Hirschler family

Hirschler (Herschler; not Hirschi or Hershey) is a Mennonite family stemming from Switzerland, which settled in the Palatinate and in Alsace soon after 1700. The progenitor of the family at Geisberg and vicinity, where there are today several branches of the family, seems to have been Daniel Hirschler, who married Katharina Strickler on 24 June 1730. Another branch of the family flourished in Gerolsheim, where Jakob Hirschler, originally a linen weaver, then a farmer, was chosen as elder. He carried on a correspondence with Hans von Steen at Danzig and with the Dutch Committee of Foreign Needs at Amsterdam on behalf of the Swiss immigrants and the needs of his own congregation. He may also have been related to Ulrich W. Hirschler, who was chosen as elder of the Friesenheim-Eppstein Mennonite congregation in 1738, or to Hans Hirschi, who is mentioned at Wachenheim in 1716 and 1724. Descendants of Jakob Hirschler are found after 1800 in Quirnheim near Grünstadt, from where a Jakob Hirschler, married to Magdelena Jansen (or Janson), moved to Thaun, Bavaria, in the Eichstock congregation. He is the ancestor of the Hirschler families found today in the various Bavarian congregations. His grandson Abraham Hirschler (1858-1931), after two years of training in the Missionshaus at Barmen, was chosen as pastor of the united congregation of Kühbörncheshof, Heudorf, Neudorf, and Ernstweiler (Kaiserslautern joined later) and lived in Kaiserslautern. He served the congregation for 50 years. In 1900-1931 he edited the Christlicher Gemeinde-Kalender.

Abraham's brother Johannes (1856-1933) attended the Seminary at St. Chrischona, Basel, Switzerland, and served the Gemeindeverband as traveling evangelist until 1885, then became preacher of the Eichstock congregation (from 1893 also Munich) 1887-1899, and then was called to the Monsheim and Obersülzen congregations, which he served until January  1926.

David Hirschler was one of the first members of the Zion Mennonite Church of Donnellson, Iowa. Daniel Hirschler, who had settled in Iowa, was one of the founders of the Wadsworth Seminary. David B. Hirschler was for a time a missionary among the Indians in Oklahoma. During the westward move in the seventies and eighties the Hirschlers came to Kansas. John S. Hirschler (1847-1915) of Franklin Center, Iowa, graduated from Wadsworth Seminary and became a leading minister in Kansas (Hillsboro). His son Edmund J. Hirschler (1876-1941) taught mathematics at Bluffton College, Otto T. Hirschler (born 1889) was a minister of music in various churches and also taught music, and Daniel A. Hirschler was professor of music at Bethel College and Dean of Music and later President of the College of Emporia (a Presbyterian college, no longer in existence). Christian E. Hirschler (1859-1936) of Klosterhof, Palatinate, came to Halstead in 1883 and served churches as minister in Oklahoma and Kansas. Ulrich Hirschler of Bavaria, whose children had preceded him, came to America after World War I and settled at Beatrice, Nebraska. Most of the Hirschler descendants in America now live in Kansas.

Bibliography

Hirschler, Edward E. The story of a pioneer family: a literary study of the pioneer life of the Reverend and Mrs. C.E. Hirschler in Harvey and Hodgeman Counties, Kansas, and Noble County, in the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma ...[Hays, Kan.? : E.E. Hirschler], 1937.

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: I, Nos. 1458, 1463, 1485-1497, 1529, 1533-1535, 1537, 1539-1541. 

Mennonitischer Gemeinde-Kalender (formerly Christlicher Gemeinde-Kalender) 1935: 112 ff.

Warkentin, A. and Melvin Gingerich, compilers. Who's Who Among the Mennonites. North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 1943.

Author(s)	Paul, Cornelius Krahn Schowalter
	Samuel J. Steiner
Date Published	2009

Cite This Article

MLA style

Schowalter, Paul, Cornelius Krahn and Samuel J. Steiner. "Hirschler family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2009. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hirschler_family&oldid=165660.

APA style

Schowalter, Paul, Cornelius Krahn and Samuel J. Steiner. (2009). Hirschler family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hirschler_family&oldid=165660.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 746-747. All rights reserved.

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