Regula Weidmann (1808-1841) Stadel bei Niederglatt, Zurich, Switzerland

Regula Weidmann was born 14 February 1808 in Bachs, Zurich, Switzerland.  She is my 4G-Grandmother through my grandfather John Goodman. Bachs is a village about forty minutes north of Zurich. In 1634 the population was 391 and in 1836 the number was 596. In 1763 a catastrophic fire burned in the village creating in the aftermath Alt-Bach and Neu-Bachs.  I have not identified her parents but there are two possible couples that were married in Bachs in 1790s - Hans Weidmann and Regula Mathis both of Bachs or Johannes Weidmann and Anna Schütz also both from Bachs. In 1825 Regula married Johannes Gutmann (1802-1838). Johannes was a blacksmith from Mellikon, Canton Aargau. Mellikon is about six miles northwest of Bachs on the Rhine river.  Regula and Johannes lived in Stadel, Canton Zurich. Stadel is directly adjacent to Bachs to the east.

Johannes died in 1838 at the age of 36. Regula and Johannes had eight children between 1825 and 1838 but it is not clear if all of them survived childhood. The known children were Rudolf (1825-1874), Johannes (1827-1894) [my 3G-Grandfather], Heinrich (1830-1853), Katharina (1832-1917), Johann Heinrich (1834- ), Johann Georg (1835-1835), Johann Jakob (1836- ), and Anna (1838- ). In 1839 Regula married Johannes's brother Heinrich. Johann Heinrich Gutmann (1814-1886) was six years younger than Regula. To be married required a dispensation from the Aargau cantonal authorities for Heinrich to marry his brother's wife (https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=740278). There were prohibitions in place across Europe up until the twentieth century against such marriages.

Heinrich was also a blacksmith. I don't know if he was already in Stadel or moved from Mellikon, but he and Regula remained in Stadel. They had one child, Verena (1840- ).  Regula died the next year in 1841 at the age of 33. Heinrich subsequently married Verena Maag of Stadel and had three children with her - Anna (1842- ), Johannes Jakob Friedrich (1844- ), and Johannes Heinrich (1846- ). 

 

 

Katharina Ganz - born 1740 in Freienstein, Zurich, Switzerland

My 6 times great-grandmother Katharina Ganz, through my grandfather John Goodman, was born in Freienstein, Switzerland around 1740. Katharina married Hans Jakob Gut in 1760. Freienstein is about fifteen miles north of Zurich and about ten miles east of Windlach. The modern community of Freienstein-Teufen has a nice video of the area.

 

Regina Boegli (1826-1895)

Regina Boegli (1826-1895) was the daughter of Jacob Boegli and Verena Eberhard and born near Duggingen, Switzerland about ten miles south of Basel and she was a Mennonite. She immigrated to America on the ship South America on 21 May 1853 at the age of seventeen. She reported that immediately before immigrating she was living Hesse-Nassau. Hesse was an early site of Anabaptism including Hesse-Nassau. 1 The Mennonites in southern Nassau organized a congregation in 1790 in Wiesbaden. About 1830 this congregation had a membership of 130 from 17 families (Menn. Bl., 1896, 36). The family names represented there were Bender, Ehrismann, Hochstätter, Nafziger, Quetsch, Schanz, Schlabach, Spring, Stähly, and Unzicker (Menn. Bl.,1896, 15 and 22).  A part of this congregation immigrated to America [probably including Regina], and the others lived so widely scattered that the congregation was dissolved. 2 

Regina lived initially in Wayne County, Ohio just west of Canton, Ohio. The Mennonites first arrived in Ohio during the early 1800s. They originally settled in modern-day Stark, Wayne, Holmes, and Knox Counties. Mennonites also moved into Ashland, Geauga, and Putnam Counties as well as many other places across the State of Ohio. 3 

It was while in Wayne County that she married John Neuenschwander on 17 August 1854. In1855 they had moved to Monroe, Adams County, Indiana where there first son John was born that same year. They remained in Adams County until 1868 before settling near Elkton, Missouri in Hickory County. "Hickory County, Missouri, in the central part of the state and approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City, had three Mennonite churches in the last half of the 19th century. The Amish Mennonite settlement had its beginning with the arrival of Joseph Nafziger sometime before 1856, the year in which the Daniel Raber family from Lee County, Iowa, arrived and located near several Amish families who had preceded them. The list of Hickory County Mennonite family names includes Christner, Klopfenstein, Gerber, Miller, [[Yoder (Ioder, Joder, Jodter, Jotter, Yoeder, Yother, Yothers, Yotter)|Yoder]], Kauffman, Stucky, Nafziger, Raber, Hochstettler, Neuenschwander, Rufenacht, Lehman, Diener, Schindler, Oesch, Rich, Syler, Aker, Roth, Stoll, Gilliom, Bahler, and Gerster." 4 

"Elkton Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite Church), now extinct, located in Hickory County, Missouri, was established in 1868 by settlers from Berne, Indiana, and a few from Wayne County, Ohio. It participated in the sessions of the General Conference Mennonite Church in 1884, 1887, and 1890, but had died out by 1896. The leader of the settlement was the preacher P. S. Lehman from Berne, who continued to serve to the end, when he moved back to Berne in 1896. Some of the congregation moved to the Bethel Church in Morgan County, Missouri, others back to Berne. By 1910 practically no Mennonites were left in the settlement." 5 

Regina and John's children included Aaron, Joshua, Ezra, Miriam, Verena, Tobias, Zippora, John and Judith. Regina's brother Laban Boegli (1833-1898) lived briefly in Missouri with his sister but then moved back to Adams County, Indiana. My great-grandfather Ernest and his brother Julius came to Adams County in 1895 when the immigrated. Regina passed away in February 1895. Ernest and Julius arrived two months later in April. 

1 (Gerlach, Horst.My Kingdom Is Not of This World: 300 Years of the Amish, 1683-1983.Masthof Press & Bookstore, Jun 1, 2013) 

2 Hege, Christian. "Nassau (Germany)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 

3 May 2019. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Nassau_(Germany)&oldid=144467. 3 Ohio History Central.Web. 2 May 2019. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Mennonite_Church. 

4 Gingerich, Melvin. "Hickory County (Missouri, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 2 May 2019. http://gameo.org /index.php?title=Hickory_County_(Missouri,_USA)&oldid=120246. 

5 Gingerich, Melvin. "Elkton Mennonite Church (Hickory County, Missouri, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 2 May 2019. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Elkton_Mennonite_Church_(Hickory_County,_Missouri,_USA)&oldid=113345.