Accession 2011.029, 2012.036, 2014.009, 2016.025 (all filed with 2011.029)
Title and Description
Mount View Mennonite Church Cemetery collection. — [ca. 2011-ca. 2016]. — 0.5 cm of textual records.
Administrative/Biographical History
The Mount View Mennonite Church, near High River/Okotoks, Alberta, was organized on 30 April 1901. It was the first Mennonite church organized in Alberta under the auspices of the Ontario Mennonite Church, followed two weeks later by the organization of the West Zion Mennonite Church near Carstairs, Alberta. These two churches became founding members of what became the Northwest Mennonite Conference. A cemetery was located near the meeting house of the Mount View Mennonite Church. The congregation was never large and members of the congregation lived over a widely scattered area in and around High River and Okotoks. In the early 1950s some members moved away, some joined other nearby churches or lost interest, and a decision was made to close the church. The meeting house was converted into a private dwelling and eventually Trinity Mennonite Church on the southern edge of Calgary accepted responsibility, together with the residents of the converted former meeting house, for the care and preservation of the cemetery.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of a list of burials, a map of the cemetery, and photocopied excerpts from local history books on the Mennonite families of the High River/Okotoks district. Larry D. Spicer, a descendant of Silas and Lucinda (Weber) Good who donated the land on which the meeting house and cemetery stand, compiled a list and map of burials and provided some explanatory comments. Bill Janzen, a member of Trinity Mennonite Church, provided a second copy of the list of burials and added some additional comments. Additional information, some based on documentation from the library of the Museum of the Highwood, was provided by Jim Bowman, collector and MHSA archivist.
Source of Acquisition
Gifts of Larry D. Spicer, Bill Janzen and Jim Bowman, 2011-2016.
Related material:
T. D. Regehr, Faith, Life and Witness in the Northwest, 1903-2003, Centennial History of the Northwest Mennonite Conference, (Kitchener, On: Pandora Press, 2003.
Notes:
Accessions 2011.029, 2012.036, 2014.009, 2016.025 (all filed with 2011.029).