Our History

When the Aberdeen-Springfield irrigation tract was opened to settlers in 1905, canal builders and land promoters invited German speaking Mennonite farmers to come to Idaho to help settle the area.  Mennonite settlers came from various places in America.  They came mainly to farm but as they established their farms, they also helped build the canals; they built homes, organized a church, conducted schools, started businesses, founded a hospital in American Falls and began the Aberdeen community.

At first some of the settlers lived in tents, and the first Sunday School in Aberdeen met in a tent on the first Sunday in October in 1906.

The Mennonite congregation organized on July 4, 1907, under the leadership of Rev. Jacob Hege.  Their first building, the west part of the present structure was built in 1910. The east edition was completed in 1938.

Menno Simons, 1496 -1561, a Dutch pastor and church leader gave the confession of faith that remains to this day.  "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:11)

 

Text by Eldon Harder (1922-2012)