Settlers emigrating from Hessen-Darmstadt with

Pastor JOHANN MARSILLIUS NIKOLAUS TONSOR       

On March 13^th, 1724

In the archives of the parish of Wertheim in Hessen, is a document to be found, which was signed on March 13^th 1724 by 21 men, all settlers on their way to Hungary, and most of them heads of their families. They state in the document, that they are of the Evangelical (Lutheran) religion and have decided in the name of God to follow the graceful invitation of the Hungarian King to settle in his Domain under his guidance and protection.

In that document they also wrote a mutual agreement between them and the young pastor Johann Marsillius Nikolaus TONSOR, whom they were engaging as their spiritual leader.

They arrived by boat in the community of Tolna on the Danube (part of the Swabian Turkey) on May 5^th 1725, where they have been picked up by their future landlord’s horse wagons. Between 17h and 18h the colon arrived at the location of their future village of Kistormás, were they have been dumped into the green grass and left to fend for themselves.

That was one of the first documented Lutheran settler groups arriving in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was fiercely Roman Catholic. Many of those new arrivals are directly related to the families in Kalazno, Tolna and Varsad, Tolna, whose descendants settled 150 years later in HRASTOVAC, Slavonia and surrounding Lutheran villages. 

The twenty-one signing settlers were originating from the following localities in Hessen-Darmstadt:

From INGSTADT

Johann Georg Fey

Martin Pfost

Johann Heinrich Habel

Andreas Grim

Johann Georg Otto

Michael Mass

From NORDENSTADT

Georg Christoph Zintgraff

Johann Anton Dörr

Johann Michael Heber

Philipp Heinrich Lang

Franz Heller

From BRECKENHEIM

Johann Friedrich Habel

Johann Peter Ritter

Johann Andreas Kirchner

Johann Georg Kirchner

Johann Heinrich Hansst

Johann Reinhard Werner

Johann Heinrich Müller

Martin Sturm

Johann Peter Deull

Johann Reinhard Paut (or Paul)

There is another document listing the people who traveled with the young pastor Tonsor for his ordination:

Wilhelm Zimmer with his wife Frau from Waffenheim

Johann Heinrich Rosendecker from Delkenheim with his fiancée Maria Magdalena from Waffenheim

From ITZSTEIN:

Johann Friedrich Wolff with his wife Maria Barbara and one son,

Johann Matthäus (or Matthias) Wolff,

Johann Friedrich Schneider,

Johann Heinrich Wolff and his wife Maria Elisabetha,

Johann Georg Götz with his wife (of Reformed religion),

Johann Gerg Schmalk with his wife Eva Margaretha,

Maria Barbara Steigerin with her husband, who was of Roman Catholic faith,

Maria Juliana Knöblin.

From the communities of MOSSBACH and BIBERICH:

Johann Friedrich Wolff,

Johann Friedrich Schneider,

Johann Philipp Schmück.

From NASSAU-ITZSTEIN:

Adam Reinhard Bauerndorff.