One of the greatest events in a of history was the American westward movement of European settlers. West Marion and East-central McPherson counties in central Kansas played a unique role in that movement. Here, starting in 1874, Russian and Polish Mennonites built some fourteen settlement villages

 

 

The Mennonite Settlement Museum celebrates that facet of the American mosaic represented by the Russian and Polish refugee Mennonites from eastern Europe who settled here in the early 1870s. Two of these villages, Hoffnungsthal and Gnadenau are represented at the Mennonite Settlement Museum by the Peter Paul Loewen House and the Jacob Friesen Mill, respectively.

 

Open for tours, see here for more details.