Voyage of the Kennels.

     John Kennel, with his wife, who was before her marriage Magdalena Naffziger, and their three sons and three daughters, started for America from their home in Kircheimbolanden, Reinbries, Bayern, Europe, in October, 1830.
     They moved in a covered wagon through France to the harbor, expecting to take a ship to New Orleans and from there up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati. But when they reached the harbor the ship had gone, and they would have been obliged to wait five or six weeks before another sailed.  They then took a ship for New York, and after a voyage of seventy-six days they landed in New York.
     They bought horses, took their wagon from the ship and started overland for Ohio.  When they reached Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, a great snow fell, and by the time they reached Lancaster City they could go no further, as three feet of snow had fallen.  Here the city officials opened the Court House to give them shelter.  There were thirty in the party, all from the old country, the Kennel family of eight, Smith, Unzicker families and others. A settlement of Mennonites near the city heard of the party of Mennonites who were snowbound in the city and came out with three sleds and took them to their settlement, where they stayed until spring.  They then sailed down the Ohio to Cincinnati, reaching there in April, 1831, then by wagon to Butler county, where Rev. Peter Naffziger, a brother of Mrs. Kennel, lived.
From record of the Kennel Family, by Miss Johanna Kennel

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Voyage of the Iutzis and Others

     May 16, 1832, Christian Iutzi and his family, with other relatives and friends, about one hundred in all, mostly Mennonites, sailed from Bremen on the Wiser in a sail boat, a two-masted brig, which they had chartered to take them to America. 
     They landed at Baltimore, Maryland, July 31, 1832, where Christian Iutzi and his brother Michael rented a house, in which they lived two weeks.  August 10 the party started overland with wagons for Wheeling, West Virginia, through Chambersburg and Somserset, arriving there August 25.  Here they loaded everything on a boat and went on the Ohio river to Cincinnati, arriving there on August 31, 1832. 
     At Cincinnati they re-loaded their goods on a canal boat and landed at Hamilton, Ohio, on September 3.  Here Christian Iutzi and family and the Holly families lived over winter.  The party then sent Christian Iutzi and Peter Holly on an inspection tour for land to Illinois, where they went by horseback and wagon.  On their return they decided to buy in Butler county. Christian Iutzi then purchased one hundred and ninety-five acres of land in Madison township, near the Miami river, for twenty-five dollars an acre.  From the Iutzi Family Record, by Miss Johanna Kennel

Selecting Ministers by Drawing Lots

     The custom of selecting ministers by lot in the Mennonite Church dates from the days of the Reformation, when, because of persecutions, they were obliged to hold their meetings in secret, it was very essential that their ministers were not known outside of their circle.   This gave rise to the following of customs of the early Christian era.

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     Until about fifty years ago it was the universal custom among the Mennonite churches of America to select their ministers in this way.  They were largely a rural people and were not much in sympathy with education.  Since they were equals in educational advantages, and their interests and tastes were in one and the same direction it was entirely satisfactory.  As times changed and education was encouraged, some branches have almost entirely discarded this method, while other conservative branches of the church still adhere to this method.  Every member of the church is expected to be studious and pious, acquainting himself with the word of God.  He is to acquire knowledge by reading, by prayer, by faith and by listening to the teachings of the word as it is expounded by the ministers.  And in this way all are preparing for a call to the ministry which may come at any time.  When a minister is to be selected it is made known and a day is announced when the congregation assembles to make nominations.  After a sermon appropriate to the occasion, nominations are made, after which another day is set for the drawing of lots.  In the meantime the members are expected to pray that the spirit of the Lord may come upon him on whom the lot may fall.  On the day set the congregation again assembles and the candidates take their seats together, while one or more sermons are preached, after which a Bible for each candidate is placed on a table before them, one of these containing a slip of paper.  Then each candidate advances and takes a Bible and returns to his seat, after which the Bishop examines the Bibles until the slip of paper is found. The others then return to their

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places in the congregation and the ordination at once takes place.  In some congregations votes are cast instead, and this method was followed by the Hessian congregation.

COST OF BUILDING
APOSTOLIC MENNONITE CHURCH.

COST OF BUILDING PARSONAGE