Identity area
Type of entity
Family
Authorized form of name
Stoesz family (Descendants of Jacob*1779)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1823-
History
This Stoesz family in Canada traces back to three brothers that immigrated from Russia in 1874, settling in Manitoba. (There also were female siblings that moved to Manitoba, and a fourth brother that settled in Mountian Lake, Minnesota. A brother Peter remained in Russia.) Their parents were Jacob Stoesz (1779-1859) and Barbara Wiens (1803-1878).
Jacob Stoesz (1834-1892) was the Brandaeltester (fire chief). Cornelius Stoesz (1836-1900) was elected a minister in 1864. David Stoesz (1842-1903), was elected a minister in 1869. The Stoesz family came from the Mennonite Bergthal Colony in Russia and settled in a village in Manitoba that was called Bergthal. Because their church leader lived in the village of Chortitz, their church in Manitoba was called the Choritizer Mennonite Church of Manitoba.
David Stoesz (1842-1903), the youngest brother, was elected to serve as assistant bishop of the Chortitzer Mennonite Church in 1879. In 1882 he succeeded Gerhard Wiebe as bishop. Bishop David Stoesz served the church with communion, baptisms and ordinations in various communities including Fargo, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. He died in 1903 and was buried in the Bergthal village cemetery (Manitioba East Reserve).
David M. Stoesz (1870-1934), son of Bishop David Stoesz (1842-1903), married Agatha Kehler (1870-1952) in 1890. In 1891 David and Agatha moved to the Mennonite West Reserve where land was better suited for farming, and bought eighty acres at the village of Gnadenfeld. David M. Stoesz was elected as a minister in 1912. The church he served was called the Sommerfeld Mennonite Church. In 1922 he emigrated to Mexico with portions of this church and founded the Santa Clara Colony. Dissatisfied with life in Mexico, he and his family returned to Canada within a year and settled in the village of Kronsthal, Manitoba. Here he died in 1934. His wife, Agatha (Kehler) Stoesz, who wrote her memoirs in 1948, and died in 1952.
Minister Cornelius Stoesz (1836-1900) had a son Cornelius W. Stoesz (1869-1925) and a grandson Cornelius G. Stoesz (1892-1976) who also were ministers. Donald Stoesz (1954- ), a career prison chaplain in Alberta, another descendant of minister Cornelius Stoesz published a study of some of the Stoesz sermons.