Mennonite Brethren Church
3524 NE 6th Avenue (formerly 754 E. 6th N.)
1891-1938
Former Mennonite Brethren Church as of May 2004. This structure is now in use as a residence. Images contributed by Amy Neel and Jennifer Zuber.
The Mennonite Brethren are part of the larger Christian expression called Anabaptism (meaning "baptized again"). Their identity is founded in 475 years of witness since the Reformation. Many German Mennonites immigrated to the North America from the Russian empire and settled in Midwest regions of the United States and Canada. Some of them found the winters, especially in Canada, quite harsh and sought warmer climates. Some of those came west to Oregon settled in Portland. Mission work in Portland appears to have been especially difficult and there were many unsuccessful attempts by the several Mennonite groups in Oregon before viable congregations resulted.
According to Kevin Enns-Rempel, archivist at the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies in Fresno, California, the Portland Mennonite Brethren Church was made up mostly of Volga Germans, and was therefore culturally different from the larger Mennonite Brethren Church. In Russia, the Volga Germans would generally have been Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic. The Volga Germans spoke a different German dialect from the "Low German" Mennonites who mostly lived further west from the Volga. Some of these Volga Germans joined the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia and others did so after the migration to North America in the 1870s. The Sutton and Hastings, Nebraska Mennonite Brethren Churches were made up almost entirely of such Volga German converts to the Mennonite Brethren Church. It appears that a large percentage of the Portland Mennonite Brethren Church may have come from Sutton or Hastings. This was true for ministers Heinrich Hoelzer (Helzer or Helser) and Conrad H. Urbach, as well as for deacon Nickolas L. Popp.
Mr. Enns-Rempel states that there is little known about the Portland Mennonite Brethren Church. The church was never large, was geographically isolated from other Mennonite Brethren congregations, was culturally distinct from the larger Mennonite Brethren Church and seems have left behind little documentary evidence from which historians might work.
Photograph of Heinrich Helzer (seated in the wheelchair) next to his wife Christina (nee Rosh or Ross).
Standing from left to right: 1. George Samuel, b. 28 Nov. 1888 Hastings, NE - d. 12 Jan 1965, Beaverton, OR 2. John Charles b. 12 Sept. 1881 Hastings NE - d. 21 Feb. 1929, Portland, OR 3. Marnell Jack b.1 Jan. 1880 Hasting, NE d. 17 April 1961, Portland, OR 4. Heinrich (Henry) b. 27 Sept 1868 Norka, Saratov, Russia d. 29 Sept 1936 Portland, OR 5. Peter Fredrick b. 14 Aug. 1883 Hasting, NE d. 1945 Green Acres, WA. Sitting from left to right: 6. Emma b. 16 Sept 1876 Norka, Russia d. 1959 7. Christina (Mother) b. 1 May 1843 Norka, Russia d. 16 Oct 1911 Portland, OR 8. Heinrich (Henry) H. Sr. (Father) b. 17 Jan 1844 Norka, Russia, d. 30 Mar. 1904 Portland, OR 9. Magdalene (Lena) b. 1 Sept 1870 Norka, Russia d. 16 Nov. 1942, Portland, OR 10. Christine b. 10 March 1873 Norka, Russia, d. 2 May 1927. The photo was taken in 1900 at the home of Heinrich and Christina.
Photograph and description contributed by Loretta Woodward and Marna Helser Hing.
According to the limited documents that are available, the Mennonite Brethren congregation began meeting in the Albina area of Portland by 1891, ten years after the arrival of the first Volga Germans in Portland. By 1892, the church had 22 members and Heinrich H. Helzer (also Hölzer, Hoelzer or Helser) was the minister. Heinrich Helzer was born January 17, 1844 in Norka, Russia. Heinrich married Christina Ross (Rosh) who was also born in Norka (in 1843). According to great-granddaughter Loretta Woodward, Heinrich Helzer was a Mennonite minister in Russia. He and his wife left Norka in 1878 bound for America. They first settled in Hastings, Nebraska where they lived in a Mennonite commune. The commune had a large central house surrounded by cottages. Heinrich and Christina were part of a large group of immigrants from Norka that settled in Portland's Albina neighborhood. The couple arrived in Portland in November 1891. The sons of Heinrich and Christina Helzer, John Charles and George Samuels, started Helser Bros. Transfer Co. in 1902.
By 1895 there were 38 members. After Helzer's death on March 30, 1904, the congregation lacked strong resident leadership and for some years, ministers from the church in Dallas, Oregon preached regularly in Portland, as often as every other Sunday. Ministers Peter C. Hiebert (1907-1908) and Heinrich S. Voth (1909-1915) often filled the void. It is remembered that a lame baker, a single man named Peter Heinrich, would regularly send a long green box with two layers of cookies home with Heinrich Voth after his weekend in Portland. For many years, before Heinrich moved to California in 1926, he was listed as the leader in Pacific District Council (PDC) yearbooks, often with an ordained preacher or two and a deacon. Membership dropped to 37 members in 1912, 10 in 1926 and fluctuated widely in surrounding years. In 1937 there were 24 members.
In 1893 and again in 1901 and 1927, the congregation filed articles of incorporation. During much of its existence the church was viewed as a home mission. The Portland and Dallas churches related to other Mennonite Brethren conferences until the PDC, comprised of congregations in Washington, Oregon and California, organized in 1913. Before the PDC organized, the Mennonite Brethren conference considered Oregon as a mission field. The PDC also regarded Portland as mission work and offered direction and assistance.
Photograph of F. F. Friesen Sr. family. F. F. Friesen Jr. ministered at the Mennonite Brethren Church. This photo is shown on page 162 of the book titled "Apart and Together: Mennonites in Oregon and Neighboring States, 1876- 1976" by Hope K. Lind.
By 1916, and for some years following, there was both a home mission and congregation in Portland, with the two merging in 1930.
In the early years, there appear to have been problems within the congregation due in part to the Seventh Day Adventist influence and perhaps due to the tensions between Volga Germans and ethnic Mennonite Brethren. The congregation appears to have always struggled.
In the later years, the stress of adapting to urban culture and financial problems contributed to the demise of the church. Even among German-speaking people, mission outreach never prospered greatly. The response of younger people to cultural change in the larger world brought considerable conflict and stress as was the case in other German Russian churches. The loss of younger people continued the decline of the congregation and the work nearly ended in 1932, revived in 1933, then ended in 1938 (its last report to the Pacific District Conference was 1937). Most of the members at that time were older people. The remaining members were advised to join the church in Dallas, about 60 miles to the southwest.
There is reference in the records of the Second German Baptist Church that members of a small Mennonite Brethren Church in Albina joined with the Second German Baptist Church. It is likely that this was the Mennonite Brethren church on NE 6th Avenue.
The PDC sold the property in 1939 and the funds were to be held for new work in Portland. In 1940, the committee for home missions reported that they had found no new opportunities and the was loaned to a new congregation in West Salem.
Some of the families in the church included: Cook (Koch), Dill, Fast*, Friesen*, Heinrich, Helzer, Huwa, Koch, Martens*, Nachtigal (Nightengale)*, Pauli, Popp, Reisbich, Ross, Sauer, Schnell, Schwindt, Singer, Sittner, Urbach, and Wittenberg.
* = Family surname believed to be Mennonite in origin. Other family surnames appear to be Volga German in origin.
Leaders of the Portland Mennonite Brethren Church include the following (dates are approximate):
| Heinrich Hoelzer (Helzer) | 1891-1900 |
| Heinrich Reisbich | 1901-1913 |
| Peter Heinrich | 1913-1929 |
| Conrad H. Urbach | 1929-1934 |
| Jacob Koch | 1934-1936 |
| F. F. Friesen | 1936-1938 |
There are other spiritual leaders for the Mennonite Brethren Church on NE 6th listed in the Portland Directories.
1909 - Jacob Reisbach (possibly the same person as Heinrich Reisbich)
1914 - Heinrich S. Voth. Voth was a minister and elder from Mountain Lake, Minnesota. He was one of several Mennonite Brethren church leaders who traveled across the continent, providing evangelistic and administrative assistance to small congregations in need of such help.
1916 - D.F. Komm (possibly Kromm)
It is believed that the church structure (shown above) was built as a Mennonite Brethren Church around 1907. According to the current owner, the building has 14 foot coved ceilings in a large "loft style" room. All of the plaster walls seem original as well as the floor. It appears that there were never any interior walls that a house would have had. The floors are the original fir planking, and there are lines of distress where pews rested. The windows are unusually tall with the "church style" arch at the top. They were definitely framed to accommodate this arch. The front doors are double doors and appear as though they could be original as well.
The members of the Zion German Congregational Church worshiped at the Mennonite Brethren Church on NE 6th while their new church building was being constructed at NE 9th and Fremont. The Zion church was originally organized in the home of Conrad Helzer - possibly a close relative to Heinrich Helzer of the Mennonite church.
Information about the Portland Mennonite Brethren Church can be located in two printed sources:
Lind, Hope Kauffman, Apart and Together: Mennonites in Oregon and Neighboring States, 1876-1976, Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1990
75 Years of Fellowship: Pacific District Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches 1912-1987, Fresno, Calif.: Pacific District Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches, 1987.
Tombstone of Henry and Christina Helser at the Columbian Cemetery
Heinrich Helzer (Helser) and his wife Christina are buried at the Columbian Cemetery in North Portland. The Helser's are listed in the Columbian Cemetery Names List.
Please contact me if you have more information about this church and its congregation.