Springfield Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite), located in Springfield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It is not known when the first meetinghouse was built, but the Mennonite settlers reached the area before the middle of the 18th century; Peter Meyer, the first known preacher, located there in 1741. The letter written by the Franconia bishops to Holland in 1773 seems to call this congregation "Term" (Durham). The second meetinghouse, "in a little grove, delightfully located on high ground, ... a low stone building," was built in 1824 and is still standing. The names of the ministers who served at Springfield (Mennonite Church) were Meyer and Moyer, Gehman, and Geisinger. The congregation divided in 1847, the deacon and part of the church following John H. Oberholtzer and the two preachers and the other portion of the congregation remaining in the Franconia Conference. The two groups then alternated in the use of the meetinghouse until about 1948, when the Franconia Mennonites discontinued services. In 1888 the Franconia Conference group numbered twenty; in 1936, eleven. The membership of the Eastern District Conference congregation at Springfield (GCM) was 74 in 1895; in 1936 it was 36; and in 1958 it was 44, with Robert M. Landis as pastor.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 603. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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