Levi Young was a young man on fire for the Lord. He couldn’t have been more than 21 when he was ordained a minister in the Evangelical Mennonite Association. This was a small group with a few congregations in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. Levi Young served as an itinerant evangelist, but soon began to feel that it was not the spiritual home that he longed for: a church that lived the old faith as portrayed in the writings of Menno Simons, Dietrich Philips and in the Martyrs’ Mirror. He read through those old writings and corresponded with leaders in other Mennonite groups.

One of those he contacted was John Holdeman of Wayne County, Ohio, who had left the old Mennonite church after the same longing and search and now led a small group with members in Ohio, Indiana and Ontario. Levi Young began to come under conviction that he should withdraw from the Evangelical Mennonite Association and finally did so in May of 1866. In December of that year he made another visit to John Holdeman in Ohio and on December 12 John Holdeman baptized Levi Young.

On December 31 Holdeman and Young left for Wilmot township of Waterloo County, Ontario. Here they spent two weeks, holding meetings almost every evening in people’s homes. Levi Young’s diary provides precious historical information. He names a few who were already members of Holdeman’s church, indicating that this was not Holdeman’s first visit. He names a number of others who later became members. Another interesting point is that several times he says “I preached and brother Holdeman exhorted.”

After Levi Young returned home to Pennsylvania, he continued his itinerant preaching, sometimes in the company of ministers from Holdeman’s church. It is evident from his diary that he is an increasingly sick man. In July of 1868 he writes of giving instruction for disposing of his goods. The diary ends in mid-sentence on Monday, July 13. He died two or three days later, three months short of his 27th birthday. The cause of death appears to have been what was in those days called consumption, nowadays known as tuberculosis.

I promised a mystery, and here it is. Levi Young, despite the precarious state of his health, endeavoured to preach the saving grace of Jesus Christ as long as he had breath. Many people gave him hearing, among them in the last months of his life were families named Mininger and Stauffer.

Thirty years after Levi Young died, a young man of Montgomery County by the name of Hiram Mininger made contact with John Holdeman. He too had been searching the old writings and had come to the conclusion that the Mennonite church to which he belonged had departed from the faith. In 1899 Hiram Mininger and his wife, plus Isaiah Stover (Stover is a variant spelling of Stauffer) and his wife, were baptized by John Holdeman. Thus began a small congregation at Souderton, Pennsylvania. Is there some link from Levi Young to Hiram Mininger? I have no idea and no idea how to find out.

Hiram Mininger was later ordained to the ministry and was for many years one of the nmost active ministers and evangelists in the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite.