Potosí-Saltillo Colonies (Mexico)
In 1943 six Amish and Old Mennonite (Mennonite Church) families tried to settle in the State of San Luis Potosí, first at Rascón in a tropical region, then Rayón, in central San Luis Potosí, in a semidesert region. Climatic, cultural, and economic difficulties proved to be too much. When, after three unsuccessful years, their minister died in 1946 the group returned to the United States, where they settled in Tennessee and Alabama. On 4 March 1944 some 20 Old Colony Mennonite families from the Chihuahua colonies (Manitoba Colony) left by train for Agua Nueva, near Saltillo, in Coahuila State, to found the first daughter colony in Mexico. Good reports of the land had been circulated, yet when the colonists began to cultivate it, they discovered that the soil was too calcified to be productive. By June of the same year after the Vorsteher (chairman) had declared farming to be futile on that land, and after the sudden death of their minister Franz Loewen, the group disbanded and returned to Chihuahua. Fortunately they were able to sell the land for a fair price, so that this effort at colonization was not a complete loss.
Bibliography
Kraybill, Paul N., ed. Mennonite World Handbook. Lombard, IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1978: 277.
| Author(s) | Helen Ens |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1989 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Ens, Helen. "Potosí-Saltillo Colonies (Mexico)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Potos%C3%AD-Saltillo_Colonies_(Mexico)&oldid=60273.
APA style
Ens, Helen. (1989). Potosí-Saltillo Colonies (Mexico). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Potos%C3%AD-Saltillo_Colonies_(Mexico)&oldid=60273.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 717. All rights reserved.
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