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Learn about Mennonites

by jmaloni
Thu, Sep 8th 2011 01:15 pm

"Mennonites" will be the topic of C. Douglas Kohler when he speaks to the Historical Society of North German Settlements in WNY at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at the Wheatfield Community Center on Church Road.

Kohler, vice president of the Clarence Historical Society, is interested in Mennonites because he comes from that stock himself. He became even more interested when he started to write a history of the Town of Clarence, where many of the Mennonites settled in the 1830s. This migration to new lands included the Mennonites who farmed in Walmore, some of whom sold their holdings to the North Germans who arrived beginning in 1843.

The architecture of the Mennonites was distinctive, he claims, and can be recognized in many places besides Pennsylvania, the American home of the Western New York Mennonites. Some still live in Clarence.

Kohler is Erie County historian and a teacher of seventh-grade American history at Clarence Middle School. He is also adjunct professor of American history at Niagara University.

Guests are welcome at the meeting. A social hour with light refreshments will follow the program. For more, call 731-9905.

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