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[Editors note: This cemetery site was the former location of the Hay (Township) Mennonite Church:
“The Hay (Township) Mennonite Church, near Zurich, Huron County, Ontario, became extinct about 1900, although one surviving member was incorporated into the new Zurich Mennonite Church established at about the same location in 1908. The community was settled in 1835-1860 by Mennonite families from the Waterloo County and Markham communities: Wideman, Otterbein, Vincent, Detweiler, Lehman, Wambold, Martin, Clemens, Bechtel, Reesor, Baer, Newschwanger. A meetinghouse was built about 1864, three miles south of Zurich. The first minister was Daniel Brundage 1850-58, the first deacon Abraham Vincent, ordained in 1851. Henry Newschwanger served as minister about 1857-70, Henry B. Detwiler 1874-93. Without a resident minister from 1893 on, the membership, which was 35 in 1883, dwindled and finally disappeared. The congregation was a member of the Ontario Mennonite Conference.”
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Zurich Mennonite Cemetery
“A memorial, dated September 16, 1865, was signed between William and wife Nancy Lehman and trustees Jacob Wideman, Henry Neuschwanger and Abraham E. Reist, all [Hay] township yeoman. One quarter acre in the northwest corner of Lot 8, Con. 10 was to be used by those who held the doctrines of the Old Mennonist Church. This congregation was in existence from the 1860’s but had disbanded by the 1880’s when many Mennonite families left the area. A plaque bequeathed by Orval M. Jantzi lists the church as being in existence from 1864 until 1883. A second plaque, bequeathed by Edwin Steckle in 1981, denotes this as the Zurich Mennonite Cemetery.
Going through this well kept cemetery, visitors note the number of children’s monuments: Hetty Steckle December 5, 1865, aged three, and Anna, December 5, 1878, aged seven months, daughter of Daniel and Livinia Steckle. […] Some of the older stones are in German. This cemetery is also the burial place of Absalom Fried (died 1874), and his wife Hannah (died 1900), the founders of Dashwood.”
extracted from “Hay Township Highlights: 150 years of Diversified Progress, 1846 – 1996”, published by the Hay Township Book Committee under the auspices of Hay Township Council, Alice Gibb ed.; pgs. 163-164 ISBN : 0-919939-43-0