Rainham Builders
The Rainham Settlement
Portraits, places and events of the Anabaptist community of Rainham Township, Ontario.Matches 1 to 26 of 26 » Thumbnails Only » Slide Show
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| 1 | | A Late Fall Storm at Lake Erie, Rainham Township, ca 1998 Anson Hoover stands on the rocks along Lake Erie, not far from where his Hoover ancestors lie buried in the Rainham Mennonite Cemetery along the Lake. | |
| 2 |  | Anson and Sarah Hoover Photo taken by Victor Eicker, on the occasion of their daughter Velina's wedding, in 1989. | |
| 3 |  | 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. | |
| 4 |  | 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. | |
| 5 |  | 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. | |
| 6 |  | 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. | |
| 7 |  | Jacob and Elizabeth Hoover's House, 1999 The old house still visible, although modified. Mary Dawson's desk behind the sun porch windows. The little girl enjoying the abundant pears is Stefania Hoover, daughter of Peter and Susan, just before she moved to southern Chile, in South America. | |
| 8 |  | Jacob and Elizabeth Hoover's place in 2014 A picture from Google Street View. You may see part of what was Art and Mary Dawson's house on the right, but the old house is gone and a new one stands above the Lake. | |
| 9 |  | Jacob and Elizabeth Hoover's Place, Lakeshore Road Built in 1823, evidently by David and Elizabeth (Stoner) Hoover, possibly as a "Daadihaus" (retirement house) this small place stood next to Lake Erie for over 180 years. Jacob and Elizabeth (Brick) Hoover lived in this place in their declining years. During the late 1900s Art and Mary (Hoover) Dawson lived in this place, and many valuable records were stashed in Mary's front sun porch. | |
| 10 |  | Jacob Hoover Grave Marker Buried in the Rainham Mennonite Cemetery along Lake Erie, Jacob's simple marker states: JACOB HOOVER died February 6, 1810 In the 67th year of his age Not much to say on this side of eternity. But what a joy to look forward to meeting Jacob "in new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will dwell!" | |
| 11 |  | Jacob Hoover's Letter to a Local Judge Obviously Jacob Hoover, who wrote and spoke German fluently, worked with a scribe, somewhere, to write up this letter for the local Court at Cayuga, Ontario. His Christian conviction, speaking for the Rainham Mennonite Congregation, stands squarely on Early Christian and Anabaptist belief. | |
| 12 |  | Jacob Hoover's Letter to Bishop Thielmann Meier (Dilman Moyer), 1862 In the mid-1800s Mennonite families of the Niagara District -- the Rainham congregation includes -- suffered a sharp identity crisis. All around them Protestants experienced glorious revivals and the mission emphasis took young men and women from Canada-West (now southern Ontario) to foreign fields far and wide. Many young Mennonites felt restless. In the Moyer congregation at Vineland Bishop Jacob Gross and minister Daniel Hoch led numerous families into "born again" fellowships where prayer and camp meetings attracted crowds from all denominations. Both Thielmann Meier and Jacob Hoover of Rainham shared deep concern and common distress on what was happening. What good can come out of confusion? Out of worldliness, or careless living? What happens when humility, nonconformity and obedience give way to religious emotionalism? Jacob Hoover prayed much (see his obituary below), and not without reason. Of his eleven children, only three "stayed plain" (Daniel, Peter and Lydia). And the rest of them, inspired by the great revivals, all found their way into main-stream Canadian society. Jacob wrote this letter in German, but it was later translated to English by Peter Boschart, an Amish-Mennonite brother from Milverton, Ontario, for the Rainham Mennonite Minister, A. Lewis Fretz. | |
| 13 |  | 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. | |
| 14 |  | 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. | |
| 15 |  | Menno and Leah Hoover's Farm Rainham, Township. Photo taken in 1999 with Justin, Stanley and Stefania Hoover, visitors from Pennsylvania. | |
| 16 |  | 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. | |
| 17 |  | 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. | |
| 18 |  | Peter Hoover 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. | |
| 19 |  | Peter Hoover, ca 1865 An early tintype taken in Canada during the time of the Civil War, in the USA. | |
| 20 |  | 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. | |
| 21 |  | 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. | |
| 22 |  | 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. | |
| 23 |  | Rainham Township Map, 1879 Peter Hoover Farm visible between the Mennonite Meetinghouse, the S.S.#2 Rainham School. | |
| 24 | | Rainham Township Map, 1879 Peter Hoover Farm visible between the Mennonite Meetinghouse, the S.S.#2 Rainham School. | |
| 25 |  | 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. | |
| 26 |  | The Rhodes Farm at Oakville, Cumberland County, PA The farm of Jacob and Barbara Rhodes, marked with a red dot on the left, in Hopewell Township, eventually also became the home of Joseph and Ellen Rhodes. A meetinghouse stood at this site, and a family cemetery. But a larger meetinghouse was erected in 1859 in the village of Oakville, the site of today's Oakville United Methodist church-house. Hopewell Township appears on the upper left of this map. Newton Townshp on the right, and Southampton on the lower left, of Cumberland County, PA. -- From H. G. Bridgens' 1858 Map of Cumberland County, PA. |