Collection 00/MS.162 - Paul R. Aeschliman Papers

Mennonite Encyclopedia entry:

Paul R. Aeschliman, a General Conference Mennonite pastor and conference leader, was born 25 October 1862, near Brenets, canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, to Christ Pierre Aeschliman and Julia Roulet-Aeschliman. He died 19  March 1938. Aeschliman came to Pulaski, Iowa, in 1884 with several brothers. He had six brothers and two sisters. He married Phebe Diefenbach on 25 August 1892, and they had two children: Beulah Pearl, born 1896, and Rupert, born 1901.     Aeschliman was educated in Switzerland and in the Mennonite Seminary at Halstead, Kansas, 1891-1892. In November 1886 he moved to Washington Territory, later returning to Kansas for schooling, to Iowa for marriage, and then back to Washington to farm. In 1893 he was elected minister of the First Mennonite Church of Colfax, Washington (later known as the Onecho Mennonite Church), which had been organized by J. B. Baer, Field Secretary of the General Conference Mennonite Church. He served this church for more than forty-three years until 1936, at which time he was made pastor emeritus.     Aeschliman served in the following capacities: traveling pastor of the Pacific District Conference, 1896-1908; chairman of Evangelism Committee for the Pacific District Conference for a number of years beginning in 1908; a member of the General Conference Mennonite Church Home Missions Board, 1899-1908; of the General Conference Mennonite Church Relief Committee, 1911-1920, and of the General Conference Mennonite Church Program Committee, 1923-1932. He was a minister-at-large for the Pacific District Conference for many years.