Hagey-Blair was a community in Waterloo Township, seven miles southeast of Kitchener, Ontario, which had some followers of the Canada West-Ohio movement designed for unification, evangelization, and education. Daniel Hoch took the leading part in forming in 1855 a "Conference Council of the United Mennonite Community of Canada West & Ontario." Hoch is said to have been related to the Kinzies of the Hagey congregation, who agreed with him. Daniel Hege of Illinois, secretary in 1862 of the General Conference, wrote an explanatory letter from Blair while resting at the home of S. B. Baumann, when Hege and Ephraim Hunsberger of Wadsworth, Ohio, were touring eleven churches of Canada West, and calling on numbers of persons. Canadian funds gathered for the Wadsworth School were heaviest in the Waterloo area. No organized church can be named for this community. Meetings were held in the Carlyle School at Blair.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 627. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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