Oesch family

Title: Oesch family collection

Date(s) of creation: 1828-1864,  [ca. 1950]

Physical description: 9 cm of textual records

Biographical sketch: Bishop Johannes (John) Oesch (1791-1850) married Barbara Schultz (1803-1881) in 1820 at Rothsee, a former cloister farm southeast of Munich. They left for Canada in 1824, where they acquired land on Lot 15, North Snyder's Road near Baden. In 1829 John was ordained to the ministry in the Wilmot Amish Mennonite congregation and in September of the same year he was ordained to the office of bishop. In search of more land for their growing family, the couple left for Hay Township in about 1848 or 1849, where Johannes died shortly thereafter. The couple had 18 childen, not all of whom survived childhood.

Custodial history: The newsclipping was donated at an unknown time. The Bible was passed down through the Schwartzentruber family to Edmund Schwatzentruber, and donated by Mary Mae Schwartzentruber in 2019.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of a newsclipping of an Oesch reunion at Peter Brenneman's home in South Easthope, and the Johannes and Barbara (Schultz) Oesch family Bible. Family register in the Bible was filled out with data from 1821-1849 and 1864. 

Notes: Archival description created 2007 by Sam Steiner and modified in 2020 by Laureen Harder-Gissing. For transcription and translation of the Bible's family register, see: Lorraine Roth fonds,"Genealogical Summaries - Oesch," Hist.Mss.1.117.1/131 file 2.

File list:

1. "160 Attend First Oesch Reunion," Record, ca. 1950.
2. Biblia, das ist: die ganze Heilige Schrift des Alten und Neuen Testaments[...]. In Stereotypen, verfertigt, von J. Howe. Philadelphia: Gedruckt und zu haben bey Kimber und Scharpless, 1828