In the fall of 1874, Swiss-German Mennonites from Volhynia, a former Polish province in present Russian Ukraine, came to America after Catherine II’s century-old privileges were rescinded and a new Russianization policy, including military conscription, threatened their faith and culture. The Mennonite congregation of Kotosufka near Zhitomir settled in this area and chose the name Hoffnungsfeld, meaning Field of Hope. Here, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad erected an Immigrant House about 20 by 120 feet that sheltered 15 to 35 families during the first winter and served as the worship and community center for the next eight years. The railroad also gave this land for religious and educational use. In 1880, the Hoffungsfeld Congregation was incorporated as the Hopefield Society of the Mennonite Church. The church building erected in 1882 and used since then stands some 230 feet east, and the cemetery where many of the pioneers are buried lies beyond. People traveled by oxcart, horse and wagon, homemade sled, or on foot from five or six miles in every direction to attend services.