Reverend Solomon Eby b. 15 May 1834 Waterloo County, Ontario d. 10 Feb 1931 Port Elgin, Bruce, Ontario

1834 - 1931 (96 years)

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Name	Reverend Solomon Eby
Title	Reverend
Born	15 May 1834	Waterloo County, Ontario
Gender	Male
Died	10 Feb 1931	Port Elgin, Bruce, Ontario
Buried	Ben Eby's First Mennonite Cemetery Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario
Person ID	I523455784	Eby/Aebi and Bernethy Family
Last Modified	4 Sep 2008

Father	Martin W Eby, b. 04 Aug 1807, Kitchener (Berlin) (Ebytown), Waterloo, Ontario , d. 13 Jun 1891 (Age 83 years)
Mother	Catharine Gehman Weber, b. 28 Apr 1811, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , d. 2 Dec 1890 (Age 79 years)
Married	03 Mar 1832
Family ID	F510241054	Group Sheet

Family Catharine Shantz, b. 17 May 1836, Waterloo County, Ontario , d. 29 Dec 1917, Kitchener (Berlin) (Ebytown), Waterloo, Ontario (Age 81 years)

Married 17 Jun 1855

Children

	1. Lydia Eby, b. Abt 1857, Ontario, Canada , d. 14 Apr 1940 (Age ~ 83 years)
	2. Hannah Eby, b. Abt 1859, Ontario, Canada , d. Before 1889 (Age ~ 30 years)
	3. Lovina Eby, b. Abt 1861, Ontario, Canada , d. Before 1889 (Age ~ 28 years)
	4. Priscilla Eby, b. Abt 1863, Ontario, Canada , d. Before 1889 (Age ~ 26 years)
	5. Jeremiah Eby, b. Abt 1865, Ontario, Canada
	6. Josiah Eby, b. Abt 1866, Ontario, Canada
	7. Magdalena Eby, b. 19 Jan 1867, Ontario, Canada , d. 19 Jun 1888, Kitchener (Berlin) (Ebytown), Waterloo, Ontario (Age 21 years)
	8. Fannie Eby, b. Abt 1869, Ontario, Canada
+	9. Sarah Ann Eby, b. 01 Dec 1873, Ontario, Canada , d. 03 Oct 1902 (Age 28 years)
	10. Franklin Eby, b. Abt 1875, Ontario, Canada , d. Before 1889 (Age ~ 14 years)
	11. Nellie Eby, b. Abt 1877, Ontario, Canada
	12. Ida Eby, b. Abt 1879, Ontario, Canada

Last Modified 4 Sep 2008

Family ID F510664035 Group Sheet

Event Map

	Born - 15 May 1834 - Waterloo County, Ontario
	Died - 10 Feb 1931 - Port Elgin, Bruce, Ontario
	Buried - - Ben Eby's First Mennonite Cemetery Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario

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Photos		A photograph of the Ministers of Canada Conference, Mennonite Brethren in Christ. The men pictured are numbered and identified as: 1. Menno Bowman, 2. R. Etherington, 3. John Ball, 4. S. Goudie, 5. C.F. Krauth, 6. T. Ford Barker, 7. Solomon Eby, 8. David Fretz, 9. Alex Bell, 10. C.N. Good, 11. H.S. Hallman, 12. E. Sievenpiper, 13. C.R. Miller, 14. John Hiltz, 15. D.S. Shantz, 16. Peter Geiger, 17. Peter Cober, 18. H. Goudie, 19. Amos Eby, 20. N. Detweiler, 21. S. Cressman, 22. Sam Stouffer, 23. J.B. Detweiler, 24. J.A. Sider, 25. Henry Wismer, 26. John McNally, 27. Joshua Shell, 28. a visitor, 29. Henry Cressman, 30. Christ Raymer, 31. Fred Carlton, 32. John McNally. Kitchener Public Library
Photos		Solomon Eby From http://www.gameo.org

Documents

A photograph of the Ministers of Canada Conference, Mennonite Brethren in Christ. The men pictured are numbered and identified as: 1. Menno Bowman, 2. R. Etherington, 3. John Ball, 4. S. Goudie, 5. C.F. Krauth, 6. T. Ford Barker, 7. Solomon Eby, 8. David Fretz, 9. Alex Bell, 10. C.N. Good, 11. H.S. Hallman, 12. E. Sievenpiper, 13. C.R. Miller, 14. John Hiltz, 15. D.S. Shantz, 16. Peter Geiger, 17. Peter Cober, 18. H. Goudie, 19. Amos Eby, 20. N. Detweiler, 21. S. Cressman, 22. Sam Stouffer, 23. J.B. Detweiler, 24. J.A. Sider, 25. Henry Wismer, 26. John McNally, 27. Joshua Shell, 28. a visitor, 29. Henry Cressman, 30. Christ Raymer, 31. Fred Carlton, 32. John McNally.
Solomom Eby
1834
Amos Eby
1842
Kitchener Public Library

Headstones

Soloman Eby, Catharine Shantz and daughter Lydia Eby
Personal Collection

Notes

He joined the Old Mennonite church when he was young and later was ordained minister. Some eighteen or nineteen years later, o n account of some differences of opinion between he and the authorities of the church, he separated from that body and afterwards became one of the instruments in organizing of what is known as the Church of the Mennonite Brethern in Christ, usually called the New Mennonites. As a minister, he has few superiors; speaks in both languages (German and English) and his sermons are full of life and spirit.
From Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online: http://www.gameo.org

Solomon Eby (15 May 1834-1931) was one of the founders of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church (now Evangelical Missionary Church), the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Cressman) Eby. He was born May 15, 1834 in Waterloo Co., ON, was raised on the farm, and attended public school. On June 17, 1855 he married Catharine Shantz, and they had 12 children. He moved to Port Elgin, ON.

In 1858 he was ordained to the ministry in the Mennonite Church, and served in that capacity for 14 years. According to his testimony, he was not converted until eleven years after his ordination (1869, Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada). Following his conversion he became a zealous advocate for a definite religious experience. Eventually he was expelled from the Mennonite Church, and in 1874 he and Daniel Brenneman of Indiana organized the Reformed Mennonites, a group that later became a part of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church (now the Evangelical Missionary Church).

For various terms totaling 18 years Eby was presiding elder in the Ontario Conference, and for 14 years he served as pastor, holding pastorates at Breslau, Elmwood, New Dundee, Markham, and Kitchener circuits. He was a member of the first six general conferences, and was chairman of the first one (Zionsville, PA, 1885). Eby retired from active work in 1906. A few years later he became interested in the Pentecostal movement, and in 1912 he transferred his membership to that organization. He died in 1931.

(I SEE NO PLACE, OTHER THAN THIS, THAT STATES SOLOMON WAS THE SON OF BENJAMIN AND ELIZABETH. I HAVE A COPY OF BENJAMIN AND ELIZABETHS MARRIAGE LICENSE AND IF CLEARY STATES THEY WERE MARRIED IN 1839. SINCE SOLOMON WAS BORN IN 1834 AND I SEE NO PLACE THAT STATES HE WAS BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK, I VENTURE TO QUESS THIS BIOGRAPHY IS INCORRECT. THE HISTORY OF HIS WORKS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE NO DOUBT CORRECT BUT I DON'T THINK HIS PARENTAGE IS.)
Ontario Mennonite Brethren in ChristOntario Mennonite Brethren in Christ (since 1948 called United Missionary Church). One of the most important sections of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ has been the Ontario Conference, which was in effect in the beginning a separate movement though closely related to the Indiana movement led by Daniel Brenneman. Its real founder was Solomon Eby (1834-1931), a Mennonite (MC) minister ordained at Port Elgin in 1858, who had an unusual spiritual awakening in 1869 that he called his conversion. He immediately began prayer meetings and the promotion of "conversion" among his members with great success. Since his bold advocacy of the new piety and insistence upon the type of conversion experience which he held essential was unacceptable to the Ontario Mennonite Conference, of which he was a member, he was excommunicated (May 1874), followed by the Waterloo County ministers John Bear, Samuel Schlichter, Daniel Wismer, and Moses Erb (the last two soon returned to their former loyalty) and Waterloo deacons William Hembling and Joseph S. Schneider. In the Markham district ministers Abraham Raymer and John Steckley, who had been introducing a similar prayer meeting and revivalistic emphasis and were probably by the 1860's completely outside the Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), joined forces with Eby. Daniel Hoch (1806-78) at Vineland, who had been working in the same direction since c1843 and was in difficulty with the old church and who was affiliated with the Oberholtzer group (General Conference Mennonite) 1851-1869, together with three small congregations in Ontario (Markham, Vineland, Waterloo), seems to have been drawn into the new Eby movement together with his following.

On 15 May 1874 Eby called a conference to meet in the Berlin (Kitchener) church (Mennonite Church), which may be considered the actual origin of Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church in Canada. Daniel Brenneman, who had visited Eby in 1873, was expelled from the Indiana Mennonite Conference in 1874 also, followed by a substantial group of members; they were called New Mennonites. In 1875 the Eby and Brenneman groups formally united at a meeting held in the Snyder Mennonite meetinghouse near Bloomingdale, ON. (the only congregation that went over completely with meetinghouse to the Eby group, except Port Elgin), on 23 March 1875, calling themselves United Mennonites. The organization formed in May 1874 had been called "Reformed Mennonites." It had two districts, Ontario and Indiana. The Ontario District had its first meeting at Port Elgin on 18 September 1874.

The Dordrecht Confession of Faith was specifically adopted as the doctrinal platform of the group although it did not of course include the specific doctrinal emphases which caused the division. The new body was immediately organized into two conferences?Canada and the United States, with Eby as Presiding Elder for Canada and Brenneman for the United States. In 1879 a merger of the United Mennonites with the Evangelical Mennonites of Pennsylvania resulted in the Evangelical United Mennonite Church, which in 1883 became the Mennonite Brethren in Christ when the small Swank faction of the Brethren in Christ (River Brethren) in Ohio joined the Evangelical United Mennonites.

Throughout the years of growth and merger described above the Ontario Conference remained the largest. In 1880 the conference had nine congregations and 19 ministers, with a total of 37 preaching places. By 1955, however, Ontario with 2,471 members in 35 congregations was the second in size in the denomination, having been passed by the Indiana Conference with 2,694.

The proportion of members who left the old conference in Ontario to join the "New" Mennonites was not clear, but possibly at least a third. It was a serious blow to the Mennonite Church (MC) in Ontario. L. J. Burkholder, the historian of the Mennonite Church conference, says, "At least four able ministers and three deacons were lost to us. A much larger number of promising young men who became active ministers of the new branch might well have been used had they remained. A great many devoted families were carried away," among whom was the noted Jacob Y. Shantz.

The Ontario Mennonite Brethren in Christ Conference showed great spiritual vitality and evangelistic zeal. Much work was carried on in the older Mennonite settlements, and during the 1880s congregations were established at the following places: Berlin (Kitchener), Blair, Bethel, Bright, Breslau, Bloomingdale, Conestoga, Wallace or Maryboro, Port Elgin, Jordan (Twenty), Sherkston, Markham, Scott, Stayner, and Puslinch, largely at the expense of the old church. Among the chief leaders were Solomon Eby, Noah Detwiler, John Bear, Menno Bowman, Amos Eby, Joseph Raymer, John McNally, H. S. Hallman, Henry Goudie, Samuel Goudie, C. N. Good, Ward Shantz, P. G. Lehman, and Michael Houck. In 1908 a group of over 100 left to join the Pentecostal movement, among them the leading ministers Solomon Eby and Amos Eby. Berlin (Kitchener) has always been the center of the conference; its Bethany congregation is the largest (1957, 320 members). In 1885 the denominational printing plant was moved from Goshen, IN to Berlin, and with it the church paper, the Gospel Banner, where it remained until 1909. In 1940 Emmanuel Bible College was established in Kitchener as the Bible Institute of the Ontario district.

BibliographyBurkholder, L. J. A Brief History of the Mennonites in Ontario. Kitchener, ON: Mennonite Conference of Ontario, 1935.

Conference Journal, Proceedings of the Ontario Conference of the United Missionary Church (MBC).

Huffman, Jasper A. History of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. New Carlisle, Ohio, 1920.