Faith
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The history of the Mennonites in the Paso Robles area began in 1896, when pioneers Jacob Hege and Jacob E. Claassen came to evaluate the land and decided to settle east and west of Paso Robles, with Hege choosing the Estrella plains and Claassen preferring the Godfrey Ranch near the Nacimiento River. Other families soon followed, and in the fall of 1897 they organized the first Mennonite church in California, with Rev. Jacob Hege as elder and Rev. A.J. Wiebe as assistant pastor. In the fall of 1898, the congregation decided to meet in two locations because of travel distances and some cultural differences, and by 1903 the two groups became individual congregations. After a fire destroyed the Willow Creek Mennonite Church in 1967, the two churches became one again, and though never large in number, these Mennonite congregations touched many lives in the community.
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El Paso de Robles (Paso Robles), California · United States
