Bethel Mennonite Church (Dubois, Idaho, USA)
The Bethel Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite Church) located at Dubois, Clark County, Idaho, is now extinct. In 1912-1913 a number of General Conference Mennonite families and some single persons, mostly from central Kansas, moved into this region to take up dry-farm homesteads. During the first several years they met in the various homes for Sunday school and worship. Twice a month one of the ministers from the two Aberdeen, Idaho, General Conference churches or P. R. Aschliman from Colfax, Washington, served them.
On 1 January 1916 they met in a schoolhouse and organized the Bethel Mennonite Church, with 40 charter members. Leonard Dirks was in charge of this meeting. Six months later this church joined the Pacific District Conference and in 1917 also the General Conference. The total membership reached about 60. Due to increasing drought and almost total crop failures, more and more families were forced to leave and in 1920 the last Mennonite family left the area. Some moved back to Kansas, some to California, and quite a few to Aberdeen, joining the Mennonite congregation at that place.
©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.
To cite this page:
MLA style: Lehrman, H. H. "Bethel Mennonite Church (Dubois, Idaho, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 20 July 2008 <http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B48647.html>
APA style: Lehrman, H. H. (1953). "Bethel Mennonite Church (Dubois, Idaho, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 20 July 2008 <http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B48647.html>
