Lower Mennonite Church (Wadsworth, Ohio, USA)
Lower Mennonite Church (Old Order Mennonite), located four miles (6.5 km) southwest of Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, is a member of the Ohio-Indiana Conference. A minister by the name of Abraham Rohrer moved into this area from Maryland in 1832 and was ordained as bishop in 1836. Therefore it is probable that the church was organized under his leadership about 1832. Other ministers who have served the congregation were Michael Rohrer, Henry Beery, Bishop Isaac L. Good, Jacob Newcomer, and Edwin Koppes. The first meetinghouse was probably a frame structure built between 1835 and 1840. In 1954 the congregation numbered 27 members and was in charge of Moses G. Horst as bishop and Abram Good as minister.
When the Wisler (Old Order) Mennonite division occurred in Elkhart County, Indiana, in 1871, the Lower congregation, including Bishop Rohrer (1788-1878) and the other ordained men, and all but a half-dozen families, sided with Wisler. The small minority who remained with the other Mennonite Conference withdrew from the congregation, though still using the meetinghouse part of the time, and ultimately built the Bethel meetinghouse in 1893. Hence they were called the Bethel Mennonite Church. They had no minister until 1881. The building was also known as the Guilford Meetinghouse.
©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.
To cite this page:
MLA style: Good, Abram. "Lower Mennonite Church (Wadsworth, Ohio, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 06 July 2008 <http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/L718.html>
APA style: Good, Abram. (1957). "Lower Mennonite Church (Wadsworth, Ohio, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 06 July 2008 <http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/L718.html>
