Individual Details

Peter Wyse

(Abt 1800 - 1856)

Peter was the guide and interpreter for the scouting party that chose Lauber Hill area of German Township as a settlement. Source:Out of The Wilderness, A Book on the History of the Mennonite Church 1835-1960 by Orland R Grieser First edition published in 1960 by Dean-Hicks Co., Grand Rapids MI. Second edition published in 2006 by Sauder Village, Archbold OH Page 198

On May 15th, 1848, Peter Wyse sold to the Amish Church the land for the Wyse Cemetery which is in German Township. 10 Years later the Amish Church bought the property for the Eckly Cemetery. Source: Out of The Wilderness, A Book on the History of the Mennonite Church 1835-1960 by Orland R Grieser First edition published in 1960 by Dean-Hicks Co., Grand Rapids MI. Second edition published in 2006 by Sauder Village, Archbold OH Page 198

Peter Wyse served as township trustee from 1844-1848. Source: Out of The Wilderness, A Book on the History of the Mennonite Church 1835-1960 by Orland R Grieser First edition published in 1960 by Dean-Hicks Co., Grand Rapids MI. Second edition published in 2006 by Sauder Village, Archbold OH Page 56, 198

Most of Peters children moved to Iowa except for Jephtha, Abraham, Elizabeth, Lovina

Notes between myself and Joe A Springer, curator Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen College, Indiana dec 2012:
Immigrant Peter Wyse
Inbox
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Joe A Springer

12/29/12

to me
Hi Steve,
I was doing some genealogical work for a friend whose ancestry includes Peter Wyse 1800-ca1856. Although I won't be undertaking further research, I thought you might be interested in pursuing the likelihood that "Koppenquen" is a corruption of the Swiss place name Koppigen. This is a town near Burgdorf (which is also sometime mentioned as Peter's place of origin.) In 1798, the canton of Bern undertook a registration of all males over the age of 20--these have been published by Picton Press and show 16 males in Koppigen who have the surname Wiss or Wys. All but one of these actually lived/worked in the nearby town of Alchenstorf. Swiss church records can be difficult to read, but LDS Family History centers may provide online access (only on-site) to the records from Koppigen. If not, they could be ordered on microfilms (I would suggests microfilm roll numbers 2005681-683). People with Mennonite connections may or may not appear in the records, but this would be an excellent place to try to discover more about Peter and also the sibling group that may be children of his brother (e.g. John Wyse 1821-1884).
Joe Springer, Curator
Mennonite Historical Library
Goshen College
1700 S Main St.
Goshen, IN 46526
USA
Steve Wyse

12/30/12

to Joe
Hello Joe

Thank you so much for this information. I will certainly follow up on your lead. I assume that you have not been able to view that actual publication by Picton Press? I'm curious to know where you found this lead - some sort of an index I presume?

I'm also curious to know how you came upon my name as a researcher of the Wyse Mennonite families?

Finally, I'm interested in your contention that (Deacon) John Wyse (1821-1884) was a brother to Peter. My research has led me to believe that said John may have been a nephew to Peter and that his father was also named John (Peters brother). Although I must admit that my source is very weak, and I very well could be wrong. The source that I have is a small self-published Wyse family history booklet titled "Wyse Tales and Otherwise" written by Jesse Wyse. There is not a published date in the book, but I believe that it was written in the 1980's. Jesse was much better at telling stories than he was at documenting fact. In his stories, he mentions that Deacon John and Peter were Uncle and Nephew. I would be very interested to know if you have source information to the contrary.

Sincerely,
Steve Wyse
Joe Springer

12/30/12

to me
We have the Picton Press version of the 1798 lists in our library. It is not particularly useful except to verify the existence of individuals with surnames in a particular place. There are just a bunch of males and their birth years, but no indication of relationships.

Although I am not myself related to the immigrants from the Montbeliard region, I have done lots of research on that group and so am well acquainted with most of the northwestern Ohio Mennonite immigrants. I noticed that you had pulled together a lot of information about the Swiss Wyses and that you had occasionally posted inquiries about the Koppenquen connection. I knew that had to be a corruption of whatever place was meant. When I looked at a Swiss place name index I was immediately confident in thinking that Koppigen would have a high likelihood of being what was meant so used the Picton Press lists to verify that the surname was present in the area.

I can see why you misinterpreted my comment on the connection between Peter and younger John. I should have put the parentheses right after sibling group. It is also my understanding that John b. 1821 is thought to be a nephew of Peter and that John's father (possibly also named John) was Peter's brother. I didn't go back to Wayne Co. naturalization records but I think my notes on those are correct that there is a John Wise who gets paturalized at the same time as Peter, but arrived in the US about a month later than Peter's 1822 arrival. My notes (possibly with a typo?) have an age of something like 57 years for that John on the naturalization record, but the most likely candidate on an 1822 shiplist seems to have the age 24, so he was either a much older brother (possibly the story is corrupt and John b. 1821 is a cousin rather than nephew) or is just a few years older than Peter. In any case, the father of John apparently did seem to survive through to the time of the 1850 census.

Swiss parish records vary somewhat as to the amount of detail they provide at baptism By the end of the 1700s most do include full names of both parents. If you are lucky with that, then it will perhaps also be possible to track further back through the parents' marriage record. Records before about 1730 tend not to give all the relevant information so it sometimes becomes very difficult to distinguish among different people with the same first/last names that are living in the same area at one time. Mennonites are sometimes included (often they let their children be baptized just to satisfy the local pastor(, but there are also always families that flew under the radar. If you don't find candidates in the baptismal records, there are several other types of records included on the films to look at. In particular the "auswartige" ("external") records that deal with people originally from the parish who are living elsewhere. These kind of records often include reports of Mennonites who tended to live and work in places other than their place of origin. Those who planned to emigrate sometimes made a special effort to get officially registered in those records before they left the continent. There is also a section of records listed on the microfilm that apparently lists people by household--this might pick up Mennonite households that were actually in the parish even if the family was not otherwiise represented. I assume the the Wyse immigrants were Mennonites before they left, but it is not impossible that they did not begin associating with Mennonites until shortly before or even at the time of immigration. Koppigen is not a place that I have encountered much. It is very close to Wynigen which is the place that many Schrag/Schrock Mennonites seem to have come from.

Keep me posted if you do get a look at the Koppigen records!

Joe Springer
MHL/GC

Events

Birth	Abt 1800
Birth	12 Jul 1800	Koppigen, Bern, Switzerland
Immigration	1824	GERMANY
Arrival	1824	Wayne, Ohio, USA
Arrival	1824	Age: 24/Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Land Purchase	1826	Wayne, Ohio, USA
Marriage	Abt 1828	Ohio, USA - Catharine BRANDT
Marriage	Abt 1828	Catherina Brandt
Land Purchase	28 Apr 1829	Wayne, Ohio, USA
Land Purchase	1834	E 1/2 of SE 1/4 of section 22 German Twp. Fulton Co OH/German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Land Sold	6 Sep 1834	Peter Wyse and wife Christina/Wayne, Ohio, USA
Land Purchase	Abt 1835	NE 1/4 section of 22/German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Residence	1835	German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Residence	1840	German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Ordination	Abt 1848	Ordained Bishop from abt 1848-1856/German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Residence	1850	German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Land Sold	7 Oct 1853	Peter Wyse and wife Christina/Wayne, Ohio, USA
Death	1856	Fulton Co. OH
Death	1856	Age: 56/
Death	12 Dec 1856	German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Residence	1860	German, Fulton, Ohio, USA
Alt name		Peter WISE
Burial		Wyse Cemetery
Burial		Fulton County, Ohio, USA
Religion		Amish/Mennonite/
Departure		Le Havre, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France
Burial		Archbold, Fulton, Ohio, USA

Families

Spouse	Catherina Brandt (1807 - 1892)
Child	Abraham Wyse (1830 - 1864)
Child	Peter Wyse (1831 - 1832)
Child	Christian P. Wyse (1833 - 1875)
Child	Samuel W. Sr. Wyse (1834 - 1904)
Child	Elizabeth Wyse (1836 - 1855)
Child	Jeptha Wyse (1838 - 1888)
Child	John Wyse (1840 - 1883)
Child	Lydia Wyse (1841 - )
Child	Lovina Wyse (1843 - 1869)
Child	Simon Wyse (1844 - )
Child	Peter Wyse (1846 - )
Child	Stephen Wyse (1851 - )

Spouse	Catharine BRANDT (1807 - 1892)
Child	Abraham Wyse (1830 - 1864)
Child	Christian P WYSE (1826 - 1875)
Child	Elizabeth Wyse (1836 - 1855)
Child	Eve WYSE (1838 - )
Child	Jephtha WYSE (1836 - 1887)
Child	John S WYSE (1840 - 1883)
Child	Lydia Wyse (1841 - )
Child	Lovina Wyse (1843 - 1869)
Child	Simon B WYSE (1844 - 1908)
Child	Peter WYSE (1846 - 1910)
Child	Stephen Seth WYSE (1851 - 1917)
Child	Samuel W WYSE (1834 - 1904)

Father	Living
Sibling	John Wyse (1798 - )

Father	Living
Sibling	Living

Individual Details

Peter Wyse

Events

Families

Endnotes