View source for Wakarusa Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Wakarusa, Indiana, USA)

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According to available records, all of the uncles of [[Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (CGC)|Church of God in Christ, Mennonite]] founder [[Holdeman, John (1832-1900)|John Holdeman]] moved to the [[Wakarusa (Elkhart County, Indiana, USA)|Wakarusa]] area of [[Indiana (USA)|Indiana]] in the early 1850s. His uncle, David S. Holdeman, who was in full fellowship with John Holdeman from the beginning, lived here after moving from [[Ohio (USA)|Ohio]] in about 1860 until 1873. In December 1866, John Holdeman and Levi Young visited the area. Names mentioned in his records are D. Holdeman, D. Kolp (Culp), I. Ca1p (Culp), Abraham Holdeman (uncle of John Holdeman), Henry Schaum (married to John Holdeman's oldest sister), and Christian Schaum (probably the same Christian Shaum who some years later became bishop of Old Order Mennonites in the area, succeeding [[Wisler, Jacob (1808-1889)|Jacob Wisler]]). Peter Wenger and his wife, Susanna Wildfong, moved to Wakarusa from [[Baden (Ontario, Canada)|Baden]], [[Ontario (Canada)|Ontario]], sometime after 1868. Their son Absalom married Sara, daughter of D. S. Holdeman. In 1873 David S. Holdeman and most of his married children moved to Hesston, [[Kansas (USA)|Kansas]]. His eldest son, John A. Holdeman, had moved to Hesston a few months earlier. This was the beginning of [[Meridian Church of God in Christ Mennonite Church (Hesston, Kansas, USA)|Meridian congregation]] of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite.

Many visits were made to the Wakarusa area by John Holdeman and others. D. B. Holdeman visited relatives and held services in 1911. He also mentioned visiting two sisters of J. O. Leatherman. A sister, Elizabeth Fox, lived at Wakarusa until she died in 1931.

After the David S. Holdeman family moved to Kansas, other members soon began to move away from the Wakarusa area, and in time most of the remaining members died.
= Bibliography =
''Histories of the congregations.'' 3rd. ed. Moundridge, Kansas: Gospel Publishers, 1999: 242-243.
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