Christian Stalter

Other Events and Attributes:

• Reference Number: 78
• Religion: Amish Mennonite
• RWDN: S21

Notes:

One of the effects of the French revolution was the annexing of the territories to the north east of what was then France. This included Belgium, Savoy, Nice, and all lands up to the Rhine River. This was accomplished by 1793. This change of government had to have been noticed by our Stalter ancestors. When the Kirschbacher Hof estate was ransacked by the invading armies the Heinrich Stalter family took temporary refuge with eldest son, Christian, who was a leasholder on the Bickenaschbacher Hof. For reasons unknown, this estate was not destroyed. Christian Stalter was residing on Bickenaschbacher Hof when he died in 1831.

In 1800 Hienrich Stalter died on the Tenschof estate. His widow apparently returned to the Bickenaschbacher Hof for it was from here that she wrote a letter to the former Duke Max Joseph of Zweibrücken. In this letter, which is still kept in an archives in Munich, she explains her gloomy circumstances, and reminds the Elector of his promise given to her husband at the occasion of his visit at the Elector’s exile at Rohrbach castle near Heidleberg; namely that the Stalter family should obtain another estate as soon as “his Highness should acquire other dominions”.

The Elector, in fact, remembered his promise and ordered that the Stalter family (several sons and a nephew of Heinrich Stalter) could possess considerable estates from the nationalized Upper Bavarian Abbey’s properties. These Abbey (church) properties were available because, as part of the changes brought about by the French Revolution, there was a great reduction in the power of the Catholic Church. Church lands were confiscated and sold, or used by the French government to gain the support of those “German” noblemen who had lost property as a result of the revolution. This helped the French, because these new properity holders now were indebted to the French authorities, and therefore more likely to support the French in the new regime. This also helped our Stalter ancestors, because now there was land available for them to farm which the Elector could use to keep his promise to his friend, Heinrich Stalter.

A number of other Amish families followed the Stalters to Bavaria, where the government readily accepted them to cultivate the abandoned Abbey’s estates. The Bavarian government was quite aware of the special abilites of the Mennonite farmers.,

Birth:
Tenscherhof in Lorhringen

Died:
Bickenaschbacherhof

Christian married Magdalena Hauter in 1785. Magdalena (daughter of Johannes Hauter and Magdalena Schrag) was born in Jun 1759 in Ixheim, GR; died on 11 Dec 1805 in Hengstbach, Zweibrücken, GR. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Christian Stalter was born on 27 Mar 1781; died on 16 Jun 1868 in Hengstbach, Zweibrücken, GR.
2. Joseph Stalter was born on 27 Mar 1786 in Hornbach, Palatinate, GR; died on 25 Jan 1853 in Zweibrücken, Rheinland-Pfalz, GR.
3. Jacob Stalter was born in 1790 in Hornbach, Palatinate, GR; died on 22 May 1851.
4. Magdalena Stalter was born in 1793.
5. Johannes Stalter was born in 1789; died in 1828.
6. Katharina Stalter was born in 1797; died on 28 Feb 1868.
7. Heinrich Stalter was born on 25 May 1800 in GR; died in 1872.
8. Maria Stalter was born on 29 May 1802; died on 10 Dec 1812.
9. Daniel Stalter was born on 5 Dec 1805; died on 10 Nov 1846.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Farmer at Tenscherhof in 1750
• Reference Number: 61
• Religion: Mennonite
• Residence: 1750, Sarralbe, Moselle, FR
• Residence: 1770, Homburg, Saarland, GR
• Residence: Abt 1776, Zweibrücken, Rheinland-Pfalz, GR
• Residence: 1777, Sarralbe, Moselle, FR
• Residence: Abt 1802-1803, Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR

Notes:

Heinrich was leaseholder on Kirschbacherhof (near Zweibrrücken, GR), a very old and sizable ducal estate which is known from documentary sources as early as 1295. The original buildings were destroyed during the Revolution and the present ones were rebuilt in the early 1800s.
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“ Henry Stalter, born in 1725 in Zweibrücken, was a farmer there since at least 1750 when his wife gave birth to a child named Christian, and that first wife died before 1776. Since that year, his second wife, Catherine Imhoff gave birth to two son to Homburg Saar, Henry named the youth, and Jacques (quoted above at Haras). The family is back at Tenscherhof in 1777, year of birth of a daughter. Two daughters died in 1794 aged 23 years, and Henry Stalter, father, dies Tenscherhof, February 23, 1800.“


A Brief History of The Kirschbacher Hof and the Ducal Family That Owned It

“The Kirschbacher Hof estate was the birthplace of our ancestor, Heinrich Stalter. This estate is located on the western edge of present-day Germany, near the city of Zweibrücken, close to Luxembourg and Lorraine, France.

“This estate is very old and is documented back to 1295. Duke Johann I purchased it at the end of the 1500s and gave it to his hunting master Christian von Bernstein. It was he, too, who built the Kirschbach mill.

“In 1737, the widowed Countess Palatine Caroline, née Countess of Nassau-Saarbrücken, as ruling sovereign and guardian over her minor son Christian, bought the estate for 12600 guilders and leased it to the Mennonite Heinrich Stalter. Historians consider her an especially prudent and active sovereign.

“The members of the ducal family preferred to stay at this estate during hunting. The grandsons of the Duke’s mother, the Counts Palatine Karl and Max, and the Counts of Forbach, Christian and Willhelm, were frequent hunting guests and, in this way became acquainted with the tenant Heinrich Stalter, which later proved to be advantageous for the Stalter family.

“In 1762, Duke Christian IV took over the estate from his mother and granted it to his sons. Then Duke Karl II August seized the estate again and donated it as perviously mentioned, to his wife Amilie.

“During the French Revolution (started in 1789 and lasting about a quarter of a century), French troops moved across the border into German territory and set fire to the estate. (The French Revolution was about eliminating the ruling class so estates such as this became targets.) Heinrich Stalter and his family were forced to leave the estate and find temporary shelter on another estate, the Bickenaschbacher Hof, where Heinrich’s eldest son, Christian Stalter, was living.”

At the beginning of 1800 the family moved to Bavaria, near Munich, living on property in Gern near the Nymphenburg palace.

Heinrich was a friend of King Maximillian I Joseph of Bavaria. He is known to have at least six children, but probably had four more. Hermann Guth read documents in the archives in Neuburg telling how Heinrich complained to neighbors and acquaintances that a monestary at Thierhaupten (near Hemerten) was sold for too low a price. The story reached King Max, who insisted that the price be increased. He trusted Heinrich's judgement enough to act upon it.

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Birth:
(an hour away from Grostenquin/Linstroff)

Residence:
Tencherhof estate--son Christian born there

Residence:
Lingenhof estate--son Josef born there

Residence:
Kirschbacherhof: Three children born there: Heinrich, Johannes and Maria

Residence:
Tenscherhof

Died:
Tenscherhof

Heinrich + Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• EARL: Y
• Occupation: Farmer
• Reference Number: 63
• Religion: Amish Mennonite
• Residence: 1742, Zweibrücken, Rheinland-Pfalz, GR

Notes:

“The exact home of the Stalter family in Switzerland is not known. Ernst Muller, in his Geschichte der Bernischen Taufer, mentions a Barbe Stalter, who came with two children to the Palatinate in 1672, together with other refugees, leaving seven children behind.

"The name Stalter/Stalder is probably derived from one of the countless towns named Stalden which can be found in nearly every Swiss canton. The first Stalters in the vicinity of Zweibrücken appeared in 1742 on the Gersbergerhof, where at that time a leaseholder Christian Stalter lived with his son. In addition another leaseholder, Hans Stalter, with two sons and four daughters, and a day-laborer, Hans Stalter, with two daughters, are mentioned.

"It appears that Hans Stalter, married to Elisabeth Weiss, had two sons by the names of Johannes Stalter and Heinrich Stalter, who became the progenitors of two branches of the Stalter family. One branch still exists today (the descendants of Johannes), but the other has largely died out (the descendants of Heinrich), at least in the area around Zweibrücken. To be sure emigration contributed to this, as well as the fact that in one generation the children of several families remained unmarried. Was there perhaps a hereditary illness which caused responsible people to decide not to marry?"
It is believed/known that the descendants of Heinrich either did not have children, and/or those that did, immigrated to America.” , ,,

Birth:
Gersbergerhof, GR

Residence:
Leaseholder on the Gersbergerhof

Johannes + Elisabeth Weiss. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Reference Number: 64
• Religion: Amish Mennonite