Mennoville Mennonite Church

Mennoville Mennonite Church – First Mennonite Church in Oklahoma Territory

The church was originally located five miles north of El Reno on Highway 81.  The congregation was organized in 1891 and the building constructed in 1893 by twenty-seven charter members, including some of the personnel from the Mennonite Mission Industrial School for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at the Darlington Agency and Mennonites who settles in this area soon after Oklahoma Territory opened by run on April 22, 1889.  This colony was southernmost for Mennonites along the Chisholm Trail.  Farmers of Swiss, German, and German-Russian descent were urged to settle here to establish the Christian faith on the frontier.  Regular services were held at Mennoville for 61 years.  The church structure was moved to Heritage Square in El Reno in November 1997 from its original location.