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Picture

Kingwood Reformed Mennonite Congregation

Begun: 1850
Closed: 1969

The date of organization of this Reformed Mennonite congregation in Wellesley Township is given as 1850. According to Stewart et al. (1983:93-94), "The first church was an Amish Mennonite church, a quarter of a mile west of Kingwood. About 1864, the church was moved across the fence to the west half of the adjoining lot, by the Reformed Mennonites. Services were conducted, every third Sunday, by the ministers John Honderick [sic] and Joseph Wilhelm." John Honderich was ordained minister in 1865; Joseph Wilhelm was ordained minister in 1879. The next minister was Fred Weicker who was ordained deacon in 1901 and minister in 1905. Of interest: Rudolph Roth, who left the Wilmot Amish Mennonite  congregation in 1850, served as bishop after he joined the Reformed Mennonites.

"A new larger church was built on the same site, in 1900. The building was eventually sold and moved off the property in 1969, though the cemetery is still there" (Ibid.). The cemetery is still in use. Remaining members of Kingwood and of Hostetler's Reformed Mennonite congregations joined with the North Easthope Reformed Mennonite congregation as each one disbanded.

Records:
For information regarding the availability of any early records, please contact the Archivist at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6.

References: Epp 1974:136,277; Epp 1982:274; Fretz 1989:91; Maple Leaf 1983:93-94.

Information excerpted from: Waterloo County Churches, A Research Guide to Churches established before 1900, by Rosemary Willard Ambrose © Waterloo-Wellington Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1993. It is reproduced by permission.

For a complete list of resources mentioned above, please click
here.

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