IV. The first Mennonites came to the United States in 1683, influenced doubtless by the sentiments which the society of Friends held in common with them, William Penn invited them to settle in his new province of Pennsylvania. Accepting the kind offer, 500 families within half a centur3. made there their homes. In 11'08 they built a school and church in GermantoWn. In the following year another colony settled in what is vow Lancaster county, and was strengthened by other families in several successive years, so• that in 1735, 500 families were found in that county alone. Afterwards their descend ants emigrated to various places in Maryland, Ohio, New York, Indiana, and Canada, At the present time, while they are most numerous in the states already mentioned, some. of them are found in nearly every part of the land. The results of the visit of the Rus ;sian delegation are very apparent in the arrival of large numbers of families who have bought lands on the prairies of the west and in the southern states; and they, probably, are the advance guard of all the Russian Mennonites. As they do not publish their sta tistics, accurate statements concerning their numbers cannot be made. They have a.
publishing house at Elkhart, Ind. Their bishops, ministers, and deacons are all chosen by lot and meet semi-annually in district conferences, Their pastors give their services. gratuitously. Their confession of faith was translated and published at Philadelphia in 1727. Besides the main body of the denomination there are in America: 1. The Reformed, or strict Mennonites, who in 1811 seceded from the rest and profess to maintain strictly the dieipline of .Simon Menno. 2. The New Mennonites organized in 1847 by about a dozen ministers of the old denomination. 3. The Evangelkal Mennonites, who. in 1856 seceded from the previous secession. 4. The Amislt Mennonites, who greatly resemble the Reformed, and aresometimes called Hookers, because theysubstitnte hooks for buttons on their clothes. They concern themselves but little in political matters, sometimes voting. at elections when school officers are to be chosen. They have no denominational schools or religious paper, but send their children to the public schools and depend for religious literature on the regular Mennonites. See ANABAPTISTS; MENNO; ante.