Westward settlement from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa

The exhibit follows Amish and Mennonite families west after the opening of the Ohio territory. It places the first settlers in the region in 1808–1809 and a further movement after 1812. Homes and congregations developed in places where forests, roads, and farms still required extensive work.

By 1841 families from Somerset County and Holmes County were moving into northern Indiana. Settlement in Illinois and Iowa developed during the same broad period: the panel notes mid-state Illinois in 1832–1850 and Kalona, Iowa, by 1846. These were distinct local beginnings, connected by kinship and church relationships rather than a single centrally directed migration.

The source’s later account of the Walnut Creek meetinghouse shows that settlement also brought questions about worship and church order. Families carried their convictions with them while deciding how their new communities should organize schooling, meeting places, and relationships with neighboring congregations.