History Commons^™

Old Colony Mennonite Women's Lives In Mexico From The 1920s To The 1940s, Rebecca Janzen

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article explores documents and photographs that record the migration of two Old Colony Mennonite women from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s. It focuses on the lives of two women, Sara Wiebe and Anna Enns, and their families. The archival materials document their arrival and travel companions. This study illustrates a researcher’s ability to analyze a limited archival record to broaden our understanding of Mennonite immigration to Mexico and the role of women in the Mennonite community at this time. Not only do these archival documents help us understand how women helped establish villages and schools in ways that …

Working Together: Women And Men On The Amish Family Farm In 1930s Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Katherine Jellison, Steven Reschly

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Old Order Amish men did not own gasoline tractors or other large power farm implements to amplify their manhood, and Amish women did not own mechanical household appliances to symbolize their feminine role as housekeepers. Rejecting the notion of mechanized, capital-intensive agriculture in favor of traditional, labor-intensive family farming, the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, practiced a system of labor that necessarily required the crossing of strict gender-role boundaries. Although men primarily identified as farmers and women as homemakers, agricultural success among the Amish necessitated a significant degree of cooperation and mutual labor. In the words of one …

Review Of Together In The Work Of The Lord: A History Of The Conservative Mennonite Conference—Nathan Yoder, Marcus Yoder

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Nathan Yoder provides a history of the Conservative Mennonite Conference (CMC) from its inception early in the twentieth century to its present situation. Yoder, professor of church history at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, has his own history in the CMC, and while no longer affiliated with the conference, he is a child of the conference. This is evidenced by the first-hand knowledge in which he describes the origins and life of the Conference, which is both refreshing and revealing of the book’s intent. It is refreshing in that it allows an “insider’s view” of the workings of the conference, absent in …

Review Of Auker, Kenneth. 2013. Keeping The Trust: Issues Surrounding The Formation Of The Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church. Ephrata, Pa: Eastern Mennonite Publications. Pp. 320., John L. Ruth

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Keeping the Trust, written by Kenneth Auker, fulfills its stated purposes: to preserve, explain, and interpret the founding story and convictions of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church, in order to “maintain a vision for the future.” As such, it is a useful book for readers both within and beyond the EPMC. It places on record and gives access to a conservative view of defining events that in a half century are becoming “blurred” memories. Whereas “mere memories” may well have become—for many potential readers within and beyond the fellowship—mere curiosities, it freshly articulates convictions once deeply and more widely …

Review Of Nolt, Steven. 2015. A History Of The Amish [3rd Ed.]. New York, Ny: Good Books. Pp. 406., Dorothy Pratt

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In recent years, the Amish have become surprisingly popular in American culture. Books, television shows, and movies expose the curious to a relatively unknown religious sect, though most of these productions have little to do with the real lives of the Amish. Twenty years ago a very young man from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Steven Nolt, produced a well-documented handbook giving the history of the Amish and explaining their many schisms and subsequent sub-groups. A new third edition of the study provides verification of the popularity of the group as well as the skill of Nolt in explaining their history to a …

Review Of Stauffer, Romaine. 2014. The History Of Mid-Atlantic Mennonite Fellowship. Mid-Atlantic Mennonite Fellowship. Pp. 145., Jennifer Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In 2012, Mid-Atlantic Fellowship (MAF)—a conservative Mennonite group rooted in southeastern Pennsylvania—felt a need to document the history of the constituency before many of the charter members of the church passed on. The result is a handsome, full-color, hardcover volume of 145 pages of church, ministerial, and ministry program profiles, with full-color photos of church buildings, active and former ministry, and some snapshots of mission ministry activities. The book is broken into four sections: the history of the Mid-Atlantic Fellowship, profiles of each church (the congregation and its current and former ministers), MAF choruses, and MAF ministries. [First paragraph]

Review Of Loewen, Royden. 2013. Village Among Nations: “Canadian” Mennonites In A Transnational World, 1916-2006. Toronto, On: University Of Toronto Press. Pp. 301., Kira Turner

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Intent on preserving their deep-seated beliefs and values, the most conservative of the Russian Mennonites (Old Colony) made their way to Western Canada with promises of religious freedom, exemption from military service, the right to maintain their distinctive Low German language, and the right to educate their children within their own schools. However, in the early 1900s, Canada was changing and developing its own cultural and nationalistic identity. Under threat of compulsory attendance at public schools, and drawing from past experiences of governments retracting special dispensations afforded to the Mennonite population, Old Colony religious leaders, fearing what was to come, …

Review Of Bailey, Keith. 2009. They Counted The Cost: The History Of The Dunkard Brethren Church From 1926 To 2008. Dunkard Brethren Church Board Of Publication. Pp. 535., Dale Savage

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

A book dedicated to the history of the Dunkard Brethren Church was a long time in coming. Although a desire for such a book was expressed and moved upon by the Standing Committee of the church’s Annual Conference as early as 1984, the fruition of that action was not realized until published in 2009. During that period of time, much historical material and data was collected by various individuals, of which two were Frank Reed and Shirley Frick. In one sense, Keith Bailey was more of the editor in putting together this denominational history rather than its author. This is …

A Quiet Diversity In The Land: Mennonites In Ontario, Mark Louden

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Reviews of:

Draper, Barb. 2010. The Mennonites of St. Jacobs and Elmira: Understanding the Variety. Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press. Pp. 378.

Martin, Donald. 2003. Old Order Mennonites of Ontario: Gelassenheit, Discipleship, Brotherhood. Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press / Herald Press. Pp. 381.

Steiner, Samuel. 2015. In Search of Promised Lands. A Religious History of Mennonites in Ontario. Kitchener, ON: Herald Press. Pp.877.

For over two centuries, the Anabaptist presence in Ontario has been a visible part of the province’s religious, social, and cultural landscape. Readers interested in understanding the diversity of Mennonite and Amish groups in Ontario, past …

Review Of Veen, Mirjam Van, Piet Visser, And Gary Waite. 2014. Sisters: Myth And Reality Of Anabaptist, Mennonite, And Doopsgezind Women, Ca. 1525-1900. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill., Berit Jany

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Agent of the devil, harlot, martyr, marriage breaker, and devout maiden are some of the images attributed to Anabaptist women from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. These diverse pictures from a wide array of perspectives were the focus of attention of the conference “Myth and Reality of Anabaptist / Mennonite Women in Continental Europe ca. 1525-1900” held at the Free University of Amsterdam in 2007. Scholars came together to explore the images of Anabaptist women in Europe across the centuries. Those scholars in attendance from across Europe included Piet Visser, Mirjam P.A. de Baar, Mirjam van Veen, and Nicole …

Review Of Stoltzfus, Duane. 2013. Pacifists In Chains: The Persecution Of Hutterites During The Great War. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press., Donald Eberle

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Duane C. S. Stoltzfus states in the Preface that the story of brothers Michael, David, and Joseph Hofer and Joseph’s brother-in-law Jacob Wipf, “contributes significantly to one of the darker chapters of this period of American history.” Nearly 100 years later this, story is surprisingly and sadly relevant. In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001 the United States, “swept up suspects, the innocent and true warriors alike” and “descended into the ranks of nations that systematically torture prisoners.” While the historical parallels are not exact as they never are, they are nonetheless disturbing. [First paragraph]

Review Of Ehnle, Kurt, And Jane Ehnle. 2011. Heritage Of Faith: A History Of The Church With An Apostolic Christian Focus. Fairbury, Il: Heritage Press., John Swartz

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Heritage of Faith is a 367 page ten-unit high school level course prepared for students in Apostolic Christian Church schools and homes. The first three units cover church history from the time of Christ through the Reformation. Units four through eight concentrate on Apostolic Christian Church (ACC) history. Unit nine is a brief history of how the Bible came to us, emphasizing the superiority of the King James Version. Unit ten is a history of hymnology with a focus on Zion’s Harp, the official ACC hymnal. [First paragraph]

Of One Divided Mind: Fundamental Causes Of The Nineteenth-Century Brethren Schism, 1850-1880, Daniel Weller

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Historical research involving the schism within the German Baptist Brethren Church in the 1880s has only been found within broad, general histories of the church. The explanations given by historians relating to the cause of the split have previously centered on individuals and the church publications between 1850 and 1883, and on contemporaries who argued among themselves about whether to adopt practices common among surrounding American religions and society. No known project has focused directly on the content within the publications as it relates to the way these brethren used the Bible and other religious and spiritual rhetoric to substantiate …

A Brief History Of Amish Churches In Holmes County, Ohio, Anonymous

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article provides a brief history of several Amish church schisms in Holmes County during the 20th century. After a 1917 Diener Versammlung, Sam Yoder divided from the South Churches (Old Order) due to differences in Ordnung. Yoder was joined by additional families, including from Buchanan County, Iowa, and later more from the South Churches. The migrations and schisms of the Sam Yoder (Swartzentruber) people are detailed. The Dan Wengerd group split from the Sam Yoder church in 1922 and later rejoined the South Churches. Bishops Jacob Stutzman and Eli A. Troyer left the South Churches and joined Yoder in …