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My family has this and we are related to each other. The story goes that there was a misspelling in the army and nobody bothered to pay to have it changed back the E on the end was "Americanized". My maiden name was also changed from what it was over in Norway from a family name to a place name and a letter was dropped when they came to America probably to make pronunciation easier.
I had another family change from Tolefson to Strand when they came to America. I heard it was because there were too many tolefsons but I'm not sure if that is the true reason.
Another French ancestor was Giuseppe and changed it to Joeseph Sippy.
I think names were a lot easier to change back then maybe preference of the family aesthetically or a way to tell them apart if there were alot of them.
Modern day I met a immigrant who was going through a name change. He was Muslim and it raised alot of suspicion for him. I asked him why. I had called him the wrong name for years. (Knew him through wotk). He explained that the government mixed him and his brothers names up when they came to America. He lived with it but he was starting to have kids and he didn't want them to be confused why dad was 1 name one place and a different name another place so he decided to go through the Hassel to change it