Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA)
Pleasantview Mennonite Church, near Brethren, Manistee County, Michigan, had its origin in 1903, when William Lantz, the first Mennonite to locate in the area, settled here. Other settlers followed, mostly from the Howard-Miami Amish Mennonite (now MC) congregation near Kokomo, Indiana. E. A. Mast, bishop of the Howard-Miami congregation, organized the Manistee Amish Mennonites into the Pleasantview congregation on 9 September 1904. Included among the first members was Joseph S. Horner (1864-1945), a preacher. The new congregation in Manistee County worshiped in a log cabin until 1906, when a church building was erected in Brown Township. Four years later, in December 1910, Horner moved back to his home congregation, Howard-Miami. At about that point the membership was 48. But soon a decline set in as families moved away. Finally only one family remained. In 1917 the church building was sold to the Church of the Brethren, only to revert later to Mennonite ownership. Two years later, in May 1919, C. C. Culp was placed in the Pleasantview congregation by the district mission board to serve as pastor and mission worker. He served there until his death in 1953. Lester Wyse also served as a minister in the congregation for a number of years until his removal to Ohio. In 1957 the minister was Warren Shaum, with a baptized membership of 30.
The congregation declined and was under the control of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Mission Board for a number of years. It was last listed in the Mennonite Yearbook in 1974 with seven members.
The Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of the Mennonite Church (MC) closed the church in 1975. However, the Forest and Iva Watson family remained and continued a local Sunday school in the Pleasantview building. Around 1975, minister Richard Near and his family from New Era, Michigan, began attending Pleasantview once or twice a month. In 1976, Near asked Victor Miller, the bishop at the Seney Mennonite Church for assistance. In the fall of 1977, Victor Miller baptized two persons and served communion. They were taken in as members of the Seney congregation.
In 1984, Victor Miller and Philip Miller left the Seney congregation, which was then part of the Midwest Mennonite Fellowship. At that time, the Pleasantview group again became an independent congregation and continued as an unaffiliated Mennonite congregation. In 2003, it became part of the Nationwide Fellowship Churches.
Bibliography
Directory of the Northeast Fellowship. (2019): 155.
Mennonite Church Directory (2014): 109; (2018): 117; (2024): 129.
Wenger, John Christian. The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961: 207-208.
Additional Information
Address: 11025 Kerry Road, Brethren, MI
Phone:
Denominational Affiliation:
Nationwide Fellowship Churches (2003- )
Ordained Pastors at Pleasantview Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Joseph S. Horner (1864-1945) | 1904-1910 |
| Visiting Ministers | 1910-1919 |
| Claude C. Culp (1893-1953) (Bishop) |
1919-1947 1947-1953 |
| Lester A. Wyse (1909-1997)(Assistant) | 1944-1950 |
| Warren C. Shaum (1891-1971) | 1953-1961 |
| Ervin Miller (Assistant) | 1957-1958 |
| Lay Leadership | 1961-1974 |
| Dale Shedd | 1974-1975 |
| Victor V. Miller (1920-1997)(Bishop) | 1984-1997 |
| David A. Miller (Bishop) |
1990-2009 2009-present |
| Gene D. Stutzman | 2006-present |
Pleasantview Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1905 | 15 |
| 1915 | 10 |
| 1920 | 7 |
| 1930 | 21 |
| 1940 | 23 |
| 1950 | 34 |
| 1960 | 33 |
| 1970 | 7 |
| 1990 | 18 |
| 1997 | 24 |
| 2007 | 36 |
| 2024 | 54 |
| Author(s) | John C. Wenger |
|---|---|
| Samuel J. Steiner | |
| Date Published | July 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Wenger, John C. and Samuel J. Steiner. "Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. July 2024. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasantview_Mennonite_Church_(Brethren,_Michigan,_USA)&oldid=179397.
APA style
Wenger, John C. and Samuel J. Steiner. (July 2024). Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasantview_Mennonite_Church_(Brethren,_Michigan,_USA)&oldid=179397.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 192. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.