HERSHEY’S MENNONITE CHURCH

(Bieseckers Road near Admire)

(Dover Township, PA)

The Mennonite Church was founded in the 1740’s by Hersheys, Roths, Brubakers, and other families from Lancaster County who organized as a congregation in 1753.  In the early years they met in their homes. 

It was not until May 10, 1825 that the first meetinghouse was erected, the land was donated by John Brubaker to John Lethra, Henry Sipe and Joseph Hershey, trustees of the Mennonite Congregation.  The first meeting house stood and was used for school purposes for some years and as a house of worship for seventy-one years when in September, 1896, it was damaged by storm and had to be rebuilt.  A stone meetinghouse 32 x 40 feet was built the following summer which was opened for public worship August 15, 1897.

One of the last services held in there church was the funeral of Wilson Harbold on September 6, 1939 as the building was beginning to deteriorate.  There was a window at the pulpit end of the building and quite a large portion of the wall had fallen out at the end.

The church building was repaired in August, 1948, and the rededication service was held on September 5, 1948.