The Butler County Mennonite Brethren Church, located near Cassidy, Kansas, was organized in the later 1880s by Abraham Cornelsen, Sr., who had been elected to the ministry in Russia, when four families belonging to the Mennonite Brethren Church moved there. By 1893 approximately 20 families belonged to the group, but soon after that began to disperse because of poverty and the offer of free homesteads in Oklahoma. Some families moved to Canada, and at the turn of the century the group had dissolved. A. Cornelsen, after trying his fortune in Marion County, Kansas, became the leader of the church at Hooker, Oklahoma, in 1906.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 486-487. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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