A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

. 26. The membership had dropped to eighteen in 1954. The 1960 Yearbook of the General Conference does not list it under the congregations of Nebraska. 27. The development of conference organization among Mennonite Brethren will receive special consideration in a later chapter. 28. See Harms, op. cit., pp. 81-84. 29. This concession to the Volga brethren was one of the main reasons for not recognizing the 1878 conference by the churches in Dakota and Minnesota. Ibid., p. 84. 30. The story of the Delft and Mountain Lake M.B. Churches is told in the illustrated booklet, 80th Anniversary 1877-1957 (Mountain Lake, Minn., 1957). 31 . Elder Voth's contributions in conference organization and church extension will be treated in chapter thirteen. 450 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH 32. Ibid., p. 26. Among them such pioneers as the N. N. Hieberts, the John H. Voths, and the A. A. Janzens. 33. See Harms, op. cit., p. 86. The underlying causes of this loss of membership to the Seventh-Day Adventists in many M.B. churches of this period merits special research. 34. The present Silver Lake Church is the only M.B. congregation in South Dakota that has survived from the early settlement period. 35. Contrary to the pattern developed in Russia, few new settlements in the United States were promoted and supported by the "mother churches." 36. The Sawyer M.B. Church was largely a fruit of Reimche's efforts, See Unruh, op. cit., p. 445. 37. The membership of the Harvey church in 1954 was two hundred and ten: the combined membership of the Harvey city and country churches in 1971 was only one hundred and ninety-two. 38. Harms, op. cit., pp. 210-211. 39. It will be recalled that the M.B. congregation in Woodson County was dissolved in 1892. 40. See Harms, op. cit., p. 95. 41. This whole episode — the long trek from Kansas to Colorado and from there to Texas and finally to Oklahoma — could be entitled: In Search of Utopia. This experience shows that many moves of Mennonite Brethren have been made on the basis of inadequate information and little investigation. 42. See article by Marvin Kroeker, "Mennonites in the Oklahoma 'Runs'," Mennonite Life, X (July, 1955), 114. 43 . The church and town were named after a nearby post office which had received the name because of the large amount of corn raised in the immediate vicinity. The town carried the German name "Korn" until 1918, when it was changed to its present spelling. Cf. ibid., p. 116. 44. Other M.B. churches established in 1890's at Gotebo, and Caddo County became extinct between 1910-1920 and members joined the Com congregation. Members of the extinct K.M.B. congregation in Weatherford joined in the late 1930's. See ME, I, 711. 45. M. Kroeker, "Mennonites in the Okla. 'Runs'," op. cit., p. 117. 46. See article by P. C. Grunau, "North Enid Mennonite Brethren Church," Mennonite Life, IX (October, 1954), 176-177. 47. A local land ag