Voth (Vooth, Voodt, Vodt, Voht, Voet, Vogt, Foht, Foth, Fogt, Fodt, Foot) family

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Voth (and its variations) is a Mennonite family name commonly found among the descendents of the Prussian Mennonites. It was found in Prussia as early as 1630 and in Danzig by 1677. Mainly it is found in congregational records from Montau-Gruppe, Schönsee, Jeziorka, Tragheimerweide, and Danzig. Hans Voth (Voet), a deacon or a preacher in Lithuania, was expelled from there and immigrated to Walcheren in the Netherlands in 1733. Returning around 1738 he settled in Lithuania again. In the Naamlijst of 1743 he is mentioned as an elder of the Waterlanders (Frisians) in Lithuania. He died about 1753. Gillis and his brother Heinrich Voet were also expelled from Lithuania and lived at Walcheren at about the same time as Hans Voet. Not the same person as the formerly mentioned Hans is Hans Voet of Schönsee, who was a preacher of the Groningen Old Flemish congregation at Przechovka-Konopat in West Prussia until 1719. He visited Holland in 1726 to inform the Dutch Committee for Foreign Needs at Amsterdam about the situation in the territory of Culm. In his letters of 24 July and 9 September 1732, and 16 March 1735, he reported about the harsh measures of the Catholic bishop of Culm against the Mennonites. He was still serving in 1758, and died in 1760.

Andreas Voth was a preacher of Jeziorka 1754-88 and in 1765 began serving at Brenkenhoffswalde. Ernst Voth and Cornelius Voth both served as well in the late 18th century. The following ministers are named in the German Namensverzeichnisse and the Jahrbuch by Mannhardt: Peter Voth (1795-1850) of Komrau, who preached in 1826 and was elder of Montau-Gruppe from 1830 until his death in 1850, Heinrich Voth who was a preacher of Obernessau from 1875, and another Heinrich Voth, who was elder of the Lithuania congregation from 1882.

It is not clear whether the Prussian Voth-Foth family descended from a Dutch-Flemish Voogt family, or from a Swiss Vogt family. It is doubtful that Vogt was a family name found among the early Swiss Anabaptists, though Hans Vogt, of Villingen, canton of Aargau, did attend the third Anabaptist disputation at Bern.

A number of Voths (also Vogt) emigrated from Prussia to Russia. Here David Voth was a deacon of the Gnadenfeld congregation as early as 1814, and Peter Voth was a preacher of the Alexanderwohl church by 1848. Andreas Voth, born in West Prussia, was a prominent Mennonite Brethern (MB) educator in the Molotschna. Elder Heinrich Voth was ordained in 1925 to serve the Zagradovka Mennonite Church, and was the only Mennonite elder known to have well survived the tribulation of the years since the revolution; he was active in the post-Stalin period ministering to scattered Mennonite groups all over Russia. From Russia and Poland the name was transplanted to North and South America. H. R. Voth was a prominent General Conference Mennonite Church missionary to the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Hopi native Americans. Heinrich Voth and his two sons John and Henry S. Voth were prominent MB ministers and leaders. J. W. Vogt was for many years pastor of the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church and principal of the Corn Bible Academy; later he served as pastor at the Mennonite Brethren Church at Neuwied, Germany as well. Other MB ministers bearing the name were Herman Voth, leader of the East Aldergrove (British Columbia, Canada) Church, and David Vogt, assistant leader at Fraserview, Vancouver, BC. John J. Voth served Bethel College and other institutions. Dr. Harold Vogt was a staff member of Prairie View Hospital.

Bibliography

"Bezoekreis van H. B. Hulshoff." Bijdragen en Mededeelingen v.h. hist. genootschap 59 (1938).

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente te Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 1883-1884: I, Nos. 1114, 1596, 1621, 1661, 2012, 2033, 2061, 2108; II, No. 2636; II, 2, Nos. 738, 763, 779, 784.

Naamlijst der tegenwoordig in dienst zijnde predikanten der Mennoniten in de vereenigde Nederlanden. Amsterdam, 1829.

Reimer, Gustav E. Die Familiennamen der westpreussischen Mennoniten. Weierhof, 1940.

Toews, A. A. Mennonitische Martyrer I. North Clearbrook, 1949.

Unruh, B. H. Die niederlandisch-niederdeutschen Hintergründe der mennonitischen Ostwanderungen im 16., 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Karlsruhe-Rüppurr, 1955.


Author(s) Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published 1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Voth (Vooth, Voodt, Vodt, Voht, Voet, Vogt, Foht, Foth, Fogt, Fodt, Foot) family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 7 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Voth_(Vooth,_Voodt,_Vodt,_Voht,_Voet,_Vogt,_Foht,_Foth,_Fogt,_Fodt,_Foot)_family&oldid=134058.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Voth (Vooth, Voodt, Vodt, Voht, Voet, Vogt, Foht, Foth, Fogt, Fodt, Foot) family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 7 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Voth_(Vooth,_Voodt,_Vodt,_Voht,_Voet,_Vogt,_Foht,_Foth,_Fogt,_Fodt,_Foot)_family&oldid=134058.




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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 857. All rights reserved.


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