Saturday, September 8, 2018

On Sept. 8, 2018, a chartered bus will travel from Morgantown, Pa., to Baltimore Co., Md., to attend the annual meeting remembering the families who moved from Lancaster Co., Mifflin Co., and Berks Co., Pa. Clyde Nafzinger will serve as our guide in the Long Green area.

The first family to move was the Moses Millers in 1833, with others following until by about 1849, there were 13 Amish Mennonite families who settled here: Christian Hertzler, Isaac Hertzler, Jacob Hertzler, John Kennel, Preacher John Mast, Daniel Nafzinger, Peter Nafzinger, Christian Neuhauser, Aaron Smoker, John Smoker, Jacob Waltz, David Warfel, and Bishop Solomon Yoder (d. 1880). A frame meetinghouse was built and dedicated on Christmas Day of 1898. The first Sunday school was opened about 1895. In 1909, Preacher John M. Hartzler moved to Long Green. When the meetinghouse burned in 1915, the Hertzlers moved to Belleville, Pa., and other families moved away. The last surviving member died in 1953. The cemetery continues to be cared for by descendants.

For more information about this bus trip to Long Green, Maryland, contact Lois Ann Mast at lois@masthof.com or call 610-286-0258.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Long Green Mennonite Cemetery is what remains of the Mennonite families who lived in the heart of the Long Green Valley about 15 miles northeast of Baltimore, Md. Here they worshipped at the Long Green Amish Mennonite Church. “Long Green was a rich farming valley and land was cheap. More folks would have moved here had there been no slavery.”—David Luthy, The Amish in America: Settlements That Failed, 1840-1960 (Pathway Pub, 1986, p. 169).