(including Woodford County)
Joseph Peter Staker has written an extensive and thoroughly documented history of 103 Amish Mennonite families that settled in Tazewell and Woodford Counties 1830-1856.
His five-volume, 1,578-page book has been placed on our website as Adobe Acrobat searchable PDF files that you can download for free!
Completed January 2022.

Part One of Five: Historical background: Bernese Anabaptists; Swiss Anabaptist Emigrants; The Amish Division; Jacob Amman of Erlenbach; Refuge in Alsace; Northern Migrations; The Second Wave of Immigration; The Packet Ships; Illinois; Woodford County; The Congregations; The Third Wave of Immigration; Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War (Revised); and The Mennonite Transition. Belsley, Engel, Oyer, Roggy/Rocke, Ropp, Schertz, Staker, and Vercler. 244 pages, 314 footnotes, 4.15 MB.
Part Two of Five: Abersoll, Bachman/Baughman, Beck, Beckler, Camp, Donner, Farny, Gerber/Garber, Gingerich, Kennel, Kistler, Leman, Mosiman, Nafziger, Oswald, Ruvenacht, Salzman, Schrock, and Schweizer. 257 pages, 206 footnotes, 3.74 MB.
Part Three of Five: Ackerman, Augspurger, Birky/Birkey, Brenneman, Cender, Eigsti, Hauter, Heiser, Ingold, Kettner, Litwiller, Maurer, Miller, Raeuber, Rich, Risser/Reeser, Ritthaler, Roth (Revised), Schick, Sommer, Stalter, Steinman, Sutter, Ulrich, Unzicker, and Zimmerman. 293 pages, 255 footnotes, 3.49 MB.
Part Four of Five: Ehresman, Goldsmith, Good, Hochstettler, Kauffman, King, Kinsinger, Lantz, Neuhauser, Oesch/Esch, Petersmith, Plank, Rediger, Ringenberger, Schwarzentraub, Smith, Stutzman, Yordy, Zehr, and Zook (Revised). 274 pages, 276 footnotes, 3.36 MB.
Part Five of Five: Beller, Dellenbach, Dettweiler, Egli, Eichelberger, Eiman, Ernst, Gascho, Grubb (Revised), Habecker, Householder, Imhoff, Jantzi, Klopfenstein, Martin, Moser, Orendorff, Ramseyer, Roeschley, Schantz, Schlabach, Schlegel, Sharp, Springer, Steider, Strubhar, Stucky, Wagler, Wagner, and Yoder. 318 pages, 264 footnotes, 3.88 MB.
Appendix: The Deep Snow of 1830; The Blackhawk War of 1832: The Battle of Stillman’s Run, Surrender, and Chief Shabbona of the Potowatomi; Lawyer Abraham Lincoln on the Eighth Circuit: Engel’s Place at Hanover, The Shields Challenge at Tremont, and The Goings Trial at Metamora; Owen Lovejoy and Abraham Lincoln; David Davis and Abraham Lincoln; Local Mormons (New); Life in Prairie Land; Tazewell County Townships; Military Acquaintances: Reust, Brickler, De Guibert, and Chlopicki; Landes and Landes Mennonite Cemetery; Passenger Lists; The Lewis County, New York Settlement: The De Chaumonts and the Castorland Company, Joseph Bonaparte, Kiefer/Kieffer, and Hirschy/Hirschey; Helvetii; Names; von Diesbach; Laws of Canton Bern; The 1783 Anabaptist Census of Basel; Swiss Legends; Hans Reist; Freyenberger; Bürcki/Buerge; Steiger; Zwalter; Barbara Eyer and the Erie Canal People (Revised); Wolber of Königsbach; Albrecht of Bureau County; Boshart; Holi/Holli/Holly; Eicher; Kurtz; Fahsbender; Esch of Lancaster County; Pennsylvania Dellenbachs; Pennsylvania and Indiana Gaschos; Peter Stuky; Rŭbi/Roby/Ruby; Christian Berger; Nebraska John Naffziger; Bender and Putnam County; Conrad; Bosiger; Linder of Steffisburg; The Zook Detour (New); and Paternity. Acknowledgements. 192 pages, 155 footnotes, 3.08 MB.