Journeys of a Mennonite
Ahnimus
Posts: 10,560
While I was visiting my dying grandmother this weekend, my uncle handed me a CD containing a book he had authored titled "Journeys of a Mennonite". My uncle has dedicated much of his life to uncovering the history of our family. I think it's relevance is nearly nill, but I find this interesting regardless. I would like to share a few words from his book.
The Mennonite religion was originated by an ex-priest of the Roman Catholic church, Meno Simon, in the year 1526. For some years earlier Meno Simon had some doubts about the beliefs of the Roman Catholic church. He finally split from the Catholic faith and formed his own church under the influence of the Walderness teachings when a member of his church was executed for being re-baptized and his brother (Meno's) was later killed when he adopted another faith.
Meno Simon's followers, later to be called Mennonites, believed in the complete separation of the church and state. They also opposed war, killing and other actions of man that did not contribute to the peace and harmony of mankind. These people were firm Anabaptists who believed in adult baptism and cooperated as members of a religious community rather than individuals or participants in state activities. For these reasons the Mennonites isolated themselves from other religious and political or public affairs or military service.
During this period of religious reformation by the Protestant faiths during the 16th century (Anabaptists, Calvinists, Lutherans, etc) the Roman Catholic church began a crusade of religious persecution to non-followers of their faith. Many reformers were burned at the stake, drowned, jailed or tortured. Lands were seized and the reformers forced into hiding or into leaving Europe. As a result of this religious turmoil the Mennonites, as well as others, went into hiding and many came to the American Colonies.
After hearing about these persecutions and knowing how good the Mennonites were as farmers, Governor William Penn sent an invitation to them in 1685 offering free grants of land to come to the American colonies. Later in 1709, Queen Anne again offered land in the colonies, exemption from military service and freedom of worship in accordance with their Mennonite beliefs.
The ocean voyages from England and Holland were not without incident. Thomas A. Sherk, in his book titled "The Sherk Family", describes the journey of one of my ancestors as follows: "Kasper Schirch (Schorg, Scherick, Sherich, Sherk Code H) was a Mennonite immigrant who landed at Philadelphia on May 15, 1732 on the ship Norris. He was a survivor of the ill-fated ship Love and Unity. The Love and Unity was bound for Philadelphia, but landed at Martha's Vineyard near Boston in November 1731, after a voyage of nearly 24 weeks crossing the Atlantic. Nearly 100 of the 150 passengers died on board from starvation and sickness...." He later states that Kasper's wife and one child died during this hazardous voyage.
The Mennonite religion was originated by an ex-priest of the Roman Catholic church, Meno Simon, in the year 1526. For some years earlier Meno Simon had some doubts about the beliefs of the Roman Catholic church. He finally split from the Catholic faith and formed his own church under the influence of the Walderness teachings when a member of his church was executed for being re-baptized and his brother (Meno's) was later killed when he adopted another faith.
Meno Simon's followers, later to be called Mennonites, believed in the complete separation of the church and state. They also opposed war, killing and other actions of man that did not contribute to the peace and harmony of mankind. These people were firm Anabaptists who believed in adult baptism and cooperated as members of a religious community rather than individuals or participants in state activities. For these reasons the Mennonites isolated themselves from other religious and political or public affairs or military service.
During this period of religious reformation by the Protestant faiths during the 16th century (Anabaptists, Calvinists, Lutherans, etc) the Roman Catholic church began a crusade of religious persecution to non-followers of their faith. Many reformers were burned at the stake, drowned, jailed or tortured. Lands were seized and the reformers forced into hiding or into leaving Europe. As a result of this religious turmoil the Mennonites, as well as others, went into hiding and many came to the American Colonies.
After hearing about these persecutions and knowing how good the Mennonites were as farmers, Governor William Penn sent an invitation to them in 1685 offering free grants of land to come to the American colonies. Later in 1709, Queen Anne again offered land in the colonies, exemption from military service and freedom of worship in accordance with their Mennonite beliefs.
The ocean voyages from England and Holland were not without incident. Thomas A. Sherk, in his book titled "The Sherk Family", describes the journey of one of my ancestors as follows: "Kasper Schirch (Schorg, Scherick, Sherich, Sherk Code H) was a Mennonite immigrant who landed at Philadelphia on May 15, 1732 on the ship Norris. He was a survivor of the ill-fated ship Love and Unity. The Love and Unity was bound for Philadelphia, but landed at Martha's Vineyard near Boston in November 1731, after a voyage of nearly 24 weeks crossing the Atlantic. Nearly 100 of the 150 passengers died on board from starvation and sickness...." He later states that Kasper's wife and one child died during this hazardous voyage.
I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
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Palatines fr. the Ship Norris, Thomas Lloyd, Master, from Boston. Casper Schirch Johannes (0) Behn Marthin Gasner Christian (X) Reninger Mathias (X) Weber Johannes (H) Herman Johann Philib Weber Valentine (X) Westheber Johann Jacob Manncher [?] Johan Georg Liebenstein Johann Michael Sigmund Michael Anderras Johann Ditrich Jungmann* Philadelphia May 15th 1732 Present The Honourable The Governor, with several Magistrates. The foregoing Qualifications were taken & subscribed by the several Foreigners, whose Names are above written Robert Charles, Cl. Con. John George Jungmann, a son of John Ditrich, has left the following description of this journey in his autobiography: "Supplied with provisions for twelve weeks, we sailed to Falmouth, England, where we stayed three weeks and where we loaded up many necessary things. Twelve days after our departure from this place, the captain assured us that we had covered half of our journey, which revived our courage. After that we had a calm, followed by a severe storm, which raged exceedingly. After having traveled eight weeks, water and bread were curtailed, and during the last six weeks we received no bread and nothing else from the captain than daily a pint of water for myself, my father and my sister. From this one can infer how we lived. Every sensitive heart will shudder when I say that rats and mice and the above-mentioned water were our only food. A rat was sold for 11/2s. and a mouse for 6d. The captain thought that all the passengers had many valuables with them. Hence he did not want to land us, but left us to starve to death, in which he had a large measure of success, for of the 156 souls only 48 reached the American shore, and hardly a single person would have survived, if the remaining passengers had not revolted and seized the captain. Whereupon after three days, in the week before Christmas, we landed not far from Rhode Island, after having spent 25 weeks on this journey....I was in such a miserable condition that I could not stand erect, but almost crawled on hands and feet" See Trexler, Skizzen aus dem Lecha Thale, p. 37; and Diffenderffer, The German Immigration into Pennsylvania, pp. 64-68.@ As stated in the Preface, many of our ancestors suffered many hardships. It may be fortunate that we do not know the full story of the evils that other individuals may have perpetrated on these pioneers, or, for us to read of all the sufferings these determined pioneers had to endure with starvation, sub-standard living conditions (according to today=s society), ever changing natural disasters and inclement weather, disease, wild animals, and other unspeakable terrors or loss. Throughout history the strongest have survived to pass on their stories, some of which may seem far fetched, but in reality, were actually true depictions of the situations and conditions that they had to accept.
One example of the persecution faced by Mennonites was given in G. Elmore Reaman's book "The Trail of the Black Walnut" and Thomas A. Sherk's book "The Sherk Family" that:
"Sherk is a well-known name in the Niagara Peninsula. The original settler who spelled his name Schorg came from Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania in 1789, the revolutionists having burned his home because he sympathized with the British and harboured their officers."
Thomas Sherk clarified the point that this particular Sherk was Casper Sherk (Code H44), the son of my ancestral Grandfather Joseph Scherch (Code H4) whom I had described earlier. This is but one example of the many possible persecutions that may have existed at that time, which resulted in the migration of some Mennonites who had been loyal to the British crown, and to Upper Canada. Their loyalty was a result of the crown helping them to immigrate from Europe and settle in the colonies in earlier years.
Thanks dude, but at least she recognizes me, right?
She still has her mind which is good. It's just her body that's rejecting life. Her husband is already "on the other side" so she is "looking forward to seeing him". I didn't give her my viewpoint on death, but I don't think she is going anywhere.
Anyway, that's death.