Bank Mennonite Church (originally Mennonite Church, now Southeastern Mennonite Conference ) is located 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Dayton, Virginia, on the bank of Dry River in the Ashby district of Rockingham County. The first church, likely built in 1847, was enlarged in 1870, and served as a place of worship until the 1890s. The church now standing on the grounds was dedicated on 20 August 1893.

The Bank congregation belonged to the Middle District of the Virginia Virginia Mennonite Conference. In 1953 it had a membership of 201 under the leadership of Joseph Heatwole and Melvin Heatwole. In 1972 the congregation of a group that formed the Southeastern Mennonite Conference.

It was in this church that John S. Coffman, the pioneer Mennonite evangelist, was ordained to the ministry on 18 July 1875. This church figured most largely in the Virginia branch of the Wisler Mennonite division (Old Order Mennonite) of the Middle District of the Virginia Conference at the close of the 19th century.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 223. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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