Light's Meetinghouse was built in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, in 1817, when Felix Light was one of the ministers of the local Mennonite congregation. His grandfather, Johannes, an immigrant of 1718 (d. 1759), was also a preacher. Felix's home was the meeting place for the Mennonites from the first until this church was built. This home, with a stockade around it, served also as a shelter for the community during the French and Indian Wars, harboring as many as 30 families at one time. This was the Light Fort, still partially intact. About 1830 Felix Light defected to the United Brethren and claimed the meetinghouse. The Mennonites went to country churches thereafter. Not until the 1950s, when a mission was opened, was there a Mennonite church in Lebanon. The meetinghouse erected at Shirksville in 1775, seven miles (12 km) north of Lebanon near Fredericksburg, was formerly called "Light's," but has long gone by the name Shirksville.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 344. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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