Jansen (Nebraska, USA)
Jansen, Nebraska, a village (1950 population 244; 2008 population 143) in Jefferson County, in the southeastern part of the state, was named in honor of Peter Jansen, one of the Mennonite pioneers. In 1955 Jansen had one Mennonite church (Evangelical Mennonite Brethren) with 73 members.
The first major settlement in the Jansen community, the Kleine Gemeinde, came from Russia in 1874-1875, and settled in Cub Creek Precinct in seven small, somewhat isolated "line villages" of Rosenort, Rosenhof, Rosenfeld, Rosental, Neuanlage, Heuboden, and Blumenort. The Jansen community at one time had six different Mennonite churches operating: Kleine Gemeinde (150; 1874-1908); Evangelical Mennonite Brethren (150; 1879 to present time); Krimmer Mennonite Brethren (50; 1880-1916); General Conference Mennonite (popularly called Peter Jansen's Church, comprised largely of the personnel on P. Jansen's ranch, 6 to 8 families, 1890-1909); Mennonite Brethren (50; 1901-1947); Reformed Mennonites (four or five families who held services in homes were never formally organized. Some of this group still lived in the vicinity of Jansen in the 1950s). The community was predominantly Mennonite until shortly after the turn of the century when mass migrations away from Jansen began, which resulted in a sharp decline in Mennonite population and the eventual closing down of all but one of the Mennonite churches. The last Mennonite church to close was the Mennonite Brethren in 1947.
In 1953 the town of Jansen had five places in which alcoholic beverages were sold, in sharp contradiction to the "clause" which Peter Jansen was responsible for having inserted into the original deed of each town lot in Jansen which prohibited the sale of liquor in the town of Jansen.
Bibliography
Claassen, Cornelius J. "Peter Jansen—Pioneer, Leader and Philanthropist." Mennonite Life 2 (October 1947): 41-43.
Miller, D. Paul. "An Analysis o£ Community Adjustment: A Case Study of Jansen, Nebraska." Ph.D. dissertation, Nebraska, 1953.
Reimer, G. E. and G. R. Gaeddert. Exiled by the Czar: Cornelius Jansen and the Great Mennonite Migration, 1874. Newton, 1956.
| Author(s) | D. Paul Miller |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Miller, D. Paul. "Jansen (Nebraska, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Jansen_(Nebraska,_USA)&oldid=65853.
APA style
Miller, D. Paul. (1957). Jansen (Nebraska, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Jansen_(Nebraska,_USA)&oldid=65853.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 90-91. All rights reserved.
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