Essex County, Ontario, is located in the southwestern corner of Ontario in the southernmost part of Canada. The Mennonites live along the southern border of the county and are grouped around the towns of Wheatley, Leamington, Kingsville, and Harrow, along the shores of Lake Erie. A number of Mennonite families can also be found in the border city of Windsor. All the Mennonites came from Russia after World War I, the first settlers arriving in 1925. In the mid-1950s there was a total Mennonite population of 1,600 in the county, of whom approximately 1,300 belonged to the General Conference Mennonite Church and the remainder to the Mennonite Brethren. The Essex County United Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite) with churches at Harrow and Leamington had 860 members in 1953 and the Leamington Mennonite Brethren Church had 118 members in the same year. The General Conference Mennonites had recently completed the construction of their own high school and had named it the United Mennonite Collegiate Institute (now United Mennonite Educational Institute).

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 249-250. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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