MY OLD ORDER MENNONITE HERITAGE PART THREE The booklet My Old Order Mennonite Heritage is appearing in a sequel in Cross Cultures by kind permission from the author/publisher, Mary Ann Horst.

In contrast with the Old Order Mennonites, there are numerous Mennonite denominations whose members visit the beauty parlors and follow current fashion trends in attire. Many of the members of these more modern groups enter professions such as teaching, social work and medicine. In between the polarities of the most conservative and the most progressive, there are varying degrees of practice. In actuality, only a small percentage of the total number of Mennonites wear the traditional attire and a still smaller number travel by horse and buggy.

Within the various Mennonite sects of Ontario, there are a total of about 19,000 baptized members. All of these trace their origin to the Anabaptist movement of the sixteenth century. The anabaptist movement originated in Switzerland and quickly spread to Holland and Germany. They were given the name Anabaptist because of their conviction that infant baptism was not scriptural. They believed that scriptural baptism was an outward symbol of inner faith and they rebaptized any adults who wished to become part of their group.

They believed that the Christian could under no circumstances participate in war. Neither did they believe a Christian should participate in civil government. They insisted that the true church consisted of believers who voluntarily choose to separate themselves from the world and that separation of church and state would be a natural consequence.

One of the early organizers of the Anabaptist movement was Menno Simons. Menno Simons was a former Roman Catholic priest, and it was from his name that the name Mennonite was derived.

The early Anabaptists' disagreement with the Roman Catholic and the Protestant churches of that day brought them unpopularity and severe persecution. Cruel tortures were employed in the attempt to cause them to give up their faith. Felix Manz, one of the early Swiss leaders, was drowned, becoming one of the first of many who chose to die rather than to renounce his faith. Many Anabaptists were imprisoned and many were burned at the stake.

In the seventeenth century, the Quaker, William Penn, gave an invitation to any of the Anabaptists who so wished to come to America. In payment of a debt owed to his father, Penn obtained a charter to Pennsylvania from the British king. Britain promised that in America the Anabaptists would be given exemption from military service and freedom to worship as they wished. The result of the offer was that many Dutch and Swiss Mennonites came to America and settled in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

After the American revolution some of the Pennsylvania Mennonites travelled the long journey from Pennsylvania to Ontario in horse drawn conestoga wagons. Some of them stayed near the Canadian border but most of them came to what is now known as Waterloo County. They were the first white settlers in this part of the province.

Among the early settlers from Pennsylvania was a young man by the name of Abraham Weber. This Abraham Weber was my great great grandfather on my father's side of the family. History records that young Abraham, after making the long journey from Pennsylvania to Waterloo County, camped back of what is now the Goodrich Tire Plant in Kitchener. He was soon on friendly terms with the 'Indians', and they spent time around his camp-fire.

At this same spot Abraham cleared the land and built a log house. Several years after building his house he married a young lady by the name of Elizabeth Cressman.

The particular wagon in which young Abraham made the trek from Pennsylvania to Waterloo County is on display in the museum of Kitchener's Doon Pioneer Village. Every time I visit the village I stop and look at this wagon. Always I feel within me an admiration for those men and women who chose to travel the long and oft times wearisome journey to come to Waterloo County and there carve out a new life in what was then forest wilderness.

Like their Mennonite brethren in Pennsylvania, the Mennonites in Ontario excelled in farming. As in Pennsylvania, so in Ontario, the fields flourished under their care, and to-day their well kept farm homes are a pleasant picture of peaceful rural tranquility. to be continued ....

This article was originally published in Cross Cultures Magazine in Volume 1 - Issue 5 - 1992. Unauthorized copying, distribution or other usage without express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.