Mekke Willms Swyter

Mekke Willms Swyter , also Mekke Wilm Swyter (born October 8, 1838 in Eilsum , † April 19, 1900 in Aplington , Iowa ) was a Baptist clergyman and pioneer of the Baptist movement in northwest Germany. In the second half of his service, he worked as a missionary among East Frisian emigrants in Iowa / USA .

Life

Mekke Willms Swyter

Mekke Willms Swyter came from an Evangelical Reformed family. After completing his school education, he attended the teachers' college and became a primary school teacher. After he had been baptized by the Baptist missionary Johann Peter de Neui on December 23, 1860 and had become a member of the Hamswehrum Baptist Congregation (today: Evangelical Free Church Congregation Jennelt ), he had to quit teaching according to the civil service law at the time. How Swyter earned a living for himself and his family in the following five years is unknown.

The Hamswehrum Baptist Congregation recognized his preaching talent and recommended him for the theological course at the mission seminar in Hamburg , which he attended from February to September 1865. He then worked as a missionary worker in Emden and accompanied the establishment of the local Baptist community, the nucleus of which was the Huguenot community under the cross . From 1871, Swyter found employment as a missionary for the parish in Weener . Their Baptist church was currently still a branch of your Baptist. During this time he lived in Jemgum . In addition to his development work in the Rheiderland, Swyter was active as a travel preacher throughout the East Frisian region. In 1875 Swyter was called to Helmstedt as a preacher , where he remained until 1876 and then switched to the Baptist emigration mission of the Bremen Baptists . From there he came to Felde near Westerstede in October 1881 to take on the vacant position of preacher in the Ammerland Baptist congregation.

In 1892 Mekke Swyter left his north-west German homeland and emigrated to the United States in order to do reconstruction work in the Baptist congregations founded by East Frisians in George and Buck Grove (both places are in the US state of Iowa ). He then retired and moved to Aplington to live with his son Carl Swyter, where he worked for a few months as an interim pastor in the young Baptist church . Swyter died in 1900. His grave is in Pleasant View Cemetery in Aplington.

literature

Evangelical Free Church Community Westerstede (Ed.): Time leaps. Episodes from 150 years of community history. Westerstede 1999.
Evangelical Free Church Community Weener / Ems (Ed.): History of the Baptist Church Weener / Ems. Weener 1996.

Web links

Becoming and growing the Baptist church in Westerstede ( memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), viewed on March 16, 2010.

Individual evidence

^ Evangelical Free Church Community Westerstede: Time leaps. Episodes from 150 years of community history , Westerstede 1999, p. 14, Sp I
↑ Samuel Cornelius de Haan, the last preacher of the congregation under the cross had turned to Baptism and was baptized on June 7, 1866 with 16 congregation members in the Baptist congregation of Hamswehrum by the elder SU Janssen; compare to this Evangelical Free Church Community Aurich (ed.): Everything has its time. Chronic notes by a contemporary on the 25th anniversary of the Evangelical Free Church of Aurich (Baptists) .
↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Weener / Ems (ed.): History of the Baptist Church Weener / Ems , Weener 1996, p. 7 f.
↑ Peter Muttersbach: waymarks of a free church. 160 years of Baptists in Schöningen , Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-8391-8234-5 , p. 48.
↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Westerstede (ed.): Time leaps. Episodes from 150 years of community history. Westerstede 1999, p. 14 SP II
^ Historical page on the homepage of the Aplington Baptist Church ; Accessed on March 16, 2010. - Swyter's first name is William (probably “Willms” in anglicised form).
↑ cemetery subdirectory of IAGenWeb -project ; accessed on March 16, 2010.

personal data
SURNAME	Swyter, Mekke Willms
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Swyter, Mekke; Swyter, Meke Wilm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Baptist clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH	October 8, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hurry
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 1900
Place of death	Aplington, Iowa

[1] Evangelical Free Church Community Westerstede: Time leaps. Episodes from 150 years of community history , Westerstede 1999, p. 14, Sp I

[2] Samuel Cornelius de Haan, the last preacher of the congregation under the cross had turned to Baptism and was baptized on June 7, 1866 with 16 congregation members in the Baptist congregation of Hamswehrum by the elder SU Janssen; compare to this Evangelical Free Church Community Aurich (ed.): Everything has its time. Chronic notes by a contemporary on the 25th anniversary of the Evangelical Free Church of Aurich (Baptists) .

[3] Evangelical Free Church Community Weener / Ems (ed.): History of the Baptist Church Weener / Ems , Weener 1996, p. 7 f.

[4] Peter Muttersbach: waymarks of a free church. 160 years of Baptists in Schöningen , Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-8391-8234-5 , p. 48.

[5] Evangelical Free Church Community Westerstede (ed.): Time leaps. Episodes from 150 years of community history. Westerstede 1999, p. 14 SP II

[6] Historical page on the homepage of the Aplington Baptist Church ; Accessed on March 16, 2010. - Swyter's first name is William (probably “Willms” in anglicised form).

[7] tery subdirectory of IAGenWeb -project ; accessed on March 16, 2010.