♀Anna Stauffer

Anna Stauffer (born about 1644) was a woman of Eggiwil, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, who married Michael Schenk there on 21 September 1660 and in 1671 is said to have left Switzerland with him and their four children, among the Anabaptists^W expelled from the Emmental. She was the seventh great-grandmother of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Christian Shank (died before 22 November 1724).

Eggiwil

She is said to have been the daughter of Hans Stauffer and Madlena Neuenschwander, and a granddaughter of Christian Stauffer, an Anabaptist preacher who was imprisoned at Thun in 1644 and was himself exiled in October 1671. She and Michael Schenk were married at Eggiwil on 21 September 1660; the register writes him Michel Schänk. Their first child, Christen, was christened there on 15 June 1662, and three more followed, Hans on 4 December 1664, Barbara on 14 April 1667 and Michael on 14 January 1670.

Exile

According to a family history, Michael, Anna and their four children, the eldest nine years old, were among the Anabaptists expelled from Eggiwil and the neighbouring villages of the Emmental in October 1671. By 1 January 1672 the family was living at Ibersheim, in the Palatinate^W, with Michael’s elderly father. Her brother Hans Stauffer lived at Ibersheim too, and later at Alsheim, before he left for Pennsylvania in November 1709. She is said to have left him money in 1707, which may mean that she died that year.

Her son Christian is probably the Christian Shank who reached Philadelphia with a large group of Mennonites in August 1717 and settled in what became Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through Christian’s eldest son, Michael Shank (died 1759), and his son Michael Shank (died before 10 February 1777), whose daughter Magdalena Shank (1752–1837) married Peter Gingerich (1749–1829). Their daughter Cattarina Gingerich (1793–1861) was the wife of John Kunz (1786–1865), and the lines divide between Cattarina’s sons Samuel Kunz (1825–1904) and Jacob John Kunz (1814–1866). They meet again when Samuel’s son Thomas Koons (1855–1938) married Jacob’s daughter Magdalena M. Koons (1852–1923) on 24 December 1876 in Henry County, Indiana. Their daughter Mary Magdalene Koons (1885–1977) was the mother of Ora Emogene Walrath.

Notes

What rests on the register

Five events of her life rest on the Eggiwil registers themselves: the marriage of Michel Schänk and Anna Stauffer on 21 September 1660, and the christenings of their children Christen on 15 June 1662, Hans on 4 December 1664, Barbara on 14 April 1667 and Michael on 14 January 1670. Her parents and grandfather, the exile, her brother’s movements and the bequest of 1707 come from Richard W. Davis, “Four Generations of the Descendants of Michael Schenk and Anna Stauffer”, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (January 1994). Davis takes the exile from two refugee lists in the Mennonite archives at Amsterdam, and draws on Hans Stauffer’s account books, published in 1929, for her brother. Davis gives Michael’s christening as 4 January 1670; the register entry reads 14 January.

Her birth year

One of the refugee lists gives her age as 28, which points to a birth about 1643 or 1644. Davis’s outline gives 1643, at Eggiwil.

Two Anna Stauffers

Her husband’s mother was also named Anna Stauffer. Davis makes her the daughter of Hans Stauffer and Adelheid Schnyder, christened at Röthenbach in 1602, and the wife of Michael Schenk, christened at Signau in 1590; that couple have their own pages.

Her son Christian

That the Christen christened at Eggiwil in 1662 is the Christian Shank who died in Lancaster County is Davis’s judgment: he writes that the Christian who arrived in 1717 “is probably the child christened at Eggiwil, June 15, 1662”. No record names the Pennsylvania man’s parents or birthplace.

Death

When and where she died is not known. The bequest to her brother in 1707, and the suggestion that she died that year, are Davis’s.