Pleasant View Mennonite Church (Hydro, Oklahoma, USA)
Scan courtesy Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen X-31.1, Box 18/21
Amish and Mennonite families began to move to Custer County, Territory of Oklahoma, in the 1890s. Bishop Joseph Schlegel of Milford, Nebraska, organized an Amish Mennonite congregation with ten charter members in March 1898. Worship services and Sunday school were held in German in homes until 1902.
The first church building was erected across from the Amish cemetery. In 1906, the congregation moved the building closer to the community's center on land owned by another Bishop Joseph Schlegel. Its location on a hill prompted the name Pleasant View. In late 1915, the small church was enlarged to accommodate increasing numbers. This meetinghouse too became inadequate, so the congregation built a new church in the winter of 1924-1925. It had cloakrooms and a large basement. The basement was remodeled in 1956, and the entire facility was enlarged and remodeled in 1972. In 1997, a large addition to the northeast added more classrooms, a gym, a larger kitchen, and fellowship hall facilities.
Singing has been an important part of Pleasant View. In the 1930s, male and female quartets and octets developed into choirs that put on programs in other churches by the 1950s.
A sewing circle began in 1917.
In 2023, the South Central Mennonite Conference withdrew from Mennonite Church USA and, in 2024, chose to become a district of LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches. Pleasant View thus became part of LMC.
Bibliography
Erb, Paul. South Central Frontiers: a history of the South Central Mennonite Conference. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1974: 387-394.
"Our History from 1898-2009: God’s Faithfulness through the Years in the Beginning." Pleasant View Mennonite Church. Web. https://pvmcok.org/about/history/.
Additional Information
Address: 94948 N 2450 Road, Hydro, Oklahoma 73048
Telephone: 405-663-2301
Website: Pleasant View Mennonite Church
Denominational Affiliations:
LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches
Mennonite Church USA (until 2023)
Pastoral Leaders at Pleasant View Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Visiting Ministers | 1898-1899 |
| Paul Glugash? | 1899-1901? |
| Visiting Ministers | 1901?-1905 |
| John J. "J. J." Johns (1877-1918) | 1905-1918 |
| Joseph Schlegel (1847-1914)(Bishop) | 1906-1914 |
| Joseph Schantz (1856-1934) | 1900s-1911 |
| Ed R. Herndon (Interim) | 1918-1919 |
| John Slagell (1893-1981) | 1919-1973 |
| Alva Swartzendruber (1894-1983) (Bishop) |
1919-1922 1922-1969 |
| Chester E. Slagell (1927-2014) | 1962-1982 |
| Percy B. Gerig (1931-2024)(Interim) | 1982-1983 |
| Leland Oswald (1922-2008) | 1984-1987 |
| Lay Leadership | 1987-1989 |
| Daryl S. Driver | 1989-1993 |
| Joseph A. Wood | 1993-2004? |
| Darwin Hartman | 2004?-2015 |
| Jeff Selzer | 2016- |
Pleasant View Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1898 | 10 |
| 1913 | 55 |
| 1920 | 76 |
| 1930 | 129 |
| 1940 | 136 |
| 1950 | 140 |
| 1960 | 139 |
| 1970 | 163 |
| 1980 | 203 |
| 1990 | 168 |
| 2000 | 210 |
| 2009 | 210 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By John Slagell. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 191-192. All rights reserved.
Pleasant View Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), located nine miles southwest of Hydro, Oklahoma, a member of the South Central Mennonite Conference, began in 1896-1897, when the B. B. Miller family came from Kansas and the W. C. Lantz family from Indiana. The congregation was organized by Bishop Joseph Schlegel of Milford, Nebraska, in 1898. In 1900 another Joseph Schlegel, who lived in Lyon County, Kansas, became its bishop. In 1906 he settled on the quarter of land where the church is located, and served until 1914. In 1902 a meetinghouse was built, 8½ miles southeast of Thomas, across the road from the cemetery, which is now used by the Old Order Amish. In 1915 the old church was replaced by a larger one and the present structure was built in 1924-1925. In 1906, in order to locate it more centrally, the meetinghouse was moved 2½ miles east and 2 miles south. About one fourth of the members, past and present, came from non-Mennonite homes.
The ministers in charge of the congregation of 130 members in 1956 were John Slagell, pastor, and Alva Swartzendruber, bishop.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | February 2026 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Pleasant View Mennonite Church (Hydro, Oklahoma, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. February 2026. Web. 5 Feb 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasant_View_Mennonite_Church_(Hydro,_Oklahoma,_USA)&oldid=181490.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (February 2026). Pleasant View Mennonite Church (Hydro, Oklahoma, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 5 February 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasant_View_Mennonite_Church_(Hydro,_Oklahoma,_USA)&oldid=181490.
©1996-2026 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.