Masontown Mennonite Church (Masontown, Pennsylvania, USA)
Masontown Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church USA), located one mile east of Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania on the Smithfield-Masontown Rd., a member of the Allegheny Conference, is perhaps the oldest organized Mennonite congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains. Mennonites settled in the region about Masontown around 1790. Jacob Newcomer was the first minister of this group. Peter Longeneker, formerly of Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first resident bishop. This congregation was under the supervision of the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, bishops some time before the Southwestern Pennsylvania (now Allegheny) Conference was organized in 1876. J. N. Durr, who was largely responsible for the organization of the conference, was ordained to the ministry here at the early age of 18 in 1872 and to the office of bishop at the age of 20. Nicholas Johnson, the third bishop, is given the credit for conducting the first Sunday school in the Mennonite Church (MC) in the United States. This service was held on the upper floor of a springhouse on his farm in 1842. The 1956 brick meetinghouse, the third one built, was erected in 1871, with a seating capacity of 200. The first was a log church, a half mile north of the present site, which was also used for school purposes. The second meetinghouse was a frame building about one mile east. The membership in 1956 was 138, with Paul M. Roth as pastor. In 2005 the membership was 55.
Other ministers who served this congregation were Walter Campbell, A. J. Metzler, Lloy A. Kniss, Elmer D. Hess, J. A. Brilhart, Ed. Miller, S. F. Coffman, Christian Deffenbaugh, David Johnson, and Joseph Bixler.
| Author(s) | Paul M Roth |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Roth, Paul M. "Masontown Mennonite Church (Masontown, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Masontown_Mennonite_Church_(Masontown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=89468.
APA style
Roth, Paul M. (1957). Masontown Mennonite Church (Masontown, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Masontown_Mennonite_Church_(Masontown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=89468.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 535. All rights reserved.
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