Lancaster Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Lancaster, Missouri, USA)
In 1854 Amish families began to move into Davis County, Iowa, USA close to the towns of Pulaski and Stiles. These were people who were dissatisfied with the traditional spiritual life in the Amish churches. They desired to have no regulations concerning dress. The original families were from Ontario and Ohio, and as other dissatisfied Amish families moved in, the settlement grew quite large.
There was a major division in this group in 1866 when half the membership left to join the Apostolic Christian Church. The remaining Pulaski Amish church eventually joined the General Conference Mennonite Church.
It is unknown when Peter S. Gingerich and his wife Magdalena Miller moved to the Stiles settlement. Their son Christian came in 1857 while he was still single. Apparently, the other children remained at Baden, Ontario. Their son Peter and his wife were baptized in Ontario in 1866 by John Holdeman and moved to Iowa the following year. The Christian Kropf family, originally from Baden but living in Fulton County, Ohio, since 1864, also moved here in 1867. John Holdeman made his first visit to Stiles, Iowa, in June 1868.
In 1871 the members began locating across the state line in Schuyler County, Missouri, close to the towns of Lancaster and Downing, about 20 miles southwest of Stiles, Iowa. David Kropf of Ontario married Leah Aeschliman of Fulton County, Ohio, in 1871 and moved to Lancaster, Missouri. A Church of God in Christ, Mennonite meetinghouse was built adjacent to the David Kropf farm.
Christian Gardner and David Kropf were ordained to the ministry by John Holdeman on 9 February 1879, to serve the Lancaster congregation. A schoolhouse was located on Christian Gardner's farm, known as the Gardner School, and a small cemetery.
The families here were closely connected through marriage. Christian Gardner's third wife and Peter Gingerich's wives, Daniel Gingerich, Jonathan Aeschliman, and Jacob Sommers, were Christian Kropf's children. Christian Gardner's second wife was a daughter of Peter S. Gingerich. David Kropf's wife, Lea, was a sister of Jonathan and Joel Aeschliman.
Trip reports in the Messenger of Truth gave a pessimistic picture of spiritual life in this congregation during its later years. By the early 1900s, most of the members were well advanced in years, including the remaining minister, David Kropf. By the early 1920s, the few aged members remaining had probably ceased to function as a congregation. Minister David Kropf died in 1926, the oldest minister in the conference at that time, though he had retired from active service in 1915.
In an era when communication and travel were much more difficult, this congregation's relative isolation made for infrequent contact with people from other congregations. The use of the German language for worship appears to have been an obstacle to continuing the Holdeman Church in this area. Many from the younger generations did not get converted or affiliated with other churches where English was used.
Bibliography
Histories of the congregations. 3rd. ed. Moundridge, Kansas: Gospel Publishers, 1999: 250-253.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | January 2021 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Lancaster Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Lancaster, Missouri, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. January 2021. Web. 25 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lancaster_Church_of_God_in_Christ,_Mennonite_(Lancaster,_Missouri,_USA)&oldid=169650.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (January 2021). Lancaster Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Lancaster, Missouri, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lancaster_Church_of_God_in_Christ,_Mennonite_(Lancaster,_Missouri,_USA)&oldid=169650.
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