A few Mennonite settlers arrived in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, as early as the 1730s, but more began arriving in the 1790s. They met for worship in homes until they began to build log meetinghouses at the beginning of the 19th century. The first meetinghouse for the congregation in Antrim Township, which became known as the Marion Mennonite Church, was built in 1830 at Browns Mills. The brick meetinghouse followed the design of earlier meetinghouses in Lancaster County.

In 1867, the members at Browns Mills decided to relocate to a location offered by John Lesher along the Chambersburg Pike north of Marion. Their cemetery was there, so the choice made sense. The congregation tore down the meetinghouse in early May 1867 and used the bricks to reconstruct a meetinghouse of the same size, which held its first service on 2 June 1867.

Some members found the Marion location too distant and built a small frame meetinghouse near Williamson. The two groups alternated services and shared ministerial leadership until 1948.

Sunday school began at Marion in 1896, after a careful vote within the congregation.

Other congregations that Marion helped to initiate included Pleasant View and Pond Bank.

In 2017, the congregation became part of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference when the small Franklin Mennonite Conference withdrew from Mennonite Church USA and voted to become a bishop district of the Lancaster Conference (later LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches).

Bibliography

Author(s)	Samuel J Steiner
Date Published	August 2025

Burdge Jr., Edsel and Samuel Horst. Building on the Gospel Foundation: The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Washington County, Maryland, 1730-1970. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2004: 182-184, 272-276, 336-338, 343-344, 378-383.

Additional Information

Address: 4365 Molly Pitcher Highway South, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17202-7234

Telephone: 717-375-4309

Website: https://marionmennonite.org/

Denominational Affiliations:

LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches

Mennonite Church USA (Until 2017)

Pastoral Leaders at Marion Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
Jacob Lehman (1772-1831)	1805-1831
Christian Shirk (1771-1831)	1813-1831
Jacob Hege (1780-1863)	1832-1863
Benjamin Lesher (1815-1897)	1850-1895
Jacob W. Hege (1845-1922)	1893-1922
George W. Ernst (1853-1952)	1898-1945
William W. Hege (1859-1929)	1907-1929
John "J. Irvin" Lehman (1895-1985)	1922-1970s
Norman H. Martin (1910-1985)	1937-1970s
Merle G. Cordell (1925-2023) (Bishop)	1954-1971 1971-1994?
James K. Beachy	1984?-1987?
Duane Frederick	1984-1993?
Cleon C. Nyce (1932-2003)	1994-2002
Toshi Imchen (Associate)	1999?-2003?
Aaron Donald "Don" Augsburger (1925-2022)(Interim)	2003
Carl D. Kniss	2004-2019
Dustin Dawe	2020s-

Marion Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1904	39
1915	60
1920	64
1930	69
1940	104 In District
1950	99
1960	104
1970	90
1980	119
1990	147
2000	161
2009	202

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

The Marion Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church (MC)) is located one mile north of Marion and five miles south of Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Among the family names associated with the early history of the congregation were Hege, Bender, Burkholder, Shank, Whitmore, Over, Gingrich, Garman, Kriner, Gsell, Snively, Stauffer, and Lesher.

The first meetinghouse was built of brick at Brown's Mill, eight miles (13 km) south of Chambersburg. In 1867 this church was removed to the present site, and was replaced in 1898 by the present larger brick church. For the members who were left in Peters and St. Thomas townships when the church was moved away, a church was built one mile southwest of Williamson in 1869, both churches being served by the same ministers, although steps have been taken to organize the Williamson group into a separate congregation.

The following ministers served the church up to 1954 (with dates of ordination): Jacob Hege 1832, Benjamin Lesher 1850, Jacob W. Hege 1892, George S. Ernst 1898, W. W. Hege 1907, J. Irvin Lehman 1922, and Norman H. Martin 1937. J. Irvin Lehman, one of the 1954 ministers, was a great-great-grandson of the first minister.

In 1896 a Sunday school was started, and in 1912 young people's Bible meetings. The first evangelistic meetings were held in 1904, conducted by Abram Metzler. Among the most active leaders of the church was W. W. Hege, who promulgated young people's meetings, teacher-training classes, mission study classes, and Bible conferences. The membership of the congregation in 1954 was 100, but the approximate membership of the Marion, Williamson, Pleasant View, and Pond Bank congregations, the last three formerly outposts of the Marion church, was 321 in 1954.

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "Marion Mennonite Church (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. August 2025. Web. 12 Feb 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Marion_Mennonite_Church_(Chambersburg,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181487.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (August 2025). Marion Mennonite Church (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 12 February 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Marion_Mennonite_Church_(Chambersburg,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181487.

Marion Mennonite Church (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA)

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