Stauffer, Jacob W. (1811-1855)
Jacob W. Stauffer, the founder of the Stauffer Mennonite Church, was born in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on 3 September 1811, the son of David and Anna (Weaver) Stauffer. On 18 November 1833 he married Lydia Martin (1817-1897). He lived on the home farm between the Linden Grove School and the Pike Mennonite Church. Here they reared their nine children. Of his sons, David M. Stauffer (1834-1889) was a bishop, Moses M. Stauffer (1849-1899) a preacher, John S. Stauffer (1867- ?) a bishop, and Phares O. Stauffer a bishop, all in Snyder County, Pennsylvania in the Stauffer Mennonite Church. His son Enos had two ordained sons-in-law—John A. Weaver (1881-1954), a bishop, and Peter Weaver, a preacher. Martin S. Weaver, a son of the former, was ordained by the Weaver Mennonites at the Pike Mennonite Church. Of the Daniel M. Stauffer line is Bishop Jacob S. Stauffer at the Pike Stauffer Mennonite Church.
Jacob W. Stauffer was ordained to the ministry at Groffdale on 29 November 1840, and served until 1845. Then trouble arose in the congregation, which became a church issue involving the ban. The bishops, with the exception of Jacob Brubaker of Juniata County, sided with the minister Joseph Wenger (1766-1851) and the deacon Benjamin Wenger (1807-1884). Thereupon Jacob W. Stauffer and Jacob Weber (1796-1860) withdrew with Bishop Brubaker (above) to form the Stauffer Mennonite Church. He defended his position and tried to show the decline of the old church in a book with the title, Eine Chronik, oder Geschicht-Büchlein (Lancaster, 1855, 2d ed. 1859). He formulated the principles of discipline and order for the new group. He rejected all attempts to heal the schism. Stauffer died in 1855.
Bibliography
Stauffer, Ezra N. Stauffer Genealogy of America. Goshen, 1917.
Weaver, M. G. History of Lancaster Conference . Scottdale: Herald Press, 1937.
| Author(s) | Ira D Landis |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Landis, Ira D. "Stauffer, Jacob W. (1811-1855)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stauffer,_Jacob_W._(1811-1855)&oldid=96558.
APA style
Landis, Ira D. (1959). Stauffer, Jacob W. (1811-1855). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stauffer,_Jacob_W._(1811-1855)&oldid=96558.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 620. All rights reserved.
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