Mt. Clinton Mennonite Church

Emanuel Suter was one of the founders of Mt. Clinton Mennonite church in 1874. Located near Muddy Creek, northwest of Harrisonburg and not far from older Middle District churches, Weavers, Bank, and Pike, the Mount Clinton area had enough Mennonite families to build a new wood-frame meetinghouse, 30 feet wide and 40 feet long. Minister Joseph N. Driver conveyed land for the new wood-frame meetinghouse.

In the late 1800s, worship services were held at Mount Clinton on the first Sunday of each month, then rotated among the other Middle District churches for the rest of the month. Sunday school, at first resisted, began at Mount Clinton in 1893. The first Mennonite bishops at Mount Clinton were Samuel Coffman and Lewis J. Heatwole. Bishop Heatwole convened a meeting on February 12, 1916, at which they agreed to build a new brick church. At the meeting, they debated which side of the road to build the church, since the wood-frame building stood on the south side. When land was offered on the north side, it settled the issue of where to build.

Elias Brunk was the first of six deacons at Mount Clinton, ordained by lot in 1891. The last deacon ordained, Richard Good in 1972, was not ordained by lot. The Middle District ordained two deaconesses, Mary Blosser and Nettie Pearl Suter, for service at Mount Clinton. The Virginia Conference scheduled ministers to speak at Mount Clinton through a preaching calendar. From 1912 to 1963, deacons made the calendars and assigned speakers. Usually, the people at Mount Clinton did not know who would preach before the service began. Deacons and ministers such as Elias Brunk, Henry Blosser, M.T. Brackbill, and John W. Shank helped make the calendars.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Mount Clinton met twice a month on the first and third Sunday. In 1944, Rhine W. Benner preached twice a month at Mount Clinton. In 1958, Chester K. Lehman preached almost every Sunday, showing that Mennonite churches were increasingly assigned one or two pastors. In 1963, the last neatly typed Middle District preaching calendar shows C. K. Lehman preaching almost every Sunday.

Home-based churches like Mount Clinton, Weavers, Pike, and Bank began new churches in the early twentieth century and sent missionaries to distant locations. They began Zion Hill and Rawley Springs in Virginia, and Brushy Run in West Virginia. To promote mission in West Virginia, the Home Mission Board of the Middle District Churches operated from 1892 until 1962, overlapping most of those years with VMBM.

Mount Clinton celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1974. Mary Suter supplied information for the congregation’s centennial. Membership in 1974 was 106. Mary Suter’s pastors were C.K. Lehman and Samuel E. Miller. On the centennial day, Dr. Daniel B. Suter preached. Daniel, a fourth-generation descendant of Mount Clinton founders Emanuel and Elizabeth Suter, worked as a biology professor at EMC. EMC Professors Harry A. Brunk and Chester K. Lehman spoke about the church’s history, and Pastor Samuel Miller, an EMC Spanish teacher, preached “A Challenge for the Future.”

Following Samuel E. Miller, pastors who have served at Mount Clinton include Wilmer Lehman (1977-1984), Richard Bartholomew and Kenneth Seitz Sr., Interim (1984-1985), Paul Kratz (1985-1997), Wayne North, Interim (1997-1999), Lee Martin (2000-2017), Kara Yoder (2014-2016), Lonnie Yoder, Interim (2017-2018), and Jim Hershberger (2019- ). District Ministers have included Paul Kratz, Richard Bowman, Robert G. Wenger, and James Akerson.

A fire destroyed the red brick meetinghouse at Mount Clinton in April 1989. Pastor Paul Kratz and the congregation had to rebuild. From Mount Clinton, Roland Weaver led and coordinated the MCC beef canning operation in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1970s and 1980s.

On January 2, 2000, Lee Martin became the full-time pastor at Mount Clinton and served for seventeen years. Jim Hershberger became pastor of Mount Clinton Mennonite Church in 2019. In 2026, Mount Clinton joined the Blue Ridge District of LMC.

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