1

Epps going to church on Pelee Island
1926
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

2

In spring of 1925, the Island's Mennonite group consisted of Rev. Johann F. and Katharina Dick with one child, Katharina's sister, Helene Unruh, Johann A. and Maria Wiebe with ten children, Elizabeth Dick with three children, Peter A. and Maria Driedger with seven children, Gerhard and Katharina Thiessen with one child, Gerhard's mother, Aganetha Thiessen, and Anna Wiebe, with four children. Anna Wiebe's husband and eldest son dired during the hard times in the Ukraine.

These families were closely connected by blood, friendship, and common villages in their Russian homeland.

3

Mennonite Church Youth Group on porch of double house
January 1926
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

4

Mennonite youth gathering in Rieger's Bush on Henderson Road
1926
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

5

Anna Wiebe’s front room provided the newly-arrived Mennonite refugees with their first place of worship. The women and babies sat to the pastor's right, the men to the left, and the children sat in front. The late Henry J. Wiebe remembered that the adults sat on chairs and benches and the children sat on the floor. The sermons were delivered in the High German language; visiting/socializing was done in the Low German/Dutch language. Church hymnals were printed in the High German language.

6

Mrs. Dick, Mrs. Pegg, Mrs. Driedger
Circa 1926
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

7

Jacob P. Driedger and Agnes Dick married at Mission Hall; Bishop J. H. Janzen officiated
15 May 1927
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

8

Soon George Pegg, a lay pastor, school teacher and Township treasurer on Pelee, and his wife Lulu Mae, who had come to the Island in 1911, invited the Mennonite immigrants to worship in their Mission Hall located on Henderson Road. Here George Pegg and Rev. Johann Dick led the worship until 1929.

9

George Pegg at the Mission Hall
1950
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

10

By 1928, the congregation had tripled in size. According to available records, there were 18 families, with a total of 114 people. 54 were baptized members and 60 were adherents. Shortly after, four families, consisting of 21 individuals moved off Pelee Island: the Gerhard and Helena Neufeld family went to Vineland, the David and Anna Reimer family moved to Kingsville, widower Heinrich Wiens moved to the Canadian West and the Johann and Maria Wiebe family went to Rodney, Ontario.

11

During their stay on Pelee, Island Mennonites held church services in Pegg's Mission Hall on Henderson Road, the Methodist Church on East-West Road, and various private homes. Building or buying a church building was probably never considered. Extra money would not have been available, nor would such a venture have been practical, as the group never outgrew the Islanders' living room space.

12

Isaac and Maria Klassen home on Henderson Road
1944
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

13

Sunday School
1946
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

14

Summer Bible School at the Mission Hall
1947
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association