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The Herr family present Within
the Vines is a mennonite one. It is our earliest known direct surname in
the Swope and
Allied Ascendancy. It owes its precense to the emmigration of Bishop
Hans Herr and wife to Pennsylvania in the 7th decade of their lives
and in 1710 with a small group of Mennonites seeking respite and new life
in Penn's colony. They were not the first Mennonites in Pennsylvania,
but they were among its earliest, and so, were among its earliest Germans.
The Mennonites were part of Anabaptist
tradition of Switzerland and Germany, and had long been persecuted
in Europe and it is small wonder this particular group, the second wave
of mennonites [the first being the small group settling in Germantown,
Pennsylvania who encouraged their brethren's emmigration] sought to settle
deep within the Pennsylvania frontier. Among our cluster of mennonites
are several surnames under the spiritual leadership of Hans
Herr, among them Surnames BRENNEMAN
and BRUBAKER
[and BAR, and KUNDIG for the female surnames amongst whom the Herrs married
in Europe and whose own extended family groups were part of the Lancaster
mennonite settlers of 1710-1717 accompanying Bishop Herr] -All these names
were involved as a cohesive group and in the settling of Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania in the second decade of the 18th century.
Our
Mennonites of Pennsylvania.
are, long recognized
as the first white settlers of that region. The Mennonite tradition ends
in our direct line 4-5 generations down from Bishop Herr but only about
50 years after his arrival, the short time frame owing to the emmigration
with their father of adult HERR children with children of their own
in whom our ascendancy is found. Anna Herr,
the Bishop's Great Grandaughter, married Christian
Brenneman, the grandson of mennonite Melchior
Brenneman, who joined the Hans Herr Mennonites in Lancaster County
in 1717. [After Christians's death, his widow Anna
Herr Brenneman married Christian's first cousin Isaac Brenneman]
. Daughter Elizabeth BRENNEMAN
lies buried with her husband John
QUICKEL in the Lutheran Cemetery of the Quickel church her immigrant
father in law Michael QUICKEL
founded.
Thus ends the mennonite infusion in our lines.
The Herr Line arises from the marriage of Anna Kate STAIR to Hon. Samuel McCurdy SWOPE. Bishop Herr is her 5th great grandfather through her maternal BENTZ surname. |
