Bishop Benjamin Eby (2May 178528June 1853) was a Canadian minister, schoolteacher, farmer, author, and community leader. He was a pioneer of the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

community in Canada and a strong proponent of

nonresistance Nonresistance (or non-resistance) is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of pri ...

Biography

Benjamin Eby was born in 1785 at a

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

Hammer Creek Hammer Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of Cocalico Creek in Lebanon and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania in the United States. Hammer ...

, Lancaster County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He emigrated to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

in 1806 and purchased a large tract of land in what would later become

Kitchener, Ontario ) , image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , blank_emblem_type = ...

. He became a Mennonite preacher in 1809, and by 1811 or 1813 had built a log Mennonite

meeting house A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

used as a school house and for religious services. He was Bishop from 1812 and was responsible for the growth of

Mennonite Church Canada Mennonite Church Canada is a Mennonite denomination in Canada, with head offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. History The first Mennonites in Canada arrived from ...

Waterloo County Waterloo County was a county in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1853 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Situated on a subset of land within the Haldimand Tract, the traditional territory of ...

. Eby authored numerous published works including a hymn book, catechism, several school texts, and a church history. His church history in particular demonstrated "the nonresistant stance and his belief that war is unacceptable in the Kingdom of God". Eby encouraged manufacturers to his settlement known as "Ebytown". He is credited with encouraging the peaceful coexistence of Mennonites with the rest of the community, and promoted reconciliation and unity on an international scale as well. In his mid-forties, Eby's settlement was renamed from Ebytown to Berlin, and in the year of his death Berlin became the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of the newly created County of Waterloo, elevating it to the status of Village. (It was designated a city in 1912About Kitchener
and renamed as Kitchener in 1916.)

References

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Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eby, Benjamin 1785 births 1853 deaths People from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania History of Kitchener, Ontario 19th century in Kitchener Christians from Pennsylvania American people of Pennsylvania Dutch descent American Mennonites Canadian Mennonites American emigrants to Canada American people of German descent Canadian people of German descent Canadian city founders Burials at First Mennonite Cemetery, Kitchener, Ontario