The first members of the Bergthal Church, Butterfield, Minnesota, were immigrants from the Bergthal Mennonite Settlement in Ukraine who came to the Mountain Lake region in 1875. Most people from the Bergthal settlement went to Manitoba, Canada, including all ministers. The Minnesota settlers began to meet in homes for worship.

In 1878, a congregation formed and constructed a church building on land purchased from Bernhard Dyck. The congregation dedicated the building on 8 October 1878. It built a new building in 1901 and added a basement in 1942. The congregation also operated a German parochial school from 1885 to 1921. By the 1920s, the church was known as the First Mennonite Church of Butterfield. It joined the Northern District of the General Conference Mennonite Church by 1923.

Gerhard Neufeld, the minister at the First Mennonite in Mountain Lake, served as the first elder for four congregations that shared pulpit duties on a rotating basis.

In 1918, there was a division in the joint congregation. Jacob Stoesz withdrew from First Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake. He became the Elder at the Bergthal Church in Butterfield, which then operated as an independent congregation. John D. Warkentin was the first minister to receive a salary--$25 per month.

First Mennonite Church of Butterfield withdrew from the Northern District and the General Conference Mennonite Church in 1993. It subsequently affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches.

It remained a congregation of the Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches in 2023.

Bibliography

Author(s)	Samuel J Steiner
Date Published	August 2023

Schmidt, Diena, ed. The Northern District Conference of the General Conference Mennonite Church 1891-1991. Freeman, S.D.: The Conference, 1991: 56-58.

"Triennial Reports to the General Conference Mennonite Church." 110, no. 9 The Mennonite (9 May 1995): GC-2.

Additional Information

Address: 32040 65th Avenue, Butterfield, Minnesota

Phone: 507-956-3306

Website:

Denominational Affiliations: Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches

Pastoral Leaders at First Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
Jacob Stoesz (1860-1949)	1918-1930
Visiting Ministers	1930-1932
John D. Warkentin (1889-1958)	1932-1935
Samuel H. Quiring (1911-2002)	1935-1938
Victor Sawatzky (1914-1999)	1938-1945
Elmer J. Dick (1916-1993)(Interim)	1945-1946
Menno M. "M. M." Lehman (1883-1969)	1946-1952
Alvin H. Ysker (1915-1960)(Interim)	1952-1953
Randall A. "R. A." Heinrichs (1918-1990)?	1953-1956
George L. Hoffman (1920-2015)	1956-1960
Paul W. Dahlenburg (1915-2009)	1960-1968
Albert Neufeld	XXX
Paul Kliewer (Interim)	XXX
Richard Stout (Interim)	XXX
David Loewen (Interim)	XXX
Marvin Penner	1976-1979
Leonard Harder	1979-1984
Brian Klein	1984-1988
Alvin Kleinsasser (Interim)	1988-1989
Loren Faul	1989-1990
Douglas J. Smallwood	1991-?
?	?
LeRoy Reynolds	?-2017?

First Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1924	53
1930	50
1940	86
1950	101
1960	66
1970	68
1980	64
1990	72
1994	40

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

First Mennonite Church of Butterfield, Minnesota, (formerly General Conference Mennonite) formerly known as Bergthal Church, located five miles northeast of the town of Butterfield, was organized in 1878 under the sponsorship of what became the First Mennonite Church of Mountain Lake. The members of this group had been affiliated with the Bergthal congregation of the Bergthal Mennonite settlement in South Russia, whose elder was Gerhard Wiebe. Elder Wiebe and his whole congregation migrated to America in 1874. Wiebe and the majority of his people chose Manitoba as their future home, but a smaller group, settling in the vicinity of Butterfield, constituted the Bergthal Church, today known as the First Mennonite Church.

During the early years services were conducted in the homes. Elder Neufeld and his co-ministers David Loewen, Johann Schultz, Gerhard Fast, Peter Voth, and Cornelius Enns served the two parishes of the one congregation at Mountain Lake and near Butterfield. A meetinghouse was built in 1882 and remodeled in 1942. In 1892 David Harder was elected to the ministry, and in 1900 Jacob Stoesz. Both served the congregation for many years, Jacob Stoesz as elder 1919-1930. When Elder Stoesz laid down his work there came a succession of leaders chosen from the outside: John Warkentin, Sam Quiring, Victor Sawatzky, M. M. Lehman, and R. A. Heinrichs. In May 1956, the congregation was without a pastor; its membership in 1955 was 95. The congregation formerly was a member of the Northern District Conference

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "First Mennonite Church of Butterfield (Butterfield, Minnesota, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. August 2023. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=First_Mennonite_Church_of_Butterfield_(Butterfield,_Minnesota,_USA)&oldid=177406.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (August 2023). First Mennonite Church of Butterfield (Butterfield, Minnesota, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=First_Mennonite_Church_of_Butterfield_(Butterfield,_Minnesota,_USA)&oldid=177406.

First Mennonite Church of Butterfield (Butterfield, Minnesota, USA)

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