Forschungsstelle in Weierhof. Ivan Glick, Laura ... was obtained from the files of the Institut für Pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde in. Kaiserslautern; the ...
Final version as published in Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 20-23 (April 2002)
Using European sources, the authors extend the history of the Stoltzfus family and clarify the origin of the surname.
The German Roots of Nicholas Stoltzfus by T. Douglas Mast and Truman E. Mast
Nicholas Stoltzfus, who arrived in Philadelphia on October 18, 1766 aboard the ship Polly, is the common ancestor of the entire Amish Stoltzfus clan in North America. Nicholas, who had been a farm laborer in the area of Zweibr¨ucken, Germany, was a convert to Anabaptism. lthough the life of Nicholas in Germany and Pennsylvania has been documented previously,1–4 little has been known about his ancestry. Previous historians have documented that Nicholas Stoltzfus was the son of wigmaker Christoph Gottlieb Stoltzfuss and Catharina Rosina Bergmann, daughter of Johannes, who were married in Zweibr¨ucken on November 10, 1717.5 Nicholas’ grandfather is known to have been a Lutheran preacher, also named Christoph Gottlieb, at Rottleben, a town in the Kyffh¨auser region of Th¨uringen in the former East Germany. Our research provides new information regarding the Stoltzfus roots in Germany and offers answers for two of the unsolved problems listed by Samuel Wenger.3 First, Nicholas’ family is traced back two generations beyond his grandfather Christoph Gottlieb. Second, the origin of the Stoltzfus name is found. We also present some details regarding the lives of Nicholas and his ancestors in Europe.
¨ Roots in Thuringen A search for records in the state of Th¨uringen, part of the former East Germany, has led to new data on the ancestors of Nicholas Stoltzfus. This information had presumably not been found to date because of difficulties in access before the reunification of Germany. Now, a search of transcribed church records at the Th¨uringisches Staatsarchiv in Rudolstadt has allowed the Stoltzfus ancestry 1
Exterior and interior of the church of St. John the Baptist in Rottleben, Th¨uringen, Germany, where two of Nicholas Stoltzfus’ ancestors served as pastors. The church is currently used by a Lutheran congregation. [Photos courtesy of Pastor Thomas Behr.] to be traced back several more generations. The earliest known ancestor of Nicholas Stoltzfus found in the Rudolstadt archives is his greatgreat-grandfather Paul Steltzefuss, a herdsman (Hirt) from the manor Norwerk in the Rudolstadt area. The name Steltzefuss, literally “stilt-foot,” can be translated as “peg leg,” and today also refers to a deformity of horses’ legs. (Alternate spellings for the family name, found in various records, include Stelzfuss, Stelzefuss, and Steltzfuss.) Paul married Margarethe Eberhardt (daughter of Hans Eberhardt of D¨oschnitz) on January 11, 1624, in Rudolstadt. Their son Johann Adam, born on July 7, 1625 in Rudolstadt, was the great-grandfather of Nicholas. Johann Adam Steltzfuss married Catharine Lerch (daughter of the organist Johann Ernst Lerche) on February 5, 1654. Johann Adam was a teacher (Collega Quartus) at a school in Frankenhausen. Between 1658 and 1660, he moved to Rottleben, about 58 kilometers northwest of Weimar in Th¨uringen, where he served as a Lutheran pastor at the church of Sankt Johannes (St. John the Baptist) [see photos]. Johann Adam and Catharine had four children, among them Christoph Gottlieb Steltzfuss, the grandfather of Nicholas, born October 27, 1660. Christoph Gottlieb Steltzfuss was ordained as a pastor in Rottleben on July 20, 1689. Two months later, on September 9, 1689, he married Anna Margarethe Schwimmer in Rottleben. He
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served as a substitute pastor for his father in Rottleben, but died before his father, on September 17, 1696. The children of Christoph Gottlieb and Anna Margarethe included two daughters and one son. This son, also named Christoph Gottlieb, born on July 19, 1692 in Rottleben, was the father of Nicholas. In the Rudolstadt archive is a parchment document, dated October 29, 1696, which refers to the “old pastor of Rottleben” Adam Steltzefuss and his deceased son Christoph Gottlieb, who had died about one month earlier. Christoph Gottlieb is also referred to as a substitute in this document. Although a definitive interpretation is difficult, the document may be a request to the local ruler for transfer of the land that had been in Christoph Gottlieb’s possession. Perusal of original church records in Bendeleben, near Rottleben, confirmed several of the transcriptions from the Rudolstadt archive. (The earliest church records there date from 1648; prior records were destroyed in the Thirty Years War.) Also at the church in Bendeleben is a privately published history of the Rottleben Church of St. John the Baptist,8 which confirms that both Johann Adam and Christoph Gottlieb were ministers there. This history also notes that in 1698, during the tenure of Johann Adam Steltzfuss, two gilded chalices were stolen from the church. After a collection taken among the local congregation and in Leipzig, which yielded 18 Thaler, a new gilded and silver chalice was obtained. Johann Adam Steltzfuss died as pastor Emeritus on 10 January 1700.
Parents of Nicholas Stoltzfus The first record of Nicholas Stoltzfus’ father outside Th¨uringen is in the city records of Zweibr¨ucken, which was part of the larger duchy of Zweibr¨ucken in the 1600s and 1700s.9, 10 On modern roads, the distance between Rottleben and Zweibr¨ucken is 436 km. A record in the Zweibr¨ucken B¨urgeraufnahmebuch (citizenship registry) states that Christoph Gottlieb Stolzfuess, a wigmaker, son of Christoph Gottlieb Stolzfuess the pastor from Rothleben, became a citizen of Zweibr¨ucken on November 4, 1717.11 Apparently, the younger Christoph Gottlieb had changed his surname from the uncomplimentary “peg leg” to “proud foot.” (The possibility exists that the name change may have occurred earlier; however, a record of pastors for the church in Rottleben8 gives the surname of Nicholas’ grandfather and great-grandfather as Stelzfuss.) Christoph Gottlieb married Catharina Rosina Bergmann, the daughter of Johannes Bergmann who died before 1717, on September 10, 1717 in Zweibr¨ucken.5 According to notes kept in the 3
Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde in Kaiserslautern,12 the couple soon moved to Saxony, where Nicholas was born about 1718. The location of their residence in Saxony is unknown, although one possibility is that they returned to the area of Christoph Gottlieb’s home, now part of Th¨uringen. Christoph Gottlieb, like his father of the same name, died young, presumably while the family was living in Saxony. After his death in about 1721, the widow (whose name has also been given as Rosina Katharina Stoltzfuss12 ) returned to Zweibr¨ucken with her young son. On April 20, 1723, Nicholas’ mother remarried to Johann Daniel Bellaire, the son of another Daniel Bellaire from Vallorbe (Wallorb), Switzerland. A family tree compiled by descendant Friedrich C. Bellaire states that Johann Daniel was a farmer in Guttenbrunn (also called Gutenbrunnen, about 5 kilometers northwest of Zweibr¨ucken), where he died on December 29, 1754.12
Story of Nicholas Stoltzfus in Europe Much of Nicholas’ story has been reported in previous publications.1–4 One crucial document is a letter dated January 14, 1744, in which Nicholas asks the Duke of Zweibr¨ucken for permission to marry a Mennonite woman.2–4 In that letter, Nicholas states that he sought employment from strangers because he could expect no inheritance from his parents. Further impressions of Nicholas’ life in Europe can be pieced together from notes available in the Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern, compiled primarily by Ernst Drumm. Drumm’s summary of one record13 can be translated as follows: Nikolaus Stoltzfuss, born in Saxony, stepson of the Friesen Bellaire, converted to the Mennonites and married the daughter of the Rinkweiler Hof resident.
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Zweibr¨ucken government required him and his wife to leave the country. In that regard, the Lutheran zealot Wirth had opined that it did not matter whether the illegitimate child of a Mennonite hired man had a father or not, as long as the mother would not be torn from the Evangelical faith. However, Stoltzfuss appears to have stayed in the country. Before his conversion he worked at the Mennonite farms in the Kronweissenburg area (western Alsace) and later at the Ringweilerhof (city of Hornbach). In 1744, at the time of his marriage, he was 25. The “country” [Land] referred to in the above quote likely refers to the duchy of Zweibru¨cken, which was ruled by Duke Christian IV of Birkenfeld from 1742 to 1775.9 Kronweissenburg 4
is known today as Wissembourg; this area of the Alsace was ruled by the Counts of HanauLichtenberg at the time.14 The word Friesen refers not to the Dutch area of Friesland, but to the occupation of Nicholas’ father, and has been previously translated as “forest laborer;”2 another translation consistent with German usage is “pond digger”.4 The “Lutheran zealot Wirth” appears to have been a religious leader of political power sufficient to threaten Nicholas’ life. The reference to an illegitimate child is unclear. The Stoltzfus family bible record lists a Christina Stoltzfus, born December 23, 1736, who “died”4, 15 but her death date is not stated.16 If Christina is indeed the daughter of Nicholas, she would have been born eight years before his marriage, when he was about 18, and the record implies that Christina may have died as an infant. The child referred to by the “Lutheran zealot Wirth” may only be hypothetical—any future child could be considered illegitimate by the state if the parents were not married in the Lutheran church. A Zweibr¨ucken church record indicates that Nickel Stoltzfus was a sponsor at the [Lutheran] baptism of Maria Barbara Koch, born 31 December 1739, daughter of Johannes Koch of Gutenbrunnen and his wife Maria Magdalena, born Conrad.18 This participation in an infant baptism suggests that Nicholas’ conversion to the Anabaptist faith occurred no earlier than 1740. The Ringweilerhof (Rinkweiler Hof), where Nicholas worked and met his wife (whose name is unknown), is south of Zweibr¨ucken, near the town of Hornbach [see map]. Nicholas is also reported to have leased the Ringweilerhof in 1754.1, 4 The Hof, which is pictured in Refs. 4 and 19, is currently occupied by the Mennonite Schowalter family. Additional records compiled by Ernst Drumm provide some indications of Nicholas’ employment after marriage and before emigration. One states that Nicholas worked in 1750 as a Friese (here probably meaning “pond digger”) at the Zweibr¨ucken trout pond, in service to the master carpenter Johann Adam Petry of Brenschelbach.20 Another indicates that the Mennonite Nikolaus Stolzfuss employed Georg Peter Bollinger, who married Sara Katharina Scholl from Hornbach in 1751; their two children were baptized in Ixheim in 1754 and 1756.21 Further records indicate that on April 14, 1759, Nickel Stoltzfuss leased the Goffingsche M¨uhle (mill) in Hornbach, but had a dispute with the landlady, the widow of Andreas Auelenbach, regarding the hydraulics. On February 19, 1761, Nikolaus Stoltzfuss and Daniel Goffing had a dispute regarding a horse purchase with Daniel Mauss Jr. of Hornbach.22 Nicholas emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766 with a son and three daughters. His first wife, whose name remains unknown, is believed to have died in Germany, and Nicholas is believed to have emigrated as a widower.3 All of Nicholas’ known children were born before his emigra5
Map of farming estates near Zweibr¨ucken, with the Ringweilerhof, former home of Nicholas Stoltzfus, indicated at the lower left. Adapted from Johann Gehring, Zweibr¨ucker H¨ofe: Geschichte und Geschicten der alten Bauernh¨ofe von Zweibr¨ucken mit Aquarellen aus heutiger Zeit.
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tion.7, 15 Other records imply that Nicholas remarried in Pennsylvania to a woman named Anna, possibly with the surname K¨onig (King).3
Ancestry The transcribed family records from the Rudolstadt archive and other known information on Nicholas’ ancestry are summarized as follows, enumerated by generation. 1. Paul Steltzefuss m. Margarethe Eberhardt (daughter of Hans Eberhardt, D¨oschnitz) 11 Jan 1624 (a) *Johann Adam (7 Jul 1625–10 Jan 1700) 2. Johann Adam Steltzfuss m. Catharine Lerch (d.o. Johann Ernst Lerche, d. Mar 166223 ). 5 Feb 1654 (a) Anna Elisabeth (19 Jun 1655– ) (b) Adam (20 Mar 1658– , m. 18 Apr 1692) (c) *Christoph Gottlieb (27 Oct 1660–17 Sep 1696) (d) Eva (28 Sep 1664– , m. Fincke Gangloff 29 May 1695) 3. Christoph Gottlieb Steltzfuss m. Anna Margerethe Schwimmer 9 Sep 1689 (a) Magdalene Margarethe (25 Jul 1691– ) (b) *Christoph Gottlieb (19 Jul 1692–c. 1721) (c) Katharine Justine (15 Jul 1695– ) 4. Christoph Gottlieb Stoltzfuss m. Catharina Rosina Bergmann (d.o. Johannes Bergmann), 10 Sep 17175 (a) Nicholas Stoltzfus (c. 1718–10 Nov 177424 ) The Steltzfuss and Stoltzfus family names seem not to have survived in Germany; searches for variants of these names in the present-day regions of Rudolstadt, Rottleben, and Zweibr¨ucken have not been successful. Since the name change to Stoltzfus appears to have originated with Christoph Gottlieb the father of Nicholas, it is likely that the above family tree is common to all people named Stoltzfus, all of whom descend from Nicholas. 7
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to all the archivists in Germany who contributed to this research, in particular Jens Beger and Andrea Esche of the Th¨uringisches Staatsarchiv in Rudolstadt, Roland Paul of the Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde in Kaiserslautern, Thomas Behr, pastor of the Evangelische Pfarramt in Bendeleben, and Gary Waltner of the Mennonitische Forschungsstelle in Weierhof. Ivan Glick, Laura Hinkelman, and especially Robert Baecher and Werner Enninger are thanked for translation assistance and helpful discussions.
[1] Ernst Drumm, Zur Geschichte der Mennoniten im Herzogtum Pfalz-Zweibr¨ucken, ed. Karl Jost (Wilms-Druck Zweibr¨ucken: 1962), pp. 44, 85. [2] Paul Schowalter, “Pioneer Nicholas Stoltzfus,” Mennonite Research Journal, vol. 4, April 1963, pp. 13, 22. [3] Samuel S. Wenger, “Nicholas Stoltzfus in Europe and America,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, April 1981, pp. 15–17. [4] Levi L. Stoltzfus, Revealed life of Nicholas Stoltzfus (Out of the Archives of Zweibrucken written by Ernest Drumm), self-published, 1986. [5] A typewritten transcription of the Zweibr¨ucken church records gives this date as November 10, 1717; however, the original handwritten church record appears to list this marriage within the records for 1716.6 The marriage record indicates that the last name of Nicholas’ mother was Bergmann, as noted by Wenger,3 not Bermann as reported by other sources.2, 7 [6] Lutherisches Kirchenbuch Zweibr¨ucken, Band I, typewritten transcription and fascimile copy in Stadtverwaltung Zweibr¨ucken archives. [7] Hugh F. Gingerich and Rachel W. Kreider, Amish and Amish Mennonite Genealogies (Gordonville, Pa.: Pequea Publishers, 1986). [8] Ernst Fischer, Kirche Johannes des T¨aufers in Rottleben/Kyffh.: Bildbericht, 1971, in records of Pfarramt Bendeleben, Th¨uringen.
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[9] Hermann Guth, “Zweibr¨ucken, a city and a duchy,” Mennonite Family History, April 1988, pp. 46–49. [10] “The duchy of Zweibr¨ucken,” German Genealogic Digest, vol. 15, no. 4, Winter 1999, pp. 104–123. [11] Zweibr¨ucker Arbeitsgemeinschaft f¨ur Familienforschung, B¨urgeraufnamebuch der Stadt Zweibr¨ucken von 1716–1805, in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern. [12] Notes (QAF Bellaire) in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern. [13] Note in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern (QAF Stoltzfus), transcribed by Ernst Drumm from Kirchenschaffneiarchiv Zweibr¨ucken Repertorium VI/436. [14] Annette K. Burgert, Eighteenth Century Emigrants from the Northern Alsace to America (Myerstown, Pa.: Pennsylvania German Society, 1992) [Annual Volume #26], pp. 6–9. [15] Handwritten records from a family bible presumably owned by Nicholas Stoltzfus. A copy was obtained from the files of the Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde in Kaiserslautern; the record is also translated in Ref. 4. [16] Christina’s death date has been given, apparently due to a misreading of the bible record, as August 24, 1745;3, 17 that is actually the birthdate of Nicholas’ second daughter, Catharina. [17] C. Z. Mast and Robert E. Simpson, Annals of the Conestoga Valley in Lancaster, Berks, and Chester Counties, Pennsylvania (Elverson, Pa., 1942); pp. 223, 226. [18] Annette K. Burgert, Eigtheenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Vol. II: The Western Palatinate (Birdsboro, Pa.: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1985) [Annual Volume #19], p. 315. [19] “Ringweilerhof: Home of Immigrant Nicholas Stoltzfus,” Mennonite Family History, July 1998, p. 128.
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[20] Note in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern (QAF Stoltzfus), transcribed by Ernst Drumm from Staatsarchiv Speyer, Abteiling Zweibr¨ucken I/1423, vol. 7, p. 49. [21] Note in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern (QAF Stoltzfus), transcribed by Ernst Drumm from Kirchenschaffneiarchiv Zweibr¨ucken Repertorium VI/436 and an Ixheim church record. [22] Note in collection of Institut f¨ur Pf¨alzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, Kaiserslautern (QAF Stoltzfus), transcribed by Ernst Drumm from Staatsarchiv Speyer, Hornbacher Stadtprotokoll of 1726, pp. 452, 458–460, 541]. [23] Johann Ernst Lerche was buried 10 Mar 1662 in Frankenhausen. [24] The death date of 10 November 1774 is given on Nicholas’ tombstone at the K¨onig cemetery near Leesport, Pennsylvania, pictured in Refs. 3 and 17.
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