222 / Development of Church Life in the Older Congregations

sammlung), the Beech Church was well represented by David
Maurer, Joseph Ramseyer, Daniel Graber, Michael Schloneger, and
Joseph Becher. In the twentieth century the Beech Church made
the typical change from German to English, and from ordination
by lot to majority vote. Fasting before communion was discontinued.
Under the leadership of O. N. Johns, who began to serve the
congregation as bishop in 1925, there was a steady growth in
mission activity and support, in Christian education, and in young
people's work. During World War II the congregation's young
men in large number chose Civilian Public Service in preference to
the military, and so there has been a continuation of the attitude
which caused the founders of the congregation to migrate from
France in the post-Napoleonic era of the early nineteenth century.
From 1863 to the present time the following have been ministers at Beech: Joseph Bedrer, John Sommers, J. A. Liechty, Daniel
Schmucker, Peter Graber, Peter Klopfenstein, O. N. Johns, John
D. Miller, Alvin Hostetler, Ray Bair, Eldon King, and Wayne
North. John E. Sommers is deacon. O. N. Johns has retired as bishop, having served not only Beech but numerous other congregations in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. For a number of years
he was secretary of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference.

The Kidron Congregation

The Swiss Mennonite Kidron Church at Kidron, Ohio, was organized as a congregation in the Ohio Conference in 1936 by A. J. Steiner and Aaron Mast. Previous to that its members were a part of the Sonnenberg congregation that was founded in the early decades of the 1800's. The congregation grew under the leadership of Reuben Hofstetter, Allen Bixler, and Isaac Zuercher. In January 1964 William Detweiler, Jr., became pastor. The congregation has a membership of 608, one of the largest in the conference.

For some years it sponsored a mission outpost at Dillonvale in the coal-mining region near Wheeling, West Virginia. The Kidron congregation has a youth program, a men's brotherhood, and a well-organized program of education, music, extension, relief, library, and other activities. Few congregations of the conference are more thoroughly organized for programs of nurture, home visitation, and Christian service. The congregation has a strong youth emphasis and program. In the words of the present pastor's 1964 report, "Our youth are our most precious asset."