Rainham Builders
Menno Hoover
1889 - 1982 (93 years)-
Name Menno Hoover [1] Born 8 Jul 1889 Rainham Twp 
Gender Male Died 16 Aug 1982 Hawkesville, ON Buried Orthodox Mennonite Cemetery, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo County, OH Person ID I320490 Jacob and Barbara (Schenk) Hoover Last Modified 18 Feb 2020
Father Peter Hoover, b. 22 Jan 1844, d. 4 Aug 1933 (Age 89 years) Mother Mariah Wideman, b. 24 Sep 1852, Markham Township, Ontario , d. 15 Jun 1924 (Age 71 years) Married 24 Oct 1871 Family ID F0421 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Leah W. Martin, b. 30 Apr 1895, Wallenstein, Wellesley Twp., ON , bur. Orthodox Mennonite Cemetery, Wellesley Twp., ON Children 1. Martin M. Hoover, b. 5 Nov 1916, Rainham Township, Ontario , d. 6 Aug 2000, Wallenstein,Ontario-David Martin Mennonite Cemetery, St. Jacobs, Ontario (Age 83 years)2. Edna M. Hoover, b. 15 Aug 1918, Rainham Township, Ontario , d. 27 Nov 2013, Wallenstein, Ontario-Centre Woolwich Mennonite Meeting House (Age 95 years)3. Anson Hoover, b. 11 Jun 1920, Hawkesville, Waterloo County, ON , d. 13 Oct 2008, Stratford, ON (Age 88 years)4. N.M. Hoover 5. R.M. Hoover 6. Abraham M. Hoover, b. 3 Feb 1926, d. 22 Oct 1970 (Age 44 years) 7. Mary M. Hoover, b. 6 Dec 1927, Hawkesville, Ontario , d. 19 Jun 1996 (Age 68 years)8. Amos M. Hoover, b. 2 Jan 1930, Hawkesville, Ontario , d. 7 Nov 1985, -Johns Martins Cemetery, Waterloo, Ontario (Age 55 years)9. Salome Hoover, b. 9 Jan 1932, Hawkesville, Ontario , d. 1 May 2007, Kitchener, Ontario-Martins Cemetery, Waterloo, Ontario (Age 75 years)10. Veronica Hoover, b. 7 Feb 1935, Hawkesville, Ontario , d. 9 Feb 1935, -Wellesley Mennonit Cemetery, Waterloo, Ontario (Age 0 years)11. T. Hoover 12. S. Hoover Last Modified 7 May 2017 Family ID F9326 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Rainham Settlement 
Menno Hoover ca 1905
Youngest of the family of Peter and Maria Hoover, Menno eventually married and inherited the home place alongside the Rainham Mennonite Meetinghouse. He was a poet, wrote well, and greatly enjoyed his vast amount of friends of all creeds and culture.
S.S.#2 Rainham
Menno Hoover not only attended school here, he also wrote about it in his characteristically vivid style. Local families knew this place as the "Bush School". Built in 1864 it served a many rural families, a good number of them Mennonites, until 1961. Nothing remains of this building and children now travel, on the bus, to Fisherville.
Rainham Mennonite Meetinghouse, ca 1890
Menno Hoover attended meetings, both among the Old Order members and among the English-speaking Ontario Conference congregation. When Nathaniel Bergey, a young Mennonite evangelist of the Bethel Mennonite congregation in Kent County, Ontario, came to conduct a week of revivals, Menno was deeply stirred, convicted to follow Christ, and he would have loved to join this movement. But, in respect to his parents, and the lingering doubts he continued to have, regarding the worldliness amongst the "born again", he thought the better of it, and chose another much more conservative way.
Menno and Leah Hoover's Farm
Rainham, Township. Photo taken in 1999 with Justin, Stanley and Stefania Hoover, visitors from Pennsylvania.
Conestoga Valley 
Hoover Farm at Hawkesville
In March 1919 Menno and Leah Hoover moved to a new farm near Hawkesville, in the Conestoga River valley of Ontario. Here they became part of new Wellesley Mennonite congregation, led by Daniel Brubacher, Enoch Horst and David W. Martin. Later Menno became instrumental in founding the Orthodox Mennonite Church.
Menno and Leah Hoover's Places around the Conestoga River
When the Hoovers settled near Hawkesville, in 1919, they bought a farm northwest of Hawkesville, Number 1 in this map.
1. Menno and Leah raised their children in this farm, later passed on to their daughter Mary and her husband Isaac Bauman.
2. For a while Menno and Leah lived in this farm, but they also passed it on to their son Amos and his wife Rebecca (Martin) Hoover.
3. Menno and Leah lived with their daughter Rebecca with her husband Daniel Bauman for while.
4. Menno bought this farm and divided it between his sons. A large part of it he planted in timber.
5. Near Crosshill Menno bought a beautiful sugar bush. Later he sold it to an Old Order Mennonite man, Elam Burkhart.
6. For some time Menno and Leah owned the historic Crystal Spring Farm along the Conestoga River, east of Hawkesville. This is where John W. Martin set up and owned a woollen mill. The building, with its dams and mill race still stood until recent years. Menno and Leah sold this place to deacon Samuel and Hannah (Martin) Horst.
7. Menno and Leah reserved one part of their property near Hawkesville. Here they built up a new farm, with new buildings. Their son Tilman with his wife Maryanne (Bowman) Hoover started farming here, while Menno built a cosy retirement home (a "Daadihaus"), where their daughter Saloma lived as well.
Menno and Leah are both buried in the Orthodox Mennonite Cemetery nearby (visible on this map).
Menno Hoover's Autobiography
Unlike most other Anabaptists of his time, Menno Hoover wrote his story in vivid detail. He kept on writing, with a beautiful Victorian hand, even after he lost his sight in his latter years (he died in his 94'th year). Thanks to a vision granted to him by the Lord in 1918, Menno chose to walk on the narrow way, leaving his beloved home in Rainham Township behind, in order to find a more serious and godly fellowship among the nonconformed Anabaptists of the Grand River Valley. For this, we (his descendants) are still deeply grateful.
Menno and Leah's "Daadihaus"
After passing their farm at Hawkesville to their daughter Mary and her husband Isaac Bauman, Menno and Leah established a smaller farm just out of Hawkesville. Their youngest son, Tilman, farmed here and Menno and Leah lived for many years in this small house (in the foreground), with their daughter Saloma. Menno had a great interest in planting trees, taking care of a woodlot, and cutting timber from carefully selected trees. He bought two farms, one two miles to the northwest (north of the Redhill School), and one near Crosshill, a beautiful sugar bush. From local authorities he obtained permission to plant a shelter belt along what is now Herrgott Road between Hawkesville and Wallenstein, Ontario.
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Notes - Menno Hoover, a born poet, found it easy to write how he felt. Unfortunately not much of his work remains, and, as it often goes with genuine artists, he was not always well understood in his own time. This he describes in a poem:
My Inferiority Complex
I feel myself inferior compared to other men
I'll go up to Lake Superior and curl up in my den.
For years now I've been striving to make a thousand bucks,
While other men go driving cars and motor trucks.
They pass me in the morning as I walk to where I work
A cigar their face adorning they pull up with a jerk,
Climb in old neighbour, and rest your weary bones!
You must be getting tired from walking on the stones.
I hear their money rattle in their fancy Sunday pants
While I am feeding cattle for my uncles and my aunts.
They dress their daughters up in togs that make a queen look cheap
While the gowns mine wear when feeding hogs would make a bull-dog weep.
They send their children off to school in the most expensive furs
While mine are dressed in homespun wool, their stockings full of burs.
So when my children all move on and I am left alone
And I have once more mowed the lawn, then I'll call them up by phone,
I'm going up to Lake Superior, I don't want to cause offence
It's because I feel inferior as compared to other gents!?
- Menno Hoover, a born poet, found it easy to write how he felt. Unfortunately not much of his work remains, and, as it often goes with genuine artists, he was not always well understood in his own time. This he describes in a poem:
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Sources