Collection HM1/011 - J. D. (Jacob D.) Mininger Papers 1900-1941

Jacob D. Mininger, a Mennonite (Mennonite Church) leader, mission worker, and evangelist, was born near Sellersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 9 June 1879, the third son of Joseph M. and Eliza Detweiler Mininger. As a youth he united with the Mennonite Church and early had convictions for mission work.

On 27 July 1904, he was married to Hettie B. Kulp of Danboro, PA. One daughter and two sons were born to them: Ruth (Mrs. M. T. Brackbill), a teacher at Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg, VA; Paul E., a bishop, and president of Goshen College, Goshen, IN; and Edward P., a physician at Elkhart, IN.

J. D. Mininger spent four and a half years (1904-1909) as superintendent of the Mennonite Old People's Home, Marshallville, Ohio, and three years in Holbrook, CO where he was ordained to the ministry in late 1911 or early 1912. In April 1912 he was appointed superintendent of the Mennonite Gospel Mission, Kansas City, KS, where he served until his death, almost 29 years later. The outreach of the mission was greatly extended during those years, as he discovered varied ways of ministering to the spiritually needy.

Mininger was used churchwide as an evangelist and conference speaker, a frequent theme of his messages being the victorious Christian life. He wrote and edited many tracts, which he called Victory Leaflets. Exalting Christ in the City is a mission study text which he wrote as a veteran missionary. He rendered unusual service as counselor and pastor to the conscientious objectors imprisoned in the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth in World War I and after. Through the years he was a member of various committees and boards of the church. At the time of his death he was a member-at-large of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charitiesand a member of the executive committee of the Mennonite Board of Education. He died 4 January 1941 and was buried at Maple Hill cemetery, Kansas City, Kansas.