Bethel College - Graymaroon Yearbook (North Newton, KS)

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fiber' ' -5 ., ,Q :k'.xl'P?f?S' ' 3' sl -'n, b 'i' yin .hiffll ?'.,!,,,-L if J' ,X . if 'X ,W , ' ,v Qi xx l kk . Q- W, rw. , XM ff' x N I+ qi I 5 i H X ' 5' .., S , x , Q. t i ....-.4 -, 'Sk X ...Q , ,X . ni Ng my Q H Aw nt 'L. We VN .wg v A H '- A 5 A ' ,,..,-.A N sf :xg f. Q it rf 'sn W 'H 45 X 4 'ch f X 'xt vue uh' Y if M 1? 't of i as if .M 4 fs 52,0 14 s. v - Here Menno Simons set up his press. The Linden tree is over four hundred years old and IS known as Menno Simons' i.1nde, of the faith, and when he could get no one else to print these writings, he set up a printing press and printed them himself for distribution among the people. Forced to flee for his life not once but a score of times, he lived for years under the constant danger of arrest, with an imperial reward on his head and an imperial decree promising death by torment to any who aided him or gave him food or shelter. When at last he died, he left behind him an indelible imprint upon those with whom he had associated and these became known as Mennonites. The Mennonite teachings fell like the balm of Gilead upon the hearts of the common people of Europe, wracked by discord, war, and oppression. In spite of the persecution which followed it everywhere, the movement spread rapidly. An example of this persecution is a shameful chapter in the history of Switzerland, the very home of the movement. There the Mennonites suffered the death penalty until well into the seventeenth century, they were condemned to serve as galley slaves as late as the eighteenth century and were left to rot in filthy prisons and banished to foreign lands up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In other countries they suffered a like fate. Yet the Menno- nites continued to worship as their conscience told them. Gradually the industry, the frugality, and the honesty of their lives began to make an impress. Catherine the Great of Russia was among those who recognized this. She offered them great in- ducements to settle in her realm and thousands of them did so. William Penn, the great Quaker, recognized their qualities and wrote letters to them and visited them, telling them of America, and asking them to - i form a settlement there. This resulted in the establishment I CCT! ff X53 ' of the Germantown settlement in Pennsylvania in 1683, Q 2 the first permanent Mennonite community in the western A fy A hemisphere. 1 fy 1 h Germantown was the beginning of a great migra- tion. More and more of the European membership drifted i ' V,-, to this new land, where tolerance and freedom were key- if notes, until today there are more of the faith in North A - I America than there are in any other nation on the globe. H ,,ff,1f,,,Zi'. dim -I A view of Germantown, Pa., the first settlement of Mennonites in the United States in 1683. 8

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WHO ARE THE MENNONITES? ln W ' wa , Nmfxx if S.. 1...-F., lv l Agiwf fl --q ' UIUQIIBIIHIKQKQ ll!lllil NWI! I F 5 if- l ff fffi .rf , ' ,,,,. nv-'Y' I ,M-BAA.:-'S ! E Q, 'fjgzwwinniwdf N i s frlf lllllllllill , tri ' ' Q M , jd fi will , f lllllllittcii ', ' ' ... - L . : Q' yx?uuni.45'4 , 9 2-WB x I 'UH ll , --rl' I- I fn. ' x . - 'Ili fl , M -' M 'ir 5 ... -..-.a.. li- ' , - l ff' . '- I If 1 ' A sketch of Menno Simons from whom the Mennonite-s took their name. As printers were forbidden to publish his writings. he set up his The first German settlement in America was Germantown, and the first German settlers were Mennonites. .... On October 6, 1683, the ship Concord arrived in Philadelphia bringing thirteen Mennonite families.-Sweet, The Story of Reli- gions in America. Who are the Mennonites? Whence came they? Why did they come? What have they done and where did they obtain the inspiration that impelled them to build institutions such as Bethel? The history of the Mennonites is long and honorable. I1 starts clear back in the first days of the great Reformation. When Luther, Calvin and Zwingli were carving their mighty Protestant sects out of the heart of Europe, a little group of leaders, with beliefs more liberal even than those great religious heads entertained, were meeting in private homes at own press and printed them himself. Date 1552. Zurich, Switzerland, to pray and study the Word of God. The tenets upon which these so-called Anabaptists stood were few and simple and may be summed up as follows: The church was a voluntary group of believers, banded together to worship. Adult baptism on confession of faith alone was accepted as an initiatory symbol into the church. The Bible was the only guide to faith and practice. The New Testament was preferred to the Old as an authority. All temporal matters were shunned. Yet obedience to the rulers and cheerful payments of taxes to support the government were taught. The Christian could not take up the sword. Surely no simpler, purer faith was ever expounded. Yet because it dissented from some of the forms practiced by the existing churches, its members became the objectives of a furious persecution. Leader after leader was arrested, tortured and martyred. The rank and file were harried from one country to another, and all in the fair name of religion. Upon this troubled stage walked a humble man from Holland in the year 1531. He was Menno Simons, who had been reared in the Catholic priesthood, and had renounced the life of ease and security, when a study of the writings of Luther and other Protestant leaders, together with his own study of the Bible, convinced him he must espouse the new faith. From the first he was a power. He wrote brilliantly and voluminously, explaining the teachings Who Are the Mennonitesf' The Settlement in Kansas. The Contribution to Kansas. and Bethel College-Its History are taken from a pamphlet by A. J. Graber. Back of lieth:-I Colle-go, The Mennonite Story. f 7

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THE SETTLEMENT IN KANSAS The coming of the Mennonites was an event of great import- ance. .... They have transformed a large section of Kansas into farms .... introduced the celebrated Turkey wheat .... made Kansas the greatest Wheat producing state in Ameriea.fProf. G. D. Bradley, University of Toledo, The Story of the Santa Fe. There is much of romance and adventure in the coming of the Mennonites to Kansas. When the eastern Mennonite colonies were formed, Kansas was a wilderness, covered with vast buffalo herds and inhabited only by the wild and warlike Indians. But Kansas had scarcely passed the frontier stage when small groups of Mennonites began arriving on prospecting tours, seeking for unsettled lands where large areas could be secured cheaply enough to form extensive, compact settlements. In Russia the situation had grown intolerable. Under promises of special privileges, Catherine T T T T T the Great had induced thousands of German Mennonites to settle in her domains. They were granted permission to use their own lan- guage, to govern themselves, and were exempt from military service. The industry and skill of these residents of i'Little Germanyw in the heart of Russia aroused the jealousy of the Russians who lived about them, and constant pressure was brought to take away from them these privileges. At last the Czar decided to take that action. Three separate committees went to St. Petersburg in fruitless attempts to remind him of the nationis promises to them. He informed them they must hereafter speak the Russian language, submit to Russian govern- ' ' F . . . 1 ggi,rCQ,t5h51'Q,'pa,TQf'?f,fa183.Qfdt,2i,Q,Q2,.teg ment and, most serious of all. do service in the Russian army. The the Mennonite immigrants to Kansas free of charge. latter provision was modified to permit them to substitute forestry, hospital, and government factory service for actual fighting. The Mennonites in despair sent chosen men as did the Israelites of old to spy out the promised land of America. A committee of twelve, including Leonhard Sudermann, Isaac Peters, jacob Buller,LHeinrich Richert, Jacob lNiebe, Johann Wliebe, and Gerhard Wfiebe, visited in Kansas in 1872. They had been preceded by a few others, among them Bernhard XVarkentin, who became one of Newton's leading business men and destined to make a large and important coniribution to the T , TT . . i, , -Tc-ri ' .,.,' f '?1f 'zmfw',:. .. Temporary immigrant houses built for I- ,LJ , .5:,,t , I Y h , ijikvtfjqq ,flu .A 414325: the Mennonites fifteen miles north of 'g Qe , , , , gi. ' X:g .,tg,f 1f'- , If K: ,- -1 Newton by the Atchison, Topeka and afifilgg -it ' ' if f' ' ' ff T T' 16if '3 ' 4' Santa F9 Railmad- V ' 'T . ' , wifi' :Y V- 'i s T 5 4 1 9