My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Christian WENGER
Christian WENGER (b. 01 May 1698, d. 09 Feb 1772)
Notes for Christian WENGER:
RELIGION:Mennonite
IMMIGRATION: 1727 on ship "Molly" Zweibrucken, originally from Martisegg (near Rothenbach and Eggiwil) 14 15
Immigration: 30 Sep 1727 Strasburg, Lancaster Co., PA
30 SEP 1727 in Port of Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania
-[Sources:] Ship list of the 'Molly' - has Christian. Don
Yoder (editor of 'Rhineland Emigrants') - mentions an Eva
Graybill who immigrated on the 'Molly' Sept. 30, 1727 with her
husband Christian Wenger.'
Title: Ship list of the 'Molly', which arrived in Philadelphia from
Rotterdam on Sep 30, 1727.
Christian's baptismal records appear at both Eggiwil and nearby Rothenbach parishes in the Emmental region (Canton Bern), Switzerland. He was christened May 8, 1698 at Eggiwil, Province of Bern, Switzerland. The family historical book (containing Wengers) at Rothenbach Bibliothek u. Zivilstandamt shows that a brother, Ulrich, remained
in the Rothenbach area and eventaully took possession of the ancestral Wenger family homestead at Schinegg. Schinegg (small cluster of buildings) is located at the highest elevation adjacent to the Schallenberg Pass. This ancestral home is just three kilometers
(as the crow flies) from Rothenbach. Christian left Switzerland between 1705 and 1710 and immigrated to northern Alsace, France, and then to the Zweibrucken area (German Palatinate). He lived there about two decades before coming to America on the ship
Molly, arriving in Philadelphia on Sep. 30, 1727. He married Eve shortly after their arrival in the States (on the same ship). He was a farmer and Mennonite minister (Groffdale congregation) who settled in West Earl Township, Lancaster County, PA. Today
he has around 250,000 descendants in North America.
NOTE: The following article appears in The Wenger Book, a Wenger genealogy of the Wenger descendants of immigrant Christian Wenger and his wife Eve Graybill, who came to America on the ship Molly in 1727. (Christian and Eve married once they came to Pennsylvania.) This story is entitled "How My Family Almost Became Canadian", written by the late Samuel S. Wenger, editor-in-chief of the Wenger book. The preacher Joseph G. Wenger in the story is the great great great great grandfather of my husband, David E. Ristenbatt, and the Benjamin Wenger is my husband's great great great grandfather. This story is related with the hopes that someone reading it may ultimately trace their Canadian lineage back to Lancaster County, PA. This article is quoted in its entirety.
Sometime around the year 1800 a number of Pennsylvania Mennonites migrated to the area that was then called Upper Canada, now the province of Ontario. The first settlers who went there bought land out of a tract that has since become known as the Beasely Tract. The owner of this tract perpetrated a fraud on these purchasers, as the tract was subject to a mortgage that had not been released to these Mennonite purchasers. In the course of a few years, the holder of the mortgage initiated steps to foreclose his mortgage. If this were to happen, all of these purchasers would lose ownership of their lands.
In desperation they sent a delegation to Pennsylvania to raise sufficient money to buy the entire Beasely tract, enabling them to procure satisfaction of the ominous mortgage. Most of the money was collected in Lancaster County, but funds also were secured in Franklin County and in the Franconia District of Bucks and Montgomery Counties. The money in solid coins was assembled at a Brubaker home in Clay Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was conveyed by a Conestoga Wagon to Ontario.
One of the inducements to procure subscriptions was that the subscriber would receive a deed to an area of land out of the unsold portion of the tract. In many instances someone from the subscriber's family would move north to take up the tract of land acquired.
Preacher Joseph G. Wenger subscribed a sufficient sum to acquire a small two-quarter section, each 160 acres. The family had agreed, so the legend goes, that the youngest son Benjamin, who had married Anna Erb, was to go to Canada and take up the ownership of these 320 acres of land.
Before this plan was actually consummated, there was an ordination for a deacon held at the Groffdale Church. In accordance with the long established custom of the American Mennonite Church, the selection was made by note and casting the "Lot" for the actual selection from among those who received notes. Among those who received notes was the writer's great grandfather Benjamin Wenger
More About Christian WENGER:
Burial: Backmost row of the Groffdale Mennonite Church, West Earl Twp., Lancaster Co., PA.
Christening: 08 May 1698
Record Change: 21 Apr 2005
More About Christian WENGER and Eve GRAYBILL:
Marriage: 1727
Children of Christian WENGER and Eve GRAYBILL are:
- +Joseph Gabriel WENGER, b. 08 Aug 1747, Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, d. May 1812, EDOM, VA.