Hello Dear Readers,
I have chosen the Amish for this book because I have learned to admire them and respect them for their strong love of God and family. (I hope you saw the TV movie “Amish Grace”) I visited them many times in Pennsylvania and was warmly welcomed each time.
Amish is pronounced ah - mish. While I was teaching public school I often took my students from Virginia to Pennsylvania to visit the Amish. Twice we were served authentic Amish meals.
Shickshinny was chosen for the setting because I was intrigued by the name. I found it means fine stream in the Native American language. There are many delightful names in the state that are interesting. I also found that Pennsylvania has more covered bridges than any other state.
Although people came to this area from the early 1600s the first permanent settler in Shickshinny was Ralph Austin in 1782.
Historians consider the Amish to be conservative Protestants. The majority of Amish consider themselves to be Anabaptist Protestants.
A large group was interested in the Protestant Reformation and during the late 1400s started forming their own groups. In 1525 in Zurich Switzerland a group outraged religious authorities by baptizing adults who professed to believe in Jesus and the Bible and promised to live by it. The baptism of adults was considered a crime and was punishable by death. This group felt that baptism was only meaningful for adults who understood what was happening. Because they had been baptized as infants in the Catholic Church they were angrily called Anabaptists.
Anabaptist hunters soon stalked these people to kill them. The first martyr of this group was drowned in 1527. Thousands were burned at the stake starved in prisons, beaten to death or lost their heads to the executioner’s sword, all by the order of the Catholic Church. The MARTYRS MIRROR was published in 1660 in Dutch and today the German edition is found in many homes in Germany. This newspaper reports on the treatment of the Amish. The Swiss Anabaptists bravely tried to follow the teachings of Jesus in their daily lives by loving their enemies forgiving insults, turning the other cheek, being nonviolent and living peacefully. Although some became frightened for their families and asked for forgiveness and went back to their old ways their faith was tested daily.
The sting of persecution became too much to bear so some decided to make a life in another country. Some fled to northern France. Others went to Germany and the Netherlands. Along with the Amish are the Mennonites Brethren and Quakers.
The beliefs and practices of the Amish were based on the ideas of the founder of the Mennonite faith a Dutch priest Menno Simons 1496 - 1561.
When the Mennonites diversified due to differences of worship the group known as Amish led by Jack Amman in 1693 lived in Switzerland and around the Rhine River. They felt there was a lack of discipline among the Mennonites. The Amman followers were from Switzerland, France Netherlands and some parts of Germany. In the late 1600s and early 1700s a group of the people came to Pennsylvania from the Netherlands and were called Amish Dutch even though most of them spoke a form of German.
Amman proposed holding communion twice a year (at the beginning of planting crops in the (fruhling) Spring and after the harvest in the (herbst) Fall. He taught that they should follow the practices of Christ and wash each others’ feet. (The washing of feet was done in Jesus’ time because everyone walked on dusty ground and wore sandals. It was a common courtesy to wash a visitor’s feet when they entered your home.) Amman saw it as humbling oneself. Amman developed a form of clothing that was plain and would not cause a person to be vain or worldly. He began the shunning of members being strict in rules and orders they were to follow.
Their education only goes through the eighth grade. Recently a Bishop has given permission for higher education if a youth wants to become a doctor, nurse, lawyer or veterinarian. They must prove they can make good grades and promise to work in their home area upon graduation.
These people did and to this day follow the practices of being slow to anger, passive about quarrels or fighting, faithfully following the Ten Commandments and working hard until they are too old or infirm to work.
A member of the family then builds an addition to their house so the older people can be independent yet close to be cared for. The Amish grow or make the majority of items or food they use and shun the world. They follow the same saying that we are supposed to go by: Be in the world but not of the world. They do not use anything that would place them in contact with the world such as telephones, electricity, cars, electrical appliances etc.
The Bishop gives those in business permission to have a phone either only for business or one in a shed outside the place of business for anyone to use only in an emergency. Air compressors are used in businesses that might require electricity such as a big sewing machine for cutting and making leather goods. Diesel engines are used in barns for the milking machines.
Propane or kerosene stoves are permitted in the house. Horse and buggy are used with no paint or gilt or anything that would draw attention or make a person feel proud or worldly. A member can ride in the car of an Englisch (English - those not of the Amish faith) in emergencies such as doctors appointments at a distance away or to and from the hospital. They can also pay an English neighbor to take them to and from the bus or train or visiting in another city.
Youth are not permitted to date until they are sixteen. Then they’ll have permission to attend singings with other youth. The boys will “court” or ask the girl to allow him to take them home. There is no kissing or close contact.
There is no real dating such as youth outside the Amish do. At seventeen and sometimes older they have a year of Rumspringa which is a time to “sow their oats”. They might experiment with drinking, smoking going to movies, learning to drive a car, dress in non Amish clothes or do things not allowed in the Amish faith. Sometimes a few will go together and rent an apartment in town to see if they’d rather live as Englisch. They then have a choice of living outside the Amish community giving up family and Amish friends or adhering to the Amish rules and faith and being baptized.
When they choose the Amish faith they’ll then be baptized in the church and promise to follow the rules and regulations of the church.
When girls are eighteen and boys are twenty (or younger or older) they might choose a partner for life. They choose carefully for it is for life; no divorce.
Clothing is plain without buttons, designs in the material or anything that would make a person feel vain or better than others. The men wear plain black suits with no zipper in the pants, shirts with no collars or adornments, and suspenders. Clothing is usually held together with hooks and eyes. For men a straw hat is worn during hot weather and a black felt hat is worn during colder weather. Sometimes the men are permitted instead of a coat to wear a plain black vest. Black shoes or boots are worn the year around. 1 Timothy 2:9 gives them a guide of dress. Women must dress modestly with decency and propriety not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. Paul had given these instructions to people of Ephesus where Timothy led a church. Of course the men dressed the same with humble plain clothing.
Women wear long dresses, long black stockings, black shoes, and a white prayer kapp (cap). Their hair is parted in the middle, drawn back and put in a bun in the back with the white prayer kapp covering the head. Black bonnets are worn over the prayer kapp when they go outside their residence.
Sometimes a cape is worn. A new order of Amish can use different colors, lilac or green cloth for them to use to make their dresses. They can wear these as long as they do not use anything to make them “showy”. No cosmetics or jewelry. They may wear white in which to be buried or the women can be buried in their wedding dress.
Farms have always been the major form of income. Lots of children are needed to work the farm and care for the animals. The women all have vegetable gardens and lots of flowers. Chickens, turkeys and peacocks are raised for eggs and meat and feathers; goats for milk, cows for milk and some pigs are raised. The Bishops have given permission for members to have stores to sell to their own people as well as the Englisch.
Harness shops, shops that make buggies and farm wagons, gift shops which include the beautiful quilts that are handmade, house painters, garden shops with home-grown flowers, restaurants and to be helpers to veterinarians are permitted. The stores also sell items made by hand such as bird houses, dog houses, wooden containers to hold garbage cans and kitchen supplies such as wooden spoons, bowls, quilting frames and delicious bread, cakes, cookies and pies. A few women make quilts and clothing for sale and the faceless dolls.
Little girls have dolls made from stuffed cloth and dressed as Amish with no faces because that would appear to be worldly. They follow the Bible command of “No graven images” thus refusing to have their pictures made for fear of having a graven image. Too they don’t want to have something that would make them feel proud or draw attention to themselves.
The younger people or the ones who have not yet joined the church can allow their picture to be taken as long as they don’t pose and act worldly.
Church members, married people and older ones do not allow their faces to be seen in a picture.
I have been asked the difference among the Amish, Mennonite and Quakers. The Amish men grow a beard when they marry. (Following the instructions in Leviticus 19:27) The Mennonites and Quakers are clean shaven. The Amish live strongly by no worldly conveniences but the others will buy a black car with no chrome or trim or have a black telephone.
The Amish still shun a member who disobeys the rules or who lives among, or marries outside the faith. The Mennonite and Quaker do not believe in shunning. All of them reject violence and quarreling.