Bertolet Mennonite Church (Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County,Pennsylvania, USA)
Bertolet Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite) of Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was organized about 1846 by several Mennonite families from the Schwenksville congregation living in this area. The meetinghouse still standing was the first and only church erected on this site, although the half-acre lot upon which it stands had been a private burying ground of the Frey family for more than a century before this. The oldest legible marker is dated 1766.
The first meeting in the new meetinghouse was held on 23 May 1847. In the subsequent 1847 conference division, Bertolets sided with the new Eastern Conference, and later the General Conference.
The meetinghouse is located along a historical mile of road. To the north stands the 200-year-old log house of Hans Nice, formerly of Germantown. To the south the Frey-Bertolet-Grubb homestead is found where the late N. B. Grubb was born and reared. In the adjoining barn which had just been built, the famous George Whitefield preached to a great crowd in April 1740. This barn was still in use in the 1950s. Just beyond this is the farmhouse of the famous Henry Antes, the Moravian leader. Here Zinzendorf visited and preached and later General George Washington had headquarters during September 1777.
One of the first Sunday schools in a Mennonite meetinghouse was held at Bertolets in 1848. Regular services were discontinued about 1920 because of small attendance. The remaining members could easily reach the Eden congregation in Schwenksville by automobile and joined there. Some years before this a Bertolets Burial Ground Association had been organized, which continued to take care of the meetinghouse and grounds as well as the cemetery. About 1950 a group of young people from the Franconia Mennonite Conference started a mission Sunday school in the building.
| Author(s) | J. Herbert Fretz |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1953 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Fretz, J. Herbert. "Bertolet Mennonite Church (Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County,Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 3 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bertolet_Mennonite_Church_(Upper_Frederick_Township,_Montgomery_County,Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=135855.
APA style
Fretz, J. Herbert. (1953). Bertolet Mennonite Church (Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County,Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 3 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bertolet_Mennonite_Church_(Upper_Frederick_Township,_Montgomery_County,Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=135855.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 300. All rights reserved.
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