Bethel College

Bethel College is a private Christian institution located in North Newton, Kansas, United States, affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. Established in 1887, it holds the distinction of being the oldest Mennonite college in North America. It was founded as the second higher education institution linked to the General Conference Mennonite Church, following the closure of Wadsworth Institute in Ohio in 1878. During the 1880s, Kansas communities actively competed to host colleges, and on May 11, 1887, Newton city representatives and the Kansas Conference of Mennonites signed a charter for Bethel College. The college was to be built on a 120-acre plot north of Newton. The cornerstone of the main building, now known as the Administration Building and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972, was laid on October 12, 1888, in front of a crowd of 2,500 people. Construction took about five years due to slow fundraising, but the building was dedicated on September 20, 1893, and classes officially began. Cornelius H. Wedel, a young teacher from Halstead, Kansas, served as the first president. The inaugural student body included 98 students, ranging in age from 13 to their mid-thirties, and lived in shared spaces within the Administration Building. The second floor housed classrooms, a chapel, and a small library of 600 books. Student life was disciplined, with a daily schedule beginning at 5 a.m. and ending at 10 p.m. Each student worked two hours a day on campus, and gender-based rules governed evening library use. The original faculty consisted of five men who taught subjects including Bible, church history, English, German, mathematics, science, and music. Bethel College was bilingual until 1918, when German was removed from the curriculum during World War I, later reinstated, and offered as a major until 2006, when it became a minor.