Owen County, IN, the seat of the extinct Bower Mennonite Church (MC), the members of which lived in both Owen and Clay counties. The meetinghouse was located in Marion Township, Owen County. One of the early settlers there was Bishop Daniel Funk (1781-1859). Later bishops in the church were Jacob Bower (1803-67), after whom the church was named, Michael Mishler (d. 1871), and Daniel Royer (active in the last quarter of the 19th century). The last two ministers were Jacob Hoffer (1827-1906), ordained in 1872, and Daniel Kinports (1830-1912), ordained about 1885. One of the more active leaders was Deacon George Funk (1812-96), ordained in 1872. The last deacon was Jacob Kilmer (1819-1909). Bishop John M. Brenneman of Elida, Ohio, visited the group and tried to help them, as did also John S. Coffman in 1883. But the group was very conservative and seems to have never started a Sunday school. The first meetinghouse of 1861 was destroyed by a tornado in 1883, and the new meetinghouse built in the same year was sold by the Indiana-Michigan Conference in 1928. Today only the cemetery is left, and it is in poor condition. The father of D. A. Yoder, Peter B. Yoder (1855-1948), was born in Owen County. Some of the Mennonites left the area because of the intermittent fever (ague) that plagued the residents.

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Author(s)	John C Wenger
Date Published	1959

MLA style

Wenger, John C. "Owen County (Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Owen_County_(Indiana,_USA)&oldid=170523.

APA style

Wenger, John C. (1959). Owen County (Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Owen_County_(Indiana,_USA)&oldid=170523.

Owen County (Indiana, USA)

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