1984 |
| David Eugene Troyer (1942-2015) | 1979-2007 |
| Visiting ministers | 2007-2010 |
| Barry St. Clair | 2010-2015? |
| Jason Gingerich | 2016- |
Maple Grove Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 18 |
| 1905 | 174 |
| 1920 | 193 |
| 1930 | 111 |
| 1940 | 180 |
| 1950 | 182 |
| 1960 | 199 |
| 1970 | 177 |
| 1980 | 237 |
| 1990 | 272 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By C. Norman Kraus. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 474-475. All rights reserved.
The Maple Grove Mennonite Church, located in Topeka, Indiana, a member of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, was organized with 18 charter members in May 1854 under the leadership of Bishop Isaac Smucker (1810-1893). Smucker was followed by Jonathan Kurtz (1848-1930) and Edwin Yoder (1889-), who was the bishop and senior minister in 1957. Others who served as associate ministers until 1957 were David F. Hartzler (1816-1889), David Morrell (1828-1905), J. S. Hartzler (1857-1953), Andrew Yontz (1864-1938), Raymond Hartzler (1893-1988), C. Norman Kraus (1924- ), and Ellis Croyle (1930- ). The first meetinghouse was a frame building erected south of Topeka in 1856, replaced by a larger brick structure in 1879. The congregation reached a peak of 225 members in the early 1920s. In 1924 after several years of growing dissatisfaction, about half of the congregation, which then numbered 150, withdrew from the Indiana-Michigan Conference and later merged with a small congregation in Topeka, Ind., belonging to the Central Conference, now called the Topeka Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite).
The group who remained with the conference erected a frame building with a seating capacity of 300, at the south edge of town, which was dedicated in May 1925 and is still in use. The membership in 1955 was 189, largely rural. The original families came almost exclusively from the Amish settlement in Fairfield County, Ohio.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | June 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Maple Grove Church (Topeka, Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2024. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Maple_Grove_Church_(Topeka,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179186.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (June 2024). Maple Grove Church (Topeka, Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Maple_Grove_Church_(Topeka,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179186.
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