LANCASTBR COUNTY. 83 



assembled to receive information. The Mennonites 

 never wasted money in rearing stately temples, or in 

 building massive colleges, in which to impart nseful 

 knowledge. They ever observed it religiously, to have 

 their children instructed in reading and writing, at least, 

 since the days of Menno Simon, the great reformer, and 

 to bring them up in habits of industry, and teaching 

 them such trades as were suitable to their wants, expe- 

 dient and adapted to their age and constitution."* Their 

 sons and daughters were kept under strict parental au- 

 thority, and as a consequence, were not led into tempta- 

 tions by which so many youths, of both sexes, at the 

 present day, are rained. 



Their religious meetings and schools were for a long 

 time held in the same rude buildings. Among their first 

 preachers were Hans Herr, Hans Tschantz, Ulrich Brech- 

 bill,t who was accidentally killed, while driving liis 

 team on the road to Philadelphia. Their ministers were 

 men of sound minds, of irreproachable conversation. — 

 lu tliis country, the Mennonite ministers, especially in 

 this county, are not, in the parlance of the age, classi- 

 cally educated. " In Europe, at Amsterdam, the jNIenno- 

 iiites have a college, in which all the useful branches are 

 taught. Students of Theology receive instruction in a 



*"Haltetund foerdert die kindern zu lesen und schreibeo ; 

 lehret sic spinnen and andere Haende \TOrkthun, was ihren 

 Jahren und personen nach fueglich, nuetzlich, ertraeglich und 

 bequem isL" — Menno Simon. 



fl739, October den 19ten, Ulrich Breckbill, ein diener der 

 gemeinde ist auf der Philadelphia Slrasse, mit seinera wagen 

 ploetzlich umgekommen. — Meylin's Family Bible. 



(^Samuel Miller, son of Jacob Miller, was the first child 

 •born in the Swiss Colony; he was born January 22, 1711. 



Jacob Miller, Samuel's father, was born in Europe, 1663, 

 came to America, in 1710, died the 20tb April, 1739— interred 



