Hartman, an American Mennonite (Mennonite Church) family appearing first as immigrants from the Palatinate, Germany, 1832-1840, and locating (after stops in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) in Ashland County, Ohio (1835 ff.), from where some pushed on to Tazewell County, Illinois. (Peter, who came from Germany in 1837), and to Elkhart County, Indiana, e.g., Adam (1811-1894), who left Germany in 1832, came to Ashland County in 1835 and settled in the Yellow Creek (Indiana) area in 1849, and Valentine (d. 1886 in Elkhart County), who left Germany in 1837. Peter, of Washington, Illinois, was the father of Preacher John Hartman of Ash­land County and Bishop Emmanuel Hartman (1849-1912), who served as bishop of the Wash­ington Mennonite Church 1877-1897, then transferred to the Apostolic Christian Church ("New Amish"). The Hartman family was closely asso­ciated with the Bally and Beutler families in the emigration from Germany and settlement in Ash­land County. Other known Hartman immigrants to Ashland County were Samuel and Henry. The only identification of the exact German origin is that Adam Hartman came from the Kaiserslautern area.

Another Hartman line, that of Harrisonburg, Virginia, apparently having no connection with the Ashland County line, is that of David Hartman (1812-1881), the father of Peter S. Hartman, whose origin is unknown. He may have come from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where a Henry Hartman, a lifelong member of a congregation in East Lampeter Township, died in 1867 at the age of 90. The Virginia Hartmans all descend from him.

The origin of the Hartman name is puzzling, since it is not found in the earlier Swiss or South German Mennonite records and practically un­known in European Mennonite circles today. In 1936 there was only one Mennonite in Germany bearing the name, a member of the Friedelsheim (Palatinate) congregation. It is possible that the family transferred from a Lutheran background to the Mennonite Church in the Palatinate about 1800 and that the entire family connection emigrated to America.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 668. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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