The Moeckly Family

This site has been created by Robert H. Moeckly of St. Helena, California to commemorate, preserve and disseminate the history of his family in the United States and in Switzerland. His story began in the small village of Radhof, Canton Zurich Switzerland in 1852. His great great great grandfather Konrad Möckli and his son Johannes Ulrich Möckli left the ancestral village of Radhof near Marthalen with a group of relatives to emigrate to the United States. With the blessing and support of the local Gemeinde, they left all that they knew and loved in Switzerland for the promise and unknown that lay in the United States. They arrived first in Ohio and were collected by Konrad’s younger brother Johannes who emigrated earlier in 1849. Johannes was a Swiss Reform Church minister and, at the time of the arrival of Konrad and Johannes, held a congregation in a small town outside of Chicago, IL. Konrad and Johannes spent two years in Illinois while Konrad learned the ways of farming in America and Johannes learned the trade of carpentry. In 1854 they relocated to the newly opened areas in Iowa. They purchased land in Polk County, Iowa and spent the first cold winter living on a small knoll on the property using the wagon as shelter. This original tract of land is still in the possession of direct descendants of Konrad and Johannes Ulrich Möckli.

First Family

The Moeckly Family (1880)

After Konrad and Johannes Ulrich Möckli arrived in Polk County, Iowa in 1854, they began to work the land that they purchased near Crocker, Iowa. Land records indicate that their holding grew and they were having some success. Konrad had left his wife Elisabeth Wipf Möckli behind when they emigrated in 1852. It appears from old letters from Konrad back to family in Marthalen, that at some point his wife Elisabeth also emigrated but passed away some time later. Johannes married Frederica Huglin in April, 1856. From this union, five children survived and are depicted in this photo taken about 1880. This is the beginning of the five main branches of our family in the United States. Pictured in the back row from left to right are Mary Elizabeth Moeckly (1864-1945), John Ulrich Moeckly (1859-1940), Jacob Frederick Moeckly (1857-1943) and front row from left to right Jefferson Douglas Moeckly (1862-1939) and my great grandfather George Washington Moeckly (1868-1916). Over 350 direct descendants of Johannes Ulrich Moeckly are entered in my genealogy data base as of this time and there are more to be entered and more being born each day.