Pleasant View Mennonite Church, ca. 1950. Scan courtesy Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen X-31.1, Box 18/21

Pleasant View Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), located nine miles southwest of Hydro, Oklahoma, a member of the South Central Mennonite Conference, began in 1896-1897, when the B. B. Miller family came from Kansas and the W. C. Lantz family from Indiana. The congrega­tion was organized by Bishop Joseph Schlegel of Milford, Nebraska, in 1898. In 1900 another Joseph Schlegel, who lived in Lyon County, Kansas, became its bishop. In 1906 he settled on the quarter of land where the church is located, and served until 1914. In 1902 a meetinghouse was built, 8½ miles southeast of Thomas, across the road from the cemetery, which is now used by the Old Order Amish. In 1915 the old church was replaced by a larger one and the present structure was built in 1924-1925. In 1906, in order to locate it more central­ly, the meetinghouse was moved 2½ miles east and 2 miles south. About one fourth of the members, past and present, came from non-Mennonite homes.

The ministers in charge of the congregation of 130 members in 1956 were John Slagell, pastor, and Alva Swartzendruber, bishop.

Additional Information

Address: RR 1, Box 152B, Hydro, OK 73048; Telephone: 405-663-2301.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 191-192. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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