Schmiedeleut, one of the three Hutterite kinship groups (the other two being the Dariusleut, and the Lehrerleut, so named because its founder, Preacher Michael Waldner, was a black smith (Schmied) in Russia. Michael Waldner was the first to re-establish communal living in Bruderhof form, which he did in 1859 in one end of the village of Hutterdorf in the Ukraine (see Dariusleut). The Waldner Bruderhof migrated to South Dakota in 1874 and settled the Bon Homme Colony near Yankton. This was the first Hutterite Bruderhof in America and is commonly, though wrongly, thought of as the mother Bruderhof of all Hutterites in America. The second kinship group, the Dariusleut, which was established in 1860 in the same Hutterdorf village in Russia, arrived in South Dakota later in 1874 and did not establish its first Bruderhof (Wolf Creek) until the next year, 1875. In the late 1950s the Schmiedeleut Bruderhofs in the United States were all in South Dakota, and those in Canada were all in Manitoba, and they were the only group having Bruderhofs in these two locations. Their leader or bishop was Peter Hofer, James Valley Colony, Starbuck, Manitoba, who was chosen in 1951. Following is a list of the Schmiedeleut Bruderhofs as they existed in 1957.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 467-468. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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