A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

3. Ibid., p. 25. 4. Quoted by David V. Wiebe, ibid., p. 27. 5. So Wiebe, ibid. Wiebe denies that the group ever practiced "trine immersion," as reported, for instance, by H. S. Bender in the ME, III, 243. 6. Wiebe also denies the charge that "forward immersion" was chosen in order to avoid becoming a part of the Mennonite Brethren group. Grace Meadow, p. 27. 7. Bender, ME, III, 243. 8. Wiebe, Grace Meadow, p. 28. Cf. controversy on this issue in the early M.B. Church. FOOTNOTES 453 9. As given in Ausgabe des Fuenfzigsten Jubilaeum-Jahres (Chicago: K.M.B. Pub- lishing House, 1919), p. 4. Free translation from the German by the author. 10. This is the figure given by Wiebe in Grace Meadow, p. 28. Bender reports that the group numbered forty baptized members in 1874. ME, III, 243. 11. Johann Harder was the son of the well-known elder Johann Harder of the Ohrloff Mennonite Church. An autobiographical sketch of his life and spiritual pilgrimage is given in Ausgabe des Fuenfzigsten Jubilaeum-Jahres, pp. 5-8. 12. Wiebe, Grace Meadow, p. 36. Wiebe states that only three families of their church group remained in the Crimea. 13. Ibid., p. 38. 14. A fascinating account of "the great Mennonite invasion" of Kansas is found in David V. Wiebe's other book, They Seek a Country (Hillsboro: M.B. Publishing House, 1959) , pp. 66-72. 15. Wiebe, Grace Meadow, p. 36. 16. Ibid., pp. 53-54. 17. Yearbook (K.M.B. Conference, 1954), p. 14. 18. Konferenzbeschluesse der K.M.B. Gemeinde, 1882-1940 (Inman, Kansas: Salem Publishing House, 1940), p. 2. 19. ME, IV, 1034. 20. The church is listed for the last time in the Yearbook (United States Conference, 1960) , p. 63. The membership at that time stood at sixty-three, and the pastor was W. W. Harms. Many joined the Lehigh-Gnadenau merger while others joined the Hillsboro M.B. Church. 21. ME, II, 203. 22. ME, IV, 404. 23. Konferenzbeschluesse der K.M.B. Gemeinde, p. 5. 24. Many families in the South Dakota congregations have their historic roots in another Anabaptist movement dating back to the sixteenth century — the Hutterian Brethren. Their ethnic background is Austrian or Tyrolese. 25. ME, II, 203. 26. Two sons and one son-in-law have been active M.B. conference workers through the years: Jacob as principal of the Bethany Bible Institute, Hepburn, Sask., and as associate secretary of the Board of Missions and Services: Henry as evangelist of the Canadian Conference; and Sylvester Dirks (son-in-law) as missionary to Peru. 27. Because the majority of the group belonged to the "Kleinsasser clan" (ail related to the leader Rev. John Z. Kleinsasser) the tract of land came to be known as the "Kleinsasser Colony." See Gary Nachtigall, op. cit., p. 31. 28. See 50th Anniversary, Zion Mennonite Brethren Church (Dinuba, 1961), pp. 5-8. 29. C. F. Plett in ME, I, 310. 30. Bender in ME, III, 244. 31. Ibid. 32. Konferenzbeschluesse der K.M.B. Gemein