ence Minutes of the entire Mennonite Community in North America, held at West Point, Lee County, Iowa, the 28th and 29th of May, 1860,” the number of the Mennonites in all the States of the Union amounted to 128,000. After having for many years almost entirely neglected mutual relations, and separated into many small societies, they finally came to the conclusion that a firm covenant of brotherhood is one means to collect the scattered, to unite the divided, and to strengthen the weak. The delegates of the communities come together annually, as they did the present year from May 31st to June 3d, at Wadsworth, Ohio. On the 20th of May, 1861, they repeated in their own way what our fathers did fifty years earlier; they founded a seminary for the service of the church, with which, since that time, Dr. Van der Smissen, formerly minister at Frederickstadt, has been connected as professor and director. May it be to them as great a blessing as ours has been to us.
