Bishop Andrew Ropp

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Farmer, minister and bishop
• Religion: Amish
• Census: 1870, Tremont, Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL

Notes:

Ministers at Andrew’s funeral were Joseph Springer, Chr. Naffzinger, Andrew Buerky and Jacob Naffziger of Tazewell County and Joseph Buerky of Bureau Co. in the meetinghouse, and by J.P. Schmitt of Livingston Co. at the grave.

Owned land near Johannes Schrock and family in Tazewell Co., IL. Were the beginning of the Dillon Creek Amish settlement in 1834 when they settled 4 miles southeast of Pekin on Old State Rd.
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“Smoking a pipe was the common lot of men where the Ropp’s came from and each one of the old men did more or less piping. You’d expect energetic Andrew to be the heaviest smoker. He was. When he went on the road it was whip in one hand, reins in the other, the old pipe puffing along. Perhaps part of its companionship was that it gave him something to do.

“He was about average height (about five feet nine inches tall) and apparently never weighed over 165 pounds. His hair and beard were always cut true Amish man style. At that he could always say to the brethren, do as I do, and to the sister, do as mother does, and they would never need to wander away after strange fashion plates....

“When their daughters and sons married, each of them was given a farm....”
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According to Steve Estes in Living Stones: A History of the Metamora Mennonite Church, Andréw “served as minister of the Dillon Creek Congregation until about 1840 when he was ordained as bishop. He was described as a person made up on a ‘a large measure of push and energy and prompt decision, driven by a wish to succeed in building up a home and accumulating property.’ Ropp was an agricultural innovator but a religious conservative. His sincerity inspired deep devotion among many, but others criticized him as a minister who did more scolding, fault finding, and preaching on ‘dress,’ than preaching the Gospel. Ropp was assisted in the ministry by Peter Ropp (1815-1893) who became deacon about 1843 and Valentine Birky (1817-1856) who was ordained a minister of the word about 1847. Also known as the Pekin district, the Dillon Creek Congregation became the Pleasant Grove Mennonite Church now part of the First Mennonite Church in Morton, Illinois.”

Census:
Andrew age 63, farmer, born in France; wife Jacobine age 60, keeping house; child Andrew age 19, farmer, born Illinois.

Buried:
ite Cemetery

Andrew married Jacobina Vercler on 10 Apr 1834. Jacobina (daughter of Joseph Verkler, Sr. and Catherine Ringenberg) was born on 27 Apr 1811; died on 24 Jul 1885; was buried in Tremont, Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
by Christian Engel

1. Catherine Ropp was born on 27 Dec 1835 in Morton, Tazewell Co., IL; died on 25 Mar 1885 in Tazewell Co., IL; was buried in Tremont, Tazewell Co., IL.
2. Elizabeth Ropp was born on 27 Oct 1837; died on 16 Sep 1881; was buried in Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL.
3. Joseph W. Ropp was born on 30 Jan 1840 in Pekin, Tazewell Co., IL; died on 10 Jun 1920 in Tremont, Tazewell Co., IL; was buried in Tremont, Tazewell Co., IL.
4. Mary Ropp was born on 6 Jul 1841 in Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL; died on 7 Feb 1920 in Tremont, Tazewell Co., IL; was buried in Tremont, Tazewell Co., IL.
5. Rev. Peter W. Ropp was born on 5 Jan 1845 in Tazewell Co., IL; died on 5 Mar 1921 in Zion, Lake Co., IL; was buried in Zion, Lake Co., IL.
6. Jacobine Ropp was born in 1848; died in 1913.
7. Andrew W. Ropp was born in 1851; died in 1914.

Other Events and Attributes:

• HEIG: Just Over Six Feet Tall; Lean And Muscular, Weighed About 165 Pounds In His Prime.
• Occupation: Farmer And Miller
• Religion: Amish Mennonite
• USR1: Old Age
• Residence: 1825-26, Altkirch, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, FR
• Immigration: 1826

Notes:

Obit: Herald of Truth, Vol V, No 11, November 1868

On the 14th of October, in McLean county, Illinois, of old age, Andrew Ropp, in the 92nd year of his age. His memory was good and he was rational to the last.

He has seven children living, all of whom were present except one, who was on a journey at the time. He had 82 children, grand-children and great grand-children, who are still living, and 20 which have died.

A large concourse of people were present at the funeral, and a discourse appropriate to the occasion was delivered by Pre Joseph Stuckey, from Rev 21. He was a member of the Amish Mennonite Church.
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• Source: Amish Mennonites in Tazewell County, Illinois by Joseph Staker

"At the time of the marriage [Andreas' marriage to Elizabeth Eiman], Andreas's brother and sister were living at Jettingen. It is located about 10 miles southeast of Froeningen, midway on the 20-mile road between Altkirch and Basel, and less than 10 miles from the Swiss border community of Allschwil. Both Froeningen and Jettingen fall within the canton/department of Altkirch.
Elisabeth Eymann's first two children were born at Jettingen in 1807 and 1809. The birth entry of oldest child André (later bishop Andrew Ropp) describes father Andreas as André Ropp, a
29-year-old Anabaptist farmer and cultivator, married to 'Elisabetha Ayman.' Witnesses included 37-year-old Anabaptist farmer Jacob/Jacques Stauffer and his 21-year-old valet Joseph Burgermeister. Neither birth entry states that Andreas was actually a resident of Jettingen.

Their next three children were born at Falkwiller in 1810, 1812, and 1815.58 (The marriage entry of sister Catharine suggests that Andreas may have been living there as early as 1804). Christian Ropp wrote: “My father lived in Upper Alsace about six miles from Basel, two miles from Dammerkirch, and five miles from Belfort.” These were 'German miles': an hour's walk, or three English miles. The tiny village of Falkwiller is 5.8 miles north of Dannemarie, and the distances west to Belfort and southeast to Basel are approximately 15 and 18 miles. The largest employer in the area of Falkwiller was the Wasserhaus estate in adjacent Linden. 59 The Wasserhaus Château was destroyed after the French Revolution, and Linden no longer exists, but carp are still raised there in clay basins and man-made ponds created in the 16th century. Jean Burÿ [Buri], a witness on one Ropp family birth entry, was a laborer at Wasserhaus.
Andreas' ties to his uncle Joseph Ropp are apparent. Joseph was probably the reason that Andreas, his sister, and his brother are found in the Sundgau Region.

...Andreas may have been influenced just as much by his uncle Christian Rupp, who lived at a far greater distance. A number of coincidences link them:
Christian and Andreas were both very familiar with Amish Mennonite families on the opposite side of the Vosges Mountains in the tiny village of Hellocourt, Moselle (now Maizières-lès-Vic). It is likely Christian met them through his second wife, Magdalena Brechbühl; Brechbühls also married into the Vercler and Mosiman families.
Christian was a witness at the marriage of Peter Engel at Hellocourt in 1804. Peter was a son of elder Christian Engel, who Andreas later considered his 'cousin.'
Christian's children include Barbe, who married André Vercler; Joseph, who married Anne Mosimann; Jean, who married Marie Vercler; Elisabeth, who married Joseph Gerber and Joseph Augspurger; and Madeleine, who married Jean Salzman. Catherine Vercler, an older sister to the Verclers mentioned here, married Christian Bälzli/Belsely and lived at Azoudange; they were the parents of 'Red Joe' Belsley, who may have been the first Amish Mennonite to settle in Tazewell County (in a part that later became Woodford County). See the supplemental genealogy VERCLER.
Andreas Ropp's oldest son Andrew married Jacobina Vercler, from the next generation of this Hellocourt family.
And finally, two of Christian's great-grandchildren emigrated to McLean County, Ill., where they married two of Andreas Ropp's grandchildren (Marie A. Rupp and Peter S. Ropp, 1868; and Marie Anne Valerie Rupp and John S. Ropp, 1872). Andreas lived to see the first marriage."

Residence:
Farm Barthel Hutte

Buried:
Ropp Cemetery

Andréas married Elizabeth Eymann on 20 Mar 1806 in Lubine, Vosges, Bas-Rhin, FR. Elizabeth (daughter of Johannes Eymann and Anna Barbe Goldschmidt) was born in 1784 in Lubine, Vosges, Bas-Rhin, FR; died in 1834 in Butler Co., OH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Date from Neil Ann Levine

Notes:

Birth:
?

Died:
Now Kaysersberg-Vignoble.

Johannes + Barbe Hochstettler. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Pre du Chene

Johannes + Anna Barbe Goldschmidt. Anna (daughter of Joseph Goldschmidt and Bachman) was born in 1750; died on 29 Oct 1819 in Niedernai, Bas-Rhin, FR. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Riedhof (or Tauferhof) Obernai

Jacob + Elizabeth Sommer. Elizabeth (daughter of André Sommer and Anne Pinckele (Bingli)) was born in 1738; died in 1796. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Religion: Mennonite
• Residence: 1757, Asswiller, Alsace, FR

Notes:

From LePetite Liepvre near Ste. Marie-sux Mines.

Residence:
Struth section

Died:
Near Drulingen

Johannes married Anna Wagler in 1736 in Climont, Markirchtal, FR. Anna was born in 1710 in Muesbach-bei-Markirch, Alsace, FR; died in 1757 in Asswiller, Alsace, FR. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Of Muesbach near Colmar.

Died:
Bie Drulingen

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Farmer At Pre Du Chene Near Lubine, Vosges

Ulrich + Barbara Mosimann. Barbara died on 17 Mar 1782 in La Broque, Salm, Bas-Rhin, FR. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joseph + Bachman. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]