Pleasant Ridge Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), erected in 1882 in Vermilion Township, Ashland County, Ohio, replaced an earlier Mennonite church built (probably ca. l840) on land donated as a public burying ground by John Beutler, a Palatine immigrant. Soon after 1830, the ordained men here were Peter Beutler and John Risser, immigrants from the Bavarian Palatinate, John Nusbaum, Isaac Kilmer, and either John or Christian Kauffman, probably a deacon. Bishop Jacob Nold of Columbiana County, Ohio, or­dained Isaac Kilmer as bishop. Internal dissension, incompetent leadership, financial reverses, and de­fection to the River Brethren (Brethren in Christ) contributed to the early dissolution of the congrega­tion. Before 1860 the Beutlers moved to Mahaska County, Iowa; the Kilmers, first to Crawford Coun­ty, Ohio, and then to Elkhart County, Indiana; John Nusbaum and many others also to Elkhart County. The few remaining members joined with the small number of survivors of the Salemskirche (General Conference Mennonite Church) and their Lutheran and Reformed neighbors to found the prosperous Stone Lutheran Church five miles south of Ashland.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 190. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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