Marlin Kreider, who came from Lott to found the Grandview congregation, first visited the Lott congregation while driving from Pennsylvania to visit his son. Cheap land prices also lured them, Weaver said. Grandview offered the rural setting that many Mennonites favor. In fact, they came to the town because it was so welcoming, Weaver said. "By far, the United States has been the best country for us," Weaver said.Īnd he said there have been no problems in Grandview. On average, however, the United States has been a safe refuge. During World War I and World War II, vandals sometimes painted Mennonites' barns yellow to symbolize cowardice. Mennonites have sometimes faced persecution because of their nonviolent, nonresistant views, which include opposition to fighting in wars. Others established a bakery and a butcher shop, nearly 30 miles to the north in Rendon. Leland Ulrich builds backyard decks and roasts coffee from his farm in Costa Rica. Harold Friesen's Quality Wood Products makes lawn furniture. Smaller settlements exist in Grays Prairie, in Kaufman County, Texas, and in Bastrop, near Austin.īesides building their church and school, many Mennonites established businesses. Of Grandview's 1,450 residents, about 180 are Mennonites. In fact, the Grandview Mennonite community was formed as "the daughter church" of the one in Lott, said Chester Weaver, principal and one of the teachers at tiny Grandview Gospel School, in the same building as the Mennonite church. The Yoders, who two years ago moved from La Monte, Mo., near Kansas City, joined others who moved from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Lott, Texas. "We see it in the stores, but it's not important." I've never known what it's like," Evangeline, 12, said. Like Evangeline's parents, Gareth and Phyllis Yoder, most have moved to the area in the past nine years. The simple home life is standard for the Yoders and other Mennonites who call rural Grandview home. The girls use a food processor to prepare grains for the family's breakfast cereals. The boys help their father in his shop, where he builds minibarns, or storage buildings. Without parental prompting, she and her brothers and sisters set to work doing their chores.
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