Kansas City, Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church

Collection — Container: 2 Boxes

Identifier: KUMA-01-1588

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the records of Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church, and its previous names, including Oak Strasse Gemeinde, Oak Street Mission, Zion Church, Zion Evangelical, Oak Street Zion, Kansas City English Mission, First Evangelical church, and Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church. The records range from 1879-1934, and 1955-1956. They detail the church's history from its beginnings as a German language mission church, the change to an English language church, to the eventual decision to close the church due to the "negro population" moving into the surrounding neighborhood. Records between 1934 and 1955 are missing. The collection contains membership, birth, marriage, and death records, financial records, meeting minutes, letters, rosters, and votes determining the closing of the church.

Dates

Created: 1879-1956

Creator

Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church (Organization)

Biographical or Historical Information

Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church was started in 1879 as a mission of the Oak Strasse Gemeinde (Oak Street Congregation) of the German-speaking Evangelical Church. There appear to have been two seperate missions, one in Kansas City, Kansas, the other in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas mission lost membership due to a poor location of the church, and the two missions merged in Missouri. The church names used through the years include Oak Strasse Gemeinde, Oak Street Mission, Zion Church, Zion Evangelical, Oak Street Zion, Kansas City English Mission, First Evangelical Church, Mersington Heights Evangelical Church, and Mersington Heights Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Note written by Melinda Rittgers

Extent

2.00 boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

There are four series: Journals, which are bound church journals. Documents, which include resolutions, letters, and ballots. Publications, which are printed publications of the church. Quarterly Conference Records Series are arranged in chronological order, as there is no discernible original order other than within the journals themselves.

Physical Access Requirements

Most of the journals are in fair condition, although some are in poor condition. The bindings are damaged and missing in some cases. Some of the pages have crumbling edges. Printing on some of the correspondence has faded. Limited handling of materials is recommended.

Custodial History

It is presumed that the records were transferred from the Mersington Heights Church, upon its closure, to the offices of the Kansas Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. These records would then have been transferred to the Kansas West Conference Archives of the United Methodist Church when the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church in 1968. They were then transferred to the Kansas United Methodist Archives when the Kansas West Conference Archives closed.