| Rainham Settlement
|
 | Peter Hoover, ca 1865
An early tintype taken in Canada during the time of the Civil War, in the USA. |
 | History of the Patriarchs
After Bishop Benjamin Eby's work in the Grand River Valley, Mennonite parents gave all of their teenagers a bilingual copy of the History of the Patriarchs (Peter Hoover's copy, printed, oddly, without a date, in America in the mid-1800s). This, along with a bilingual New Testament, Benjamin Eby's Kirchen-Geschichte and the Anrede an die Jugend by Christian Burkholder. These writings are still treasured by many serious Anabaptists (the ones who get around with horses and buggies) today. |
 | Hoover Barn Raising
Looking forward to raising his family at this farm, Menno Hoover helped his father, Peter, and all the neighbours who met to raise the structure in one exciting day. They day of the barn raising, ca 1910. |
 | Rainham Township Map, 1879
Peter Hoover Farm visible between the Mennonite Meetinghouse, the S.S.#2 Rainham School. |
 | Rainham Mennonite Meetinghouse
In 1870 Peter and Maria Hoover donated a plot of land, out of their sugar bush, to the Mennonite congregation. Here they built a new meetinghouse, still standing and used by the Rainham Mennonite Church. In 1889 concerned families, including Peter and Maria, withdrew from this congregation to set up a more old-style Anabaptist fellowship. |
 | Benjamin Eby's Hymnal, 1892
During the Victorian Age and up to the first World War most Mennonites in Canada sung and preached in German. This book belonged to Peter Hoover who served as a song leader in the worship meetings. |
 | Martyrs Mirror, Elkhart, Indiana, 1886
Published by John F. Funk, in Indiana, the Martyrs Mirror appeared in Canada after 1886. Peter and Maria Hoover bought one, hoping it might be of interest and blessing to his children and grandchildren. The book lies here in the Rocky Cape Community, in Australia. |
 | Peter House along the German Sideroad
Peter and Maria Hoover built this new house in 1895. Timber came from their own sugar bush and young men helped to bring the bricks from Jarvis in the winter, hauling them with horses and sleighs. |
 | Hoover Farm in Recent Years
The Arthur and Vernice Hoover families lived in what used to be Peter and Menno Hoovers' place of the German Sideroad. But a family from the Netherlands, by the name of Kater, has also lived here now for two generations. |
 | Looking South to the Lake
Planting the crops, cutting hay, and pitching stooks never seemed to onerous on a hot day, as long as the boys could slip down to the lake, in the evening to wash off the dust and grime. Menno Hoover, after he left this farm, always missed the beauty of Lake Erie next door. |
 | Rainham Mennonite Meetinghouse, 2005
Justin and Julian Hoover trying the door of the Rainham Meetinghouse in the summer of 2005. A small congregation still meets at this place, associated with the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada. The Reformed Mennonite (Herrite) congregation closed in 1967, and the Old Order Mennonite Congregation, also meeting in this building, closed a year earlier, in 1966. |
Rainham Builders
1844 - 1933 (89 years)
, d. 23 Jan 1898 (Age 82 years)