Reunion Program
- Schedule [pdf]
Participants
Maps
Family History Slide Shows
- Introduction to Lizzie & Jake
- Narrative [pdf]
- Lizzie Weller Family
- Jacob Zeisset Family
- Narrative [pdf]
- Sunday: Family History 2014
- Narrative [pdf]
Leonardville UMC Cemetery [pdf]
- Map of Leonardville cemetery plot owners
- Family members buried at Leonardville
- Family members buried at nearby cemeteries
- Memorial meditation [pdf]
Family timelines [pdf]
 2014 Zeisset Reunion attendees by family. Click to zoom in. |
Seventy-nine
people participated in all or part of the 21st biennial
Zeisset Family Reunion August 1-3, 2014, in the Leonardville and Clay
Center,
Kansas.
Most
attendees were descendants
of Jakob Friedrich Zeisset and Margarethe Mueller Zeisset. Their six orphaned children immigrated to the
Leonardville area from Germany between 1885 and 1893.
The focus on
Saturday was on Elizabeth Zeisset Weller and George Jacob
Zeisset, the third and fourth oldest of the six immigrant siblings.
The
2014 Zeisset Reunion began with an informal gathering at the El
Puerto Mexican Restaurant in Clay Center Friday evening. The venue for
Saturday’s activities was Life’s Finer Moments Lodge, southwest of Clay
Center.
- Loretta Hoerman of Topeka
reviewed
Zeisset history, with focus on the two featured ancestors.
- Harold Weller of Topeka,
John Morris of Chesterfield, VA, Lorene Kendall of Manhattan, and Wayne
Weller of Clay Center shared
stories about descendants of George and Elizabeth Zeisset Weller.
Wayne and his granddaughter Josie sang a duet of Amazing Grace.
- Carol Benninga of Clay
Center described her
participation in the Kansas Flint Hills Quilt Trail.
- Diane Potts of Manhattan and
Arnold Lindquist of Waterville
presented stories of the descendants of George Jacob and Christina
Bohnenblust Zeisset.
- Agricultural historian Nolan
Sump of Blue
Rapids presented the story of an 1880s German immigrant farmer as a
first-person narrative in costume.
Sunday’s
events began at the Leonardville United Methodist Cemetery,
where five of the six immigrant siblings and many of their descendants
are
buried. A brief memorial service was led
by Ray and Carolyn Zeisset of Lincoln, NE, concluding with a solo by
Terry
Nanninga of Axtell. The group then
gathered at the Leonardville United Methodist Church for visiting,
attending
the morning service, and sharing a catered and potluck dinner. The Sunday afternoon program featured Loretta
Hoerman, who reviewed known history of the Zeisset family since 1718.
The
program was organized and emceed by Paul Zeisset of Alexandria, VA.
The
oldest family member at the reunion was Una Weller of Leonardville,
who will celebrate her 102nd birthday August 8, and the youngest was
15-month-old Jack Stryker of Waterville. Family members came from 9
states and
from as far away as Alabama, Virginia, and Washington state. Ethel and
Sam
Smoots of Gig Harbor, WA, came the farthest distance.
The
largest group in attendance was 23 descendants of Elizabeth Zeisset
Weller. Other families included 16 from the Jacob Zeisset family, 14
from the
Louise Zeisset Swart family, 10 from the Henry Zeisset family, 9
descendants of
Bettie Zeisset Hoerman, and 7 from the Bertha Zeisset Nanninga family.
The
program concluded with the singing of Blest Be the Tie That Binds.
Ray Zeisset, Secretary