Brubacher Mennonite Church (Richland County, Ohio, USA)
Brubacher Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), now extinct, once located between Five Points and Paradise Hill in Richland County, Ohio (after 1840, Ashland County), founded about 1820 by families from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, soon joined by Swiss immigrants (Nussbaum and Imhoff) and after 1830 by the Palatines, Risser, Beutler, and Hartman. Early ministers seem to have been John Kauffman and Christian Kauffman, the latter a deacon; John Nussbaum and Joseph Freed (according to tradition ordained on the same day) before 1830; Isaac Kilmer who moved from Juniata County, Pennsylvania; the Palatines, John Risser and Jacob Beutler, and apparently somewhat later John Hartman. The group was served by Bishop Jacob Nold, of Columbiana County, Ohio, who seems to have ordained Kilmer bishop after 1830.
The congregation built a meetinghouse near Five Points and somewhat later another at Pleasant Ridge five miles (eight km) east and southeast. The congregation lost a minister and a number of members to the River Brethren who founded Chestnut Grove and Forest Grove near Five Points about 1840. Beutler moved to Mahaska County, Iowa; Nussbaum to Elkhart County, Indiana; Freed and Kilmer to western Richland and eastern Crawford counties, Ohio. Risser helped found the General Conference congregation south of Ashland after most of his family united with the Presbyterian Church.
Members of the congregation scattered, some moving to Ohio counties farther west, some to Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma. When the Wisler (Old Order Mennonite) schism developed about 1870 the few remaining members divided, a few following Imhoff who finally joined the Wisler congregation in Chester Township, Wayne County. After 1880 the Pleasant Ridge and the General Conference congregations dissolved and the remaining members united with some Methodists, Presbyterians, and Reformed to organize the Stone Lutheran Church south of Ashland. This church and the Chestnut Grove Brethren in Christ Church near Five Points were in a flourishing condition in the 1950s. All the others were extinct.
Burial grounds are located on the old Brubacher farm near Five Points, on the Pleasant Ridge and Forest Grove sites, on the grounds of the former General Conference Church, the cemetery near Olivesburg, and the Ohl cemetery southwest of Ashland.
| Author(s) | John S Umble |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1953 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Umble, John S. "Brubacher Mennonite Church (Richland County, Ohio, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Brubacher_Mennonite_Church_(Richland_County,_Ohio,_USA)&oldid=113245.
APA style
Umble, John S. (1953). Brubacher Mennonite Church (Richland County, Ohio, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Brubacher_Mennonite_Church_(Richland_County,_Ohio,_USA)&oldid=113245.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 442-443. All rights reserved.
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