- REV. JOHN T. ETTER, after a long life of usefulness, devoted
to the ministry of the German
- Reformed Church, now lives retired in Monroe, Green county,
Wis. He was born in Buehler, Canton Appenzell, Switzerland, Dec.
28, 1832, of a family that for several generations was represented
in the ministry.
- Rev. John Jacob ETTER, his grandfather, was a minister of
the German Reformed Church, and
- passed his life in Switzerland. His death occurred at the
age of eighty-eight years, after he had preached for forty years
to one congregation.
- Rev. John Ulrich ETTER, son of Rev. John Jacob, followed
in his father's footsteps, and for thirty
- years was in charge of one parish. He married Mary Magdalene
REHSTEINER, who died in 1833, at the age of nineteen, leaving
one child, Rev. John T. After the death of his first wife, Rev.
John Ulrich ETTER wedded Barbara STEIGER, and four of their five
children are yet living: Gottfried, of Monroe, Mich.; Lydia,
of St. Gallen, Switzerland; Ulrich, an artist of Detroit, Mich.;
and Paulina, wife of Jacob HALTER, a dentist of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Rev. John Ulrich ETTER died suddenly of apoplexy in 1870, at
the age of sixty-one.
- Rev. John T. ETTER was reared in his native land and educated
in the theological schools in that
- country. He began preaching about 1852, and the next year
emigrated to America. In 1854 he returned to Switzerland and
was married, returning to America the following year. His first
charge was in Tennessee, where he remained for two years, and
then was transferred to Indiana, where the Synod assigned to
his charge the three counties of Clay, Greene and Owen. He was
meeting with much success in his work, but owing to the chills
and fever, was obliged to leave and seek a different climate.
He preached one year in Sauk City, Wis., when he was called to
New Glarus, and there for thirty-seven years he was the spiritual
adviser of the German Reformed Church. His long pastorate there
attests to his popularity, and it was with genuine regret that
his parishioners allowed him to retire, which he did Nov. 8,
1896 purchasing his present home in Monroe, and locating there.
- On Feb. 26, 1855, Rev. ETTER was married in Switzerland to
Miss Eliza ZEHNER, daughter of
- John and Katrina (GROSS) ZEHNER, and seven children were
born to them: John Huldreich, born in Tennessee; Robert, born
in Clay county, Ind.; Bertha Rosalie; John Theodore; Johanna
Lydia; Bertha Lydia; and one that died in infancy. John Huldreich
and Bertha Rosalia both died at the age of six months. Robert
married Adelia CAMPBELL, and has two children, Nellie and Inez;
he is at present postmaster at Monroe. John Theodore, Jr., a
dry goods merchant in Monroe, married Mary WITTWER, and has four
children, Minnie Louisa, John Theodore, Arthur, and Reuben Robert
Roland.
- John ZEHNER, father of Mrs. ETTER, was a manufacturer and
dealer in muslins and embroideries
- in Switzerland, where he died in 1879, aged seventy-three
years. His wife, Katrina GROSS, died in 1865, aged sixty-nine
years. Of their nine children, two are yet living: John, of Heiden,
Switzerland; Heinrich, of the same place. Both are widowers.
- On Feb. 26, 1901, Rev. ETTER was called upon to mourn the
death of his faithful wife, who that
- day entered into rest. The funeral was held on March 1, 1901.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 471-472.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
|