Mennonite and Hutterite migration to North America

The exhibit connects the major migration beginning in 1874 with the introduction of universal military service and wider concerns about Mennonite and Hutterite life in the Russian Empire. About eighteen thousand people are included in its account of the movement. Families considered where they could preserve faith, nonresistance, schools, language, and community life.

Railway development made land available and encouraged settlement on the North American prairies. The Santa Fe Railroad had reached Newton, Kansas, in 1871, and its agents promoted land to immigrants. The panel places about ten thousand Mennonite settlers in the American Midwest, with others going to additional prairie states and Canadian provinces.

The migrants brought agricultural knowledge and hard winter wheat that contributed to the region’s farming. Mennonite and Hutterite communities shared parts of this migration, while their church organization and communal practices remained distinct. The related branch entries follow the Old Colony, Bergthal, Kleine Gemeinde, Mennonite Brethren, and Hutterite histories beyond arrival.