Meihuizen family

Meihuizen is a widely branched Dutch Mennonite family. On account of persecution a number of Swiss Mennonite families moved to Holland at the beginning of the 18th century. Among them were Samuel Peter and his wife Barbara Fry (Frey) and five children from Gontenschwil (at that time in the canton of Bern, now in Aargau). In 1711 they are said to have belonged to the Reformed Church, but "having a great desire to the religion of the Swiss Brethren." When they left Switzerland in the fall of 1714 Samuel Peter was not yet a Mennonite, although his wife had apparently united with them; but in the Netherlands both Barbara and Samuel Peter were Mennonites from the beginning. They settled in Kalkwijk near Hoogezand in the province of Groningen, where they continued to farm as they had done in Switzerland. They adopted the name Meihuizen after a village Maihusen in the Catholic canton of Lucerne, from which an ancestor had fled to Protestant Gontenschwil in 1532. Samuel Peter and Barbara Frey, the former of whom died in 1758 at the age of nearly 87, and the latter in the following year at the age of 86, were the progenitors of this numerous family. A descendant of this family was Hendrik Wiebes Meihuizen, born at Arnhem on 29 August 1906, married to Minke Wartena, born 1910, a Mennonite pastor, serving at Wieringen 1933-1936, Veendam-Pekela 1936-38, and from 1938 at The Hague. After September 1955 he was the chief editor of the Algemeen Doopsgezind Weekblad. He was the author of a number of publications, including Doopsgzinde Kenmerken en Eigenaardigheden (Amsterdam, 1948, 2nd ed. 1948); Galenus Abrahamsz (Haarlem, 1954); Een Dader des Woords, in memoriam Ds Albert Keuter (Amsterdam, n.d.1946); De Doopsgezinde Broederschap (The Hague, n.d.1955); some sermons; a number of historical studies, particularly "De Geloofswereld onzer martelaren," in Algemeen Doopsgezind Weekblad V (1951); "Spiritualistic Tendencies and Movements Among the Dutch Mennonites of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." Mennonite Quarterly Review 27 (October 1953); "De Verwachting van de wederkomende Christus en het rijk Gods bij de oude Doopsgezinden," in Stemmen uit de Doopsgezinde broederschap 3 (1954, No. 2); "Het geloof in de Heilige Geest onder de oudste Nederlandse Doopsgezinden," in Stemmen 3 (1954) No. 5.

The family tree, provided with an excellent introduction on the Swiss Mennonites in Holland, was drawn up by the minister Jacob Dirks Huizinga.

Bibliography

Doopgezinde Jaarboekje (1928): 114-126.

Huizinga, J. D. Stamboek of Geslachtregister der Nakomelingen van Samuel Peter (Meihuizen) en Barbara Fry. Groningen, 1890. The genealogical part of this book was reprinted with additions in 1922 (n.d.) and 1946 (n.d.).

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon., 4 v. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 65 f.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Meihuizen family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Meihuizen_family&oldid=108848.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1957). Meihuizen family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Meihuizen_family&oldid=108848.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 561. All rights reserved.

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