The Cornwall, Pennsylvania, area became an iron ore mining and manufacturing community by the early 18th century. Miners Village was a small village just south of Cornwall. Mennonites from Lancaster County sold produce in the area, and identified Miners Village as a location for mission outreach by the Home Mission Board of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. Harry Shreiner, Amos Martin, and Frank Hershey found an old dance hall in Miners Village where they began to hold Sunday school and worship services on Sunday afternoons in September 1931. The Erb Mennonite Church gave particular attention to the mission, where attendance averaged 160. Harry Shreiner served as the first mission superintendent.

On 5 October 1934, the former dance hall burned to the ground. Mine officials and a Black Baptist congregation offered their facilities in Burd Coleman for Mennonite use. The Baptists met in the morning, and the Mennonites in the afternoon. The Mennonites used this facility until April 1935. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation had planned to tear down a building used as a boarding house and store for miners, but accepted the Mennonites' offer to lease and renovate the large building. Bethlehem Steel actually charged no rent, and in 1976, it sold the building to the Miners Village congregation for $1.00. Mission workers like Irene Witmer and Ethel Morris lived in the building.

The pastoral leaders at Miners Village were traditional in orientation on issues like the women's prayer veil, use of television, and rejection of divorce and remarriage. When the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church was released from the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in 1968 and formed an independent conference, Miners Village became one of its early members. It was also an early supporter of the Numidia Bible School sponsored by the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church.

Bibliography

Author(s)	Samuel J Steiner
Date Published	November 2025

Wine, Norman F. The history of Miners Village Mennonite Church. Lebanon, Pa.: N. F. Wine, 1996.

Additional Information

Address: 108 Rexmont Road, Cornwall, Pennsylvania 17042

Telephone: 717-273-0086

Website:

Denominational Affiliations:

Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church

Pastoral Leaders at Miners Village Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
Visiting ministers	1931-1936
Henry E. Lutz (1891-1959)(Bishop)	1931-1943
Harry E. Shreiner (1889-1949)	1936-1949
Homer D. Bomberger (1909-1996)(Bishop)	1943-1971
Noah S. Boll (1902-1982)	1950-1970 1972-1982
Stanley C. Wine (Bishop)	1970-2007 2007-
Jesse Neuenschwander (1933-1999)(Bishop)	1973-1999
Daniel E. Binkley (1950-2018)	1983-2018
Andrew N. Wine	2008-
Martin L. Hoover (Bishop)	2017-2019 2019-

Miners Village Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1940	25
1950	46
1960	45
1970	48
1980	63
1990	64
2000	79
2009	117
2020	109

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

The Miners Village Mennonite (Mennonite Church) Mission was opened in 1931 in the woods on the edge of the ore-mining village with this name in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The present [1956] mission building is leased from the Bethlehem Steel Co. The membership in 1956 was 40, with Noah S. Boll as pastor. Two women workers at the mission live in the building.

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "Miners Village Mennonite Church (Cornwall, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. November 2025. Web. 19 Jan 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Miners_Village_Mennonite_Church_(Cornwall,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181300.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (November 2025). Miners Village Mennonite Church (Cornwall, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 January 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Miners_Village_Mennonite_Church_(Cornwall,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181300.

Miners Village Mennonite Church (Cornwall, Pennsylvania, USA)

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