1862 · event
Walnut Creek: meetinghouse and Amish Mennonite change
The first Amish meetinghouse in Holmes County became part of wider debate about congregational change.
Also searchable as: Walnut Creek Mennonite Church · Holmes County
The exhibit dates the first meetinghouse among the Amish of Holmes County to 1862 and identifies it with the later Walnut Creek Mennonite Church. A purpose-built meeting place was more than a construction project in communities accustomed to gathering in homes. It brought questions about inherited practice and proposed change into the life of the congregation.
A division grew between those who wished to retain older ways and those willing to accept meetinghouses and other innovations. The latter eventually joined the Mennonite Church and discontinued the Amish designation. This local account helps explain the later Amish and Amish Mennonite branches without treating every difference as the same dispute or assigning one decision to all congregations.
Sources for this history: [1]
