Historians preserve and promote Valley Mennonite stories

The Shenandoah Valley Mennonite Historians (SVMH) is a group of persons interested in preserving and promoting the stories of the Mennonites of the Shenandoah Valley. This is our twenty-second year and we are looking forward to some great projects in the next years.

We are working with the Historical Committee of Virginia Mennonite Conference to write a history of Mennonites in Virginia. Together we have formed a committee chaired by Elwood Yoder to carry this project forward. Stephen Nolt, history professor and author at Goshen College will begin the project next year and hopes to finish the book by 2019. We will begin fundraising soon.

Paul J. Yoder and Holly Scott talk after the annual meeting of the Shenandoah Valley Mennonite Historians, Nov. 9, 2013, in Harrisonburg, Va. Photo courtesy of Elwood Yoder

We continue to publish our quarterly periodical The Shenandoah Mennonite Historian. Elwood Yoder is the new editor and has introduced a new color layout in the winter volume. In the future he will feature articles on the new digital archives he has created at mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net which provides opportunities to save your old photos using this technology. He will also feature new research on Abraham Burkholder and other leaders who lived through the civil war and served the church into the 1930s and 1940s.

We invite persons to contribute to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) project. This online encyclopedia uses local writers and photographers to create short bios and histories of significant persons and local churches. Send your articles to Paul Yoder and he will help you edit and upload to GAMEO. His email is [email protected].

We also invite you to join SVMH. The yearly cost is only $10. Contact Jim Rush at [email protected] for more information on how to join. To contribute photos or articles, contact Elwood Yoder at [email protected].