By the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1520, Mennonites had lived in Switzerland for centuries. Some have suggested that Mennonites originated in Silesia on the banks of the Odder River, and were among the "barbarian" tribes that toppled the Roman Empire and conquered Western Europe. Mennonites were so named because they followed the teachings of Menno Simons, who like Martin Luther, was formerly a Catholic priest.
The Mennonites were Anabaptists or "re-baptizers." They did not believe in infant baptism -- rather they thought that the faithful should come to Christ voluntarily, when they were baptized as consenting adults. This difference in dogma was just the basis for persecution of the Mennonites by the state church of Switzerland which was headed by the King. There are two very practical reasons why the persecution grew unabounded. The Mennonite church was an evangelical Protestant sect that was growing rapidly in numbers. This resulted in a significant loss of contributions to the state church. Second, the Mennonites were pacifists or "conscientious objectors" and refused to fight in the many royal wars. The persecution was severe -- many were sold as galley slaves, leaders were guiliotined, and eventually many thousands were exiled.
About 1700, the starting points of the pathways to freedom in these places of exile: 1) the Palatinate, German land west of the Rhine River, later known as Pfalz, and now part of Germany; 2) Alsace and Lorraine, now part of France; 3) Hesse, Germany and Bavaria and other German states; 4) Holland (Netherlands); and 5) England emerged. British ships offered regular excursions to Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania Colony for about 10,000 German-speaking persons. (Refer to: Olive Tree Genealogy.)
After the gruelling six-week trip, the Mennonites settled mainly in Lancaster and Berks Counties.
There were two varieties of Mennonites -- the Brethren and the Amish. Amish-Mennonites first came in numbers to Pennsylvania aboard the Charming Nancy in 1737. Some of them, possibly including Jacob Hochstetler, Jacob Beiler, Johannes Gerber, and Jacob Mast, settled in the "Northkill" area, near Schartlesville in the far northern corner of what was to become Berks County, Pennsylvania. This first Amish settlement was out beyond the established frontier of the time. For an interesting account see: "Hochstetler Massacre". The settlers fled their land for safer areas of the colony and the settlement disappeared.
Amish-Mennonite children nearly always married "within the faith" and they picked their mates from the children of neighboring settlers. They tended to have very large families, and when one of the spouses died, a second marriage and second family was commonplace. As some moved to Amish settlements in the west, such as Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and Holmes County, Ohio, there has been a continuity in the surnames that lasted over 275 years, and still continues to some extent in modern times. Amish-Mennonite surnames prominent in Berks and Lancaster Counties, before 1800 are: BEILER/BYLER, BERKEY, BLANK/PLANK, EASH/ESH, FISHER, GERBER/GARBER, GNAGEY/KANGAGY, HERTZLER/HARTZLER, HOCHSTETLER/HOSTETLER, HOOLEY, KAUFFMAN, KING/KOENIG, KURTZ, LANTZ, LAPP, LEHMAN, MAST, MILLER, SOMMERS, SPEICHER, STOLTZFUS, TROYER, WENGER/WINGARD, YODER, and ZUG/ZOOK.
The Mennonites followed the pathways, made the crossing and migrated westward, finding religious freedom in America. For many thousand more of them and the churches to which they belonged, visit Mennobits.
Submitted by: Douglas Garber.
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