Herman op den Graeff | |
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| leader of the Mennonites | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 November 1585 |
| Died | 27 December 1642 (aged 57) Krefeld, Germany |
| Nationality | Dutch [1] |
| Denomination | Christianity |
| Occupation | Linen weaver |
| Profession | merchant |
Herman op den Graeff, also Hermann (Aldekerk, 26 November 1585 - Krefeld, 27 December 1642) was a Mennonite community leader from Krefeld.
Herman op den Graeff was the first historically proven member of the Op den Graeff family. He was born on 26 November 1585 into a Mennonite religious family in Aldekerk (Duchy of Guelders, Holy Roman Empire), near the Dutch border. [2] It is said that the Op den Graeff family was of Dutch origin. [3] Some believe that Duke John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg had a morganatic marriage prior to 1585 with Anna op den Graeff (van de Aldekerk), with whom he had a son, Herman op den Graeff. [4] [5] No substantial evidence of any relation between the Op den Graeff and the Duke has ever been presented, so most likely that connection is non-existent. According to another family tradition, the Op den Graeff descended from the Von Graben through Wolfgang von Graben [6] [7] who where mentioned in Holland between 1476 and 1483. [8] [9] [10] Graeff was the Dutch spelling of Graben during the 14th and 15th century. [11] These sources are not documented and cannot be verified. Another source reports that the Op den Graeff family may have come from Flanders. [12]
In 1605, Herman op den Graeff removed to Kempen where he met and married Greitgen Pletjes (or Greitje Pletjes) on 6 August 1605. In 1609 the family moved to Krefeld.
Un Krefeld, Op den Graeff became a lay preacher and leader of the Mennonite community. In 1630, he had two stained glass windows (Op den Graeff windows) with paintings and religious aphorisms created for himself and his wife Greitgen (Greitje) Pletjes as a sign of his piety.</ref> [13] The windows originally where located at Op den Graeffs house at Krefeld. During the 19th century the window where located at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Museum at Krefeld and were apparently transferred to the Linn Castle, also at Krefeld. The windows were stolen from the Linn Castle during the chaos of the end of the Second World War and no longer correspond to the description given before the theft. The current window contains a depiction of the Virgin Mary, which would have been unthinkable for a Mennonite. At this point there was another saying, the text of which has been handed down.
Images of the Op den Graeff windows:
Following is the reproduction of both texts, in original German language and Translated english language, according to the line structure of the copy that was received: [14]
and the translated English version:
Disappeared text (glass plate replaced by depiction of the Virgin Mary) in original German language:
and the translated English version:
There is a reference about the Op den Graeff glass paintings of Krefeld with a description of Hermans possible, but not proven Coat of Arms was found in the estate of W. Niepoth (op den Graeff folder) in the archives of the city of Krefeld, who noted a letter dated November 17, 1935 from Richard Wolfferts to Dr Risler: Saw the Coat of Arms glass pane in the old museum: 'Herman op den Graeff und Grietgen syn housfrau' or the like. Coat of Arms - In the sign a silver swan in blue. Helmet decoration (I think): Swan growing. [15]
In 1632, Herman op den Graeff was one of two Krefeld Mennonite Church delegates to sign the Dordrecht Confession of Faith. [16] In Krefeld he worked as a preacher in the Mennonite community. In 1637, he was named as the "der hiesigen Mennoniten Herrn Bischof" of Krefeld (Mennonite lord bishop of Krefeld). [17] A Reformed member complained bitterly about the activity of Op den Graeff that “some ordinary non-Mennonites were attracted.” In 1637 donations were requested for the suppressed Reformed Church in Sweebrucke, and Op den Graeff donated the sum of 25 Reichsthaler from his own resources on behalf of the small Krefeld community, while the Reformed community in Krefeld only contributed 22.
On August 6, 1605 Herman op den Graeff married to Greitgen (Greitje) Pletjes (1588–1643). They had the following children:
In 1683, three of Herman op den Graeff's grandchildren (children of Isaac Hermans op den Graeff), Derick, Herman and Abraham op den Graeff, who where cousins of Pennsylvania founder William Penn as well, [18] migrated to Pennsylvania, United States. They are among the thirteen families, Original 13, the first organized immigration of a closed group of Germans to America, who arrived on the ship Concord on October 6 that year. They often referred to as the Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania founders. [19] [20] [21] Later Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was Herman's sixth-great-grandson through his grandson Abraham op den Graeff, [22] while US-president Theodore Roosevelt was the sixt great-grandson of Herman op den Graeff through his daughter Hallerkin. [23]
Herman op den Graeffs three grandchildren who founded Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1683:
Krefeld, also spelled Crefeld until 1925, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its center lying just a few kilometers to the west of the river Rhine; the borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine. Because of its economic past, Krefeld is often referred to as the "Velvet and Silk City". It is accessed by the autobahns A57 (Cologne–Nijmegen) and A44 (Aachen–Düsseldorf–Dortmund–Kassel).
David Upthegrove is an American politician. He is a member of the King County Council, representing the 5th district since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 33rd district from 2002 to 2013.
Upthegrove Beach is an unincorporated community in Okeechobee County, Florida, United States. It is located on US 441/US 98, on the northeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee.
Francis Daniel Pastorius was a German-born educator, lawyer, poet, and public official. He was the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, now part of Philadelphia, the first permanent German-American settlement and the gateway for subsequent emigrants from Germany.
Thomas Updegraff was an American attorney, politician, and five-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from northeastern Iowa. His two periods of service were separated by ten years out of Congress.
Jonathan Taylor Updegraff was an American physician, abolitionist and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1879 to 1882.
De Graeff is an old Dutch patrician and noble family,
The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against enslavement of Africans made by a religious body in the Thirteen Colonies. Francis Daniel Pastorius authored the petition; he and the three other Quakers living in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Garret Hendericks, Derick op den Graeff, and Abraham op den Graeff, signed it on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Clearly a highly controversial document, Friends forwarded it up the hierarchical chain of their administrative structure—monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings—without either approving or rejecting it. The petition effectively disappeared for 150 years into Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's capacious archives; but upon rediscovery in 1844 by Philadelphia antiquarian Nathan Kite, latter-day abolitionists published it in 1844 in The Friend, in support of their anti-slavery agitation.
Herren von Graben, also named von (dem) Graben, vom Graben, Grabner, Grabner zu Rosenburg, Graben zu Kornberg, Graben zu Sommeregg, Graben von (zum) Stein, and ab dem Graben was the name of an old (Uradel) Austrian noble family.
KnightCornelis de Graeff was a Dutch nobleman and a water board member of the Zijpe and Haze Polder.
Wolfgang von Graben, also Wolfgang de Groben and Wolfgang Grabenski was born in Kornberg castle, Styria and a member of the Austrian nobility. He held the titles as a Lord of Graben, Kornberg, the Lordship Marburg with Obermarburg and Maribor Castle, Radkersburg, Neudenstein, Weinberg and Burggrave (Viscount) of Saldenhofen.
Abraham Isaacs op den Graeff, also Op den Graff, Opdengraef as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America, and an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, as well as a civic leader, member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, award-winning weaver, and as an early abolitionist signer of the first organized religious protest against slavery in colonial America. He, or his brother Derick op den Graeff, are briefly mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim" simply as "Op Den Graaf".
Op den Graeff is a German and American family of Dutch origin. They were one of the first families of the Mennonite faith in Krefeld at the beginning of the 17th century. Various family members belonged to Original 13, the first organized immigration of a closed group of Germans to America in 1683. There the family had a long history in religious service and politics, beginning in the late 17th century in the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1688, they became forerunners of the anti-slavery movement by signing the first anti-slavery protest in North America. Their descendants spread into various lines, Updegraff, Uptegraft, Updegraft, Updegrave, Updegrove, Uptegrove, Ubdegrove, Uptegraph, Upthagrove. The Updegraff branch of Ohio belonged to the leading families of the Quaker religious movement and produced a long line of ministers and elders.
Thones Dennis Kunders was an early settler of colonial Pennsylvania.
Jan Pietersz Graeff was an Amsterdam regent and cloth wholesaler from the 16th century.
The De Grebber are considered to be one of the oldest noble families in Waterland and the city of Amsterdam.
David Benjamin Updegraff, also David Updegraff, David B. Updegraff and Rev. David Updegraff was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist and conductor of a station of the Underground Railroad from Ohio.
Derick Isaacs op den Graeff, also Dirk, Dirck, Derrick Isaacs op den Graeff, Opdengraef, Opdengraff as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America, an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, as well as a civic leader. As an early abolitionist He was a signer of the first organized religious protest against slavery in colonial America. He, or his brother Abraham op den Graeff, are briefly mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim" simply as "Op Den Graaf".
Nathan Updegraff was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist and founder and delegate to Ohio's first constitutional convention in 1802.
Herman Isacks op den Graeff, also Herman op den Graeff, Opdengraef, Opdengraff as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America and an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was an outspoken anti slavery man and abolitionist.
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