From Brüttisellen to Lushton 1

Assuming the line traced from Grandpa back to Heinrich Bühler in the early seventeenth century (see here) is correct, we know that the earliest known point of our family journey lies in Switzerland, in a small village outside of Zurich. So how did get from point A to point B, from where we were at the beginning of the seventeenth century to where we ended up in the first half of the twentieth century? Over the course of the next week or two we will explore, in varying degrees of detail, the main points on the journey from Switzerland to the United States, from the Canton of Zurich to a farm just south of Lushton, Nebraska. Who knows? We may even construct an actual map of our family wanderings along the way.

Wangen-Brüttisellen today.

We begin in the region of Zurich, Switzerland. If the Heinrich Bühler who died in 1613 (see here) is our first known ancestor (I suspect he was), our story begins in the village of Feldbach, on the north shore of Lake Zurich. If the elder Heinrich was not the father of Heinrich Bühler the younger, whose return to Zurich is recounted The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, then our story starts with the younger Heinrich, in the village of Brüttisellen, 6 miles northeast of Zurich (or 16 miles northwest of Feldbach).

Either way, we can say with relative certainty that our earliest known ancestors were of Swiss stock. We can also conclude that they were Anabaptists, at least beginning with Heinrich the younger. If, as we suspect, Heinrich the younger was born around 1580, then by his early twenties he had joined an Anabaptist church or community. How do we know this? Because in 1602 Heinrich the younger left his native Switzerland and settled in Moravia, roughly 450 miles to the east (see further here).

Why did Heinrich move his family so far away? Only one explanation makes sense. The Switzerland of his day was dominated by the Reformed Church established by Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), a state church that had no patience with or tolerance of the individualistic, nonconforming Anabaptists. As the ruling power, the Reformed authorities sought to stamp out every trace of Anabaptist practice and thought, often using any means necessary.

During the mid-1500s many Swiss Anabaptists fled for their lives to safer locales in the surrounding states, including Prussia. But beginning around 1570, Moravia (in the eastern part of today’s Czech Republic) became a favored destination. Horst Penner elaborates:

Following this first Swiss flight directly to Prussia, Moravia enjoyed priority in the years 1570–1610; it was the “golden age” of the Hutterites. The news of the “promised land” in Moravia and the “new Jerusalem” in Nikolsburg penetrated even into the best circles of the city of Bern. Women from these families—the name Vogt also appears in this context—went with their children to Moravia. Hans Schellenberg, Hanß Albrecht, and Heinrich Buhler from the Canton of Zurich moved from Switzerland and went to Moravia.

Route from Brüttisellen, Switzerland, to Nikolsburg (modern Mikulov), Moravia.

The only reasonable explanation for Heinrich Bühler the younger’s actions is that he left Brüttisellen in order to avoid persecution, quite possibly to save his and his family members’ lives. By fleeing the area for the safety of Moravia, Heinrich saved himself and his family from the fate of Hans Landis of Zurich, who was executed in 1614, the last of a long line of Swiss Anabaptist martyrs (Smith 1920, 85).

Step 1, then, involved a journey of around 450 miles from Switzerland to Moravia. We will talk more about Moravia in the next post of this series. I think we've covered quite enough ground for one day.

Sources

Penner, Horst. 1978. Die ost- und westpreussischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen. Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein.

Smith, C. Henry. 1920. The Mennonites: A Brief History of Their Origin and Later Development in Both Europe and America. Berne, IN: Mennonite Book Concern. Available online here.