A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

families who organized as a church on June 11, 1877, the day of their first baptism. 30 Among those baptized was a young schoolteacher from the Moiotschna, Heinrich Voth and his wife who had made a deep Christian experience prior to their coming to the Unitec' States. The 140 HISTORY OF THE MENNON1TE BRETHREN CHURCH 25. Abraham Schellenberg 26. Heinrich Voth small group at nearby Bingham Lake elected Voth as leader in 1878 and in 1885 he was also ordained as elder by Abraham Schellenberg from Kansas. The first meetinghouse was constructed in 1885 about three miles north of Bingham Lclic. Because members living in and south of the town of Mountain Lake could not attend regularly, another meetinghouse was built about five miles south of Mountain Lake. Elder Voth served as pastor of both churches until 1918. when he moved to Canada, where he died on November 26 of that year at Vanderhoof. British Columbia." The "North Church" and the "South Church" functioned as one congregation for many years. A commendable innovation of this church, begun in 1887, was the observance of the "Fourth of July" as a missions festival. In this way the church offered its young people and the community something better than the usual celebrations held in surrounding towns. From the very beginning the Minnesota congregations manifested a great interest in missions, and hence it is not surprising that from 1896 to 1950 they commissioned twenty-seven missionaries for foreign and city mission work. 5 - Later both churches found it expedient to relocate in nearby towns, following the general pattern observed in other areas. The "South Church" (now Mountain Lake Mennonite Brethren Church) moved its building to its present location in 1901. The new church building, constructed in 1931. was enlarged in 1948 and replaced by a new MENNONITE BRETHREN COME TO THE UNITED STATES 141 structure in 1972. The Bingham Lake M.B. Church (now Carson M.B. Church) moved into a new edifice in the town of Delft (township of Carson) in 1949. The Minnesota congregations must be regarded as the "mother churches" of the early Canadian congregations. In addition, the South Side Mission founded in Minneapolis in 1910, and the New Hope M. B. Church established in the same city after World War 11, may also be regarded, at least in part, as the result of the extension efforts of the churches in Cottonwood County. 4. Mennonite Brethren in South Dakota Mennonites began to arrive in southern Dakota sixteen years before the territory was admitted into the Union in 1889. The great bulk o r the immigrants arriving from Russia in the 1870's and early 1880's settled in Turner and Hutchinson counties, some thirty miles north of Yankton. Among the settlers that came to Turner County were several M. B. families who began to meet in homes for fellowship as early as 1876. The congregation was organized in 1878 with Heinrich Adrian as leadin