Schrag (Schrock, Shrock, Schrack, Schragg) family
A Mennonite family name of Swiss origin, Schrag was found in the Palatinate as early as 1664. From Germany members of the family migrated to Galicia in 1773, and from there to the Russian province of Volhynia. In 1874 some members of the Schrag family left Russia in the Mennonite migration to North America and located in Kansas and South Dakota, where many of their descendents are members of the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCM). In 1937, three representatives of this branch of the family were in the GCM ministry. Other notable members of the Volhynia group of Schrags include: Martin Schrag, a faculty member at Messiah College; Menno Schrag, editor of the Mennonite Weekly Review; James Schrag, first General Secretary of Mennonite Church USA, and John Schrag, who was on the faculty of Grace Bible Institute.
Other members of the general Schrag family immigrated directly from Germany and Switzerland to North America. As early as 1766 a Johannes Schrag landed in Philadelphia. Casper Schrock, born in Switzerland ca. 1745, came to North America as a young man and settled in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. His son Peter (1795-1846) was an Amish Mennonite minister in Wayne County, Ohio. Many of his descendants live in Ohio and Indiana. Among the early members of the East Zorra Amish Mennonite Church, organized ca. 1837 in Ontario, were Daniel Schragg, John Schrag and Joseph Schrag. Daniel Schrag (1813-1891) was born in Bavaria, lived in Pennsylvania, and settled in Ontario, where he became a minister of the East Zorra Church in 1849. Many descendants of the Ontario Schrags have lived in New York and Ontario.
The genealogy of the Tobias Schrock (Schrag) family shows that in 1959 many of his descendants were living in Amish communities in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. He was born in Holmes County, Ohio in 1823. Obituaries in Mennonite periodicals from the 1950's show the Mennonite Church (MC) and Amish branches of the family to have been most numerously represented in Indiana, followed by Ohio, Kansas, and Illinois. Thirty-two Schrock (Shrock) ministers were serving in the MC and Amish branches of the church in 1937. Among the better-known members of the family was Andrew A. Schrock (1863-1949), who was, for many years, the bishop of the Metamora Mennonite Church in Metamora, Illinois, and Tobe Schrock (b. 1897), who was bishop of the Bowne Mennonite Church in Elmdale, Michigan.
| Author(s) | Melvin Gingerich |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Gingerich, Melvin. "Schrag (Schrock, Shrock, Schrack, Schragg) family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Schrag_(Schrock,_Shrock,_Schrack,_Schragg)_family&oldid=119490.
APA style
Gingerich, Melvin. (1959). Schrag (Schrock, Shrock, Schrack, Schragg) family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Schrag_(Schrock,_Shrock,_Schrack,_Schragg)_family&oldid=119490.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 480. All rights reserved.
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