Kill Creek Mennonite Church (Osborne County, Kansas, USA)
Kill Creek Mennonite Church, now extinct, located in Osborne County, Kansas took its name from a nearby creek and the township in which it was located. The first settlers arrived from Huron County, Ontario about 1871, and other early settlers came from Missouri and Pennsylvania. The congregation was organized in the 1870s by Bishop Henry Neuschwanger (1818-1895). Neuschwanger had been ordained as a minister in Ontario in 1867 and later in Kansas as a bishop. Caleb Winey was ordained as a minister in 1879. Albraham Shellenberger was an early deacon. Abraham Lapp was also identified an early minister in the congregation.
A church building was built in 1880 in Kill Creek Township about 15 miles (25 km) southwest of Osborne, the county seat. A cemetery was laid out next to the church. The membership of the congregation was never large; the largest recorded membership was 24 in 1897. The Kill Creek congregation did host the "Conference in Kansas" in 1879, 1880, 1881, 1883 and 1885. However, the church building was sold to the Presbyterians in 1887, and the small remaining membership continued to meet in the school. It was composed of such names as Neuschwanger, Winey, Bickel, Graybill, Lapp, Near, Hackerotts, Schweitzer, and Shellenberger. Because of crop failures and also because of dissension the congregation died out about 1910.
Bibliography
Burkholder, L. J. A Brief History of the Mennonites in Ontario. [Kitchener, ON]: Mennonite Conference of Ontario, 1935: 302.
Erb, Paul. South Central Frontiers: a History of the South Central Mennonite Conference. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1974: 181-183.
Hartzler, J. S. and Daniel Kauffman. Mennonite Church History. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Book and Tract Society, 1905: [304].
Kauffman, Daniel. Mennonite Cyclopedic Dictionary: a Compendium of the Doctrines, History, Activities, Literature, and Environments of the Mennonite Church, Especially in America. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1937: 264.
| Author(s) | Gideon G Yoder |
|---|---|
| Samuel J. Steiner | |
| Date Published | 2007 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Yoder, Gideon G and Samuel J. Steiner. "Kill Creek Mennonite Church (Osborne County, Kansas, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2007. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kill_Creek_Mennonite_Church_(Osborne_County,_Kansas,_USA)&oldid=165605.
APA style
Yoder, Gideon G and Samuel J. Steiner. (2007). Kill Creek Mennonite Church (Osborne County, Kansas, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kill_Creek_Mennonite_Church_(Osborne_County,_Kansas,_USA)&oldid=165605.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 175. All rights reserved.
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