THE AMISH-MENNONITES at Kempsvilley "Virginia I9OO-I97O ^^^^^%i>'.---y'^W^^^-A:^,-- COMPILED BY LEON R. ZOOK EDITED BY LEROY MILLER THE A M I S H - IM, E N N O N I T E S atI(empspiilie, Virginia 1900-1970 FORMORE THAN HALFA CENTURY, the Kempsville,Virginia,Amish-Mennonite communityflourishedwith its agricultural enterprises. Major changes came, however, as the twentieth century reached midpoint. Virginia Beach's construction boom began displacingwell-kept farmsteads. First, along Witchduck, Kempsville, and PrincessAnne Roads and Parliament Drive, and later along Holland Road, dairybarns and farmhouses gaveway to the bulldozer's blade. Single familyhomes, apartments, and shopping centers sprang up where milkcows had grazed a fewyears earlier. Too soon, thelastvestiges ofthat special erahave all butdisappeared. We hope this volume calls up pleasant memories forthose who once lived in thisAmish-Mennonite community, and for readers not so privileged, maythe photos and stories contained here provide a rare glimpse intowhatmanyofus still fondlyrecall as "livingat Kempsville." — LeroyMillerandLeon Zook Frontcover:William Overholtfarmstead. J. CourtesyofHenryW.Overholt Backcover:AmandaOverholtandgrandson, JonathanZook. CourtesyofMaryZook riiiE Don Company Ml ["vc;; PUBULSHERS ISBN 89865-949-3 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/amishmennonitesaOOunse THE A M H M E N N O N T E I S - I S atF\empsville, IJirginia I9OO-I97O ^:3oati,ijA^thaei ^ugvuti.I)]^5- THE AMISH-MENNONITES at Kempsville, "Virginia I9OO-I97O 7 (^collection ofstones andphotos from a time andplace, goneforever, yet living in our memories ofagoodandpleasant land ^ \m^ WOT rh;aov£ trom Hl'T-'- r^S COMPILED BY LEON R. ZOOK EDITED BY LEROY MILLER .TfMl DONNING COMPANY PUBLISHERS /Av —— Copyright© 1995byLeonR.Zook Allrightsreserved, includingtherighttoreproduce thisworkinanyformwhatsoeverwithout permissioninwritingfromthepublisher,exceptfor briefpassagesinconnectionwithareview. Forinformation,write: TheDonningCompany/Publishers ""mmmtmu&v.^^Jrl^'-'^f'^R^'system-iDUP 184BusinessParkDrive,Suite 106 VirginiaBeach,VA 23462 AlfiEES D7Dt^0 SteveMull,GeneralManager B.L.WaltonJr., ProjectDirector JennyGreiner,ResearchCoordinator RichardA. Horwege,Editor LoriWiley,Designer TonyLillis, DirectorofMarketing DawnV. Kofroth,ProductionManager LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData: TheAmish-MennonitesatKempsville,Virginia, 1900—1970:acollectionofstoriesandphotosfrom atimeandplace,goneforever,yetlivinginour memoriesofagoodandpleasantland/compiledby LeonR.Zook:editedbyLeroyMiller, p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-8—9865-954-—X(he:alk.pa—per) 1.Amish Vi—rginia Ke—mpsville Pi—croriai works.2.Amish Virginia Kem—psville Social lifeandcus—toms.3.Mennonites Virginia Kempsvil—le Pictorial—works.4. Mennonites Virginia Kempsvil—le Sociallifeandcustoms. 5.Ke—mpsville(Va.) Pictorialworks. 6. Kempsville (Va.) Sociallifeandcustoms. I.Zook, LeonR., 1948- . 11.Miller,Leroy 1937- . F234.K45A46 1996 975.5'51—dc20 95-44305 CIP PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica CONTENTS Editor's Note 6 Chapter 10 77 byLeroyMiller Yoder Dairies: An Experience in Sharing byLeroyMiller Acknowledgments 7 byLeonZook Chapter 11 85 TheSimon L. and Lydia E. (Yoder) Introduction 8 Yoder Family byLeonZook byElmerS. Yoder Chapter 1 11 Chapter 12 91 The Earlyyears in PrincessAnne Counry TheJoseph S. and Hannah (Wagler) byLeroyMiller Overholt Family byJosephJ. Overholt Chapter2 17 TheChurch at Kempsville Chapter 13 93 byLeroyMiller The Harvey and Fannie (Hershberger) Byler Family Chapter 3 21 byKatie(Byler) Yoder Growing Up byLeroyMiller Chapter 14 103 The Simeon and Magdalena (StoU) Chapter4 27 Overholt Family SundaySchool Recollections byAbner Overholt byLeroyMiller Chapter 15 109 Chapter 5 29 The Irvin M. and Mary (Lee) Weaver TheWilliam S. andAmanda Family (Beachy) Yoder Family byEdwin Weaver by Viola (Yoder) Swartzentruber Chapter 16 115 Chapter6 45 The Kempsville Mennonite School: Its The Christian and Susanna (Beachy) Beginnings J. Swartzentruber Family byElmerS. Yoder byEldonandLloydSwartzentruber Chapter 17 129 Chapter7 51 TheTroyerand Kramer Families: Ezra The Eli S. and Mattie (Helmuth) andAmanda (Kramer)Troyer Miller Family bySharon Troyer byMary (Miller) Yoder Chapter 18 137 Chapter8 57 The ProvidenceMennonite Church: A TheJonas C. and Catherine B. Difference OverLanguage (Miller) Miller Family byLeroyMiller byLeroyMiller Index 142 Chapter9 65 TheJoe I. and Mary (Miller) About the Compilerand Editor 144 Hershberger Sr. Family byAndrew]. Hershberger EDITOR NOTE S A NUMBER OF US TOYED FORA QUARTER- I also wish to thank those persons centurywith the idea ofputting whom I phoned on numerous occa- together the storyofthe Kempsville sions to confirm specific dates and Amish-Mennonite community. Around other bits ofinformation, namely: Elva 1970, the lateJohn H. Miller, his son, Beiler, Bertha Brenneman, Alta Marie Jim, and I collected a quantity of Krause, Elsie Miller, Stephen L. Miller, material from interviews and corre- and Menno Yoder. J. spondencewith several persons who had settled at Kempsville, during the Lastly, and most importantly, I thank early 1900s. For various reasons, mainly the Lord for restoring me with the lack ofcommitment on my part, that physical strength and eyesight needed effort ended with nothing more than a for accomplishing this work. box ofnotes and fifteen pages of — typescript. More recently,John H. J^eroy CMiller Miller's son,Joe, also spent considerable time in an attempt to bring the story into print. Leon Zooktook a different route in completing the task. In the summerof 1994, he approached me with his plan to have several persons recount their families' stories about life at Kempsville. Leon asked me to write a chapter about my wife Sarah's grand- parents, theJonas C. Millers. Out of that came my greater involvement as editor and rewrite person for the project. It has been one ofthe most enjoyable experiences in all myyears as a writer. Special thanks to each writer for graciously approving the changes made and details added in the final draft ofhis or her article.