Isaac Smucker. Scan courtesy Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen HM 4-136, Box 1/25

Isaac Smucker, born 29 September 1810, died 16 November 1893), was the first Amish bishop in northern Indiana. He wrote his name Schmucker in German and Smoker in English, but his son, Jonathan P. Smucker, decided to follow the latter spelling. Isaac Smucker was the great-grandson of Christian Smucker, of Bern, Switzerland, who settled for a time at Montbéliard in France before coming to America. Christian Smucker's son John (1740-1809) married Barbara Stoltzfus of Zweibrücken and settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania. John's son Christian (1775-1857) married Elizabeth Stutzman and lived in Lancaster County. On 10 June 1832, Isaac married Sarah Troyer (1811-1886) of Holmes County, Ohio. They lived first in Wayne County, Ohio, but in 1838 they settled in Knox County, Ohio, where in the fall of 1838 he was ordained as an Amish preacher. In November 1841 they settled in Elkhart County, Indiana, where in 1843 he was ordained bishop, probably by Amish bishops from Ohio. Smucker lived from March 1851 to August 1852 in McLean County, Illinois, then settled at the Haw Patch (Topeka) in Lagrange County, Indiana, where he lived until his death on 16 November 1893. Personally he retained the dress and appearance of an Amish bishop all his days, but his congregation (now called Maple Grove) gradually became indistinguishable from the Mennonites of northern Indiana. Smucker and Jonas Troyer (from 1854) were the two pioneer bishops in the Elkhart-Lagrange Amish settlement who established the Forks, Clinton (Frame), and Haw Patch (Maple Grove) congregations of Amish Mennonites, which in 1916 merged with the Mennonites of the area.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1126. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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