Schertz, a Mennonite family name of Swiss origin, found in the
Palatinate after 1664. In 1940 twenty-two persons bearing the
Schertz name were members of the Ixheim-Saar Mennonite Church in
South Germany. A Johann Heinrich Schertz, possibly Amish,
arrived in Philadelphia in 1742. Some 19th-century Amish Schertz
immigrants settled in Butler County, Ohio, but more of them
located in central Illinois, where most of the Mennonite
Schertzes are found today. Over 75 per cent of the obituaries of
members of the Schertz family in Mennonite periodicals are from
Illinois. Among the early Amish immigrants arriving in Illinois
were David Schertz and his father, who settled in Tazewell
County near Peoria, in 1831, and whose descendants were found
largely in the Metamora congregation. Harry Weber (History of
the Mennonites in Illinois) refers to more than 20 individual
members of the Schertz family. Among the Illinois Mennonite
Church ministers have been Peter D. Schertz (1848-1928),
Christian S. Schertz (1851-1937), and H