July 12, 2010 issue
Memorial honors Iowa pioneers
By Duane KruseDONNELLSON, Iowa — On what is now a grassy clearing in a cornfield once stood the first Mennonite church west of the Mississippi River.
About 60 people dedicated a memorial June 13 at the former site of West Point Busch Mennonite Church and Cemetery.
A memorial stone names the people who were buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery.
“Our presence here today and the work that restored this place are acts of not forgetting the lives of these people,” said Frank Yoder, president emeritus of the Iowa Mennonite Historical Society in Kalona.
Not much is known about those who are buried in the cemetery. Mennonites began coming to Lee County from Germany in 1839 and had to overcome many obstacles, he said. They immigrated because they wanted a better life after seeing European wars destroy Mennonite and Amish farms and communities. “They were just ordinary people trying to better themselves,” Yoder said.
A decade after Mennonites came to the area, they built a small log church in the woods. The building was abandoned as more settlers came and built a new church in 1863.
Pastor Audrey Ratzlaff from Zion Mennonite Church read the story of Pentecost and reflected on its history in area churches. In the mid-1840s, Johannes Mueller came to serve as pastor, but was murdered, and so the Pentecost festival never took place. Several years later another minister arrived just in time to celebrate Pentecost.
Volunteer work and donations from business owners and Zion Mennonite Church members made the memorial possible.
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