Friday, February 11, 2011

Sepia Saturday - Martin and Sarah Meyers

Grant and Gertrude
The photograph below has always filled me with discomfiting awe. It's not a photo I hang proudly on my wall, yet these are my ancestors, so I owe them my very existence. Would I be more eager to show them off if they were prettier and more refined? Certainly. But in researching their (and my) roots, I am filled with a different kind of awe. These people really paid their dues.

Remember Grant and Gertrude from a previous post?
Grant was my great grandfather. Below is a portrait of his grandparents and their children. I'm not sure exactly when the photo was taken, but Martin died in 1895, so we know it was earlier than that.  Martin, with his white beard, is easily recognizable as the patriarch. The poor little tiny woman sitting next to him, and looking very tired, is his wife Sarah. They are surrounded by their 15 (!) living children. I can only assume that there were additional children who died in infancy as they so often did in those days.

Martin's great-great-great Grandfather, Sebastian (Baschi) Meyer was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in about 1592.  He worked as a cabinet maker and was listed as a Mennonite (or Anabaptist.) His wife, Otilla, was of the same faith and was imprisoned for it, but escaped. Baschi and Otilla then moved to Zurich, where they had four of their five children. The family continued to be on the move as was typical of the Mennonites fleeing persecution. Their descendants ended up in the Palatinate region of Germany, eventually emigrating to Pennsylvania around 1710.

I wondered what it was that made people want to persecute the Mennonites. It really boiled down to one basic Mennonite belief - that people should not be baptized until they were of an age to understand and accept the religion. In many people's minds, that constituted heresy, which justified burning at the stake, drowning, decapitating, and other various tortures - all in the name of God. Thousands of Mennonites died this way. Many others were imprisoned and had their property taken.

The Mennonites adhered strictly to the New Testament. They also believed in non-violence, simple living, and separation of church and state. Mennonites in America opposed slavery from the very beginning. The Meyers who moved to Pennsylvania continued in their faith, although at some point they branched off into what's known as the Church of the German Brethren. It's interesting to look at the different related faiths, including Mennonite, Amish, Quaker, and German Brethren. In many cases, the differences in beliefs seem very small.

Martin was a minister of the church and was devoted to his religion. I have to wonder how much the rules of the religion or the adherence to it changed from his generation to the next. He is wearing the traditional beard with no mustache favored by religious pacifists, who associated mustaches with the military.  A number of his sons wear mustaches though, and at least one of his daughters is wearing a fancy collar, which might have been considered overly showy by their standards.

Martin and his family moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois, before finally settling in Morrill, Kansas. I can only guess that they moved because their farm was no longer of sufficient size for the family and/or that they were attracted by homesteading opportunities in Kansas with the 1862 Homestead Act. According to the Kansas State Historical Society, homesteaders were entitled to 160 acres of land, which they had to improve within five years. Many gave up and headed farther west or back east, because conditions were so harsh and improvements were difficult to make. Among other things, they had to worry about bitter cold, disease, locusts, outlaws, and lack of wood and other building materials. The tradition of simple living may have helped the Meyers endure, but I wonder if they ever regretted the move.

As I sit here in my centrally-heated house, with running water, electric lights, indoor bathrooms, washing machine, dryer etc., I can only imagine the hardships they had to endure. I am filled with awe and admiration for the pioneer spirit of these tenacious immigrants.

Be sure to check out all of the other interesting posts at Sepia Saturday.

20 comments:

  1. Great post and great insight. You are very luckily to have these photos considering their age.

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  2. I have a group photograph in which my great-grandmother looks unhappily unpleasant. There are some others in the photo who also look unhappy and I suspect a little tiff had just recently occurred. I'm grateful to have other photographs of her. But I think this photograph of yours is perfectly grand and if it were my family, I would hang it on the wall with pleasure. They look very wholesome and courageous to me.

    It always amazes me to consider the lives our ancestors lived. I think they were always harder than ours if for no other reason than the lack of conveniences. Add to that some of the challenges people like this family faced - whew! They had to be sturdy folk. I'm glad you're posting family photos and telling their stories, Christine.

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  3. As I intently read this I got to the part where you said "A number of his sons wear mustaches though, and at least one of his daughters..." and thought "Oh no, she didn't have a mustache too?"

    It's a pretty wonderful photo. Trying to imagine the poor woman's life spent pregnant for so many of her years. Plus doing work. I feel tired just thinking about it.

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  4. Hi Christine, very interesting to read about your ancestors. They were very brave to do all this travelling at this time. It is so interesting to see where our roots come from. You also have some Swiss roots, this means you have to learn how to yodel! I guess you have been to Switzerland; Luzern is very beautiful. It is awful when people are persecuted because of their religion. I think the Mennonites were very forward thinking people. We always see how tough we actually are if circumstances call for it.

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  5. You are quite right, they certainly paid their dues. And what a fascinating story. It is posts like yours which makes going through the Sepia Saturday posts such a pleasure, like reading a good and varied illustrated magazine.

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  6. A fascinating post, thanks for sharing their story and the history, a pleasure to read and yes we forget how lucky we are.

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  7. They have earned their place on your wall. The photo is a work of art and well worth preserving. Family histories like yours are fascinating to read.

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  8. They Look A Very Strong Group Of People.Solid + United. The History of Persecution, And their stand against it,Shines through here.

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  9. I very much enjoyed reading allthis about the history of these ancestors and about Mennonites. Last night watching "Who Do You ThinkYou Are?" on TV about Tim McGraw's ancestry search I heard Palatinate/Palatines for the first time and learned it was the British term for an area of Germany so this post added a great deal.

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  10. Do you know the age span of the children? Looks like only a few older, a few younger and lots in the middle- must have been a baby almost every year for a while.

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  11. Such good history and unbelievable collection you have! Thanks! It's so amazing what we can discover when we reach back!

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  12. What an amazing post and picture. Such a rich family history.

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  13. I enjoyed your post very much,as I learned a great deal from it. The photo's alone tell their own story and I would sure look tired to if I had 15 children :) you are blessed to have such beautiful treasures. Thank you for sharing them with us.

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  14. that was really cool. thans for sharing. the pics do look a little creepy... maybe its because we dont know what it was like to live then. its not real to us. imagine what they would think if they time traveled to our time. they'd be freaked. i do like the first picture you posted.

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  15. Very interesting story and photograph. I think I would put the photo on the wall if they were my relatives. They look strong, some tired and interesting.

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  16. It's such a shame all the terrible things that go on in the name of religion...and is still going on.
    What a very interesting family and wonderful photos. Grant and Gertrude were a very attractive couple.

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  17. Christine,
    Such a touching and poignant point of view on your ancestors. I was moved to hear their story. I think alot of people (our forefathers) had a tough time in their day and age. I couldn't imagine my life in this day and age without a good dose of Midol. And I see now why some of our foremothers did not smile alot back then. We have alot to be thankful for in this day and age, our ancestors did help pave the way for us and a better life, and all without the help of modern medicine!!!!

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  18. You have very interesting family stories, great photos and nice postcards. Good blog.

    You are welcome to my blog Suleke about angels, fairies and other beautiful things (on postcards, in art, literature etc).
    suleke.blogspot.com
    That's in estonian, but please use Google Translate, and the pictures are easy to understand.

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  19. Memphis is a Slim blogpost. (Yes, he was a singer).
    Meyers is a Thick blogpost. They are Absolute Relatives. Monogamous, I guess. :)

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  20. Your photos that you have are really amazing to see. You are lucky to have these and your knowledge of all the tree is extensive.

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