Rudolf Thut (born 22.02.1733 in Seengen) was a deputy bailiff. Later he became Anabaptist (Mennonite).
Anabaptists in Switzerland first were chased and jailed or even killed.
Rudolf Thut had two sons from his first marriage with Maria Steiner. After death of his first wife he had again two sons Johannes (John, 1766 – 1849) and Peter (1768 – 1832). He baptized his sons in Semplain, Sornetan (today Jura Mountain of Bern) when they were teenagers.
Later he emigrated with his family and maybe also other families to America. They settled first in Wayne Ohio and lived an amish like life. Their mother language «Swiss German» still was spoken and was hand to next generations.
John Thut (1801/1810 – 1867), a son of Peter Thut founded the Zion Mennonite Church formerly called «Riley Creek» in 1848, 5 miles west of Bluffton, Allen County Ohio. In october 1857 he was consecrated to a bishop. John Thut died 1867 due to typhus. The church became a new building in 1892 which was called «Zion».
Today most of the Ohio Thuts still live in Ohio. Prof. Isaac Newton Thut was a professor at University Of Connecticut and travelled in the 60s several times to Switzerland. He researched his family tree with Dr. Reinhold Bosch (Swiss). He also was one of them who still could speak German.
«On the 23rd of August, in Allen County, Ohio, of typhoid fever, Bishop JOHN THUT, aged 66 years, 6 months, and 5 days. His remains were committed to their final resting-place, on the 25th, in the Swiss Mennonite Burying-ground, in the presence of a large concourse of friends, brethren, sisters, and neighbors.
He leaves a wife and nine children to mourn his departure. Funeral addresses were delivered by Bro. Christian Kulp in German, Bro. Geo. Brenneman in English, and Bro. John Moser in German, from 2 Tim. 4:6-8; and at the grave another address was delivered by Bro. David Geiger.
He was married on the 13th of September, 1832, to Christina Bechtel and on the 25th of September, 1843, was ordained by lot a preacher of the Gospel, and by a unanimous vote was chosen to the office of Bishop, on the 6th of October, 1857.
He was the father of thirteen children and fifteen grand-children, thirteen of whom are still living. He faithfully discharged the duties of his office, and, as a good shepherd, he cared for his flock.
But now has the Lord inflicted on his family a deep wound, and the vacancy caused by his death will be deeply felt by the church. But God is good: he wounds that his hand may heal; and God does all things well.»
PETER HARTMAN.