The Coming of the Swiss Mennonites
The migration of Swiss Mennonites to numerous states in America took place in the first half of the nineteenth century. As early as 1817 Benedict Schrag settled in Green Township of Wayne County. He was soon followed by others from the Jura area of Switzerland who wanted to escape the militarization that followed in the wake of Napoleon Bonaparte's expeditions."
Their settlement in the hilly terrain of Wayne County, Ohio, took place at about the time that Schiller wrote the following lines in the Ruth scene of William Tell:
... They viewed the country, found it rich in wood, Discovered goodly springs, and felt as they
Were in their own dear native land once more.'
The first actual settlement of Mennonites in Wayne County was in 1819 and it was named Sonnenberg after the home community
A Devotional Book of the
Swiss Mennonites:
Guldene Aepffel in Silbern
Schalen
Golden Apples in Pitchers of Silver is a devotional work which appeared as early as 1702 and 1742 in Basel, Switzerland. The 519-page American edition was the first book to be printed on the Cloister Press at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1745. It contains the writings of Michael Sattler and the story of his martyrdom together with devotional materials. A copy of this work found its way to the Ohio frontier where it is listed in the estate of Melchoir Mellinger in Columbiana County in 1806. The volume featured here is one of the literary treasures in the Schwenkfelder Library at Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.
From Schwenkfelder Library.
