In 1953 there was unrest among the David Martin Mennonites in the Waterloo Region in Canada, which resulted in the excommunication of numerous people.
A third group, consisting of 50 people, who had left the David Martin Church under the leadership of deacon Samuel Horst, also entered this union in early 1958.
On April 6, 1958, the merged groups held their first united communion meeting, and by 1962 they chose to call themselves the Orthodox Mennonite Church.
[5] In 1974 the Orthodox Mennonites divided, primarily over the question of whether the wearing of beards should be enforced or not, along with other issues of disciplinary interpretation.
The beard wearing group, which included Bishop Elam S. Martin, moved to Howick, Ontario, en masse beginning in 1979.
They were eventually nicknamed "Gorries", but are legally referred to as Orthodox Mennonite Church, Huron County, Ontario.
The original group, nicknamed "Hoovers", remained in the Waterloo Region and are legally known as Orthodox Mennonite Church, Wellesley Township, Ontario.
In 2013 a family has settled in Renfrew County in Admaston Bromley Township near Douglas, Ontario, in the Ottawa Valley.
[12][5] In 2006 a group of 12 families, that split from the main body in the Walkerton area in southern Ontario, moved to Westbourne, Manitoba, where they settled on 1,000 hectares of farmland.
This growing community runs several sawmills, a cedar planing mill, market gardens and an engineered truss factory.