Martin Kendig's Swiss Relatives by Jane Evans Best
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
New conneaions have been discovered between Kendig, Meylin, Miller, Meyer, Herr, and Witmer families of early Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Martin Kendig's Swiss Relatives by jane Evans Best artin Kendig has been called "First settler of placed in the name of Kendig and Hans/John Herr for later Lancaster County, Pennsylvania." With five distribution. At this time they represented twenty-one new other Swiss Mennonites he signed the June Swiss pioneers to the land office for individual land grants. 1 M 27, 1710, letter from London to the His distinctive mark, MK, appears on the ship lists of the Amsterdam Mennonite Church, and arrived with them in Molly when it arrived in Philadelphia on September 30, Philadelphia on September 23, 1710, on the ship Maria 1727, with more immigrants who settled in what is now Hope. Over half of the first ten-thousand-acre tract was Lancaster County. 2 placed in his name for later distribution to new members of This article reconstructs the Peter Kundig (KA) family of the colony. He returned to Europe in 1715 and brought back Baretswil, Bauma, and Pfaffikon, Canton of Zurich, with him over three hundred new colonists, including friends Switzerland, of which I believe Martin Kendig (?KA342 and and relatives, when he arrived in Pennsylvania in the fall of ?ML2342) was a member. He was probably a first cousin of 1717. Approximately five thousand additional acres were Martin Meili (?ML2361), Jacob Miller (?MR1521 and ?ML2311), Christian Herr (?HH12 and ?KA362) and Hans Herr (?HH13 and ?KA363), all of whom also immigrated in 1710 on the Maria Hope. 3 Another first cousin, Hans Meyer (MB84 and KA334), was probably the Hans Mier, Senior, who immigrated by September 27,1717, and died in present Lancaster County by 1722. Outlines of the families of Jacob MUller (MR), Hans Meyer (MB), and Christian Herr (HH) are included below. On February 12, 1672, a letter signed by ten ministers of the Palatinate was sent to the Anabaptist community in Amsterdam, Netherlands, thanking them for their help and support.4 Included were Ours Abi (?A712), Petter Gutt (?C622), and Jor Licht, ministers west of the Rhine River, and Hans Weidmers, Kristen Her (HH), and Jost Angel, ministers below Heidelberg. 5 Because he was an Anabaptist leader the right age at the right place, I believe Kristen Her (HH) was probably the grandfather of the five Herr brothers 1Evelyn A. Benson, "Martin Kendig 1710 Mennonite Pioneer Leader," M ennonite Research journal 16 (Apr. and July 1975): 1, 15-17, 23, 27-28. 2Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William J. Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers (Norristown, Pa. : Pennsylvania German Society, 1934), vol. 2, p. 3. 3Martin Hervin Brackbill, "New Light on Hans Herr and Martin Kendig," Papers of the Lancaster County Historical Society 39 (1935): 73-102. 4George Frederick Newman and Clyde Lester Groff, Letters from Our Palatinate Ancestors 1644-1689 (Hershey, Pa.: Gary T. Haw baker, 1984), pp. 61-63. 5Jane Evans Best, "Guth Families of Ottenbach, Switzerland," Mennonite Family History, 8 (Oct. 1989):137 and 9 Oan. 1990):23. I now believe that Petter Gutt, the minister, was most likely to have been C622, and the father of Jacob Good (GA), who died in Lancaster This map shows the area west and south of Zurich, Switzerland, in Co., Pa., in 1730. which Anabaptist activity was noticeable in the sixteenth through the 6Hermann and Gertrud Guth, J. Lemar and Lois Ann Mast, seventeenth centuries. This includes the villages of Hedingen, Palatine Mennonite Census Lists, 1664-1793 (Elverson, Pa.: Stallikon, Mettmenstetten, Bonstetten, and Birmensdorf. Mennonite Family History, 1987), p. 15. Pennsylvania M ennonite Heritage 2 january 1992 who immigrated to America between 1710 and 1719. In 1685 a Christian Herr was a Mennonite living at Mauer.6 Hans Weidmers from the 1672list may have been related to Heini Witmer (WS) of Hedingen, Zurich, or to Peter Widmer (WT113) of Richterswil, Zurich, who may have been ancestors of at least seven of the Witmer families of early Lancaster County. Outlines of the WS and WT families are included below. The 1718 tax assessment list of Conestoga Township, Chester (now Lancaster) County, mentions five different Kendig landowners. They are as follows: Martin Kendig (?KA342) (d. 1748); Henry Kendig (?KA343) (d.1725); Georg Kendig (?KA352) (d. 1755); Hans Jacob Kendig (?KA354) (d.1735); andJacobKendig (?KA371) (d.1727). One was the brother of Martin, and three were probably his first cousins. Meylin Connection Between 1652 and 1749 descendants of Hans Meili (ML2), the Zurich Anabaptist leader/ were recorded as they claimed their inheritances, and included Kiindigs, Kauffmans, and Miillers. By Swiss law they had to be or become members of the Reformed Church. 8 Unfortunately for us, descendants who remained Anabaptist were not recorded. On April 8, 1689, Elisabetha Kindig, 21 year-old married daughter of Jacob Kindig, an Anabaptist at Ittlingen, was baptized at the Reformed Church in Rei hen, The broken and badly eroded gravestone of Barbara Meilin, wife of Germany. 9 An Anna Elisabeth Kundig was married to Martin Meilin (?ML2361), lies in the Tschantz Cemetery, West Anstett Volken, 10 who claimed in 1699 a share of the Hans Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was Meili (ML2) inheritance in the name of his wife. In 1708 probably the first cousin of Martin Kendig (?KA342 and ?ML2342). she lived in Ittlingen and was called "one time wife of It has the following text: "HIER LIEGT BEGRABEN BEl BARBARA EHRW DES AL TEN MARTN MELLI SEN EHEFRAU Anstett Volken, and whose mother had been a Meili." GELEBT 24 JAHR 1ST GESTORBEN 11 ABRILL 1742" which in They seem to be the same person, KA341, a daughter of English states: "Here lies buried Barbara, honorable wife of the old Hans Jacob Kundig (KA34). He probably was also the Martin Meilin for 24 years. She died on April 11, 1742." father of two of the five Kendigs in early Lancaster County. Hans Jacob Kundig (KA34) emigrated to the Palatinate Her brother Jacob (ML236) attended the illegal meeting from Auslikon, Pfaffikon, by 1657. I believe his wife was for worship in Steinsfurt, Germany, in 1661,12 and the Elsbeth Meili (ML234 and BA331), daughter of Martin Martin Meylin who was in the 1710 group of settlers of Meili (ML23), the his_torian of the Anabaptist persecution, Lancaster County was probably his son (ML2361). and Barbara Bar (BA33). While her parents were im Elsbeth's sister Verena Meyli (ML235), who lived with prisoned for their faith between 1641 and 1647, she and her her among relatives between 1641 and 1647, was married sister Verena (ML235) lived with relatives, including her to a Kauffman. He may have been Heinrich, son of Jacob aunt, Cathrina Meyli (ML26), and husband, Heinrich Kauffman and Sara Brunner, who were Anabaptists in Funk (FH1), in Mettmenstetten from 1645 to 1647.11 1633 in Edikon in the parish of Diirnten, Zurich. Jacob 7Jane Evans B~t, "A Bear Saga: The Birmensdorf Connection," 10Ruoff, Martin Meilis Herkunft, translation pp. ·7-8. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 11 (Apr. 1988) : 33-38. 11Jane Evans Best, "A Bear Saga: Albis to America," Pennsylvania 8W. H . Ruoff, Martin Meilis Herkunft (Zurich: 1952). A typed Mennonite Heritage 9 (Oct. 1986):14-20. manuscript in German and the translation by Noah G. Good of a 12Clyde L. Groff, Walter B. Groff, and Jane Evans Best, The Groff portion of it are available at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Book, vol. l:A Good Life in aNew Land. (Ronks, Pa.: Groff History Society, Lancaster, Pa. Associates, 1985), pp. 2-3, 6, 287-289. Also attending the Steinsfurt 9Annette Kunselman Burgert, Eighteenth Century Emmigrants meeting were: Hans Jacob Hess (?HB2); Hans Heinrich Landis from German-Speaking Lands to North America, vo!. 1: The Northern (?LS224); Hans Jacob Graff (GR5); Michael Mayer (MAl); Jacob Kraichgau (Breinigsville, Pa.: Pennsylvania German Society, 1983), p. Gurh (0352); Oswald Beer (BA12) and his wife (ML58); HansMeyle 425. Karl Diefenbacher, Hans Ulrich Pfister, and Kurt H. Hotz, (ML27) and his son (ML272); Heinrich Beer (?BA123); Rudolf Schweizer Einwanderer in den Kraichgau nach dem Dreissigiahrigen Landis (?LS326); Marx Oberholtzer (OA269); and Jacob Groff Krieg (Sinsheim: Heimatverein Kraichgau, 1983), p. 202, nos. (GR3). Mennonite Encyclopedia, s.v. "Hasselbach," by C. Hege, p. 5247-5249. 677. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 3 january 1992 Kauffman was a miller's servant, and they are not recorded The eldest son of Elsbeth Meili (ML20) was probably in Di.irnten after May 4, 1633, when Heinrich was the Hans Jacob Vollenweider who assisted the authorities baptized. 13 in evaluating the property of the Anabaptists after the The Mi.iller connection to the Kendigs may have been Steinsfurt meeting in 1661. He had converted from the through Elsbeth's half-sister Tryni Meili (ML231), who Anabaptist religion to the state Reformed religion, and was may have married Hans Jacob Mi.iller (?MR152), son of well acquainted with their homesY Hans Mi.iller (MR15) and his wife Anna Peter, Anabaptists Another son, Heinrich Vollenweider (ML204), was in 1633 in Edikon, Di.irnten. I believe he is the Hans Mi.iller baptized on September 1, 1644, at Pfaffikon with Barbel who, with Hans Meili (ML27), was invited by two Barons HoHenberger, wife of Jorg Kundig (KA3), as a sponsor. He of Venningen in January 1650 to move from Alsace to came into contact with the Anabaptist congregations in the settle in Di.ihren in the Kraichgau. 14 In 1693 a Jacob Mi.iller Manheim area and joined them there. In 1671 he came was living in Friedrichstadt, Germany, with a group of back to Auslikon ill, and died at his parents' home without Mennonites15 which included Martin Mayle (?ML2361) denying his Anabaptist faith.