Front view of First Mennonite Church North of Butterfield, Minnesota. The Cemetery is just behind the church.

32070 65th Ave @ 320 St.
rural Butterfield, Minnesota 56120
507-956-3306

44.021571, -94.778607

First Mennonite Church of Butterfield, Minnesota, (formerly General Conference Mennonite) formerly known as Bergthal Church, located five miles northeast of the town of Butterfield, was organized in 1878 under the sponsorship of what became the First Mennonite Church of Mountain Lake. The members of this group had been affiliated with the Bergthal congregation of the Bergthal Mennonite settlement in South Russia, whose elder was Gerhard Wiebe. Elder Wiebe and his whole congregation migrated to America in 1874. Wiebe and the majority of his people chose Manitoba as their future home, but a smaller group, settling in the vicinity of Butterfield, constituted the Bergthal Church, today known as the First Mennonite Church.

During the early years services were conducted in the homes. Elder Neufeld and his co-ministers David Loewen, Johann Schultz, Gerhard Fast, Peter Voth, and Cornelius Enns served the two parishes of the one congregation at Mountain Lake and near Butterfield. A meetinghouse was built in 1882 and remodeled in 1942. In 1892 David Harder was elected to the ministry, and in 1900 Jacob Stoesz. Both served the congregation for many years, Jacob Stoesz as elder 1919-1930. When Elder Stoesz laid down his work there came a succession of leaders chosen from the outside: John Warkentin, Sam Quiring, Victor Sawatzky, M. M. Lehman, and R. A. Heinrichs. In May 1956, the congregation was without a pastor; its membership in 1955 was 95.
In 2015 this is still an active congregation and cemetery. The original documenting of the interments was done by Alberta Daniels Withrow in 2005. Systematic photography was done on Community Day 2015.
Friesen, J. John. "First Mennonite Church of Butterfield (Butterfield, Minnesota, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 19 Oct 2015. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=First_Mennonite_Church_of_Butterfield_(Butterfield,_Minnesota,_USA)&oldid=80823.

Rear view from cemetery of First Mennonite Church North of Butterfield, Minnesota.

Cemetery of First Mennonite Church North of Butterfield, Minnesota looking East.