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The bulk of the materials in this collection consist of sermons, poems, songs, and catechisms, a church register, and other religious writings documenting Mennonite church and community life in Balk, Friesland (The Netherlands) during the first part of nineteenth century, 1786-1850. The papers also include sermons, poems, correspondence, and other miscellaneous records pertaining to Balk Mennonite life in New Paris, Indiana.

Most materials are in Dutch. Available English translations are noted in the detailed collection description.

The collection is organized into series, most of which are groups of documents associated with the Smid Family siblings and the wife of R. J. Smid. Series include:

(1) Background Articles and Information on Balk Mennonites, 1948-2006

(2) Early Materials, 1786, undated

(3) Obe Johannes Smid, 1815-1849

(4) Akke Johannes Smid, 1820-1828

(5) Jacobjen Johannes Smid, 1822-1836

(6) Ruurd Johannes Smid (R. J. Smith), 1822-1893

(7) Grietje Jacobs Symensma (Margaret J. Smid), 1845-1895

The collection includes diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, and scattered correspondence from friends and family, mostly from Dorothy Smith Shank's years as a Goshen College Academy and Goshen College student from 1924 to 1932.

These papers of an (old) Mennonite Church writer and her pastor husband are divided into two series:

(1) Helen Good Brenneman Papers

(2) Virgil J. Brenneman Papers

These personal papers include autobiographical writing, photographs, slides, and ephemera pertaining to Nafziger's work as a Mennonite medical missionary in India.  They also contain some Nafziger family records, specifically a farm journal created by Christian Nafziger II.

This collection is divided into 4 series:

1) General Correspondence

2) Family Correspondence

3) Correspondence to M. S. Steiner

4) Diaries and Miscellaneous

The collection includes a diary 1905-1907; Diary 1907-1909; Diary 1909-1910; and diary 1913-1915. Also included is a diary 1910-1912, a diary 1922-1925, and a variety of correspondence with people involved in mission activities. The diaries from 1905-10 were written when Agnes was single, and when she was between the age of 17 and 23, while living in Illinois.  Her diaries tell of every day events in her life including weather, school work, funerals, visitors, church services in English and German and sermon texts, chores, anxiety over church dissensions, concern for starving in India, great interest in missions, a trip to Oregon, California, and Oklahoma, train ride over Rocky Mountains, and the Inauguration Day of President Taft.  Taken from  “A Guide to Mennonite Women’s Diaries (1840-1950), by Anne Yoder, Mennonite Quarterly Review, October 1996, page 488.

These materials document the professional life of Lena Graber, a medical missionary who served the (old) Mennonite Church.  Graber worked in India and Nepal from 1944 to 1969 under the auspices of the Mennonite Board of Missions and the United Mission to Nepal.  Graber's incoming and outgoing correspondence with her sister, Esther Graber, is very rich with details about her life abroad and her work, especially the medical cases she encountered.  Also included in this collection are her diary she kept from 1944 to 1948, newspaper clippings, award and honors she received, transcripts of several speeches, and miscellaneous materials.

The personal papers of Ruth Marie Conrad Liechty include her journals, school work, writing projects, family correspondence, correspondence related to the Welcome Committee and the issue of homosexuality, and family papers related to her parents Louetta (Kauffmann) and Daniel Conrad.

The collection consists of a copy of a diary kept by Ida Beidler from January 1, 1898 until December 29, 1898. The entries chronicle daily weather and domestic activities on a farm.

Personal papers, mostly diaries, of a domestic mission worker of the (old) Mennonite Church.  Leaman, sister of Clara Eby Steiner, served the Mennonite Home Mission (Chicago, Ill.) with her husband, Amos Hershey Leaman, for twenty years.  The diaries are a rich source of information about Leaman's mission service, spiritual life, and personal experiences.  Among other topics, she describes her work as a teacher and mission worker, experiences with Chicago's immigrant community and new converts to Christianity, her engagement and marriage, various illnesses and deaths in the family, Women's Missionary Society and Sewing Circle Meetings, and disagreement among mission staff over a church organ. Her diaries cover the years 1894-1902, 1904-1926, and 1931-1937.

Other materials in her papers include a book of clippings, poetry and prose collected by the Leamans, drawings of Amanda and Amos Leaman, and miscellaneous correspondence and ephemera found in her diaries and other journals.

Personal papers documenting the early life and education of an (old) Mennonite pastor's wife.  Materials include a diary, correspondence, essays apparently written while studying at the Elkhart Institute and Goshen College, and miscellaneous materials.  The essays represent the richest source of information in this collection, as they provide insight into Johns's thoughts on a variety of subjects -- motherhood, marriage, temperance, modest dress, mission and evangelistic work, prayer, suffering, and so forth.  Some of the essays are brief fiction pieces, and researchers will also find original poetry among the essays.

This small set of personal papers includes a diary documenting Bauman's service at the Youngstown Mission in Ohio from 1912 to 1913.  Also included among the papers are manuscripts of her essays and devotional writings, miscellaneous correspondence and family papers.

Papers of a Goshen Academy alumna (1922), long-time member of the Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.), and missionary to Dhamtari, India later in life.  Contains a remarkable run of diaries, nearly unbroken, from 1910 to 1989, in which Smucker provides brief descriptions of her daily activities.  Also includes scrapbooks, postcard albums, her father's autograph book, and miscellaneous materials.

Personal papers of an (old) Mennonite Church pastor and conference minister and his wife.  These papers are divided into two series:

(1) Cleo A. Mann Papers, 1939-1980

(2) Nellie Miller Mann Papers, 1920-2000

This collection chronicles the early life of Elizabeth M. Yoder Woodiwiss (1889-1986), who homesteaded in North Dakota from 1907-1910. Her diaries (photocopies of originals) record her experiences as a homesteader, as well as a few years after she returned to Pennsylvania.  Articles about Elizabeth are also in the collection, alongside her own recollections. There are also photographs depicting her as a homesteader and later in life, as well as photographs of the homesteading community.