Wyse family name
Wyse (Wyss, Weis, Weiss, Weisse, Weisz, Weyss, Wise), a Swiss Mennonite name found in South Germany, France, and the United States. In 1940, nine persons with the name were members of two Mennonite congregations in South Germany, and in 1951 four in the French Mennonite Conference. Endres Weiss, an Anabaptist martyr, was burned at the stake in 1528. The first known Weiss in the Palatinate was Hans Weiss, who had three sons, one of whom, Christian, became the ancestor of the Weiss families in Wartenberg as well as many Weiss families in America. In 1717 Hans Weyss was named in a Palatine Mennonite census list, while in Michael Weiss and Jacob Weiss were named in a similar list. These last two were listed again in as being from Osthoffen. Jacob Weis, probably a Mennonite, was among the immigrants landing in Philadelphia in 1728; one of the settlers in Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, was Jacob Weisz. Among the early members of the Mennonite church in this township were George Weiss and Rudolph Weiss. The name Weiss is found in the old Hereford and Boyertown cemeteries in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Most of the American Wyse Mennonites now live in Fulton County, Ohio, and Henry County, Iowa. Their ancestors were Peter Wyss (1800-56), whose passport is dated April 1824, and who had been a resident of Burgdorf, canton of Bern, Switzerland, and his nephew John Wyse (1821-84). In Fulton County, Ohio, Peter was one of the first ministers in the Amish Mennonite church. In the same county his son Jephtha Wyse (1838-87) was ordained as minister there in 1866. John Wyse (1821-84) was ordained deacon c1864, and his son Daniel J. Wyse (1847-1925) as minister in 1888. In 1958 five ordained members of the Wyse family were serving the Mennonite Church. Olive G. Wyse has for many years been a member of the Goshen College faculty.
Bibliography
Pohl, M. "Geschichtliche Beitrage aus den Pfälzer Mennonitengemeinden." Mennonitischer Gemeinde-Kalender (formerly Christlicher Gemeinde-Kalender) (1905): 133-47, especially 145.
| Author(s) | Melvin Gingerich |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Gingerich, Melvin. "Wyse family name." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wyse_family_name&oldid=126142.
APA style
Gingerich, Melvin. (1959). Wyse family name. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wyse_family_name&oldid=126142.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 999. All rights reserved.
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