Crystal Springs Mennonite Church

The origin of the Crystal Springs Congregation takes one to central Kansas in western McPherson County.  The church was located sixteen miles north and four east of Hutchinson.  This location was just one mile south of the present site of the West Liberty Mennonite Church.

By the latter part of 1900 Jacob J. Zimmerman was the only remaining minister and the membership had dwindled to about twenty.  This and other factors led the Amish Mennonites to seek a new home.

Pioneer settlers had located in south central Kansas.  This area included Harper County.  About seven miles west of Harper, on the southern branch of the Santa Fe Railroad, was a small country-road town known as Crystal Springs. Nearby the early settlers had built both a Presbyterian and Methodist church.  When the Cherokee Strip opened, many of the Presbyterian and Methodist settlers, as well as other settlers, left their land in the hands of mortgage companies, and crossed the line into Oklahoma.  This was the occasion for the coming of the Amish Mennonites to the Crystal Spings settlement.

In 1903 the M. A. Troyer family moved to Harper County from McPherson County.  With the exception of one family, the remaining families had joined them by 1904.  Late in the same year the church building was dismantled.  The lumber was hauled to Hutchinson, Kansas, where it was shipped to Harper by rail.  The benches, pulpit, doors, windows, and frames were hauled to Crystal Springs in wagons with teams.  This was a distance of about eighty-five miles.

After moving from McPherson County, services were held in Nebo Schoolhouse, one mile north of Crystal Springs, from the spring of 1904 until the church was rebuilt and dedicated.  It was rebuilt on a site about a quarter of a mile east and about three-quarters of a mile south of Crystal Springs.  The land was donated by Joas Yoder who had purchased a half section.  The building was dedicated on January 29, 1905.

Charter members of the Crystal Springs Congregation were: Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Bender; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Eash; David Eash; Mr. and Mrs. John Eash; Mr. and Mrs. C. Reber; John Reber; Daniel Reber; Dave  Reber; Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Stutzman; Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Troyer; Mrs. D. J. (Katie Troyer) Yoder; Mrs. Dave (Kate Reber) Troyer; A. A. Troyer; Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Yoder; Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Zimmerman.  Jacob J. Zimmerman was the pastor.

In 1920, the Amish Mennonite Church of Crystal Springs merged with the Kansas-Missouri Mennonite Conference, thus dropping their Amish affiliation.

A new church house was erected in 1928 and was paid for the day it was dedicated.  It stands west of the cemetery near the site of the old church.  A parsonage in Crystal Springs was purchased by the congregation in 1952.

The membership reached its peak around 1945-47, when it totaled approximately 140.

Those leading Crystal Springs in worship have been the following: Jacob J. Zimmerman, Joas Yoder, Joseph Mast, Isaac Hartzler, Harry A. Diener, E. J. Shettler, David Geil, D. Y. Hooley, D. C. Schrock, Gideon G. Yoder, Donald E. King, Glen Whitaker, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Burkholder, Lowell Nissley, Alvin Kauffman, Milo Kauffman, Earl Buckwalter, Robert Zehr, Fred Gingerich, Duane Yoder, Ed Robbins, Vernon Whitmore, and others.

The current pastor of Crystal Springs Mennonite Church is Lidia Bustamante Zehr.

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