St. Jacobs Mennonite Church (St. Jacobs, ON)

Classification scheme:

III-23

Title: St. Jacobs Mennonite Church fonds

Dates of creation: 1911-2017
Note: Further accruals are expected

Physical description: 3.3 m of textual records

Administrative history: The congregation began services and formally organized in 1844. The first building was occupied in 1851, with subsequent building programs in 1915, 1936, 1949, 1977 and 1988. John W. Brubacher is considered the founding leader of the group. The congregation originated through immigration from Pennsylvania.

The meetinghouse was located west of St. Jacobs just north of the intersection of Regional Road 17 and Township Road 32 at the present location of Three Bridges School and the congregation's cemetery. At that time it was known as the Conestoga Mennonite Meetinghouse. From 1889 to 1892 the congregation shared a building with the Old Order Mennonites who retain the Conestoga Mennonite Meetinghouse name. In 1915 the congregation moved into the town of St. Jacobs and changed its name to St. Jacobs Mennonite Church. The congregation transitioned from German to English in the 1910s. The congregation has been affiliated with the Mennonite Conference of Ontario (1844-1988), Mennonite Church (1898-), Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (1988-) and Mennonite Church Canada (1995-).

Custodial history: The St. Jacobs congregation has made periodic donations to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario.

Scope and content: There are five series: Formal records, Informal records, Books, Church bulletins and Newsletters.

Notes: See also the Worship Services listing in Sound Recordings for St. Jacobs-related services.
Photographs relating to the congregation can be located using the Archives Mennonite Archival Image Database.
For further information see: Magdalena Feick, I will build my church: Conestogo/St. Jacobs Mennonite Church, 1844-1986 (St. Jacobs : The Church, 1986).
Pastoral leaders are listed in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO).
The original archival description was created January 2001 by Sam Steiner.

File list:

Series 1: Formal records

Annual reports (includes minutes of previous year's annual meeting and financial statements)
1934-2007 (frequently no minutes/reports except financial until mid-1950s)
2008-2021
See Series 1, #3 for congregational meeting minute book through 1947

1a. Marriage registers
1937-1960
1961-1980
Church Board/Church Council minutes
1946-1972
1974-2016
Annual meeting minutes, financial records
1933-1947
Pastoral Committee minutes
1971-1994
Trustee board minutes, records
1944-1981 (loose files)
1948-1970 (minute book)
Membership certificate stubs,
1932-1972 (missing 1945-1948)
Stewardship Committee/Mission and Stewardship Committee/Stewardship & Finance Committee
1954-1966
1966-1972
1972-1989
1990-2016 (Includes some subcommittee minutes)
Church Treasurer's Cash books,
1933-1944
1945-1949
Sunday School Executive/Christian Education Committee minutes
1946-1956
1956-1969
1976-1986
1986-2016 (incomplete)
Sunday school attendance records
1929-1952
1953-1982
1982-2005
Primary Sunday school treasurer's report
1930-1944
Young People's Bible Meeting minute book,
1916-1918
1932-1955 (Treasurer's report and yearly reorganization records)
Mennonite Youth Fellowship
Junior MYF minutes, 1961-63
MYF Council, 1981-1992 (includes older constitution)
Youth and Young Adult, 1987-1991, 1997-2014 (incomplete)
Building Committee minutes,
1949-1950
Ad hoc committee on Sunday School facilities, 1969
1975-1977
1988-1990
2007-2015
Midweek Fellowship Committee
1956-1962 (Adult)
1956-1964 (Youth)
Women's Charity Circle/St. Jacobs WMSA (merged with Twilight in 1984)
Attendance (1943-1954 & Minutes, 1951-54)
1953-1956
1954-1958
1958-1963
1962-1965
1965-1967
1967-1969
1969-1970
1970-1975
1975-1983
1980-1999 (Executive)
1984-1999
2000-2012 (incomplete)
Special events folder
Women's Charity Circle,
Roll, reports, 1920-1930
1920-1941
1932-1941 (Treasurer's records)
1943-1947 (Secretary's reports)
1945-1948 (Treasurer's records)
1942-2004 (Account books)
1942/43, 1955-1975 (printed reports)
Sunbeam Sewing Circle,
Minutes, 1934-1947
1947-1957
1957-1965
1967-1971
Roll, 1955-1965
Roll, 1957-1961 (Jr. Circle)
1934-1965 (Treasurer's book)
Twilight WMSA
Minutes, roll, 1971-1984
Mission and Service Committee
1971-1983
(Part of Stewardship Committee, 1983-1990)
1990-1997
2002-2016
Worship Committee
1981-2016
Personnel Committee minutes
1950/51-1998/99 (Until 1970s there are only lists of elected persons)
Men's Fellowship/Adult Fellowship
Minutes, 1964/65-1984/1985
Minutes, 1985/86-1996
Finances, 1952-1996/97
2004
Sunday Evening Program Committee
Minutes, 1975/76-1988
Life Together Committee,
1992-2001
Meetingplace/Visitor Centre Committee
1979-2007
Student Aid Committee,
1983-1995
Lao-English Coordinating Committee
1988, 1993-1997, 2001-2007 (Incomplete)
Family/Small/Triad groups
1973/74-1996 (Incomplete)
Long Range Planning Committee
1985-1996
Summer Bible School records
1938-1950
1951-1959
1960-1962, 1969
1970-1990
Time Out for Moms
1980-1982
Cradle Roll,
1954, 1960-1988
Congregational Committee Structures
1971-2002
Cemetery Board
1947-2002
St. Jacobs Chorus
1961
Church directories
1985, 1989, 1994, 1997, 1999-2000, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2017
Mennonite Aid Union assessments for Church & Parsonage,
1976, 1988
Legal Documents
Memorial to Deed of Bargain & Sale, John Brubacher to John S. Brubacher, etc., trustees, 22 March 1845 (photocopy)
Indenture, Bargain & Sale, John Brubacher to John S. Brubacher, etc. 22 March 1845 (photocopy)
Memorial of Indenture of Bargain & Sale, John Brubacher to trustees of Mennonite Church and school section, 22 April 1861 (photocopy)
Deed of Land, Samuel Good, et. al to Trustees St. Jacobs Congregation of Mennonite Church, 13 January 1916 (photocopy)
Deed of Land, Jonathan L. Martin et ux to Harry Fisher, 29 January 1938 (photocopy)
Deed of Land, Noah S. Hunsberger, et. ux. to St. Jacobs Mennonite Church, 12 May 1947 (photocopy)
Deed of Land, Harry Fisher to Trustees of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church, 1 April 1952 (photocopy)
Option Agreement, Luida Horst and Trustees of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church, 9 June 1971 (photocopy)
By-Law to Provide for Drainage and attachments, 1953
Lovina Weber estate, documents related to bequest, 1939-1970
Susanna Eby estate, letter related to bequest, 1955
Lydia H. Weber estate, statement of bequest, 1957
Willard M. Shantz estatement, letter related to bequest, 1963
Lizzie Weaver estate, letter related to bequest, 1970
Susannah Martin estate, 1977
Arthur Claude Brubacher estate, 1992
Leadership Team
1999-2007
Gifts Discernment Committee
1999-2010 (incomplete)
Pastoral Care Ministry/Elders
1999-2007
Fellowship Ministry
1999-2011 (incomplete)
Pastoral Search
2000-2004
Discernment Committee
2003-2006
Community Formation
2005, 2008-2016
SJMC Seniors
2006
Website Committee
2003
After School Program
2005-2007
Life in Faithful Evangelism
1991-1992
Refugee Fund, 1979-1984

Series 2: Informal records

Congregational historian's package assembled by Enoch B. Martin, 1977
- Summary of events, 1844-1976; summary of ministers, 1845-1977; photocopies of deeds, etc.
- photocopies of photographs of leaders, etc.
- dedication programs, 1915-1988; various other programs
- St. Jacobs Mennonite Church family records, July 1958
- membership records, 1977
- historical commentaries by Almeda Martin, Simeon E. Martin, Ben Sauder
- summary of membership chart, 1915-1980; wedding anniversaries; census, 1971
Birth, marriage records, 1977, 1979
Census of members, former members, 1971
Membership, 1978
Summary of Membership changes year by year, 1950-1983
Congregational historian's package about Sunday school assembled by Enoch B. Martin
- Teacher training course led by Roy Koch, 1956
- Lists of Sunday school teachers
- Financial statements, 1944-1963
- Constitutions
Young People's Bible Meeting Programs (& photo)
1913-1957
Junior/Intermediate Bible meetings, 1952-1955
Photo of founding group, 1911
Misc. programs, 1911-
Includes some "ecumenical" programs, e.g. Sunday school workers conferences at other Protestant churches in the area.
Misc. correspondence
Abner Good sermon, 23 Sept. 1973 (addressing issue of divorce & remarriage)
Lao Christian Fellowship history, 1991
Photograph reproductions
Emergency Sabbath Day materials, 1991-1992 (Gulf War)
Historical celebrations
Sesquicentennial, 1994
75th anniversary & building dedication, 1990
Richard Yordy retirement, 1989
50th anniversary, Roy Koch ordination, 1986
Speech from celebration of church members age 80 and over, 25 April 1993.
100th anniversary, 2015
Historical notebooks, papers, etc.
Ben Sauder notes, 1950-1956, 1960
"A history of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church" by David Brubacher, 1978
"The ministry of Richard Yordy at St. Jacobs," by Nevin Bauman, 1990
Magdalena Feick, I will build my church (St. Jacobs, Ont. : The Church, 1986)
"A tribute to Moses M. Brubacher" by Harold Brubacher, n.d.
"Reminiscing on the Goodness of God," by Roy Koch, 1978
"Roy S. (Swartz) Koch," by Elmer Sauder, 13 Aug 2010 (filed with above)
"The Forgotten Many," by Andrew Scheifele, 1992?
"St. Jacob's Mennonite Church,"by Lloyd Wiseman, 1959 (Written by a Lutheran Seminary student)
Membership correspondence (Transfers, etc.)
1953-1975
Misc. newsclippings
Pastor review summaries, 1993, 2001
Building drawings
1936
1949
1976
1990
Correspondece with Raymond Kramer, 1958-1961 (Invitation to serve at St. Jacobs, etc.)
Correspondence of Walter Brubacher (deacon), 1957-1960
Scope and content: Includes correspondence with St. Jacobs pastors, pastoral search correspondence, a statement of reconcilliation between two church members, and letters re the founding of the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario.
Epistle to the Hebrews : Adult study course : St. Jacobs Mennonite Church : Prayer meeting / Raymond L. Kramer
Family records, Jan 1980
Note: Includes lists of members and affiliates, births, marriages, and obituary listings