Participants
Handouts- Weekend program
- Agriculture censuses
Family timelines [pdfs]
Leonardville UMC Cemetery [pdfs]
- Map of Leonardville cemetery plot owners
- Family members buried at Leonardville (2008)
- Family members buried at nearby cemeteries (2008)
Eighty-four people participated in all or part of the 2026 Zeisset Family Reunion, August 28 to 30, in Leonardville and Clay Center, Kansas. Most of these in-person attendees were descendants of Jakob Friedrich Zeisset and Margarethe Mueller Zeisset, whose six orphaned children immigrated to the Leonardville area from Germany between 1883 and 1893.
Another eight people participated virtually by Zoom, most of whom were more distant cousins residing in Germany and Switzerland.
The 2026 Zeisset Reunion began with an informal gathering at the El Puerto Restaurant in Clay Center Friday evening. The venue for Saturday’s activities was Life’s Finer Moments Lodge, southwest of Clay Center.
The central feature of Saturday’s reunion program was a short play in three acts, portraying our immigrant ancestors as they arrived in America, as adults, and as they approached the end of their lives. “The Zeisset Siblings – Keeping the Story Alive” was written by Loretta Hoerman, and read by a cast of twenty family members.
Saturday afternoon also included Loretta’s presentation “Farm Homes of the Immigrant Generation”, fashioned as a virtual bus tour showing each farm in historical photos and how it looks now. An open period for games included bingo and a relay race where teams handed off pretzels balanced on flat spoons. Outdoor activities had been planned, but curtailed by 100-degree temperatures outside that afternoon. Resources for further information sharing were discussed, including ZeissetGenealogy.org and the family Facebook group.
Saturday evening an instrumental group from Ray Zeisset’s family—Alex Hoffman, Abby Reasoner, Heidi Hoffman, Crista Keller, and Michelle Zeisset--entertained with an arrangement of Danny Boy.
Sunday’s events began at the Leonardville United Methodist Cemetery, where five of the six immigrant siblings and many of their descendants are buried. Ray Zeisset of Lincoln, NE, presented a memorial meditation.
Afterward, the group gathered at the Leonardville Community Church for visiting and attending the morning service. The service was led by Sherry Nanninga Walker, with a message entitled “Weaving a Community”, featuring her study of Lydia in Acts 16:11-15. Gay Lindquist Stewart, Vonda Copeland, and Richard Cott also participated in the service.
The group enjoyed Sunday dinner catered by Schatzi’s Schnitzel Haus, a German restaurant in Riley.
The Sunday afternoon program featured a presentation by Loretta Hoerman “Why Immigrate to Kansas?”, discussing the circumstances that led the children of Jacob Friedrich Zeisset to leave Germany. Ray Zeisset presented “Finding Our Earliest Ancestors”, using MyHeritage to trace the origins of Abraham Zeisset’s wife Elizabetha Landes back to the 1300s in Switzerland. The two-day program was emceed by Paul Zeisset of Alexandria, VA.
The program concluded with the singing of Blest Be the Tie That Binds, a tradition across the reunions.
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Presentations |
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Saturday |
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Introductions by Zoom participants |
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The Zeisset Siblings - Keeping the Story Alive Program, by Loretta Hoerman |
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Farm Homes of the Immigrant Generation, by Loretta Hoerman |
Script Map | ||
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Sunday |
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Memorial meditation at the cemetery, by Ray Zeisset |
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Why Immigrate to Kansas?, by Loretta Hoerman |
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Finding Our Earliest Ancestors, by Ray Zeisset |
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The oldest family member at the reunion was 96-year-old Marlaine Potts of Leonardville. The youngest was thee-month-old Stetson Stryker. While more than half of attendees came from Kansas, other family members came from twelve more states, as far away as California, Florida, and Virginia. Mitch Hastings and Carol Meylor of Rancho Murieta, CA, came the farthest distance.
The largest group in attendance was the 27 descendants of Bettie Zeisset Hoerman. Other families included 17 each from the Jake Zeisset family and the Henry Zeisset family, 11 from the Bertha Zeisset Nanninga family, 7 from the Elizabeth Zeisset Weller family, and 5 from the Louise Zeisset Swart family.
This was the 25th reunion of the Zeisset family in a series that started in 1969.
2026 Reunion Planning Team: Paul Zeisset, Loretta Hoerman, Vonda Copeland, Gay Stewart, Diane Potts, Kathy Johnson, Jan Heikes, Becky Swartf