Hans Stauffer

   Another name for Hans was Johannes.

  General Notes:

Immigrated: 1710 in nr Schuylkill Rv, Valley Forge, Chester Co, PA

(from GENEALOGIES OF PENNSYLVANIA FAMILIES; p.44) . . . They were Mennonites, and, because
of the persecution of that faith, fled (Switzerland, 1668) to Alsheim in the neighborhood of Strassburg,
Germany, where he engaged in viniculture, renting an old estate and castle. (p. 46; lease with the Lord
Fieldmarshal General, Van Kaunter, for the citadel of the castle and the castle goods 1697 for three years 1700.) He inherited from his father 350 guldens and from his sister, Anneli, 23 guldens. (from Carol Scott Info) Hans was a prosperous farmer until the War of the Spanish Succession brought ruin and desolation to that part of Europe. Through the influence of his step son-in-law, Gerhart Clemens, Hans Stauffer migrated to America. He and his family and his daughter's family, left their home on November 5, 1709, and after a three days' journey embarked at Weissenau on the Rhine. After ten weeks' intermittent travel they reached London on January 26, 1710. From London, after a stormy and perilous voyage of sixty-seven days on the ship, "Maria Hope", they reached Philadelphia in the spring of 1710. They settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, near Valley Forge. Hans and Kinget Hiestand Stauffer are buried in a Mennonite graveyard near that place. No tombstone, or record of their deaths has been discovered. ANABAPTISTS (from Guide to Genealogical records by Suess; Everton Pub.) The peaceful group of Anabaptists appeared with Ulrich Zwingli's own circle in most German-speaking areas of Switzerland in the decade of the 1520s. They referred to themselves at first as "brethren." They were also known as "Taufgesinnte" (baptismal minded), "Taufer" (baptists), "Wiedertaufer" and Mennonites. The Anabaptists wanted to restore Christianity to its earlier, more primitive, purer form. They felt that the early Christian was a heartfelt believer, a minority in a pagan state, rejected and persecuted. If this was the case with the early Christian Church it must also be the case for Christians at all times. For the Anabaptist the implication was that the state, even though its rulers might be Christian, must by necessity be un-Christian. They opposed any union of church and sate. The Anabaptist felt he must be distinguished from the rest of the population by a strict morality, including abstinence from alcohol, and also further by a visible token of his inward regeneration. Since Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Catholics accepted infant baptism, the Anabaptists appeared as rebaptizers, and therefore that name was applied to them. The Anabaptist were immediately persecuted, first by the Catholic Church, and then by the Protestants. Some Anabaptists were executed, some returned to the Protestant Church, others tried to exist in obscure places, but many left their homes for other countries. The three areas where they appeared very early and existed for a long time are the old states of Bern, Zurich, and Basel. Some Protestant parish registers recorded children of Anabaptist parents who were christened in their church. The Anabaptists in the canton of Bern have existed there through the centuries until the present time despite extreme difficulties in the past. The majority of Mennonites in America of Swiss background can trace their beginnings to Bernese territory. Most of the Bernese Mennonites who stayed in Switzerland fled to the Jura Mountains during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. This was the area of the Bishopric of Basel which was partly under the German empire and partly under Swiss Jurisdiction. Others settled in the southern part of the Jura which was the Principality of Neuchatel, a possession of Prussia. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, the Bishopric of Basel was given to Canton Bern, and the Neuchatel became a canton in the Swiss Confederacy. Typical Bernese Anabaptist names included the following: Althaus, Amstutz, Augsburger, Brubacher, Bertschi, Bichsel, Baumgartner, Bösiger, Bieri, Burkhalter, Bucher, Brechbuhl, Badertscher, Duller, Eicher, Aeschlimann, Fluckiger, Aebersold, Frey, Geumann, Gerber, Gut, Grader, Geiger, Gungerich, Gunten, Gehrig, Haldemann, Habegger, Hochstettler, Hilti, Hirschi. Joder, Imhof, Krahenbuhl, Kannel, Kaufmann, Ledermann, Lehmann, Luginbuhl, Leichti, Moser, Mosimann, Neuenschwander, Nussbaum, Neuhauser, Oberli, Reusser, Rich, Rohrer, Reist, Rothlisberger, Reichenbach, Rupp, Roth, Ramseier, Schenk, Schrag, Schnegg, Steiner, Stutzmann, Stucki, Sommer, Tschanz, Suter, Stauffer, Schmucker, Dreier, Thut, Wurgler, Walti, Wenger, Wuthrich, and Zurcher. Special family records of Anabaptists kept by Protestant ministers during the latter 18th and 19th century in several parishes, especially in Trub and Langnau, are kept in the civil registrar's office. Already in 1526 there were Anabaptists in the canton of Aargau. They existed with great difficultly in this area until the early part of the 18th century. Some surnames include: Datwyler, Burger, Muller, Bachmann, Stahlin, Kunzli, Meier, Suter, Schuhmacher and Widmer. The beginnings of the Anabaptist movement in 1525 in the old republic of Zurich have been carefully recorded. A circle of well-educated persons broke with Zwingli's reform program, feeling it was not complete and failed to follow scriptural patterns. Extreme persecution started quickly and these people were either executed or fled. Wherever they went they started congregations. While the congregation in the city of Zurich soon became extinct, concentrations of Anabaptists were started in the southeastern part of the canton of Zurich in Gruningen, around Horgen, Wadenswil, and Knonau. Family names of Anabaptists in the canton of Zurich area were: Muller, Landis, Hess, Brubacher, Weber, Bachmann, Gut, Schneider, Hegli, Huber, Strickler, Graf, Frick, Schnebeli, Peter, Eberli, Kagi, Pfister, Hofmann, Tanner, Bar, Frey, Nageli, Studer, Wyss, Meyer,
Ringg, Egli, Oberholzer, Bosshard, and many others.

Hans married Kungold Hiestand, daughter of Hans Heistand and Anna Strickler, in 1685 in Ibersheim?, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.