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Below are two excerpts describing the history of the Landis Families. The first is more general, and the second is quite specific to our group of families. As a brief overview, about 1717, three people (Benjamin, Felix, and John Landis, who are usually described as brothers) emigrated to Pennsylvania from their ancestral home near Zurich, Switzerland. All 3 were Mennonites, but Benjamin was a preacher ; Benjamin and Felix went directly to Lancaster, whereas John first went north to Bucks County. Most living American members of the Landis family are descended from Benjamin, and the published genealogies of the Landis families are heavy with those descendents. However, our group of families is descended from John, of Bucks County, who left fewer descendents. Apparently, most (but by no means all) Americans who descend from the ancestral Swiss Landis clan are descended from these 3 early immigrants.
Alternative histories exist.
Our relationship to Kenesaw Mountain Landis is more distant.
History of Switzerland (Swiss national website)
Samuel E. Wenger has written (2005) a history of the Landis family which links immigrants
Benjamin, Felix, and John Landis to Hans Landis.
First excerpt by John Landis Peeling, alternate website
Second excerpt from The Landis Family of Lancaster County, 1888, by David B. Landis
The Landis families have their origin in Menzinger, Aeugst am Albis, Hirzel, Horgen, Kappel am Albis, Kilchberg, Richterswil, Schönenberg, Urdorf, & Wädenswil, all of Canton Zurich, Switzerland, and all sitting on the western shore of Lake Zurich, in about 1392. There are still Landises living there. Swiss records state that this family name identifies an old family of the parish Hirzel in 1485. The oldest known Landis homestead is located in Hirzel was built in 1488 and is still kept by a Landis descendant, Alvin [Alwin] Landis, in the area now known as Oberhirzel, near Wädenswil, Canton Zurich, Switzerland. Address: Dorfstrasse 53, 8816 Hirzel, Canton Zurich, Switzerland. Others living at that address include: Dieter, Hedy, Peter, and Werner Landis.
The name Landis comes from "land" and "oesen" which means "land destroyer". The original spelling was Landoes (Landös).
Various historical sources record early Landises. A Hansen Landos of Uerikon is recorded in 1372 A Rudi Landos is recorded in 1415 The first appearance in the Horgen records of a Landis is 1485.
From the Historic Background and Annals of the Swiss and German Pioneer Settlers of South-eastern Pennsylvania: A Landis is one of the names joining when Menno Simon founded the Mennonite Church in 1538. Hans Landis, who in 1614, against the prohibition of the government preached before large meetings in forest and field, baptized and solemnized marriages. He was, for that reason, taken prisoner and as he would not promise to cease such activities in the future, condemned to six years’ punishment on the galleys of Venice, but escaped. He returned to Switzerland and was soon recaptured and beheaded on Sept 29, 1614. It was reported that he was a tall, stately person with a long black and gray beard and a manful voice. In 1637 a Hans Landis (the second) a minister of the Church of Horgerburg and his daughter Margaret Landis were placed in Othenbach prison (about 6 miles southwest of Zurich on the Reuss River) for 60 weeks and all of their property was sold.
In 1640 an Oswald Landis, his wife, and two daughters-in-law and his son Jacob Landis and his entire family were imprisoned in the Othenbach prison. One or two years later Felix Landis of Horgerberg (a son of Hans Landis who was beheaded in 1614) was similarly imprisoned and almost starved to death before release. In 1643 Verena Landis also suffered threats and imprisonment.
Two Landises are listed as preachers to those who were Mennonite land buyers in the Skippack settlement in Pennsylvania in 1706. A Jacob Landis of Switzerland is one of the signers of a letter written on March 3, 1709 to the Anabaptist congregation in the Netherlands (Holland). The signers list themselves as ministers and elders of the Mennonite congregations of Switzerland. A Landis who is identified as being from Zurich is banished from Bern in 1710. With others from Zurich and Bern, they were transported down the Rhine in 1710 and are believed to have eventually moved to Obfeldon and Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania. Because Prussia had become depopulated by pestilence and war, King Frederick of Prussia in 1710, asked Bern, who wanted the Mennonites out of Switzerland, to send a colony of the persecuted Mennonites there. They would have religious freedom and be exempt from war. Bern expressed the hope that the Mennonites would find it (land near the border of Lithuania) comfortable so that none of them would attempt to come back. The project failed. They found that their principle of non-resistence was not respected and while not compelled to bear arms, they were compelled to pay large sums of money as the price of exemption, and too, the hope of going to Pennsylvania was a great a temptation.
In 1712 a Johannes Landis is living in Pequea Valley, PA. On 2/14/1729 a Felix Landis, Jr. is naturalized and recognized as having arrived between 1700 and 1718.
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The following is excerpted from the small book : The Landis Family of Lancaster County, 1888, by David B. Landis Contains mostly family trees starting with emigrant Benjamin, but a small portion is devoted to John and Felix. Available at Wis. Hist. Soc. in Madison. |
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