Cassette tapes of oral history interviews conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the "H. S. Bender Era," roughly defined as 1920 to 1960. The project was sponsored by the Mennonite HIstorical Society, with Al Keim as director. Accompany the cassette tapes on which the interviews were recorded are indexes to the interviews, background information about interviewees, and some consent forms. No full transcripts of the interviews are available.
Collection includes a documented sermon by former Reverend and Pastor Harold Zehr for the East Bend Mennonite Church in Fisher, Illinois. At this time of this sermon, the East Bend congregation was navigating a painful split (between the years 1951-1952).
Records of a Mennonite congregation in upstate New York affiliated with the (old) Mennonite Church and later Mennonite Church USA. Materials include bulletins, Sunday and Bible school records, minutes from congregational and board meetings, directories, and other miscellaneous records.
Researchers should note that the records are incomplete.
Harris Hill Mennonite Church (Williamsville, N.Y.)
Collection consists primarily of photographs documenting Oregonian Mennonite Harry Artemus Mishler's time as a Civilian Public Service (CPS) Smoke Jumper from 1943 to 1945. Photographs sublects include: the Smoke Jumpers, training, airplanes, the parachuting process, home life at Camp Paxson (Missoula, MT) and the regional outposts of Big Prairie and Camp Menard. Parachute instuction manuals, a master loft log (recording Mishler's jumps), and publications concerning the Smoke Jumpers are also included.
Further contents include documents and pictures from Smoke Jumper reunions held in 1973 and 1978.
Miscellaneous documents accumulated by Harry Symensma, a Mennonite immigrant from Balk (Friesland, Netherlands) and member of the Mennonite (Dunkard) church in Union Township (presumably Elkhart County), Indiana, and his son, Henry Symensma, of New Paris, Indiana. Materials include property tax and other reciepts, real estate assessments, a letter from John F. Funk offering condolences to Henry Symensma, and Dutch militia documents.
Papers pertaining to a Mennonite conscientious objector's experiences during World War I. Includes correspondence, empemera pertaining to conscientious objection, a transcript of Sommers's court martial proceedings, a parole pass, photographs, and other miscellaneous items. Also includes a brief two page biography of Sommers written by Myron Sommers in 1992.
Box 1 is books of aunt Mrs. P. R. (Louise) Schmidt. Boxes 2 and 3 are a wide variety of documents from his ancestors and relatives, mostly of the Alexanderwohl community, dating back at least to the early 19th century.
This small set of papers focuses primarily on Weirich's Civilian Public Service (CPS) work building flood control structures in Iowa and serving as a smoke jumper. Materials include an album of photographs and documents, collected articles on smoke jumpers, and newsletters and ephemera from Camp 18 (Denison, Iowa) and Camp 103 (Missoula, Montana). Also included are 26 photographs of First Mennonite Church (Middlebury, Indiana) in the 1950s and 1960s. Subjects include members of the church's baseball team circa 1950.
