Hans Stauffer

  Noted events in his life were:

• Religion: Anabaptist, 1668. He lived in hiding during 1668 because of his Anabaptist activities.

• exiled: from Eggiwil, Switzerland, 1668.

• exiled: from Eggiwil, Switzerland, 1671.

• exiled: with other family members, 1671.

• lived, 1672, Ibersheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

• lived, 1705, Alsheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

• Occupation. ⁷⁰⁸ Hans engaged in viniculture. He rented an old estate and castle where he established his vineyard.

Hans married Kungold Hiestand, daughter of Hans Junghans Hiestand and * Regul Aeschmann, in 1685 in Ibersheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.⁶⁷⁸ (Kungold Hiestand was born on 3 Jan 1658 in Richterswil, Zurich, Switzerland ⁶⁷⁴, christened on 10 Jan 1658, died in 1710 in Skippack Township, Pennsylvania and was buried in 1710 in Mennonite Grave yard near Valley Forge ^675,676,677.)

  Marriage Notes:

The ancestors of the Stauffers came to America from the vicinity of Zurich, Switzerland, their birthplace. One Daniel Stauffer lived near the city of Zurich until after the year of 1685. He had a son Hans who also lived in the Sweitz. These Stauffers were very wealthy in their time. We find that the family of Stauffer was mentioned as early as the time of William Tell.

Daniel Stauffer was a descendant of the ancient House of hohenstaufen in Suabia. he was born at Alzheim or Weissennan, near the old Rhine in Switzerland, about 1630, and here he died also. His son Hans was born there about 1650. In 1685 he married a widow named Kinget Heistand, her former husband was Michael Risser or Reif.

Being Mennonites they were severly persecuted by the Zwinglians and were driven out of their native land. Jacob, eldest son of Hans Stauffer, was born at Alzheim, Switzerland, in 1696. He came to America with his father in 1710 and finally settled in Hereford, (now Washington) township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

The following from the diary of Hans Stauffer is of interest. In the year anno 1709, I, Hans Stauffer, left my own native land, the Schweitz, on the 5th day November, with my wife and children, Jacob aged 13, Daniel 12, Henry 9, Elizabeth with her husband Paul Fried and one child by the name of Mary (eight in number). One daughter being married to Gerhart Clemens , remained in Switzerland and never came to America. (Gerhart and Anna ended up traveling with them) We set sail at Weissennan on the 8th of November, and had a very stormy voyage, and touched at Bingen, Lester, Wurm, Erbsen, Millen, Eisen, Erdingen, emmerich, shingen, shanzen, Arin, Rein, Guend, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brill, and on January 10, 1710 arrived at London. From here they came to America and settled at or near Valley Forge, Chester County, Pennsylvania where Hans is buried.

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.