|
To explain how the Hagey’s came to settle in Southeastern Pennsylvania in just a few paragraphs will certainly leave out many details. I‘m only writing a few notes for the reader who has a general interest in their Swiss Mennonite Hagey heritage.
One of the earliest known records of the Hagey name (spelled Hagi), dates back to 1639 and is found in the Ausbund, which is an old Swiss Mennonite hymnbook filled with hymns and stories of families who suffered for their Mennonite faith.
Rudolph Hagi (Hagey) & his family lived near Zurich Switzerland and as many other Mennonites; they were being persecuted because of their Mennonite faith. They suffered at the hands of the government controlled by the Catholic church in the principality of Switzerland until they emigrated to the Rhine Valley in what is now Germany and eventually to Pennsylvania in their search for religious freedom, and peace & hope for a better life.
Other Mennonites families with names like Souder, Landes, Derstine, Rosenberger, Alderfer, Bergey & Moyer also left Switzerland approx. 1640 as they had suffered enough as well. (Mennonites with names like Tyson, Godshall and Lucken had left Holland around the same time.) Most of these Mennonite families traveled to the Palatinate area from Germany along the Rhine River where they began a new life.
In 1683 through an invitation of William Penn Mennonites began migrating to Pennsylvania. Some of the first Hagey families made their journey in 1727 during the time when a large number of Mennonites and Lutherans from Germany were leaving Europe for the new world in their quest for a better life. The word had spread, Pennsylvania was the place to move to start a new life.
Daniel Hagey and siblings Maria and Jacob traveled to Pennsylvania still later in 1767. Their father Andrew to ill for the long and harsh journey or recently deceased did not journey to the new world. There is no information regarding their mother.
Daniel's descendents still live in the Franconia Montgomery County Pennsylvania area today. The Daniel Hagey family homestead is located on Lower Road in Franconia Township across from the new Souderton Area High School. Hagey descendents continue to live on the beautifully restored farm.
Daniel Hagey family descendants own and operate a large tour and school bus terminal on Schoolhouse Road just a mile south of the homestead. www.hagey.com.
|
