Rahusen family

Rahusen, a Mennonite family, which, according to a family tradition based on a record in an old family Bible at Leer, but as yet unproved, came from Switzerland. The first Rahusen on record is (1) Gabriel Otto Rahusen at Hamburg, Germany, who in 1695 married Anna Roosen, of Altona. His grandson was (2) Reinhard Rahusen (1735-93), a Mennonite preacher. Another grandson, (3) Herman Rahusen, b. 1738 at Hamburg, moved to Leer in East Friesland, where he died in 1799. He was a grocer and tobacconer, married to Margaretha Vissering of Leer, and after her death, her sister Elske Vissering. He had a large posterity, mostly living at Leer, later also at Emden, Norden, and Amsterdam. Most of the family in Emden and Norden left the Mennonite Church to join the Lutherans. (4) Herman Rahusen, a son of (3) Herman, b. 1766 at Leer, moved to Amsterdam, where he died in 1839, as did his half brother (5) David Jacobus Rahusen, b. 1786 at Leer, d. 1830. In Amsterdam they founded a trading company, which was continued by their descendants, who, however, gradually turned to banking. By marriage the Amsterdam branch became related to prominent Mennonite families like de Clerq, Huidekuiper, van Eeghen, and van Lennep. The Amsterdam Rahusens have been loyal Mennonites, and from 1796 to 1947 eleven of them served as deacons, some serving three or four periods. (6) Herman Jan Rahusen (1817-75), married to Jacoba van Eeghen, a merchant at Am sterdam; (7) David Rahusen (1823-83), married to Elisabeth J. van Lennep, a banker; (8) Pieter Rahusen (1827-92), married to H. J. Hooglandt, a vintner; and (9) Eduard Nicolaas Rahusen (b. 1830-19?), unmarried, a lawyer, were sons of (5) David Jacobus Rahusen. (9) Eduard Nicolaas Rahusen was a delegate of the Dutch government to the Peace Conference at The Hague in 1901; in 1898, when the government introduced a law on compulsory military service which was to abolish the system of substitutes, which had made it possible for Mennonites (and others) to avoid military service, Rahusen, then a member of the First Chamber, as a Mennonite declared that he had no objections to compulsory service and that the Dutch Mennonites had abandoned the old doctrine of non-resistance; this view was opposed by Enno ten Cate Fennema, a Mennonite who was also a member of the First Chamber. (10) David Rahusen (1858-1932), of Amsterdam, married to Jkvr. A. L. Hooft, a son of (8) Pieter Rahusen, was a managing director of the Dutch State Bank; he was also a deacon of the Amsterdam congregation and a trustee of the Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (Dutch General Mennonite Conference) from 1899 to 1929, serving as its chairman 1902-3 and its treasurer 1915-29. His son (11) Gerrit Hendrik Rahusen, b. 1905 at Amsterdam, also engaged in banking, was a deacon of the Amsterdam Mennonite congregation 1935-42 and treasurer of the Algemeene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit 1941- . Another branch of the Rahusens has been prominent in the Mennonite congregation in Gronau, Germany, where Reinhard Rahusen (d. 1952) was an elder.

Bibliography

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1898): 128-30.

Nederland's Patriciaat V (1914): 326-30.

Cate, G. ten. Geslachtslijst der familie Vissering. 1903. 

Zondagsbode XLIV (1931-32):  No. 25.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Rahusen family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Rahusen_family&oldid=119497.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Rahusen family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Rahusen_family&oldid=119497.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 246-247. All rights reserved.

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