Bloomingdale (Snyder's) Mennonite Church Bloomingdale

• Name	Bloomingdale (Snyder's) Mennonite Church Bloomingdale
  Born	congregation began 1824	Bloomingdale Mennonite Church, Bloomingdale, Ontario
  Gender	Unknown
  Church	1878	1151 Snyder's Flats Rd., Bloomingdale, Ontario
  	building constructed
  Name	Bloomingdale Mennonite Church Bloomingdale
  Name	Schneider's Mennonite Church Bloomingdale
  Name	Snyder's Mennonite Church Bloomingdale
  Died	still exist 2011
  Person ID	I631	Properties
  Last Modified	28 Aug 2011

  
  

• Notes

  Bloomingdale (Schneider or Snyder) Mennonite Church Begun: 1824 Services began in 1824, and in 1826 a first meeting house, known as Schneider's or Snyder's, was built northwest of Bloomingdale, and east of the Grand River, on land (part Lot 7) donated by Jacob Schneider.  Henry Weber  was the first minister to this congregation, from 1824 until 1854. He was followed by  Moses Erb  who was ordained minister to the congregation on April 14, 1854. The church building was primarily used as a school in the beginning; the first teacher was  John Bauman  from Pennsylvania. Church services were held in homes. Dorothy Sauder, in her 1972 history of the church, states that "Prior to 1860, Schneider's was the only [Mennonite] place of worship on the Grand River and, until the 1889 Martin schism, it was one with the Martin congregation with ministers serving both groups" (Sauder 1972:8). Services were held on a two-week schedule, at one meeting house and then at the other.      Snyder's was affected by division in the church in the early 1870s. The majority of the congregation joined the Reforming (or Reformed) Mennonites, a group organized by  Solomon Eby  on May 15, 1874, and from 1875-1879 the meeting house was used almost exclusively by them. It was here that the conference was held on March 23, 1875 in which the New Mennonites and the Reforming (or Reformed) Mennonites joined together as the United Mennonites. However, because the original deed to the church property had been lost or perhaps never duly executed, a new deed was drawn up on January 15, 1879, giving ownership of building and property to the group of more conservative Mennonites in the congregation. The present church was built in 1878 on approximately the same site as the first meeting house. Renovations to the church building were carried out in 1951. One main entrance, to replace the two separate entrances, was part of the changes made. Further improvements were made in 1985. The name of the church is now Bloomingdale Mennonite Church. Records: Baptisms 1868-1902, from Abraham W. Martin's Bishop Book, have been transcribed by Isaac R. Horst and published in his book, Baptism Records 1842-1980. Some records may pertain to Bloomingdale. The book is available at the Kitchener Public Library. For information regarding the availability of any other early records, please contact the Archivist at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6. [ADDRESS/LOCATION: just west from the northern edge of Bloomingdale - Bloomingdale, ON N0B 1K0; 745-2411]w References: Burkholder 1935:89; Epp 1974:125; Epp 1982:269; Good 1988:86. Church History: Sauder, Dorothy. Trail's End. The Oxbow, September 1972.1a 1aAmbrose, Rosemary. Waterloo County Churches A Research Guide to Churches Established Before 1900. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada: Waterloo-Wellington Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1993. [used the kind permission of Rosemary Ambrose 2011]

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - congregation began 1824 - Bloomingdale Mennonite Church, Bloomingdale, Ontario Church - building constructed - 1878 - 1151 Snyder's Flats Rd., Bloomingdale, Ontario  = Link to Google Earth