HORACE A. SCOTT 
 2208 N. Ross Street 
 Santa Ana, Cat if.
 
 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.'
 
 PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH; 
 
 OTHER ESSAYS. 
 
 ' Along the cool sequestered vale of life 
 They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPING OTT CO. 
 
 1872.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
 
 m 
 
 r 
 
 ICO 
 
 THE leading article in this collection was writ- 
 ten about four years ago, and appeared in the 
 Atlantic Monthly for 1869. 
 
 In publishing it now, I make a few alterations 
 and add notes. 
 
 After this was written, I became better 
 acquainted with our plain German sects, and 
 wrote the other essays that describe them, and 
 which are graver, and more strictly historical, 
 than the first. G. 
 
 APRIL, 1872.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 " PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH" (PROPERLY GERMAN) . . 9 
 
 Language 9 
 
 Keligion 12 
 
 History of the Sect 20 
 
 Politics 22 
 
 Festivals 24 
 
 Weddings .26 
 
 Quiltings 33 
 
 Farming ........ 35 
 
 Farmers' Wives 39 
 
 Holidays 49 
 
 Public Schools . 53 
 
 Manners and Customs 56 
 
 AN AMISH MEETING 60 
 
 Swiss EXILES . . ' 73 
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST 109 
 
 EPHRATA . . . . . . ... .139 
 
 A FRIEND . . . . * 178 
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA 198 
 
 (vii)
 
 PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH' 
 
 (PROPERLY GERMAN). 
 
 I HAVE lived for twenty years in the county of 
 Lancaster, where my neighbors on all sides are 
 " Pennsylvania Dutch." In this article, I shall 
 try to give, from my own observation and famil- 
 iar acquaintance, some account of the life of a 
 people who are almost unknown outside of the 
 rural neighborhoods of their own State, who have 
 much that is peculiar in their language, customs, 
 and beliefs, and whom I have learned heartily to 
 'esteem for their native good sense, friendly feel- 
 ing, and religious character. 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 The tongue which these people speak is a dia- 
 lect of the German, but they generally call it 
 and themselves " Dutch." 
 
 For the native German who works with them 
 on the farm they entertain some contempt, and 
 
 2 (9)
 
 10 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 the title " Yankee" is with them a synonym for 
 cheat.* ^A.s must always be the case where the 
 great majority do not read the tongue which they 
 speak, and live in contact with those w r ho speak 
 another, the language has become mixed and cor- 
 rupt. Seeing a young neighbor cleaning a buggy, 
 I tried to talk with him bv speaking German. 
 " Willst du reiten ?" said I (not remembering 
 that reiten is to ride on horseback). " Willst du 
 reiten ?" All my efforts were vain. I was going 
 for cider to the house of a neighboring farmer, 
 and there I asked his daughter what she would 
 say, under the circumstances, for "Are you going 
 to ride ?" 
 
 " Widdu fawry? Buggy fawry?" was the an- 
 swer. (Willst du fahren?) Such expressions are 
 heard as " Koockamulto'," for " Guck einmal 
 da," or " Just look at that !" and " Haltybissel" 
 for " Halt ein biszchen," or "Wait a little bit." 
 " Gutenobit" is used for " Guten Abend." Apple- 
 butter is " Lodwaerrick," from the German 
 "Latwerge," an electuary, or an electuary of 
 
 * An acquaintance explains the prejudice against Yankees, 
 by telling how, some forty to sixty years ago, the tin-peddlers 
 traveled among the innocent Dutch people, cheating the 
 farmers and troubling the daughters. They were (says he) 
 tricky, smart, and good-looking. They could tell a good yarn, 
 and were very amusing, and the goodly hospitable farmers 
 would take them into their houses and entertain them, and 
 receive a little tin-ware in payment.
 
 LANGUAGE. 11 
 
 prunes. Our "Dutch" is much mixed with 
 English. I once asked a woman what pie-crust 
 is in Dutch. " Pj-kroosht," she answered. 
 
 Those who speak English use uncommon ex- 
 pressions, as, " That's a werry lasty basket" 
 (meaning durable); "I seen him yet a'ready;" 
 " I knew a woman that had a good baby wunst ;" 
 " The bread is all" (all gone). I have heard the 
 carpenter call his plane she, and a housekeeper 
 apply the same pronoun to her home-made soap. 
 
 A rich landed proprietor is sometimes called 
 king. An old " Dutchman" who was absent from 
 home thus narrated the cause of his journey : " I 
 must go and see old Yoke (Jacob) Beidelman. 
 Te people calls me te kink ov te Manor (town- 
 ship), and tay calls him te kink ov te Octorara. 
 Now, dese kinks must come togeder once." (Ac- 
 cent together, and pass quickly over once.}* 
 
 * The most elegant specimens of Pennsylvania German with 
 which I have met, are the poems of the late Kev. Henry Har- 
 baugh ; but, as the English words introduced by Mr. H. have 
 since been in general substituted by German, the poems are 
 not a perfect specimen of the spoken language. 
 
 Mr. Harbaugh says, in his poem of Homesickness, or 
 Heimweh, 
 
 " Wie gleich ich selle Babble-Beem ! 
 
 Sie schtehn wie Brieder dar; 
 Un uf 'in Gippel g'wiss ich leb ! 
 
 Hockt alleweil 'n Schtaar ! 
 'S Gippel biegt sich guk, wie's gaunscht, 
 
 'R hebt sich awer fescht;
 
 12 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 I called recently on my friend and neighbor, 
 Jacob S., who is a thrifty farmer, of a good mind, 
 
 Ich seh sei rothe Fliegle plehn 
 
 Wann er sei Feddere wescht; 
 Will wette, dass sei Fraale hot 
 
 Uf sellem Baam'n Nescht." 
 
 How well I love those poplar-trees, 
 
 That stand like brothers therej 
 And on the top, as sure's I live, 
 
 A blackbird perches now. 
 The top is bending, how it swings! 
 
 But still the bird holds fast. 
 How plain I saw his scarlet wings 
 
 When he his feathers dressed ! 
 I'll bet you on that very tree 
 
 His wifie has a nest. 
 
 Miss Rachel Bahn, of York County, has written some verses 
 in the dialect. She says : 
 
 "Well, anyhow, wann's Frueyohr kummt, 
 
 Bin ich geplcased first-rate; 
 Die luffs so fair un agenehm, 
 
 Die rose so lieblich webt. 
 Nau gehe mei gedanke nuf 
 
 Wu's iinmer Frueyohr is, 
 Wu's keh feren 'ring gewe duth, 
 
 Wu's herrlich is gewiss." 
 
 Well, anyhow, when springtime comes, 
 
 Then am I pleased first-rate ; 
 So fair and soft the breezes blow, 
 
 So lovely is the rose. 
 'Tis then my thoughts are raised on high, 
 
 Where Spring forever blooms, 
 Where change can never more be felt, 
 
 But glory shines around.
 
 RELIGION. 13 
 
 and a member of the old Mennist or Mennonite 
 Society. I once accompanied him and his pleas- 
 Mr. E. H. Rauch, of Lancaster, has written some humorous 
 letters under the title of Pit (Pete) Schwefflebrenner. 
 
 He accommodates himself to the great numbers of our 
 " Dutch" people, who do not read German, by writing the 
 dialect phonetically. He says : 
 
 " Der klea meant mer awer, sei net recht g'sund, for er 
 kreisht ols so greisel-heftict orrick (arg) in der nacht. De 
 olt Lawbucksy behawpt er is was mer aw gewocksa heast, un 
 meant mer set braucha derfore. Se sawya es waer an olty 
 fraw drivva im Lodwaerrickshteddle de kennt's aw wocksa 
 ferdreiv mit warta, un aw so a g'schmeer . . was se 
 
 mocht mit gensfet De fraw sawya se waer a 
 
 sivvaty shweshter un a dochter fun earn daer sei dawdy nee 
 net g'sea hut un sell gebt eara yetzt de gewalt so 
 
 warta braucha fors aw wocksa tsu ferdrieva." 
 
 " The little one seems to me not to be quite well, for he 
 cries so dreadfully in the night. Old Mrs. Lawbucks main- 
 tains that he is what we call grown (enlargement of the liver), 
 and thinks that I should do something for it. She says that 
 there was an old woman in Applebutter-town who knew how 
 to drive away the growth with words, and who has, too, an 
 ointment that she makes with goose-fat. . . The woman 
 says that she was a seventh sister, and the daughter of one who 
 never saw his father . . . and that gives her now the 
 power to use words to drive away the growth." 
 
 Professor Haldeman, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
 says that Pennsylvania German is a fusion of the South Ger- 
 man dialects, brought from the region of the upper Rhine, in- 
 cluding Switzerland, with an infusion of English. 
 
 He adds that the perfect is used for the imperfect tense, as 
 in Swiss ; so that for " ich sagto'' (I said), we have " ich hab 
 
 2*
 
 14 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 ant wife to their religious meeting. The meet- 
 ing-house is a low brick building, with neat 
 surroundings, and resembles a Friends' meeting- 
 house. The Mennists in many outward circum- 
 stances very much resemble the Society of F riends, 
 but do not, like some of the latter, hold that the 
 object of extreme veneration is the teaching of 
 the Holy Spirit in the secret stillness of the soul. 
 
 In the interior of the Mennist meeting a 
 Quaker-like plainness prevails. The men, with 
 broad-brimmed hats and simple dress, sit on 
 benches on one side of the house, and the 
 women, in plain caps and black sun-bonnets, are 
 ranged on tlje other. The services are almost 
 always conducted in "Dutch," and consist of ex- 
 hortation and prayer, and singing by the congre- 
 gation. The singing is without previous training, 
 and is not musical. A pause of about five min- 
 utes is allowed for private prayer. 
 
 The preachers are not paid, and are chosen in 
 the following manner. When a vacancy occurs, 
 and a new appointment is required, several men 
 go into a small room, appointed for the pur- 
 pose ; and to them waiting, enter singly the 
 men and women, as many as choose, who tell 
 them the name of the person whom each prefers 
 
 ksaat," for "ich hatte" (I had), we have "ich hab kat." 
 From the Transactions of the American Philological Associa- 
 tion, 1869-70.
 
 RELIGION. 15 
 
 should till the vacancy. After this, an opportu- 
 nity is given to any candidate to excuse himself 
 from the service. Those who are not excused, 
 if, for instance, six in number, are brought before 
 six books. Each candidate takes up a book, and 
 the one within whose book a lot is found, is the 
 chosen minister. 
 
 I asked my friends, who gave me some of these 
 details, whether it was claimed or believed that 
 there is any especial guidance of the Divine 
 Spirit in thus choosing a minister. From the 
 reply, I did not learn that any such guidance is 
 claimed, though they spoke of a man who was 
 led to pass his hand over all the other books, and 
 who selected the. last one, but he did not get the 
 lot after all. He was thought to be ambitious of 
 a place in the ministry. 
 
 The three prominent sects of Mennonites all 
 claim to be non-resistants, orwehrlos. The oWMen- 
 nists, who are the most numerous and least rigid, 
 vote at elections, and are allowed to hold such 
 public offices as school director and road super- 
 visor, but not to be members of the legislature. 
 The ministers are expected not to vote. The 
 members of this society cannot bring suit against 
 any one ; they can hold mortgages, but not judg- 
 ment bonds. Like Quakers, they were not al- 
 lowed to hold slaves, and they do not take oaths, 
 nor deal in spirituous liquors. 
 
 My neighbor Jacob and I were once talking of
 
 16 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 the general use of the word "Yankee" to denote 
 one who is rather unfair in his dealings. They 
 sometimes speak of a " Dutch Yankee ;" and 
 Jacob asked me whether, if going to sell a horse, 
 I should tell the buyer every fault that I knew 
 of the horse's having, as, he maintained, was the 
 proper course. His brother-in-law, who was at 
 times a horse-dealer, did not agree with him. 
 
 Titles do not abound among these plain neigh- 
 bors of ours. Jacob's little son used to call him 
 "Jake," as he heard the hired men do. Never- 
 theless, one of our New Mennist acquaintances 
 was quite courtly in his address. This last-men- 
 tioned sect branched oft' some forty years ago, 
 and claim to be reformirt, or to have returned to 
 an older and more excellent standard. They do 
 not vote at all. Their most striking peculiarity 
 is this: if one of the members is disowned by 
 the church, the other members of his own family 
 who are members of the meeting are not allowed 
 to eat at the same table with him, and his wife 
 withdraws from him. A woman who worked in 
 such a family told me how unpleasant it was to 
 her to see that the father did not take his seat at 
 the table, to which she was invited. 
 
 In support of this practice, they refer to the 
 eleventh verse of the fifth chapter of First Co- 
 rinthians: " But now I have written unto you not 
 to keep company, if any man that is called a 
 brother be a foruicator, or covetous, or an idola-
 
 RELIGION. 17 
 
 ter, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; 
 with such an one no not to eat.'" We have yet an- 
 other sect among us, called Amish (pronounced 
 Ommish). In former times these Mennists were 
 sometimes known as " beard j men," but of late 
 years the beartl is not a distinguishing trait. It 
 is said that a person once asked an Amish man 
 the difference between themselves and another 
 Mennist sect. " Vy, dey vears puttons, and ve 
 vearsh hooks oont eyes ;" and this is, in fact, 
 a prime difference. All the Mennist sects retain 
 the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
 but most also practice feet-washing, and some 
 sectarians " greet one another with a holy kiss." 
 On a Sunday morning Amish wagons, covered 
 with yellow oil-cloth, may be seen moving toward 
 the house of that member whose turn it is to have 
 the meeting. Great have been the preparations 
 there beforehand, the whitewashing, the* scrub- 
 bing, the polishing of tin and brass. Wooden 
 benches and other seats are provided for the 
 " meeting-folks," and the services resemble those 
 already described. Of course, young mothers 
 do not stay at home, but bring their infants with 
 them. When the meeting is over, the congrega- 
 tion remain to dinner. Bean soup was formerly 
 the principal dish on this occasion, but, with the 
 progress of luxury, the farmers of a fat soil no 
 longer confine themselves to so simple a diet. 
 Imagine what a time of social intercourse this
 
 18 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 must be, transcending those hospitable gather- 
 ings, the quarterly meetings of Friends. 
 
 The Amish dress is peculiar; and the children 
 are diminutive men and women. The women 
 wear sun-bonnets and closely-fitting dresses, but 
 often their figures look very trim, in brown, with 
 green or other bright handkerchiefs meeting over 
 the breast. 
 
 I saw a group of Amish at the railroad station 
 the other day, men, women, and a little boy. 
 One of the young women wore a pasteboard sun- 
 bonnet covered with black, and tied with narrow 
 blue ribbon, among which showed the thick white 
 strings of her Amish cap ; a gray shawl, without 
 fringe ; a brown stuff dress, and a purple apron. 
 One middle-aged man, inclined to corpulence, 
 had coarse, brown, woolen clothes, and his panta- 
 loons, without suspenders (in the Amish fashion), 
 were unwilling to meet his waistcoat, and showed 
 one or two inches of white shirt. No buttons 
 were on his coat behind, but down the front were 
 hooks and eyes. One young girl wore a bright- 
 brown sun-bonnet, a green dress, and a light blue 
 apron. The choicest figure, however, was the 
 six-year-old, in a jacket, and with pantaloons 
 plentifully plaited into the waistband behind; 
 hair cut straight over the forehead, and hanging 
 to the shoulders; and a round-crowned black 
 wool hat, with an astoundingly wide brim. The 
 little girls, down to two years old, wear the plain
 
 RELIGION. 19 
 
 cap, and the handkerchief crossed upon the 
 breast. 
 
 In Amish houses, the love of ornament ap- 
 pears in brightly scoured utensils, how the 
 brass ladles are made to shine ! and in embroid- 
 ered towels, one end of the towel showing a 
 quantity of work in colored cottons. When steel 
 or elliptic springs were introduced, so great a 
 novelty was not at first patronized by members 
 of the meeting; but an infirm brother, desiring 
 to visit his friends, directed the blacksmith to 
 put a spring inside his wagon, under the seat, 
 and since that time steel springs have become 
 common. I have even seen a youth with flow- 
 ing hair (as is common among the Mennists), and 
 two trim-bodied damsels, riding in a very plain, 
 uncovered buggy. 
 
 A. Z. rode in a common buggy ; but he be- 
 came a great backslider, poor man ! 
 . It was an Amish man, not well versed in the 
 English language, from whom I bought poultry, 
 who sent me a bill for " chighans." 
 
 In mentioning some ludicrous circumstances, 
 far be it from me to ignore the virtues of these 
 primitive people.
 
 20 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SECT. 
 
 The Mennonites are named from Simon 
 Menno, a reformer, who died in 1561, though it 
 is doubtful whether Men no founded the. sect. 
 " The prevailing opinion among church histo- 
 rians, especially those of Holland, is that the 
 origin of the Dutch Baptists may be traced to 
 the Waldenses, and that Menno merely organ- 
 ized the concealed and scattered congregations 
 as a denomination."* 
 
 The freedom of religious opinion which was 
 allowed in Pennsylvania may have had the effect 
 of drawing hither the Continental Europeans, 
 who established themselves in the fertile lands 
 of the western part of the county of Chester, 
 now Lancaster. It was not until the revolution 
 of 1848 that the different German states granted 
 full civil rights to the Mennonites. In some 
 cases this freedom has since been withdrawn.* 
 Hanover, in 1858, annulled the election of a rep- 
 resentative to the second chamber, because he 
 was a Mennonite. Much of this opposition prob- 
 ably is caused by the sect's refusing to take 
 oaths. 
 
 * New American Cyclopaedia. I have not yet found (1872) 
 any distinct historical connection between the Waldenses and 
 Mennonites, or Anabaptists. The Martyr-book (" Martyr's 
 Mirror") endeavors to prove identity of doctrine, in opposi- 
 tion to infant baptism, to war, and to oaths.
 
 HISTORY OF THE SECT. 1 
 
 Under those opposing circumstances in the Old 
 "World, it is not remarkable that the number of 
 Mennouites in the United States is reported to 
 exceed that in all the rest of the world put to- 
 gether. The Amish are named from Jacob Amen, 
 a Swiss Mennonite preacher of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 As I understand the Mennonites, they endeavor 
 in church government literally to carry out the 
 injunction of Jesus, " Moreover, if thy brother 
 shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his 
 fault between thee and hi'm alone ; if he shall 
 hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if 
 he will not hear thee, then take with thee one 
 or two more, that in the mouth of two or three 
 witnesses every word may be established. And 
 if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the 
 church; but if he neglect to hear the church, 
 let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a 
 publican." 
 
 Besides these sectaries, we have among us 
 Dunkers (German twiken, to dip), from whom 
 sprang the Seventh-Day Baptists of Ephratah, 
 with their Brother and Sister houses of Celi- 
 bates. 
 
 Also at Litiz we have the Moravian Church 
 and Gottesacker (or churchyard), and a Mora- 
 vian Church at Lancaster. Here, according to 
 custom, a love-feast was held recently, when a 
 
 3
 
 22 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 cup of coffee and a rusk (sweet biscuit) were 
 handed to each person present.* 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 As our county was represented in Congress 
 by Thaddeus Stevens, you have some idea of 
 what our politics are. We have returned about 
 five or six thousand majority for the Whig, Anti- 
 Masonic, and Republican ticket, and the adjoin- 
 ing very " Dutch" county of Berks invariably as 
 great a majority for the Democratic. So striking 
 a difference has furnished much ground for specu- 
 lation. The Hon. Mr. S. says that Berks is 
 Democratic because so many Hessians settled 
 there after the Revolution. "No," says the 
 Hon. Mr. B., "I attribute it to the fact that the 
 people are not taught by unpaid ministers, as 
 
 * Hupp estimated (1844) that there were seven Lutheran 
 ministers living in the county, and that there were twenty- 
 seven Lutheran places for public worship. He says, " The 
 German Keformed have twenty places of public worship." 
 
 We have a number of " Dutch Methodists," or " Albrechts- 
 leute" (Albrechts people), to whom is given the name " Evan- 
 gelical Association." 
 
 A young Lutheran minister has estimated that there are 
 over thirty religious divisions in this county, but some of them 
 are very small. 
 
 Kupp, who gives about twenty-two divisions (1844), says 
 that there is no spot upon earth, with so limited a population, 
 and the same confined territory, that counts more denomina- 
 tions than Lancaster County.
 
 POLITICS. 23 
 
 with us, but are Lutherans and German Re- 
 formed, and can be led by their preachers." 
 "Why is Berks Democratic?" I asked our 
 Democratic postmaster. "I do not know," said 
 he; " but the people here are ignorant ; they do 
 not read a paper on the other side." A former 
 postmaster tells me that he has heard that the 
 people of Berks were greatly in favor of liberty 
 in the time of the elder Adams ; that they put 
 up liberty-poles, and Adams sent soldiers among 
 them and had the liberty-poles cut down ; and 
 " ever since they have been opposed to that po- 
 litical part} 7 , under its different names."* 
 
 * Since the above was written, a gentleman of Heading has 
 told me that he heard James Buchanan express, in the latter 
 part of his life, a similar opinion to one given above. Mr. 
 Buchanan said, in effect, that while peace sects prevailed in 
 Lancaster County, in Berks were found many Lutherans and 
 German Keformed, who were more liberal. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. S. cited above is John Strohm. The troubles 
 alluded to in Berks seem to have been principally on account 
 of a direct tax, called " The House-tax," imposed during the 
 administration of John Adams. 
 
 " The assessors were resisted, and chased from township to 
 township. To quell the insurrection, troops were raised in 
 Lancaster County, who inarched to Heading and took down 
 liberty-poles that had been erected by certain persons. 
 
 " Returning afterwards from Northampton County, they en- 
 tered the office of the German ' Adler,' or ' Eagle,' and took 
 the editor before their commanding officer, who ordered that 
 he should receive twenty-five lashes, in the market-house, on 
 account of certain offensive articles that had appeared in his
 
 24 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 FESTIVALS. 
 
 The greatest festive occasion, or the one which 
 calls the greatest number of persons to eat and 
 drink together, is the funeral. 
 
 My friends Jacob and Susanna E. have that 
 active benevolence and correct principle which 
 prompt to care for the sick and dying, and kind 
 offices toward the mourner. Nor are they alone 
 in this. "When a death occurs, our "Dutch" 
 neighbors enter the house, and, taking posses- 
 sion, relieve the family as far as possible from the 
 labors and cares of a funeral. Some " redd up" 
 the house, making that which was neglected 
 during the sad trials of a fatal disease, again in 
 order for the reception of company. Others visit 
 the kitchen, and help to bake great store of bread, 
 pies, and rusks for the expected gathering. Two 
 young men and two young women generally sit 
 up together overnight to watch in a room ad- 
 joining that of the dead. 
 
 At funerals occurring on Sunday, three hun- 
 dred carriages have been seen in attendance; 
 and so great at all times is the concourse of 
 
 paper. As these were being inflicted, certain gentlemen in- 
 terposed and prevented the carrying out of the sentence. 
 
 "Some of the insurrectionists were tried, and some con- 
 demned to death, but this sentence was not executed." 
 
 This account is taken from Rupp's History of Berks and 
 Lebanon Counties.
 
 FESTIVALS. 25 
 
 people of all stations and all shades of belief, 
 and so many partake of the entertainment lib- 
 erally provided, that I may be excused for call- 
 ing funerals the great festivals of the "Dutch." 
 (Weddings are also highly festive occasions, but 
 they are confined to the "Freundschaft," and 
 to much smaller numbers.) 
 
 The services at funerals are generally con- 
 ducted in the German language. 
 
 An invitation is extended to the persons present 
 to return to eat after the funeral, or the meal is 
 provided before leaving for the graveyard. Hos- 
 pitality, in all rural districts, where the guests 
 come from afar, seems to require this. The 
 tables are sometimes set in a barn, or large 
 wagon-house, and relays of guests succeed one 
 another, until all are done. The neighbors wait 
 upon the table. The entertainment generally 
 consists of meat, frequently cold ; bread and 
 butter; pickles or sauces, such as apple-butter; 
 pies and rusks ; sometimes stewed chickens, 
 rnashed potatoes, cbeese, etc., and coft'ee invaria- 
 bly. All depart after the dish-washing, and the 
 family is left in quiet again. 
 
 I have said that persons of all shades of belief 
 attend funerals; but our New Mennists are not 
 permitted to listen to the sermons of other de- 
 nominations. Memorial stones over the dead 
 are more conspicuous than among Friends. But 
 they are still quite plain, with simple inscrip- 
 3*
 
 26 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 tions. Occasionally family graveyards are seen. 
 Qne on a farm adjoining ours seems cut out of 
 the side of a field. It stands back from the high- 
 road, and access to it is on foot. To those who 
 are anxious to preserve the remains of their rel- 
 atives, these graveyards are objectionable, as they 
 will probably be obliterated after the property 
 has passed into another family. 
 
 WEDDINGS. 
 
 Our farmer had a daughter married lately, and 
 I was invited to see the bride leave home. The 
 groom, in accordance witli the early habits of the 
 " Dutch" folks, reached the bride's house about 
 six A.M., having previously breakfasted and rid- 
 den four miles. As he probably fed and har- 
 nessed his horse, besides attiring himself for the 
 grand occasion, he must have been up betimes 
 of an October morning. 
 
 The bride wore purple mousseline-de-laine and 
 a blue bonnet. As some of the "wedding- 
 folks" were dilatory, the bride and groom did not 
 get oft' before seven. The bridegroom was a 
 mechanic. The whole party was composed of 
 four couples, who rode to Lancaster in buggies, 
 where two pairs were married by a minister. In 
 the afternoon, the newly-married couples went 
 down to Philadelphia for a few days; and on the 
 evening that they were expected at home, we
 
 F ESTIVA LS WEDDINGS. 27 
 
 had a reception, or home-coming. Supper con- 
 sisted of roast turkeys, beef, and stewed chick- 
 ens, cakes, pies, and coffee of course. We had 
 raisin-pie, which is a great treat in "Dutchland" 
 on festive or solemn occasions. "Nine couples" of 
 the bridal party sat down to supper, and then the 
 remaining spare seats were occupied by the land- 
 lord's wife, the bride's uncle, etc. We had a 
 fiddler in the evening. He and the dancing 
 would not have been there, had the household 
 "belonged to meeting;" and, as it was, some 
 young Methodist girls did not dance. 
 
 One of my " English" acquaintances was sit- 
 ting alone on a Sunday evening, when she heard 
 a rap at the door, and a young " Dutchman," a 
 stranger, walked .in and sat down, " and there he 
 sot, and sot, and sot." Mrs. G. waited to hear 
 his errand, politely making conversation ; and 
 finally he asked whether her daughter was at 
 home. "Which one?" He did not know. But 
 that did not make much difference, as neither 
 was at home. Mrs. G. afterwards mentioned 
 this circumstance to a worthy " Dutch" neigh- 
 bor, expressing surprise that a young man should 
 call who had not been introduced. " How then 
 would they get acquainted?" said he. She sug- 
 gested that she did not think that her daughter 
 knew the young man. " She would not tell you, 
 perhaps, if she did." The daughter, however, 
 when asked, seemed entirely ignorant, and did
 
 28 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 not know that she had ever seen the young man. 
 He had probably seen her at the railroad station, 
 and had found out her name and residence. It 
 would seem to indicate much confidence on the 
 part of parents, if, when acquaintances are formed 
 in such a manner, the father and mother retire 
 at nine o'clock, and leave their young daughter 
 thus to "keep company," until midnight or later. 
 It is no wonder that one of our German sects 
 has declared against the popular manner of 
 "courting." 
 
 I recently attended a N"ew Meimist wedding, 
 which took place in the frame meeting-house. 
 "We entered through an adjoining brick dwelling, 
 one room of which served as an ante-room, where 
 the " sisters" left their bonnets and shawls. I 
 was late, for the services had begun about nine, 
 on a bitter Sunday morning of December. The 
 meeting-house was crowded, and in front on the 
 left was a plain of book-muslin caps on the heads 
 of the sisters. On shelves and pegs, along the 
 other side, were placed the hats and overcoats 
 of the brethren. The building was extremely sim- 
 ple, whitewashed without, entirely unpaiuted 
 within, with whitewashed walls. The preacher 
 stood at a small, unpainted desk, and before it 
 was a table, convenient for the old men " to 
 sit at and lay their books on." Two stoves, 
 a half-dozen hanging tin candlesticks, and the 
 benches, completed the furniture. The preacher
 
 FEST1 VALS WEDDINGS. 29 
 
 was speaking extemporaneously in English, for 
 in this meeting-house the services are often per- 
 formed in this tongue; and he spoke readily and 
 well, though his speech was not free from such 
 expressions as, "It would be wishful for men to 
 do their duty ;" " Man cannot separate them to- 
 gether;" and " This, Christ done for us." 
 
 He spoke at length upon divorce, which, he 
 said, could not take place between Christians. 
 The preacher spoke especially upon the duty of 
 the wife to submit to the husband, whenever 
 differences of sentiment arose; of the duty- of 
 the husband to love the wife, and to show his 
 love by his readiness to assist her. He alluded 
 to Paul's saying that it is better to be unmarried 
 than married, and he did not scruple to use plain 
 language touching adultery. His discourse ended, 
 he called upon the pair proposing marriage to 
 come forward ; whereupon the man and woman 
 rose from the body of the congregation on either 
 side, and, coming out to the middle aisle, stood 
 together before the minister. They had both 
 passed their early youth, but had very good faces. 
 The bride wore a mode-colored alpaca, and a 
 black apron ; also a clear-starched cap without a 
 border, after the fashion of the sect. The groom 
 wore a dark-green coat, cut " shad-bellied," after 
 the manner of the brethren. 
 
 This was probably the manner of their ac- 
 quaintance: If, in spite of Paul's encourage-
 
 30 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 ment to a single life, a brother sees a sister whom 
 lie wishes to marry, he mentions the fact to a 
 minister, who tells it to the sister. If she agrees 
 in sentiment, the acquaintance continues for a 
 year, during which private interviews can be 
 had, if desired; but this sect entirely discour- 
 ages courting as usually practiced among the 
 "Dutch." 
 
 The year having in this case elapsed, and the 
 pair having now met before the preacher, he pro- 
 pounded to them three questions : 
 
 1. I ask of this brother, as the bridegroom, do 
 you believe that this sister in the faith is allotted 
 to you by God as your helpmeet and spouse? 
 Arid I ask of you, as the bride, do you believe 
 that this your brother is allotted to you by God 
 as your husband and head ? 
 
 2. Are you free in your affections from all 
 others, and have you them centred alone upon 
 this your brother or sister? 
 
 3. Do you receive this person as your lawfully 
 wedded husband [wife], do you promise to be 
 faithful to him [her], to reverence him [to love 
 her], and that nothing but death shall separate 
 you ; that, by the help of God, you will, to the 
 best of your ability, fulfill all the duties which 
 God has enjoined on believing husbands and 
 wives ? 
 
 In answering this last question,! observed the 
 bride to lift her eyes to the preacher's face, as if
 
 FESTIVALS WED DINGS. 31 
 
 in fearless trust. Then the preacher, directing 
 them to join hands, pronounced them man and 
 wife, and invoked a blessing upon them. This 
 was followed by a short prayer, after which the 
 wedded pair separated, each again taking a place 
 among the congregation. The occasion was 
 solemn. On resuming his place in the desk, the 
 preacher's eyes were seen to be suffused, and 
 pocket-handkerchiefs were visible on either side 
 (the sisters' white, those of the brethren of col- 
 ored silk). The audience then knelt, while the 
 preacher prayed, and I heard responses like those 
 of the Methodists, but more subdued. The 
 preacher made a few remarks, to the effect that, 
 although it would be grievous to break the bond 
 now uniting ^these two, it would be infinitely 
 more grievous to break the tie which unites us 
 to Christ ; and then a quaint hymn was sung to 
 a familiar tune. The " Church" does not allow 
 wedding-parties, but a few friends may gather at 
 the house after meeting. 
 
 The marriage ceremony among the Amish is 
 performed, it is said, in meeting. 
 
 One of my neighbors has told me that the 
 Amish " have great fun at weddings ;" that they 
 have a table set all night, and that when the 
 weather is pleasant, they play in the barn. 
 "Our Peter went once," she continued, "with 
 a lot of the public-school scholars. They let 
 them go in and look on. They twisted a
 
 32 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 towel for the bloom-sock, and they did hit each 
 other." 
 
 (Bloom-sock, Plump-sack, a twisted kerchief, 
 a clumsy fellow.) 
 
 " The bloom-sock" (oo short), as one of my 
 acquaintances described it, " is a handkerchief 
 twisted long, from the two opposite corners. 
 "When it is twisted, you double it, and tie the 
 ends with a knot. One in front hunts the hand- 
 kerchief, and those on the bench are passing it 
 behind them.' If they get a chance, they'll hit 
 him with it, and if he sees it, he tears it away. 
 Then he goes into the row, and the other goes 
 out to hunt it." 
 
 " The English folks have a game like that," 
 said I. " We call it ' Hunt the Slipper.' " 
 
 It has also been said that at Amish wedding- 
 parties they do what they call Gliicklrinke, of 
 wine, etc. 
 
 Some wedding-parties are called Infares. Thus, 
 a neighbor spoke of " Siegfried's wedding, where 
 they had such an lufare." 
 
 It must not be supposed from these descrip- 
 tions that we have no " fashionable" persons 
 among us, of the old German stock. When they 
 have become fashionable, however, they do not 
 desire to be called " Dutch."
 
 FESTIVALS qUILTINGS. 33 
 
 QUILTINGS. 
 
 Some ten years ago there came to our neigh- 
 borhood a pleasant, industrious "Aunt Sally," 
 a " yellow woman ;" and the other day she had a 
 quilting, for she had long wished to re-cover two 
 quilts. The first who arrived at Aunt Sally's 
 was our neighbor from over the " creek," or 
 mill-stream, Polly M., in her black silk Mennist 
 bonnet, formed like a sun-bonnet; and at ten 
 came my dear friend Susanna E., who is tall and 
 fat, and very pleasant ; 
 
 " Whose heart has a look southward, and is open 
 To the great noon of nature." 
 
 Aunt Sally had her quilt up in her landlord's 
 east room, for her own house was too small. 
 However, at about eleven she called us over to 
 dinner; for people who have breakfasted at five 
 or six have an appetite at eleven. 
 
 We found on the table beefsteaks, boiled pork, 
 sweet potatoes, kohl-slaw,* pickled tomatoes, cu- 
 cumbers, and red beets (thus the " Dutch" accent 
 lies), apple-butter and preserved peaches, pump- 
 kin and apple pie, sponge-cake and coffee. 
 
 * Kohl-slaw (i.e. Kohl-salat or Cabbage-salad?) is shredded 
 cabbage, dressed with vinegar, etc. A rich dressing is some- 
 times made of milk or cream, egg, vinegar, etc. . It may be 
 eaten either as warm slaw or cold slaw. 
 
 4
 
 34 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 After dinner came our next neighbors, " the 
 maids," Susy and Katy Groff, who live in single 
 blessedness and great neatness. They wore 
 pretty, clear-starched Mennist caps, very plain. 
 Katy is a sweet-looking woman ; and, although 
 she is more than sixty years old, her forehead is 
 almost nnwrinkled, and her fine fair hair is still 
 brown. It was late when the farmer's wife came, 
 three o'clock ; for she had been to Lancaster. 
 She wore hoops, and was of the " world's people." 
 These women all spoke " Dutch ;" for " the 
 maids," whose ancestor came here probably one 
 hundred and fifty years ago, do not speak Eng- 
 lish with fluency yet. 
 
 The first subject of conversation was the fall 
 house-cleaning; and I heard mention of "die 
 carpett hinaus an der fence," and " die fenshter 
 und die porch ;" and the exclamation, " My good- 
 ness, es war schlimm." I quilted faster than 
 Katy Groff', who showed me her hands, and said, 
 " You have not been corn-husking, as I have." 
 
 So we quilted and rolled, talked and laughed, 
 got one quilt done, and put in another. The 
 work was not fine; we laid it out by chalking 
 around a small plate. Aunt Sally's desire was 
 rather to get her quilting finished upon this 
 great occasion, than for us to put in a quantity 
 of needlework. 
 
 About five o'clock we were called to supper. 
 I need not tell you all the particulars of this
 
 FARMING. 35 
 
 plentiful meal. But the stewed chicken was 
 tender, and we had coffee again. 
 
 Polly M.'s husband now came over the creek 
 in the boat, to take her home, and he warned her 
 against the evening dampness. The rest of us 
 quilted awhile by candle and lamp, and got the 
 second quilt done at about seven. 
 
 At this quilting there was little gossip, and 
 less scandal. I displayed my new alpaca, and 
 my dyed merino, and the Philadelphia bonnet 
 which exposes the back of my head to the wintry 
 blast. Polly, for her part, preferred a black silk 
 sun-bonnet; and sa we parted, with mutual 
 invitations to visit. 
 
 FARMINQ. 
 
 In this fertile limestone district, farming is 
 very laborious, being entirely by tillage. Our 
 regular routine is once in five years to plow the 
 sod ground for corn. In the next ensuing year 
 the same ground ia sowed with oats ; and when 
 the oats come off in August, the industrious 
 " Dutchmen" immediately manure the stubble- 
 land for wheat. I have seen them laying the 
 dark-brown heaps upon the yellow stubble when, 
 in August, I have ridden some twelve or four- 
 teen miles down to the hill-country for black- 
 berries. 
 
 After the ground is carefully prepared, wheat
 
 36 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH" 
 
 and timothy (grass) seed are put in with a drill, 
 and in the ensuing spring clover is sowed upon 
 the same ground. By July, when the wheat is 
 taken off the ground, the clover and timothy are 
 growing, and will be ready to mow in the next, 
 or fourth summer. In the fifth, the same grass 
 constitutes a grazing-ground, and then the sod 
 is ready to be broken up again for Indian corn. 
 Potatoes are seldom planted here in great quan- 
 tities ; a part of one of the oat-fields or corn-fields 
 can be put into potatoes, and the ground will be 
 ready by fall to be put into wheat, if it is desired. 
 A successful farmer put more than half of his 
 forty acres into wheat; this being considered the 
 best crop. The average crop of wheat is about 
 twenty bushels, of Indian corn about forty. 
 
 I have heard of one hundred bushels of corn 
 in the Pequea valley, but this is very rare. When 
 the wheat and oats are in the barn or stack, 
 enormous eight-horse threshers,* whose owners 
 go about the neighborhood from farm to farm, 
 thresh the crop in two or three days ; and thus 
 what was once a great job for winter may all be 
 finished by the 1st of October. 
 
 Jacob E. is a model farmer. His buildings and 
 fences are in good order, and his cattle well kept. 
 lie is a little past the prime of life ; his beautiful 
 head of black hair being touched with silver. 
 
 * Steam-engines are now in use for threshing (1872).
 
 FARMING. 37 
 
 His wife is dimpled and smiling, and her two 
 hundred and twenty pounds do not prevent 
 her being active, energetic, forehanded, and 
 "through-going." During the winter months 
 the two sons go to the public school, the older 
 one with reluctance ; there they learn to read 
 and write and " cipher," and possibly study 
 geography; they speak English at school, and 
 "Dutch" at home. Much education the " Dutch" 
 farmer fears, as productive of laziness; and lazi- 
 ness is a mortal sin here. The E.'s rarely buy a 
 book.* The winter is employed partly in pre- 
 paring material to fertilize the wheat-land during 
 the coming summer. Great droves of cattle and 
 sheep come down our road from the West, and 
 our farmers buy from these, and fatten stock 
 during the winter months for the Philadelphia 
 market. 
 
 A proper dare of his stock will occupy some 
 portion of the farmer's tirne.f Then he has 
 generally a great " Freundschaft," or family con- 
 nection, both his aird his wife's; and the paying 
 
 * I suggested to one of my farming neighbors that he might 
 advantageously have given a certain son a chance at books. 
 
 " Don't want no books !" was the answer. " There's enough 
 goes to books ! Get so lazy after awhile, they won't farm/' 
 
 .f A young farmer's son told me also of cutting wood and 
 quarrying stone in the winter, and added, " if a person 
 wouldn't work in the winter, they'd be behindhand in the 
 spring." 
 
 4*
 
 38 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 visits within a range of twenty or thirty miles, 
 and receiving visits in return, help to pass away 
 the time. Then Jacob and Susanna are actively 
 benevolent; they are liable to be called upon, 
 summer and winter, to wait on the sick and to 
 help bury the dead. Susanna was formerly re- 
 nowned as a baker at funerals, where her services 
 were freely given. 
 
 This rich level land of ours is highly prized by 
 the "Dutch" for farming purposes, and the great 
 demand has enhanced the price. The farms, too, 
 are small, seventy acres being a fair size. When 
 Seth R., the rich preacher, bought his last farm 
 from an "Englishman," William G. said to him, 
 " Well, Seth, it seems as if you Dutch folks had 
 determined to root us English out; but thee had 
 to pay pretty dear for thy root this time." 
 
 There are some superstitious ideas that still 
 hold sway here, regarding the growth of plants. 
 A young girl coming to us for cabbage-plants 
 said that it was a good time to set them, out, for 
 "'it was in the Wirgin." It is very doubtful 
 whether she knew what was in Virgo, but I sup- 
 pose that it was the moon. So our farmer's wife 
 tells me that the Virgin will do very well for cab- 
 bages, but not for any flowering plant like beans, 
 for, though they will bloom well, they will not 
 mature the fruit. Grain should be sowed in the 
 increase of the moon ; meat butchered in the 
 decrease will shrink in the pot.
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 39 
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 
 
 One of my Dutch neighbors, Avho, from a 
 shoemaker, became the owner of two farms, 
 said to me, "The woman is more than half;" 
 and his own very laborious wife (with her por- 
 tion) had indeed been so. 
 
 The woman (in popular parlance, "the old 
 woman") milks, raises the poultry, has charge of 
 .the garden, sometimes digging the ground her- 
 self, and planting and hoeing, with the assistance 
 of her daughters and the " maid," when she has 
 one. (German, magd.} To be sure, she does not 
 go extensively into vegetable-raising, nor has she 
 a large quantity of strawberries and other small 
 fruits ; neither does she plant a great many peas 
 and beans, that are laborious to " stick." She 
 has a quantity of cabbages and of " red beets," 
 of onions and of early potatoes, in her garden, a 
 plenty of cucumbers for winter pickles, and store 
 of string-beans and tomatoes, with some sweet 
 potatoes. 
 
 Peter R. told me that in one year, off of their 
 small farm, they sold " two hundred dollars' 
 worth of wedgable things, not counting the 
 butter." As in that year the clothing for each 
 member of the family probably cost from ten to 
 fifteen dollars, the two hundred dollars' worth of 
 vegetable things was of great importance.
 
 40 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.' 1 
 
 Our "Dutch" never make store-cheese. At a 
 county fair, only one cheese was exhibited, and 
 that was from Chester County. The farmer's 
 wife boards all the farm-hands, and the me- 
 chanics, the carpenter, mason, etc., who put up 
 the new buildings, and the fence-makers. At 
 times she allows the daughters to go out and husk 
 corn. It was a pretty sight which I saw one fall 
 day, an Amish man with four sons and daugh- 
 ters, husking in the field.* "We do it all our- 
 selves," said he. 
 
 In the winter mornings perhaps the farmer's 
 wife goes out to milk in the stable with a lantern, 
 while her daughters get breakfast; has her house 
 " redd up" about eight o'clock, and is prepared 
 for several hours' sewing before dinner, laying by 
 great piles of shirts for summer. We no longer 
 make linen ; but I have heard of one Dutch girl 
 who had a good supply of domestic linen made 
 into shirts and trousers for the future spouse 
 whose " fair proportions" she had not yet seen. 
 
 There are, of course, many garments to make 
 in a large family, but there is not much work put 
 
 * Said a neighbor, " A man told me once that he was at an 
 Amish husking, a husking-match in the kitchen. He said 
 he never saw as much sport in all his life. There they had 
 the bloom-sock. There was one old man, quite gray-headed, 
 and gray-bearded : he laughed till he shook." Said another, 
 " There's not many huskings going on now. The most play 
 now goes on at the Infares."
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 41 
 
 upon them. We do not jet patronize the sewing- 
 machine* very extensively, but a seamstress or 
 tailoress is sometimes called in. At the spring 
 cleaning, the labors of the women folk are in- 
 creased by whitewashing the picket-fences. 
 
 In March we make soap, before the labors of 
 the garden are great. The forests are being 
 obliterated from this fertile tract, and many use 
 what some call " consecrated" lye ; formerly, the 
 ash-hopper was filled, and a good lot of. egg- 
 bearing lye ran oft' to begin the soap with, while 
 the w r eaker filled the soft-soap kettle, after the 
 soap had " come." The chemical operation of 
 soap-making often proved difficult, and, of course, 
 much was said about luck. " We had bad luck, 
 making soap." A sassafras stick was preferred 
 for stirring, and the soap was stirred always in 
 one direction. In regard to this, and that other 
 chemical operation, making and keeping vinegar, 
 there are certain ideas about the temporary in- 
 capacity of some persons, ideas only to be al- 
 luded to here. If the farmer's wife never "has 
 luck" in making soap, she employs some skillful 
 woman to come in and help her. It is not a 
 long operation, for the " Dutcb" rush this work 
 speedily. If the lye is well run oft', two tubs of 
 hard soap and a barrel of soft can be made in a 
 
 * Sewing-machines have become common since this aiticle 
 was written.
 
 42 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 day. A smart housekeeper can make a barrel 
 of soap in the morning, and go visiting in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 Great are the household labors in harvest; but 
 the cooking and baking in the hot weather are 
 
 Z7 O 
 
 cheerfully done for the men folks, who 'are toil- 
 ing in hot suns and stifling barns. Four meals 
 are common at this season, for " a piece" is sent 
 out at nine o'clock. I heard of one Dutch girl's 
 making some fifty pies a week in harvest ; for if 
 you have four meals a day, and pie at each, many 
 are required. We have great faith in pie. 
 
 I have been told of an inexperienced Quaker 
 housewife in the neighboring county of York, 
 who was left in charge of the farm, and, during 
 harvest, these important labors were performed 
 by John Stein, John Stump, and John Stinger. 
 She also had guests, welcome perhaps as " rain 
 in harvest." To conciliate the Johns was very 
 important, and she waited on them first. "What 
 will thee have, John Stein?" "What shall I 
 give thee, John Stump?" "And thee, John 
 Stinger?" On one memorable occasion there 
 was mutiny in the field, for John Stein declared 
 that he never worked where there were not 
 " kickelin" cakes in harvest, nor would he now. 
 Kuchldn proved to be cakes fried in fat; and 
 the housewife was ready to appease " Achilles' 
 wrath," as soon as she made this discovery. 
 
 We used to make quantities of apple-butter in
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 43 
 
 the fall, but of late years apples have been more 
 scarce. We made in one season six barrels of 
 cider into apple-butter, three at a time. Two 
 large copper kettles were hung under the beech- 
 trees, down between the spring-house and smoke- 
 house, and the cider was boiled down the evening 
 before, great stumps of trees being in demand. 
 One hand watched the cider, and the rest of the 
 family gathered in the kitchen and labored dili- 
 gently in preparing the cut apples, so that in the 
 morning the " schnitz" might be ready to go in. 
 (Schneiden, to cut, geschnitten.) 
 
 Two bushels and a half of cut apples will be 
 enough for a barrel of cider. In a few hours the 
 apples will all be in, and then you will stir, and 
 stir, and stir, for you do not want to have the apple- 
 butter burn at the bottom, and be obliged to dip it 
 out into tubs and scour the kettle. Some time in 
 the afternoon, you will take out a little on a dish, 
 and when you find that the cider no longer 
 "weeps out" round the edges, but all forms a 
 simple heap, you will dip it up into earthen 
 vessels, and when cold take it " on" to the garret 
 to keep company with the hard soap and the bags 
 of dried apples and cherries, perhaps with the 
 hams and shoulders. Soap and apple-butter are 
 usually made in an open fireplace, where hangs 
 the kettle. At one time (about the year 1828) 
 I have heard that there was apple-butter in the 
 Lancaster Museum which dated from Ilevolu-
 
 44 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 tionary times; for we do not expect it to ferment 
 in the summer. It dries away ; but water is stirred 
 in to prepare it for the table. Sometimes peach- 
 butter is made, with cider, molasses, or sugar, 
 and, in the present scarcity of apples, cut pump- 
 kin is often put into the apple-butter.* 
 
 Soon after apple-butter-making comes butcher- 
 ing, for we like an early pig in the fall, when the 
 store of smoked meat has run out. Pork is the 
 staple, and we smoke the flitches, not preserv- 
 
 *Evening " Snitzcn" parties and apple-butter-boilings have 
 been festive occasions. A young mechanic was telling me of 
 the games that he had joined in after the apples were cut, etc., 
 and added, "How I have enjoyed myself 1" 
 
 Mr. E. H. Ranch, who has lived also in Berks County, thus 
 describes an apple-butter party : 
 
 " Then Bevvy (Barbara) came and sat down in the very 
 chair that Sally had left opposite, saying, 'I'll sit here. I 
 am not afraid of Pete, and I guess that he is not afraid of 
 me.' She was thought to be a very smart girl, and earned 
 good wages, and she was quite pretty too, and nice-looking. 
 As we were paring apples, once in awhile she handed me 
 over a piece, which did not offend me, and she looked and 
 talked so pleasant, that I began to think a good deal of her. 
 "When the apple-paring was done, then we must stir the apple- 
 butter. Commonly, a boy and girl both take hold of the long 
 handle of the stirrer, and stir together with a sort of see-saw 
 motion, so that I have been ready to go to sleep with the stirrer 
 in my hand. 
 
 " In the course of the evening, Bevvy and I stirred together 
 three different times, and got very well acquainted. Then I 
 took her home, and there was no cross old thing to come and 
 say, ' It is time to go,' as Sally Bensamacher's father did one 
 time." Letters of Pete Schwefflebrenner.
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 45 
 
 ing them in brine like the Yankees. "We our- 
 selves use much beef, and do not like smoked 
 flitch, but I speak for the majority. Sausage is 
 a great dish with us, as in Germany. My sister 
 and I went once on a few days.' trip through the 
 county in the summer, and were treated alter- 
 nately to ham and mackerel, until, at the last 
 house, we had both. 
 
 Butchering is one of the many occasions for 
 the display of friendly feeling, when brother or 
 father steps in to help hang the hogs, or a sister 
 to assist in rendering lard, or in preparing the 
 plentiful meal. An active farmer will have two 
 or three porkers killed, scalded, and hung up by 
 sunrise, and by night the whole operation of 
 sausage and "scrapple" making, and lard ren- 
 dering, will be finished, and the house set in 
 order. The friends who have assisted receive a 
 portion of the sausage, etc., which portion is 
 called the " Metzel-sup."* The metzel-sup is also 
 sent to poor widows, and others. 
 
 We make scrapple from the skin, a part of the 
 livers, and heads, with the addition of corn-meal ; 
 but, instead, our "Dutch" neighbors make liver- 
 wurst " woorsht"), or meat pudding, omitting the 
 meal, and this compound, stuffed into the larger 
 entrails, is very popular in Lancaster market. 
 Some make pawn-haus from the liquor in which 
 
 * Pronounce sup, soop, with the oo short. 
 5
 
 46 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 the pudding-meat was boiled, adding thereto 
 corn-meal. These three dishes are fried before 
 eating. I have never seen hog's-head cheese in 
 "Dutch" houses. If the boiling-pieces of beef are 
 kept over summer, they are smoked, instead of 
 being preserved in brine. We eat much smear- 
 case (Schmier-kase), or cottage cheese, in these 
 regions. Children, and some grown people too, 
 fancy it upon bread with molasses ; which may 
 be considered as an offset to the Yankee pork 
 and molasses. 
 
 "We have also Dutch cheese, which may be 
 made by crumbling the dry smear-case, working 
 in butter, salt, and chopped sage, forming it into 
 pats, and setting them away to ripen. The sieger- 
 kdse is made from sweet milk boiled, with sour 
 milk added and beaten eggs, and then set to 
 drain off the whey. (Ziegen-kase is German for 
 goat's milk cheese.) 
 
 " Schnitz and knep" is said to be made of dried 
 apples, fat pork, and dough-dumplings cooked 
 together. 
 
 In the fall our " Dutch" make sauer kraut. I 
 happened into the house of my friend Susanna 
 when her husband and son were going to take an 
 hour at noon to help her with the kraut. Two 
 white tubs stood upon the back porch, one with 
 the fair round heads, and the other to receive the 
 cabbage when cut by a knife set in a board (a very 
 convenient thing for cutting kohl-slaw and cucum-
 
 FARMERS' WIVES. 47 
 
 bers). "When cat, the cabbage is packed into a 
 " stand" with a sauer-kraut staff, resembling the 
 pounder with which New-Englanders beat clothes 
 in a barrel. Salt is added during the packing. 
 When the cabbage ferments, it becomes acid. 
 The kraut-stand remains in the cellar ; the con- 
 tents not being unpalatable when boiled with 
 potatoes and the chines or ribs of pork. But the 
 smell of the boiling kraut is very strong, and 
 that stomach is probably strong which readily 
 digests the meal.* 
 
 Our "Dutch" make soup in variety, and pro- 
 nounce the word short, between soup and sup. 
 Thus there is Dutch sup, potato sup, and 
 " noodle" (Nudel) sup", which last is a treat. 
 Nudels may be called domestic macaroni; and 
 I have seen a dish called schmelkiy-nudels, in which 
 bits of fried bread were laid upon the piled- 
 up nudels, to me unpalatable from the large 
 quantity of eggs in the nudels. 
 
 We almost always find good bread at our farrn- 
 
 * One of the heavy labors of the fall is the fruit-drying. 
 Afterward your hostess invites you to partake, thus : " Mary, 
 will you have pie? This is snits, and this is elder" (or dried 
 apples, and dried elderberries). 
 
 Dried peaches are peach snits. 
 
 A laboring woman once, speaking to me of a neighbor, said, 
 " She hain't got many dried apples. If her girl would snitz 
 in the evening, as I did ! but she'd rather keep company and 
 run around than to snitz."
 
 48 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 houses. In traveling through Pennsylvania to 
 Ohio, and returning through New York, I con- 
 cluded that Pennsylvania furnished good bread- 
 makers, New York good butter-makers, and that 
 the two best bread-makers that I saw in Ohio 
 were from Lancaster County. "We make the pot 
 of " sots" (New England " emptins") overnight, 
 with boiled mashed potatoes, scalded flour, and 
 sometimes hops. Friday is baking-day; but in 
 the middle of summer, when mold abounds, we 
 bake twice a week. The "Dutch" housewife is' 
 very fond of baking in the brick oven, but the 
 scarcity of wood must gradually accustom us to 
 the great cooking-stove. 
 
 We keep one fire in winter. This is in the 
 kitchen, which with nice housekeepers is the 
 abode of neatness, with its rag carpet and 
 brightly polished stove. An adjoining room or 
 building is the wash-house, where butchering, 
 soap-making, etc. are done by the help of a great 
 kettle hung in the fireplace, not set in brick- 
 work. 
 
 Adjoining the kitchen, on another side, is a 
 state apartment, also rag-carpeted, and called 
 "the room." The stove-pipe "from the kitchen 
 sometimes passes through the ceiling, and tem- 
 pers the sleeping-room of the parents. These 
 arrangements are not very favorable to bathing 
 in cold weather; indeed, to wash the whole per- 
 son is not very common, in summer or winter.
 
 HOLIDAYS. 49 
 
 In the latter season, it is almost never done in 
 town or country, by the "Dutch."* 
 
 "Will you go up-stairs in a neat Dutch farm- 
 house ? Here are rag carpets again. Gay quilts 
 are on the best beds, where green and red calico, 
 perhaps in the form of a basket, are displayed on 
 a white ground ; or the beds bear brilliant cov- 
 erlets of red, white, and blue, as if to " make the 
 rash gazer wipe his eye." The common pillow- 
 cases are sometimes of blue check, or of calico. 
 In winter, people often sleep under feather-covers, 
 not so heavy as a feather-bed. In the spring there 
 is a great washing of bedclothes, and then the 
 blankets are washed, which, during winter, sup- 
 plied the place of sheets. 
 
 HOLIDAYS. 
 
 I was sitting alone, one Christmas time, when 
 the door opened and there entered some half- 
 dozen youths or men, who frightened me aothat 
 I slipped out at the door. They, being thus 
 alone, and not intending further harm, at once 
 left. These, I suppose, were Christmas mummers, 
 though I heard them called "Bell-schnickel." 
 
 At another time, as I was sitting with my little 
 boy, Aunt Sally came in smiling and mysterious, 
 and took her place by the stove. Immediately 
 
 * Is it done very often by our English farming population ? 
 5*
 
 50 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 after, there entered a man in disguise, who very 
 much alarmed my little Dan. 
 
 The stranger threw down nuts and cakes, and, 
 when some one offered to pick them up, struck 
 at him with a rod. This was the real Bell- 
 schnickel, personated by the farmer. I presume 
 that he ought to throw down his store of nice 
 things for the good children, and strike the bad 
 ones with his whip. Pelznickel is the bearded 
 Nicholas, who punishes bad ones; whereas Kriss- 
 kringle is the Christkindlein, who rewards good 
 children. 
 
 On Christmas morning we cry, " Christmas- 
 gift !" and not, as elsewhere, " A merry Christ- 
 mas !" Christmas is a day when people do not 
 work, but go to meeting, when roast turkey and 
 mince-pie are in order, and when the "Dutch" 
 housewife has store of cakes on hand to give to 
 the little folks. 
 
 We still hear of barring-out at Christmas. 
 The pupils fasten themselves in the school-house, 
 and keep the teacher out to obtain presents from 
 him. 
 
 The First of April (which our neighbors gen- 
 erally call Aprile) is a great occasion. This is 
 the opening of the farming year. The tenant 
 farmers and other " renters" move to their new 
 homes, and interest-money and other debts are 
 due ; and so much money changes hands in Lan- 
 caster, on the 1st, that pickpockets are attracted
 
 HOLIDAYS. 51 
 
 thither, and the unsuspicious "Dutch" farmer 
 sometimes finds himself a loser. 
 
 The movings, on or about the 1st, are made 
 festive occasions; neighbors, young and old, are 
 gathered ; some bring wagons to transport farm 
 utensils and furniture, others assist in driving 
 cattle, put furniture in its place, and set up bed- 
 steads; while the women are ready to help pre- 
 pare the bountiful meal. At this feast I have 
 heard a worthy tenant farmer say, " Now help 
 yourselves, as you did out there" (with the goods). 
 
 Whitsuntide Monday is a great holiday with 
 the young "Dutch" folks. It occurs when there 
 is a lull in farm-work, between corn-planting 
 and hay-making. Now the new summer bon- 
 nets are all in demand, and the taverns are 
 found full of youths and girls, who sometimes 
 walk the street hand-in-hand, eat cakes and drink 
 beer, or visit the " flying horses." A number of 
 seats are arranged around a central pole, and, a' 
 pair taking each seat, the whole revolves by the 
 work of a horse, and you can have a circular ride 
 for six cents. 
 
 On the Fourth of July we are generally at 
 work in the harvest-field. Several of the festi- 
 vals of the Church are held here as days of rest, 
 if not of recreation. Such are Good Friday, As- 
 cension-day, etc. On Easter, eggs colored and 
 otherwise ornamented were formerly much in
 
 52 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 vogue; but the custom of preparing them is 
 dying out.* 
 
 Thanksgiving is beginning to be observed bere, 
 but the New-Englander would miss tbe family 
 gatherings, the roast turkeys, the pumpkin-pies. 
 Possibly we go to church in the morning, and sit 
 quiet for the rest of the day ; and as for pumpkin- 
 pies, we do not greatly fancy them. Raisin-pie, 
 or mince-pie, we can enjoy. 
 
 The last night of October is " Hallow-eve." 
 I was in Lancaster last Hallow-eve, and the boys 
 were ringing door-bells, carrying away door- 
 steps, throwing corn at the windows, or running 
 oft with an unguarded wagon. I heard of one 
 
 * A neighbor has told me that the people here used to make 
 fat-cakes they called them "plow-lines" on Shrove-Tues- 
 day, or else " they conceited the flax wouldn't grow. The 
 people used to conceit a many things," she added. Nor is the 
 custom of baking pancakes on Shrove-Tuesday yet given up. 
 * A correspondent of the Reading Eagle, of February 16th, 1872, 
 says, " Tuesday was a great day among our county women 
 (Berks County) for manufacturing doughnuts. In every 
 house we entered we found the good wife engaged in some 
 part of the baking performance ; . . . and later in the day 
 we saw heaps of the delicious nuts piled up for table use. Such 
 are the old usages of ' Fastnacht,' and I move they be 
 continued." 
 
 Similar reports came in also from York and Lancaster 
 Counties; while a Lancaster correspondent, speaking of the 
 next day, says, "Seven years ago, I witnessed a sale of a large 
 stock of cattle, on Ash-Wednesday: every cow and steer 
 offered for sale was completely covered with wood ashes."
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 53 
 
 or two youngsters who had requested an after- 
 noon holiday to go to church, but who had spent 
 their time in going out of town to steal corn for 
 this occasion. In the country, farm-gates are 
 taken from their hinges and removed; and it was 
 formerly a favorite boyish amusement to take a 
 wagon to pieces, and, after carrying the parts up 
 to the barn-roof, to put it together again, thus 
 obliging the owner to take it apart and bring it 
 down. Such " tricks" as described by Burns in 
 the poem of " Hallow-e'en" may be heard of oc- 
 casionally, perpetrated perhaps by the Scotch- 
 Irish element in our population. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 About twenty years ago, I was circulating an 
 anti-slavery petition among women. I carried it 
 to the house of a neighboring farmer, a miller to 
 boot, and well to do. His wife signed the peti- 
 tion (all women did not in those days), but she 
 signed with her mark. I have understood that 
 it is about twenty years since the school law was 
 made universal here, and that our township of 
 Upper Leacock wanted to resist by litigation 
 the establishment of public schools, but finally 
 decided otherwise.* It is the school-tax that is 
 
 * In a recent paper I find this statement : " West Cocalico 
 did not until recently accept the provisions of the General 
 School Law of the State."
 
 54 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 onerous. "Within the last twent}" years a great 
 impetus has been given to education by the es- 
 tablishment of the County Superintendency of 
 Normal Schools and of Teachers' Institutes. I 
 think it is within this time that the Board of 
 Directors met, in an adjoining township, and, 
 being called upon to vote by ballot, there were 
 afterward found in the box several different 
 ways of spelling the word " no." 
 
 At the last Institute, a worthy young man at 
 the blackboard was telling the teachers how to 
 make their pupils pronounce the word " did," 
 which they inclined to call dit ; and a young 
 woman told me that she found it necessary, when 
 teaching in Berks County, to practice speaking 
 "Dutch," in order to make the pupils understand 
 their lessons. It must be rather hard to hear and 
 talk "Dutch" almost constantly, and then go to 
 a school where the text-books are English. 
 
 There is still an effort made to have G-erman 
 taught in our public schools. The reading of 
 German is considered a great accomplishment, 
 and is one required for a candidate for the min- 
 istry among some of our plainer sects. But the 
 teacher is generally overburdened in the winter 
 with the necessary branches in a crowded, un- 
 graded school. Our township generally has 
 school for seven months in the year; some 
 townships have only five ; and in Berks County 
 I have heard of one having only four months.
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 55 
 
 About thirty-five dollars a month is paid to 
 teachers, male and female. 
 
 My little boy of seven began to go to public 
 school this fall. For awhile I would hear him 
 repeating such expressions as, " Che, double o,t, 
 coot" (meaning good). "P-i-g, pick." " Kreat 
 A, little A, pouncing P." " I don't like chincher- 
 pread." Even among our " Dutch" people of 
 more culture, etch is heard for aitch (H), and it is 
 a relic of early training. 
 
 The standard of our County Superintendent is 
 high (1868), and his examinations are severe. His 
 salary is about seventeen hundred dollars. Where 
 there is so much wealth as here, it seems almost 
 impossible that learning should not follow, as 
 soon as the minds of the people are turned toward 
 it; but the great fear of making their children 
 " lazy" operates against sending them to school. 
 Industrious habits will certainly tend more to 
 the pecuniary success of a farmer than the " art 
 of writing and speaking the English language 
 correctly."* 
 
 * The story of the difficulties that have beset those who have 
 striven to introduce the public school system in some parts of 
 Pennsylvania is a remarkable one. In the county of Berks 
 (as well as in Lancaster), it is claimed that the Keformed and 
 Lutheran settlers had schools, in early times, in connection 
 with their churches; but as regards the public schools, Berks 
 is now considerably behind Lancaster. 
 
 The fear of making the children lazy, as it seems to me now,
 
 56 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH: 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 My dear old " English" friend, Samuel GL, had 
 often been asked to stay and eat with David B., 
 and on one occasion he concluded to accept the 
 invitation. They went to the table, and had a 
 silent pause ; then John cut up the meat, and 
 the workmen and members of the family each 
 put in a fork and helped himself. The guest was 
 discomfited, and, finding that he was likely to 
 lose his dinner otherwise, he followed their ex- 
 ample. The invitation to eat had covered the 
 whole. When guests are present, many say, 
 " Now, help yourselves," but they do not use vain 
 repetitions, as the city people do. 
 
 Coffee is still drunk three times a day in some 
 
 is not the only objection to the public schools in the minds of 
 some of our "Pennsylvania Dutch." 
 
 .An Amish man (who labored under the difficulty of not 
 speaking English fluently) once answered some of my in- 
 quiries upon the subject of education. 
 
 He said that they were not opposed to school-learning, but 
 to high learning. "To send children to school from ten to 
 twenty-one, we would think was opposed to Holy Scripture. 
 There are things taught in school that don't agree with Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 I asked whether he thought it was wrong to teach that the 
 earth goes round the sun. 
 
 " I don't know anything about it; but I am not in favor of 
 teaching geography and grammar in the schools: it's worldly 
 wisdom."
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 57 
 
 families, but frequently without sugar. The sugar- 
 bowl stands on the table, with spoons therein for 
 those who want sugar ; but at our late " home- 
 coming" party I believe that I was the only one 
 at the table who took sugar. The dishes of smear- 
 case, molasses, apple-butter, etc. are not always 
 supplied with spoons. We dip in our knives, and 
 with the same useful implements convey the 
 food to our mouths. Does the opposite extreme 
 prevail among the farmers of Massachusetts ? 
 Do they always eat with their forks, and use 
 napkins? 
 
 On many busy farm-occasions, the woman of 
 the house will find it more convenient to let the 
 men eat first, to get the burden of the harvest- 
 dinner oft* her mind and her hands, and then sit 
 down with her daughters, her "maid" and little 
 children, to their own repast. But the allowing 
 to the men the constant privilege of eating first 
 has passed away, if, indeed, it ever prevailed. 
 At funeral feasts the old men and women sit 
 down first, with the mourning family. Then 
 succeed the second, third, and fourth tables. 
 
 We Lancaster " Dutch" are always striving to 
 seize Time's forelock. We rise, even in the win- 
 ter, about four, feed the stock while the women 
 get breakfast, eat breakfast in the short days by 
 coal-oil lamps, and by daylight are ready for the 
 operations of the day. The English folks and the 
 backsliding " D utch" are sometimes startled when 
 
 6
 
 58 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 they hear their neighbors blow the horn or ring 
 the bell for dinner. On a recent pleasant Octo- 
 ber day, the farmer's wife was churning out-of- 
 doors, and cried, " Why, there's the dinner-bells 
 a'ready. Mercy days!" I went in to the clock, 
 and found it at twenty minutes of eleven. The 
 "Dutch" farmers almost invariably keep their 
 time half an hour or more ahead, like that vil- 
 lage of Cornwall where it was twelve o'clock 
 when it was but half-past eleven to the rest of the 
 world. Our " Dutch" are never seen running to 
 catch a railroad train. 
 
 We are not a total-abstinence people. Before 
 these times of high prices, liquor was often fur- 
 nished to hands in the harvest-field. 
 
 A few years ago a meeting was held in a 
 neighboring school-house, to discuss a prohib- 
 itory liquor law. After various speeches, the 
 question was put to the vote, thus : " All those 
 who want leave to drink whisky will please to 
 rise." "Now all those who don't want to drink 
 whisky will rise." The affirmative had a de- 
 cided majority. 
 
 Work is a cardinal virtue with the " Dutch- 
 man." " He is lazy," is a very opprobrious re- 
 mark. At the quilting, when I was trying to 
 take out one of the screws, Katy Groff, who is 
 sixty-five, exclaimed, " How lazy I am, not to 
 be helping you !" (" Wie ich bin faul.") 
 
 Marriages sometimes take place between the
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 59 
 
 two nationalities ; but I do not think the " Dutch" 
 farmers desire English wives for their sons, un- 
 less the wives are decidedly rich. On the other 
 hand, I heard of an English farmer's counseling 
 his son to seek a " Dutch" wife. When the sou 
 had wooed and won his substantial bride, " Now 
 he will see what good cooking is," said a " Dutch" 
 girl to me. I was surprised at the remark, for 
 his mother was an excellent housekeeper. 
 
 The circus is the favorite amusement of our 
 people. Lancaster papers often complain of the 
 slender attendance which is bestowed upon lec- 
 tures, and the like. Even theatrical perform- 
 ances are found " slow," compared with the feats 
 of the ring. 
 
 Our "Dutch" use a freedom of language that 
 is not known to the English, and which to them 
 savors of coarseness. " But they mean no harm 
 by it," says one of my English friends. It is dif- 
 ficult to practice reserve where the whole family 
 sit in one heated room. This rich limestone 
 land in which the "Dutch" delight is nearly 
 level to an eye trained among the hills. Do 
 hills make a people more poetical or imagina- 
 tive? 
 
 Perhaps so ; but there is vulgarity too among 
 the hills.
 
 AN AMISH MEETING.* 
 
 IT was on a Sunday morning in March, when 
 the air was bleak and the roads were execrable, 
 that I obtained a driver to escort me to the farm- 
 house where an Amish meeting was to be held. 
 
 It was a little after nine o'clock when I en- 
 tered, and, although the hour was so early, I 
 found the congregation nearly all gathered, and 
 the preaching begun. 
 
 There were forty men present, as many women, 
 and one infant. Had the weather been less in- 
 clement, we should probably have had more little 
 ones, for such plain people do not think it neces- 
 sary to leave the babies at home. 
 
 The rooms in which we sat seemed to have 
 been constructed for these great occasions. They 
 were the kitchen and "the room," as our peo- 
 ple call the sitting-room, or best room, and were 
 BO arranged as to be made into one by means of 
 two doors. 
 
 Our neighbors wore the usual costume of the 
 sect, which is a branch of the Mennonite So- 
 
 * Amish is pronounced Ommish, the a being Tcry broad, 
 like aw. 
 
 (60)
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 61 
 
 ciety, or nearly allied to it, the men having laid 
 off their round-crowned and remarkably wide- 
 brimmed hats. Their hair is usually cut square 
 across the forehead, and hangs long behind ; 
 their coats are plainer than those of the plainest 
 Quaker, and are fastened, except the overcoat, 
 with hooks and eyes in place of buttons ; whence 
 they are sometimes called Hooker or Hook-and- 
 Eye Mennists. The pantaloons are worn with- 
 out suspenders. Form erly, the Amish were often 
 called Beardy Men, but since beards have become 
 fashionable theirs are not so conspicuous. 
 
 The women, whom I have sometimes seen 
 with a bright-purple apron, an orange necker- 
 chief, or some other striking bit of color, were 
 now more soberly arrayed in plain white caps 
 without ruffle or border, and white neckerchiefs, 
 though occasionally a cap or kerchief was black. 
 They wear closely-fitting waists, with a little 
 basquine behind, which is probably a relic from 
 the times of the short -gown and petticoat. 
 Their gowns were of sober woolen stuff, fre- 
 quently of flannel ; and all wore aprons. 
 
 But the most surprising figures among the 
 Amish are the little children, dressed in gar- 
 ments like those of old persons. It has been 
 my lot to sec at the house of her parents a ten- 
 der little dark -eyed Amish maiden of three 
 years, old enough to begin to speak "Dutch," 
 and as yet ignorant of English. Seated upon 
 6*
 
 62 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 her father's lap, sick and suffering, with that 
 sweet little face encircled by the plain muslin 
 cap, the little figure dressed in that plain gown, 
 she was one not to be soon forgotten. But the 
 little girl that was at meeting to-day was either 
 no Amish child or a great backslider, for she 
 was hardly to be distinguished in dress from the 
 world's people. 
 
 The floors were bare, but on one of the open 
 doors hung a long white towel, worked at one 
 end with colored figures, such as our mothers or 
 grandmothers put upon samplers. These per- 
 haps were meant for flowers. The congregation 
 sat principally on benches. On the men's side 
 a small shelf of books ran around one corner of 
 the room. 
 
 The preacher, who was speaking when I en- 
 tered, continued for about fifteen minutes. His 
 remarks and the rest of the services were in 
 "Dutch." I have been criticised for applying 
 the epithet to my neighbors, or to their lan- 
 guage, but "Dutch" is the title which they 
 generally apply to themselves, speaking of " us 
 Dutch folks and you English folks," and some- 
 times with a pretty plain hint that some of the 
 " Dutch" ways are discreeter and better, if not 
 more virtuous, than the English. But, though 
 I call them " Dutch," I am fully aware that they 
 are not Hollanders. Most of them are Swiss of
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 63 
 
 ancient and honorable descent, exiles from reli- 
 gious persecution. 
 
 I am sorry that I do not understand the lan- 
 guage well enough to give a sketch of some of 
 the discourses on this occasion. At times I un- 
 derstood an expression of the first speaker, such 
 as, "Let us well reflect and observe," or "Let 
 us well consider," expressions that were often 
 repeated. As he was doubtless a farmer, and 
 was speaking extemporaneously, it is not re- 
 markable that they were so. 
 
 When the preacher had taken his seat, the 
 congregation knelt for five minutes in silence. 
 A brother then read aloud from the German 
 Scripture concerning Nicodemus, who came to 
 Jesus by night, etc. After this another brother 
 rose, and spoke in a tone like that which is so 
 common among Friends, namely, a kind of sing- 
 ing or chanting tone, which he accompanied by 
 a little gesture. 
 
 While he was speaking, one or two women 
 went out, and, as I wished to take notes of the 
 proceedings, I followed them into the wash- 
 house or outside kitchen, which was quite com- 
 fortable. As I passed along, I saw in the yard 
 the wagons which had brought the people to 
 meeting. Most of them were covered with 
 plain yellow oil-cloth. I have been told that 
 there are sometimes a hundred wagons gath-
 
 64 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 ered at one farm-house, and that in summer the 
 meetings are often held in the barn. 
 
 I sat down by the stove in the wash-house, 
 and a very kindly old woman, the host's mother, 
 came and renewed the fire. As she did not talk 
 English, I spoke to her a little in German, and 
 she seemed to understand me. "When I wrote, 
 she wondered and laughed at my rapid move- 
 ments, for writing is slower work with these 
 people than some other kinds of labor. I sup- 
 pose, indeed, that there are still some of the 
 older women who scarcely know how to write. 
 
 I asked her whether after meeting I might 
 look at the German books on the corner shelf, 
 ancient books with dark leather covers and me- 
 tallic clasps. She said in reply, " Bleibsht esse ?" 
 ("Shall you stay and eat?") Yes, I would. "Ya 
 wohl," said she, "kaunsht." ("Very well, you 
 can.") 
 
 A neat young Amish woman, the ".maid" or 
 housekeeper, came and put upon the stove a 
 great tin wash-boiler, shining bright, into which 
 she put water for making coffee and for washing 
 dishes. 
 
 I soon returned to the meeting, and found the 
 same preacher still speaking. I suppose that he 
 had continued during my absence, and, if so, his 
 discourse was an hour and ten minutes in length. 
 This was quite too long to be entertaining to one 
 who only caught the sense of an occasional pass-
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 65 
 
 age, or a few texts of Scripture. It was while 
 these monotonous tones continued that I heard 
 a rocking upon the floor overhead. It pro- 
 ceeded, I believe, from the young mother, 
 the mother of the little one before spoken of. 
 When the child had become restless before this, 
 or when she was tired, a young man upon the 
 brethren's side of the room had taken it for 
 awhile, and now it was doubtless being put to 
 sleep in a room overhead, into which a stove- 
 pipe passed from the apartment where we sat. 
 
 My attention was also attracted by an old 
 lady who sat near me, and facing the stove, with 
 her hands crossed in her lap, and a gold* or brass 
 ring on each middle finger. She wore a black 
 flannel dress and a brown woolen apron, leather 
 shoes and knit woolen stockings. Her head was 
 bent forward toward her broad bosom, upon 
 which was crossed a white kerchief. With her 
 gray hair, round face, and plain linen cap, her 
 whole figure reminded me of the peasant women 
 of Continental Europe or of a Flemish picture. 
 
 When the long sermon was ended, different 
 brethren were called upon, and during a half- 
 hour we had from them several short discourses, 
 
 * "Were they not brass?" says one of my Old Mennist 
 neighbors. "She 'wears them for some sickness, I reckon. 
 She would not wear them for show. One of our preachers 
 wears steel rings on his little lingers for cramps."
 
 66 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 one or two of them nearly inaudible. The speak- 
 ers were, I think, giving their views on what had 
 been said, or perhaps they were by these little 
 efforts preparing themselves to become preach- 
 ers, or showing their gifts to the congregation. 
 
 It is stated in Herzog's Cyclopaedia that among 
 the Mennonites in Holland the number of Lie- 
 besprediger has greatly declined, so that some 
 congregations had no preacher. (The word Lie- 
 besprediger I am inclined to translate as volun- 
 tary, unpaid preachers, like those among Friends.) 
 I am in doubt, indeed, whether any such are now 
 found in Holland. There seems to be no scarcity 
 in this country of preachers, who are, however, 
 in some, if not all three of the divisions of Men- 
 nonites, chosen by lot. 
 
 When these smaller efforts were over, the 
 former preacher spoke again for twenty minutes, 
 and several of the women were moved to tears. 
 After this the congregation knelt in vocal prayer. 
 "When they rose, the preacher said that the next 
 meeting would be at the house of John Lapp, in 
 two weeks. He pronounced a benediction, end- 
 ing with the name of Jesus, and the whole con- 
 gregation, brethren and sisters, curtsied, or 
 made a reverence, as the French express it. 
 This was doubtless in allusion to the text, " At 
 that name every knee shall bend." Finally, a 
 hymn, or a portion of one, was sung, drawn out 
 in a peculiar manner by dwelling on the words.
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 67 
 
 I obtained a hymn-book, and copied a portion. 
 It seems obscure : 
 
 " Dcr Schopfer auch der Vater heisst, 
 
 Durch Christum, seinen Sohne; 
 Da wirket mit der Heilig Geist, 
 
 Einiger Gott drey Namen, 
 Yon welchem kommt ein Gotteskind 
 Gewaschen ganz rein von der Sund, 
 
 Wird geistlich gespeisst und trancket, 
 Mit Christi Blut, sein Willen thut 
 Irdisch verschmacht aus ganzen Muthe, 
 
 Der Vater sich ihm schenket." 
 
 The book from which I copied these lines was 
 in large German print, and bore the date 1785. 
 In front was this inscription, in the German tongue 
 and handwriting: "This song-book belongs to 
 
 me, Joseph B . Written in the year of 
 
 Christ 1791 ; and I received it from my father." 
 Both father and son have been gathered to their 
 fathers ; the book, if I mistake not, was in the 
 house of the grandson, and it may yet outlast 
 several generations of these primitive people. 
 
 The services closed at a little after noon. From 
 their having been conducted entirely in German, 
 or in German and the dialect, some persons might 
 suppose that these were recent immigrants to our 
 country. But the B. family just alluded to was 
 one of the first Amish families that came here, 
 having arrived in 1737. 
 
 It seems that the language is cherished with 
 care, as a means of preserving their religious and
 
 63 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 other peculiarities. The public schools, how- 
 ever, which are almost entirely English, must 
 be a powerful means of assimilation. 
 
 The services being ended, the women quietly 
 busied themselves, while I wrote, in preparing 
 dinner. In a very short time two tables were 
 spread in the apartment where the meeting had 
 been held. Two tables, I have said, and there 
 was one for the men to sit at, but on the women's 
 side the table was formed of benches placed to- 
 gether, and, of course, was quite low. I should 
 have supposed that this was a casual occurrence, 
 had not an acquaintance told me that many years 
 ago, when she attended an Amish meeting, she 
 sat up to two benches. 
 
 Before eating there was a silent pause, during 
 which those men who had not yet a place at the 
 table stood uncovered reverentially, holding their 
 hats before their faces. In about fifteen minutes 
 the " first table" had finished eating, and another 
 silent pause was observed in the same manner 
 before they rose. 
 
 I was invited to the second table, where I 
 found beautiful white bread, butter, pies, pickles, 
 apple-butter, and refined molasses. I observed 
 that there were no spoons in the molasses and 
 apple-butter. A cup of coffee also was handed 
 to each person who wished it. We were not 
 invited to take more than one. 
 
 This meal marks the progress of wealth and
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 69 
 
 luxury, or the decline of asceticism, since the day 
 when bean soup was the principal if not the only 
 dish furnished on these occasions. The same 
 neighbor who told me of sitting up to two 
 benches many years ago, told me that at that 
 time they were served with bean soup in bright 
 dishes, doubtless of pewter or tin. Three or four 
 persons ate out of one dish. It was very unhandy, 
 she said. 
 
 But while thus sketching the manners of my 
 simple, plain neighbors, let me not forget to ac- 
 knowledge that ready hospitality which thus pro- 
 vides a comfortable meal even to strangers visiting 
 the meeting. Besides myself, there were at least 
 two others present who were not members, two 
 German Catholic women of the poorer class, such 
 as hire out to work. 
 
 The silent pause before and after eating was 
 also observed by the second table ; and after we 
 rose, a third company sat down. 
 
 When all were done, I gave a little assistance 
 in clearing the tables, in carrying the butter into 
 the cellar and the other food to the wash-house. 
 The dishes were taken to the roofed porch be- 
 tween the latter and the house, where some of 
 ithe women-folk washed them. A neat table 
 stood at the foot of the cellar-stairs, and received 
 the valued product of the dairy, the fragments 
 being put away in an orderly manner. 
 
 I now had a time of leisure, for my driver had 
 7
 
 70 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 gone to see a friend, and I must await his com- 
 ing. This gave me an opportunity to talk 
 with several sisters. I inquired of a fine-look- 
 ing woman when the feet-washing would be 
 held, and when they took the Lord's Supper. 
 When I asked whether they liked those who 
 were not members to attend the feet-washing, 
 I understood her to say that they did not. (I 
 attended, not a great while after, a great Whit- 
 suntide feet-washing and Bread-breaking in the 
 meeting-house of the New Mennists.) 
 
 I had now an opportunity to examine the 
 books. Standing upon a bench, I took down a 
 great volume, well printed in the German lan- 
 guage, and entitled " The Bloody Theatre ; or, 
 The Martyr's Mirror of the Baptists, or Defence- 
 less Christians ; who, on Account of the Testi- 
 mony of Jesus, their Saviour, Suffered and were 
 Put to Death, from the Time of Christ to the Year 
 1660. Lancaster, 1814." This book was a version 
 from the v Dutch (Hollandisch) of Thielem J. van 
 Bracht, and it has also been rendered from 
 German into English. I was not aware, at the 
 time, that I had before me one of the principal 
 sources whence the history of the Mennonites is 
 to be drawn, a history which is still unwritten. 
 
 The books were few in number, and I noticed 
 no other so remarkable as this. Another German 
 one, more modern in appearance, was entitled 
 "Universal Cattle-Doctor Book ; or, The Cures
 
 AN AMISH MEETING. 71 
 
 of the old Shepherd Thomas, of Bunzen, in Si- 
 lesia, for Horses, Cattle,. Sheep, Swine, and 
 Goats." 
 
 "While I was looking over the volumes, a little 
 circumstance occurred, which, although not flat- 
 tering to myself, is perhaps too characteristic to 
 be omitted. My " Dutch" neighbors are not 
 great readers, and to read German is considered 
 an accomplishment even among those who speak 
 the dialect. To speak " Dutch" is very common, 
 of course, but to read German is a considerable 
 attainment. I have, therefore, sometimes sur- 
 prised a neighbor by being able to read the lan- 
 guage. I am naturally not unwilling to be 
 admired, and, as two or three sisters were stand- 
 ing near while I examined the books, I endeav- 
 ored in haste to give them a specimen of my 
 attainments. I therefore took a passage quickly 
 from the great " Martyr-Book," and read aloud 
 a sentence like this : " Grace, peace, and joy 
 through God our Heavenly Father; wisdom, 
 righteousness, and truth, through Jesus Christ 
 his Son, together with the illumining of the 
 Holy Spirit, be with you." Glancing up to see 
 the surprise which my attainments must produce, 
 I beheld a different expression of countenance, 
 for the attention of some of the thoughtful sisters 
 was attracted by the subject-matter, instead of the 
 reader, and that aroused a sentiment of devotion 
 beautifully expressed.
 
 72 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 I asked our host, " Have you no history of 
 your society ?" 
 
 " No," he answered ; " we just hand it down." 
 
 I have since heard, however, that there are 
 papers or written records in charge of a person 
 who lives at some distance from me. From cer- 
 tain printed records I have been able to trace a 
 streamlet of history from its source in Switzer- 
 land, where the Anabaptists suffered persecution 
 in Berne, Zurich, etc. I have read of their exile 
 in Alsace and the Palatinate ; of the aid afforded 
 to them by their fellow-believers, the Mennonites 
 of Holland; and of their final colonization in Penn- 
 sylvania, where they also are called Mennists. 
 
 Nearly all the congregation had departed when 
 my driver at last arrived. I shook hands with 
 those that were left, and kissed the pleasant old 
 lady, the mother of our host.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 
 
 THE plain people among whom I live, Quaker- 
 like in appearance, and, like the Quakers, opposed 
 to oaths and to war,* are in a great measure 
 descendants of Swiss Baptists or Anabaptists, 
 who were banished from their country for re- 
 fusing to conform to the established Keformed 
 Church. 
 
 Some of the early exiles took refuge in Alsace 
 and the Palatinate, and afterwards came to Penn- 
 sylvania, settling in Lancaster County, under the 
 kind patronage of our distinguished first Pro- 
 prietor. William Penn's sympathy for them was 
 doubtless increased by their so much resembling 
 himself in many important particulars. 
 
 If any one inclines to investigate the tradi- 
 
 * Our German Baptists are more non-resistant than tho 
 Quakers. Some of them refuse to vote for civil officers. 
 
 The term Anabaptist is from the Greek, and signifies one 
 who baptizes again. All Baptists baptize anew those who were 
 baptized in infancy. The term Anabaptist, in the present 
 essay, is used indiscriminately with Baptist, and, in a degree, 
 with Mennonite. 
 
 7* (73)
 
 74 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 tions of these people, let him ask the plain old 
 men of the county whence they originated. I 
 think that a great part of the Amish and other 
 Mennonites will tell him of their Swiss origin. 
 
 Nor are very important written records want- 
 ing upon the subject of the Swiss persecutions. 
 Two volumes in use among our German Bap- 
 tists narrate the story. 
 
 The first is the great Martyr-book, called " The 
 Bloody Theatre ; or Martyr's Mirror of the De- 
 fenceless Christians," by Thielem J. van Bracht, 
 published in Dutch, about the year 1660, trans- 
 lated into German, and afterwards into English.* 
 
 The second printed record, circulating in our 
 county, and describing the sufferings of some of 
 the Swiss Anabaptists, is a hymn-book formerly 
 in use among our " old Mennists," but now, I 
 think, ^employed only by the Amish. 
 
 It is a collection of " several beautiful Chris- 
 tian songs," composed in prison at Bassau,f in 
 the castle, by the Switzer Brethren, " and by 
 other orthodox (rechtglaubige) Christians, here 
 and there." 
 
 I know of no English version. 
 
 Near the close of this hymn-book there is an 
 account of the afflictions which were endured by 
 
 * The English version is one of the labors of Daniel Kupp. 
 f Bassuu is, I suppose, upon the Danube, in Bavaria. Is it 
 not written Passau in the Martyr-book ?
 
 SWISS EXILES. 75 
 
 the brethren in Switzerland, in the canton of 
 Zurich, on account of the gospel (" um des 
 Evangeliums willen"). 
 
 The first-mentioned work, the great Martyr- 
 book, is a ponderous volume. 
 
 The author begins his martyrology with Jesus, 
 John, and Stephen, whom he includes among the 
 Baptist or the defenceless martyrs. I suppose 
 that he includes them among the Baptists on 
 the ground that they were not baptized in in- 
 fancy, but upon faith. From these, the great 
 story comes down in one thousand octavo pages, 
 describing the intense cruelties of the Roman 
 emperors, telling of persecutions by the Sara- 
 cens, persecutions of the Waldenses and Albi- 
 genses, and describing especially the sufferings 
 which the Baptists (in common with other Prot- 
 estants) endured in Holland under the reigns of 
 Charles V. and Philip II.* 
 
 The narrative of the persecution of the Ana- 
 baptists of Switzerland by their fellow-Protest- 
 ants is mostly found at the close of the volume. 
 It comes down to the year 1672, and may be, in 
 part at least, an appendix to the original volume. 
 
 Allusions to the severe treatment of the Ana- 
 
 * Of the heretics executed hy Alva in the Spanish Nether- 
 lands, a large proportion were Anabaptists. Encyclopaedia, 
 Americana.
 
 76 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 baptists of Switzerland may also be found in 
 Herzog's and in Appleton's Cyclopaedia. 
 
 In the former work, we read that Anabaptism, 
 after a public theological disputation, was by the 
 help of the authorities suppressed in Switzerland.* 
 
 In the American Cyclopaedia (article Anabap- 
 tists), we read that Melanchthon and Zwingli 
 were themselves troubled by questions respect- 
 ing infant baptism, in connection with the per- 
 sonal faith required by Protestantism. Neverthe- 
 less, Zwingli himself is said to have pronounced 
 sentence upon Mentz, who had been his friend 
 and fellow-student, in these words : " Whosoever 
 dips (or baptizes) a second time, let him be 
 dipped." " Qui iterum mergit, mergatur." This 
 humorous saying appears to be explained in the 
 Martyr-book, where we read that Felix Mentz 
 was drowned at Zurich "for the truth of the 
 gospel," in 1526. The persecution of such men 
 is said to have shocked the moderate of all 
 parties. 
 
 Upon the authority of Balthazar Hubmor 
 (whom I suppose to be the Hubmeyer of the 
 Cyclopaedia), the Martyr-book states that Zuin- 
 
 * How thoroughly it was suppressed may be inferred from 
 the fact that of the population of Berne, in 1850, only one 
 thousand persons are put down as Baptists in a population of 
 458,000. Of the remainder, 54,000 are Catholics, and the re- 
 mainder of the Reformed Church (I give round numbers). 
 See the American Cyclopaedia.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 77 
 
 glius, etc., imprisoned at one time twenty persons 
 of both sexes, in a dark tower, never more to 
 see the light of the sun. 
 
 This earliest Swiss Protestant persecution oc- 
 curred, it will be observed, about 1526, and the 
 latest recorded in the Martyr-book, in or about 
 1672, covering a period of nearly one hundred 
 and fifty years.* 
 
 At the same time that the Swiss Baptists were 
 suffering at the hands of other Protestants, Ana- 
 baptists of the peaceful class were found in Hol- 
 land in large numbers. The record of their 
 sufferings and martyrs (says the American Cyclo- 
 paedia) furnishes a touching picture in human 
 history. William of Orange, founder of the 
 Dutch republic, was sustained in the gloomiest 
 hours by their sympathy and aid.f That great 
 prince, however importuned, steadily refused to 
 persecute them. 
 
 Simon Menno, born at the close of the fifteenth 
 or the commencement of the sixteenth century, 
 educated for the priesthood of the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church, converted in manhood to the faith 
 of the Anabaptists, became their chief leader. 
 
 * Zschokke, in his History of Switzerland, accuses the Ana- 
 baptists of causing great trouble and scandal. Some account 
 of the furious or warlike Anabaptists of Holland may be 
 found in the American Cyclopedia. 
 
 f This must not be understood as aid in bearing arms.
 
 78 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Mennonites and Anabaptists have from his time 
 been interchangeable terms.* 
 
 It was about seventeen years after the drown- 
 ing of Mentz in Switzerland, and while the 
 Catholic persecution was raging in Holland, that 
 in the year 1543 an imperial edict was issued 
 
 * One of Merino's brothers is said to have been connected 
 with the Anabaptists of Mxinster, those who took up arms, 
 etc. Of these, whose course was so very different from the 
 lives of our defenceless Baptists in this country, Menno may 
 have obtained some, after their defeat, to come under the 
 peaceable rule. There are in the Netherlands, says a recent 
 authority, 40,000 Mennonites. They are a true, pure Nether- 
 landish appearance, which is older than the Reformation, and 
 therefore must not be identified with the Protestantism of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 Menno Simon does not mert to be called the father of the 
 Netherlandish Mennonites, but rather the first shepherd of 
 the scattered sheep, the founder of their church community. 
 
 The ground-thought from which Menno proceeded was not, 
 as with Luther, justification by faith, or, as with the Swiss Re- 
 formers, the absolute dependence of the sinner upon God, in 
 the work of salvation. The holy Christian life, in opposition 
 to worldliness, was the point whence Menno proceeded, and 
 to which he always returned. In the Romish Church we see 
 ruling the spirit of Peter; in the Reformed Evangelical, the 
 spirit of Paul ; in Menno we see arise again, James the Just, 
 the brother of the Lord. 
 
 See articles Menno and the Mennonites, and Holland, in 
 HerzogVReal-Encyclopadie," Stuttgart and Hamburg, 1858. 
 . Many of the Mennonites of Holland at the present day 
 seem to have wandered far from the teachings of Menno, 
 and to be very different from the simple Mennonite commu- 
 nities of Pennsylvania.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 79 
 
 against Menno ; for both parties persecuted the 
 Baptists, the Catholics in the Low Countries, 
 the Protestants in Switzerland. The Martyr-book 
 tells us that a dreadful decree was proclaimed 
 through all West Friesland, containing an offer 
 of general pardon, the favor of the emperor, and 
 a hundred carlgulden to all malefactors and mur- 
 derers who would deliver Menno Simon into the 
 hands of the executioners. Under pain of death, 
 it was forbidden to harbor him; but God pre- 
 served and protected him wonderfully, and he 
 died a natural death, near Lubeck, in the open 
 field, in 1559, aged sixty-six. 
 
 It is further mentioned that he was buried in 
 his own garden.* 
 
 About fourteen years after the death of Menno, 
 or in the year 1573, we read in the Martyr-book 
 that Dordrecht had submitted to the reigning 
 prince, William of Orange, the first not to shed 
 blood on account of faith or belief. 
 
 But the toleration which William extended to 
 the Baptists was not imitated by his great com- 
 peer, Elizabeth of England. For the Martyr- 
 book tells us that in 1575, " some friends," who 
 
 * The burying of Menno in his own garden can be ex- 
 plained by the great secrecy which in times of persecution 
 attended the actions of the persecuted sects. The family 
 graveyards of Lancaster County, located upon farms, may bo 
 in some degree traditional from times of persecution, when 
 Baptists had no churches, etc., but met in secret.
 
 80 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 had fled to England, having met in the suburbs 
 of London " to hear the word of God," were 
 spied out, and the constable took them to prison. 
 Two of these were burnt at Smithfield, in the 
 eighteenth year of Elizabeth. Jan Pieters was 
 one of them, a poor man whose first wife had been 
 burnt at Ghent. He then married a second, whose 
 first husband had been burnt at the same place. 
 
 Thus it befell the unfortunate Jan that while 
 his wife was burnt by Catholics, he himself suf- 
 fered at the hands of English Protestants.* 
 
 The expression " sheep" or " lambs," which is 
 applied to some of the Baptist martyrs, alludes, 
 I suppose, to their non-resistance. Thus, in 
 1576, Hans Bret, a servant, whose master was 
 about to be apprehended, gave him warning, so 
 that he escaped, but himself, "this innocent 
 follower of Christ, fell into the paws of the 
 wolves.", . . . . "As he stood at the stake, 
 they kindled the fire, and burnt this sheep alive." 
 
 The next year after this, William of Orange 
 had occasion to call to order, as it appears, some 
 of his own subjects. The magistrates of Mid- 
 delburg had announced to the Baptists that 
 they must take au oath of fidelity and arm 
 themselves, or else give up their business and 
 shut up their houses. 
 
 * To the writer it is a question of some interest how far 
 George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was acquainted with 
 the lives, sufferings, and writings of the Anabaptists.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 81 
 
 The Baptists had recourse to "William, prom- 
 ising to pay levies and taxes, and desiring to be 
 believed on their yea and nay. William granted 
 their request, their yea was to be taken in the 
 place of an oath, and the delinquent was to be 
 punished as for perjury. 
 
 In William Penn's Treatise on Oaths, it is 
 stated that William of Orange said, " Those 
 men's yea must pass for an oath, and we must 
 not urge this thing any further, or we must con- 
 fess that the Papists had reason to force us to a 
 religion that was against our conscience." 
 
 About nine years after William had thus 
 reproved the magistrates of Middelburg, or in 
 the year 1586, the Baptists came to grief else- 
 where. It is stated that those called Anabap- 
 tists, who had taken refuge in the Prussian 
 dominions, were ordered by " the prince of the 
 country" to depart from his entire Duchy of 
 Prussia, and in the next year from all his domin- 
 ions. -This was because they were said to speak 
 scandalously of infant baptism. 
 
 About the close of the century, pleasanter 
 times for the Baptists seem to have followed. 
 " When the north wind of persecution became 
 violent, there were intervals when the pleasant 
 south wind of liberty and repose succeeded." 
 
 " But now occurred the greatest mischief in 
 Zurich and Berne, by those who styled them- 
 selved Reformed;" but others of the same name, 
 
 8
 
 82 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 " especially the excellent regents of the United 
 Netherlands," opposed such proceedings. 
 
 The Martyr-book says, in substance, "It is 
 a lamentable case that those who boast that they 
 are the followers of the defenceless Lamb, do no 
 longer possess the lamb's disposition, but, on the 
 contrary, have the nature of the wolf. It seems 
 as if they could not bear it that any should travel 
 towards heaven in any other way than that which 
 they go themselves, as was exemplified in the 
 case of Hans Landis, who was a minister and 
 teacher of the gospel of Christ. Being taken to 
 Zurich, he refused to desist from preaching and 
 to deny his faith, and was sentenced to death, 
 the edict of eighty years before not having died 
 of old age. They, however, persuaded the com- 
 mon people that he was not put to death for 
 religion's, sake, but for disobedience to the 
 authorities."* 
 
 After the death of Hans Landis, persecution 
 
 * Hans (or John) Landis is the name of the sufferer just 
 spoken of. Several Landises are mentioned in the Martyr 
 ologies, and the name is very common in Lancaster County 
 at this time. John Landis is remarkably so. 
 
 In quoting from the Martyr-book, I employ the English 
 version, " Martyr's Mirror." I have lately had an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing an old German copy, from the press of the 
 Brotherhood at Ephrata, about 1750. I find that it is differ- 
 ently arranged from the modern English version, and suspect 
 other variations.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 83 
 
 rested for twenty-one years, when the ancient 
 hatred broke out afresh in Zurich. 
 
 The Baptists now asked permission to leave 
 the country with their property, but this was 
 not granted to them. " They might choose," 
 says the Martyrology, "to go with them [the 
 Reformed] to church, or to die in prison. To 
 the first they would not consent ; therefore they 
 might expect the second." 
 
 This brings us to the era of the persecution 
 described in the Hymn-book of which I for- 
 merly spoke, the book now in use among the 
 Amish of our county. 
 
 This little volume little when compared to 
 the ponderous Martyr-book gives an account 
 of the persecution in Zurich between the years 
 1635 and 1645. Many of the persons mentioned 
 in the Hymn-book as suffering at this time ap- 
 pear to be of families now found in Lancaster 
 County, not only from the Hymn-book's being 
 preserved here, but especially because the sur- 
 names are the same as are now found here, or 
 are slightly different. Thus, we haveLandis, Mey- 
 lin, Strickler, Bachmann, and Gut, now Good; 
 Miiller, now Miller; Baumann, now Bowman. 
 
 Mention is made of about eighteen persons 
 who died in prison during this persecution, in 
 tlie period of nine or ten years. Proclamation 
 was made from the pulpits forbidding the people 
 to afford shelter to the Baptists : even their own
 
 84 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 children who harbored them were liable to be 
 fined, as Hans Miiller's wife and children, who 
 were fined forty pounds because "they showed 
 mercy to their dear father." 
 
 The Hymn-book states that the Gelehrte (the 
 learned?) accompanied the captors, running day 
 and night with their servants. Many fell into 
 the power of the authorities, man and woman, 
 the pregnant, the nursing mother, the sick. 
 
 In the midst of this persecution, the authori- 
 ties of Amsterdam, themselves Calvinists or 
 Reformed, being moved by the solicitations of 
 the Baptists of Amsterdam, sent a respectful 
 petition to the burgomaster and council of 
 Zurich, to mitigate the persecution ; but the 
 petition, it is said, excited an unfriendly and 
 irritating answer. 
 
 It seems that some of the Baptists, harassed 
 in Zurich, took refuge in Berne ; and about the 
 time that the persecution in Zurich came to a 
 close, or about 1645, it is stated that " those of 
 Berne" threatened the Baptists. About four 
 years after, " those of Schaffhausen" issued an 
 edict against the people called Anabaptists.* 
 
 Only a few years later, or in 1653, as we read 
 in the Martyr-book, there was another perse- 
 
 * Prom Schaffhausen came some of the Stauffer family, as 
 I have read. The Stauffers are numerous in our county. For 
 some family traditions, seo " The Danker Love-Feast."
 
 SWISS EXILES. 85 
 
 cution elsewhere. The record says, in sub- 
 stance, "As a lamb in making its escape from 
 the wolf is eventually seized by the bear" (we 
 like the quaint language), "so it obtained for 
 several defenceless followers of the meek Jesus, 
 who, persecuted in Switzerland by the Zwing- 
 lians, were permitted to live awhile in peace in 
 the Alpine districts, under a Roman Catholic 
 prince, Willem Wolfgang. About this year, 
 however, this prince banished the Anabaptists, 
 so called. But they were received in peace and 
 with joy elsewhere, particularly in Cleves,* 
 under the Elector of Brandenburg, and in the 
 Netherlands. ' When they persecute you in 
 one city/ saith the Lord, * flee ye into another.' " 
 
 About six years after, or in 1659, an edict 
 was issued in Berne, of which extracts are given 
 in the Martyr-book. If the edict in full brings 
 no more serious charges against the Baptists 
 than do these extracts, this paper itself may be 
 regarded as a noble vindication of the Anabap- 
 tists of Switzerland at this era. 
 
 According to the substance of this Bernese 
 edict, the teachers of this people i.e. the preach- 
 
 * In the duchy of Cleves, the town of Crefeld, some fifty 
 or sixty years later, gave refuge to the Bunkers. It appears 
 also to have harbored some of the French Protestants who 
 fled from their country on the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes. See "Ephrata." 
 
 8*
 
 86 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 ers were to be seized wherever they could be 
 sought out, " and brought to our Orphan Asylum 
 to receive the treatment necessary to their con- 
 version ; or, if they persist in their obstinacy, they 
 are to receive the punishment in such cases be- 
 longing. Meantime the officers are to seize 
 their property, and present an inventory of the 
 same. 
 
 " To the Baptists in general, who refuse to de- 
 sist from their error, the punishment of exile 
 shall be announced. It is our will and com- 
 mand that they be escorted to the borders, a 
 solemn promise obtained from them, since they 
 will not swear, and that they be banished en- 
 tirely from our country till it be proved that 
 they have been converted. Returning uncon- 
 verted, and refusing to recant, they shall be 
 whipped, branded, and again banished, which 
 condign punishment is founded upon the follow- 
 ing reasons and motives : 
 
 " 1. All subjects should confirm with an oath 
 the allegiance which they owe to the authorities 
 ordained them of God. The Anabaptists, who 
 refuse the oath, cannot be tolerated. 
 
 " 2. Subjects should acknowledge that the ma- 
 gistracy is from God, and with God. But the 
 Anabaptists, who declare that the magisterial 
 office cannot exist in the Christian Church, are 
 not to be tolerated in the country. 
 
 "3. All subjects are bound to protect and de-
 
 SWISS EXILES. 87 
 
 fend their country. But the Anabaptists refuse 
 to bear arms, and cannot be tolerated. . . . 
 
 "o. The magistracy is ordained of God, to 
 punish evil-doers, especially murderers, etc. 
 But the Anabaptists refuse to report these to 
 the authorities, and therefore they cannot be 
 tolerated. 
 
 " 6. Those who refuse to submit to the whole- 
 some ordinances of the government, and who 
 act in opposition to it, cannot be tolerated. Now, 
 the Anabaptists transgress in the following 
 manner : 
 
 " They preach without the calling of the magis- 
 tracy; baptize without the command of the 
 authorities ; . . . . and do not attend the 
 meetings of the church. 
 
 "We have unanimously resolved that all should 
 inflict banishment and the other penalties against 
 all who belong to this corrupted and extremely 
 dangerous and wicked sect, that they may make 
 no further progress, but that the country may 
 be freed from them ; on which, in grace, we rely. 
 
 " As regards the estate of the disobedient exiles, 
 or of those who have run away, it shall, after de- 
 ducting costs, be divided among the wives and 
 children who remain in obedience. 
 
 ""We command that no person shall lodge nor 
 give dwelling to a Baptist, whether related to 
 him or not, nor afford him the necessaries of 
 life. But every one of our persuasion should be
 
 88 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 exhorted to report whatever information he can 
 obtain of them to the high bailiff. 
 
 "And an especial proclamation of this last 
 article shall be made from the pulpit." 
 
 This Bernese edict, being read in all parts, was 
 a source of great distress, and it appeared to the 
 Baptists as if " the beautiful flower of the ortho- 
 dox Christian Church" would be entirely extir- 
 pated in those parts. 
 
 It was therefore concluded to send certain per- 
 sons from the cities of Dordrecht, Leyden, Am- 
 sterdam, etc., to the Hague, where the puissant 
 States-General were in session, to induce them to 
 send petitions to Berne and Zurich for the relief 
 of the people suffering oppression. 
 
 The States-General, as "kind fathers of the 
 poor, the miserable, and the oppressed," took 
 immediate cognizance of the matter. 
 
 Letters were written " to the lords of Berne" 
 for the liberation of prisoners, etc., and to the 
 lorda of Zurich for the restoration of the prop- 
 erty of the imprisoned, deceased, and exiled 
 Baptists. The letter to Berne narrates (in brief) 
 that " the States-General have learned from per- 
 sons called in this country Mennonists, that their 
 brethren called Anabaptists suffer great perse- 
 cution at Berne, being forbidden to live in the 
 country, but not allowed to remove with their 
 families And property. "We have likewise learned
 
 SWISS EXILES. 89 
 
 that some of them have been closely confined ; 
 which has moved us to Christian compassion. 
 
 " We request you, after the good example of 
 the lords-regent of Schaffhausen, to grant the 
 petitioners time to depart with their families and 
 property wherever they choose. To this end, 
 we request you to consider that when, in 1655, 
 the Waldenses were so virulently persecuted by 
 the Romans for the confession of their reformed 
 religion, and the necessities of the dispersed 
 people could not be relieved but by large collec- 
 tions raised in England, this country, etc., the 
 churches of the Baptists, upon the simple recom- 
 mendation of their governments, and in Chris- 
 tian love and compassion, contributed with so 
 much benevolence that a remarkably large sum 
 
 was raised Farewell, etc. At the 
 
 Hague, 1660." 
 
 The letter of the States-General to Zurich is 
 similar to the foregoing abstract. 
 
 Besides these acts of the States-General, several 
 cities of the United Netherlands, being entirely 
 opposed to restraint of conscience, reproved " the 
 members of their society in Switzerland," and 
 exhorted them to gentleness. 
 
 ThuSjtheburgomasters and lords of Rotterdam, 
 speaking in behalf of the elders of the church 
 called Mennoriist, whose fellow-believers in Berne 
 are called in derision Anabaptists: "As to our- 
 selves, honorable lords, we are of opinion that
 
 90 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH" 
 
 these men can be safely tolerated in the common- 
 wealth, and for this judgment we have to thank 
 William, Prince of Orange, of blessed memory, 
 who established, by his bravery, liberty of con- 
 science for us, and could never be induced to 
 deprive the Mennouites of citizenship. 
 
 " We have never repented of this, for we have 
 never learned that these people have sought to 
 excite sedition, but, on the contrary, they have 
 cheerfully paid their taxes. 
 
 " Although they confess that Christians cannot 
 conscientiously act as officers of government, and 
 are opposed to swearing, yet they do not refuse 
 obedience to the authorities, and, if they are con- 
 victed of a violation of truth, are willing to un- 
 dergo the punishment due to perjury. We indulge 
 the hope that your lordships will either repeal 
 the onerous decree against the Menuonists, or at 
 least grant to the poor wanderers sufficient time 
 to make their preparations, and procure resi- 
 dences in other places. 
 
 " When this is done, your lordships will have 
 accomplished a measure well pleasing to God, 
 advantageous to the name of the Reformed, and 
 gratifying to us who are connected with your 
 lordships in the close ties of religion. Rotter- 
 dam, 1660."* 
 
 * Abstracted from the passage or letter in the great Baptist 
 Martyr-book, the " Martyr's Mirror."
 
 SWISS EXILES. 91 
 
 These appeals of the States-General and of 
 the cities of Holland seem to have had very little 
 effect, at least upon the authorities of Berne, for 
 there arose eleven years later, or in 1671, another 
 severe persecution of the Baptists in that canton, 
 which was so virulent that it seemed as if the 
 authorities would not cease until they had ex- 
 pelled that people entirely. 
 
 In consequence of this, seven hundred persons, 
 old and young, were constrained to forsake their 
 property, relations, and country, and retire to 
 the Palatinate.* Some, it seems, took refuge in 
 Alsace, above Strasburg. 
 
 An extract from a letter given in the Martyr- 
 book says, "Some follow chopping wood, others 
 labor in the vineyards; hoping, I suppose, that 
 after some time tranquillity will be restored, and 
 they will be able to return to their habitations ; 
 but I am afraid that this will not happen soon. 
 The authorities of Berne had six of 
 the prisoners (one of whom was a man that had 
 nine children) put in chains and sold as galley- 
 slaves between Milan and Malta."f 
 
 * " Martyr's Mirror." 
 
 f This, it appears, is not the first instance of this punishment 
 being inflicted at Berne. A list in the Martyr-book of per- 
 sons put to death for their faith concludes thus: "Copied 
 from the letter of Hans Loersch, while in prison at Berne, 
 16G7, whence he was taken in chains to sea." 
 
 The dreadful fate of the galley-slave who was chained to 
 the oar or to the bench, exposed to the society of criminals,
 
 92 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 This severe penalty of being sold as slaves to 
 row the galleys or great sail-boats which trav- 
 ersed the Mediterranean, was also impending 
 over other able-bodied prisoners, as it is said, but 
 " a lord of Berne," named Beatus, was excited 
 to compassion, and obtained permission that the 
 prisoners should leave the country upon bail that 
 they would not return without permission. 
 
 In the year 1672, the brethren in the United 
 Netherlands (the Mennonites or Baptists) sent 
 some of their members into the Palatinate to 
 inquire into the condition of the refugees, and 
 the latter were comforted and supported by the 
 assistance of the churches and members of the 
 United Netherlands. 
 
 There were among the refugees husbands and 
 wives who had to abandon their consorts, who 
 belonged to the Reformed Church and could not 
 think of removal. 
 
 Among these were two ministers, whose fami- 
 lies did not belong to the church (Baptist), and 
 who had to leave without finding whether their 
 wives would go with them, or whether they loved 
 their property more than their husbands. " Such 
 incidents occasioned the greater distress, since 
 the authorities granted such persons remaining 
 permission to marry again."* 
 
 etc., may be found alluded to in works of fiction, such as 
 Zschokke's " Alamontade, or the Galley-Slave. " 
 *" Martyr's Mirror."
 
 SWISS EXILES. 93 
 
 Alsace and the Palatinate (lying upon the 
 Rhine), where our Swiss exiles had taken refuge, 
 were soon after devastated in the great wars of their 
 ambitious neighbor, Louis XIV., King of France. 
 Turenne, the French general, put the Palatinate, 
 a fine and fertile country, full of populous towns 
 and villages, to fire and sword. The Elector 
 Palatine, from the top of his castle at Manheim, 
 beheld two cities and twenty towns in flames.* 
 
 Turenne, with the same indifference, destroyed 
 the ovens, and laid waste part of the country of 
 Alsace, to prevent,the enemy from subsisting.! 
 
 About fourteen years after, or in the winter of 
 1688-9, the Palatinate was again ravaged by the 
 French king's army. The French generals gave 
 notice to the towns but lately repaired, and then 
 so flourishing, to the villages, etc., that their in- 
 habitants must quit their dwellings, although it 
 was then the dead of winter; for all was to be 
 destroyed by fire and sword. 
 
 " The flames with which Turenne had destroyed 
 two towns and twenty villages of the Palatinate 
 were but sparks in comparison to this last terrible 
 destruction, which all Europe looked upon with 
 horror."| 
 
 * Voltaire's " Age of Louis XIV." 
 
 f The troops of the Empire of Germany, or of Germany 
 and Spain combined. See " Age of Louis XIV." 
 J Ibid. 
 
 9
 
 94 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Between the time of these two great raids 
 there occurred several noteworthy incidents. 
 There came to Holland and Germany, in the 
 year 1677, a man who was then of little note, a 
 man of peace, belonging to a new and persecuted 
 sect, but who has since become better known in 
 history, at least to us who inhabit Pennsylvania, 
 than Marshal Turenne, or the great Louis XIV. 
 himself. It was the colonist and statesman, the 
 Quaker, William Penn. 
 
 The Elector Palatine now reigning was a rela- 
 tive of the King of England. Penn failed to 
 see this prince, but he addressed a letter to him, 
 to the " Prince Elector Palatine of Heydelbergh," 
 in which he desires to know " what encourage- 
 ment a colony of virtuous and industrious fami- 
 lies might hope to receive from thee, in case they 
 should transplant themselves into this country, 
 which certainly in itself is very excellent, respect- 
 ing taxes, oaths, arms, etc."* 
 
 I know not what encouragement, if any, the 
 Elector offered to Penn; but only about four 
 years later, Penn's great colony was founded 
 
 * Several towns and townships in southeastern Pennsylvania 
 bear record of the Palatinate, etc. In Lancaster County we 
 have Strasburg, doubtless named for that city in Alsace, and 
 two Manheims. Adjoining counties have Heidelbergs. The 
 Swiss Palatines do not seem to have preserved enough affection 
 for the land of their origin to bestow Swiss names upon our 
 Lancaster County towns. What wonder ?
 
 SWISS EXILES. 95 
 
 across the Atlantic, a colony which afforded 
 refuge to many "Palatines." 
 
 Of this journey to Germany and Holland, just 
 spoken of, Penn kept a journal, and there is 
 mention made at Amsterdam of Baptists and 
 " Menists," or Mennonites ; but whether he ever 
 met in Europe any of our Swiss exiles, I do not 
 find stated in history. Of his other two journeys 
 to Germany, no journal has been found. 
 
 Eight years after Penn's journey, there oc- 
 curred, in the year 1685, two circumstances which 
 may have especially interested our Swiss Bap- 
 tists and have operated to bring their colony to 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 "In June, 1685, the Elector Palatine dying 
 without issue, the electoral dignity went to a 
 bigoted Popish family. In October, the King of 
 France recalled the Edict of Nantes."* Five or 
 six hundred thousand Frenchmen are said to 
 have left their country at the time of this cruel 
 act, and the Palatinate doubtless received many 
 of the wanderers.f 
 
 The Swiss exiles that first took refuge in Lan- 
 caster County came here about thirty-eight years 
 after the severe Bernese persecution of 1671. 
 
 * The above I have fou nd credited to Bishop Burnet. 
 
 f If so, it does not appear to have furnished a safe resting- 
 place. Six thousand distressed Palatines, it is said, sought 
 refuge in England under the patronage of Queen Anne.
 
 96 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Rupp, the historian of our county, tells us 
 that in 1706 or 1707 a number of the persecuted 
 Swiss Mennonites went to England and made a 
 particular agreement with the honorable pro- 
 prietor, William Penn, for lauds. 
 
 He further says that several families from the 
 Palatinate, descendants of the distressed Swiss, 
 emigrated to America and settled in Lancaster 
 County in the year 1709.* 
 
 The next year, the commissioners of property 
 had agreed with Martin Kendig, Hans Herr, etc., 
 Swissers lately arrived in this province, for ten 
 thousand acres of land, twenty miles east of 
 Connystogoe.f 
 
 The supplies of the colonists were at first 
 scanty, until the seed sown in a fertile soil yielded 
 some thirty-, others forty-fold.;}; Their nearest 
 mill was at Wilmington, distant, as I estimate, 
 about thirty miles. 
 
 One of their number was soon sent to Europe 
 to bring out other emigrants, and after the ac- 
 cession the colony numbered about thirty fami- 
 
 * This was twenty-eight years after the founding of Penn's 
 colony. Several years earlier, or in 1701, some Mennonites 
 bought land in Germantown, and in 1708 built a church (or 
 meeting-house). For this information I am obliged to Dr. 
 Oswald Seidensticker. 
 
 f The above-mentioned " Connystogoe" it would probably 
 be very difficult to point out. The Conestoga Creek empties 
 into the Susquehanna below Lancaster. 
 
 J Eupp.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 97 
 
 lies. They mingled with the Indians in hunting 
 and fishing. These were hospitable and respect- 
 ful to the whites.* 
 
 We are told that the early colonists had strong 
 faith in the fruitfulness and natural advantages 
 of their choice of lands. " They knew these 
 would prove to them and their children the home 
 of plenty." Their anticipations have never failed.f 
 
 The harmony existing between the Indians 
 and these men of peace is very pleasing. Soon 
 after their first settlement here, Lieutenant- 
 Governor Gookin made a journey to Cones- 
 togo (1711), and in a speech to the Indians tells 
 them that Governor Penn intends to present five 
 belts of wampum to the Five Nations, " and one 
 to you of Conestogo, and requires your friend- 
 ship to the Palatines, settled near Pequea."J 
 
 * Hupp. 
 
 f The question has been discussed, why did the Germans 
 select the limestone lands, and the Scotch-Irish take those less 
 fruitful ? Different hints upon this subject may be found in 
 Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. Under the 
 head of Lancaster County, he says that a number of Scotch- 
 Irish, in consequence of the limestone land being liable to 
 frost and heavily wooded, seated themselves (1763) along the 
 northern line of the counties of Chester and Lancaster. 
 
 A gentleman of Marietta, in this county, has said to me 
 nearly as follows: "Ninety in one hundred of the regular 
 members of the Mennonite churches are farmers, and they 
 follow the limestone land as the needle follows the pole." 
 
 J The Pequea Creek (pronounced by the "Dutch" Peck'- 
 9*
 
 98 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 About seven years after this, William Perm 
 died in England, in the year 1718. 
 
 Whether the persecution of the Baptists con- 
 tinued in Switzerland, and had begun in the 
 Palatinate, I am not able to say, further than to 
 offer the following passage, taken from Herzog's 
 Cyclopaedia : 
 
 " When the Baptists were oppressed in Swit- 
 zerland and the Palatinate, the Mennonites united 
 into one community with the Palatines, at Gro- 
 ningen (Holland), and established in 1726 a fund 
 for the needy abroad, to which Baptists of all 
 parties richly contributed. About eighty years 
 after, this fund was discontinued, being no longer 
 thought necessary." 
 
 Thus active persecution of the Baptists in those 
 regions had ceased, as it seems, about the year 
 1800. 
 
 The German or Swiss colony in Lancaster 
 County is said to have caused some alarm, though 
 we can hardly believe it a real fear. Nine years 
 after the death of William Penn, representation 
 was made to Lieutenant-Governor Gordon (1727) 
 that " a large number of Germans, peculiar in 
 their dress, religion, and notions of political gov- 
 ernment, had settled on Pequea, and were de- 
 termined not to obey the lawful authority of 
 
 way) waters some of the finest land in the county, or the very 
 finest. " The Piquaws had their wigwams scattered along the 
 banks of the Pequea."
 
 SWISS EXILES. 99 
 
 government; that they had resolved to speak 
 their own language, and to acknowledge no sov- 
 ereign but the great Creator of the universe." 
 
 Rupp, from whom I quote the above passage, 
 adds, " There was perhaps never a people who 
 felt less disposed to disobey the lawful authority 
 of government than the Mennonites, against 
 whom these charges were made." 
 
 The charges were doubtless dropped, or an- 
 swered in a satisfactory manner; for two years 
 subsequently, or in 1729, a naturalization act was 
 passed concerning certain Germans who had 
 come into the province between the years 1700 
 and 1718. 
 
 Over one hundred persons are naturalized by 
 this act (Martin Meylin, Hans Graaf, etc.) ; and 
 a great part of the people of the county can find 
 their surnames mentioned therein.* 
 
 All the names, however, are not those of Bap- 
 tist families. 
 
 Nearly to the same date as this naturalization 
 
 * Not always as at present spelled. The present Kendig 
 appears as Kindeck, Breneman as Preniman, Baumgardner 
 as Bumgarner, Eby as Abye. These were probably English 
 efforts at spelling German names. Kupp says that ho was in- 
 debted to Abraham Meylin, of "West Lampeter Township, for 
 a copy of the act. There appear to have been among the 
 Palatines who came into our county some Huguenot families ; 
 but, from intermarrying with the Germans, and speaking the 
 dialect, they are considered " Dutch." The name of the 
 Bushong family is said to have once been Beauchamp.
 
 100 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 act belongs a letter written from Philadelphia, 
 in 1730, by the Rev. Jedediah Andrews. 
 
 Mr. Andrews says, in substance, " There are 
 in this province a vast number of Palatines; 
 those that have come of late years are mostly 
 Reformed. The first-comers, though called Pala- 
 tines, are mostly Switzers, many of whom are 
 wealthy, having got the best land in the prov- 
 ince. They live sixty or seventy miles oft', but 
 come frequently to town with their wagons laden 
 with skins belonging to the Indian traders, with 
 butter, flour, etc."* 
 
 Mr. Andrews, in his letter, while speaking of 
 the Switzers, continues : 
 
 " There are many Lutherans and some Re- 
 formed mixed among them. . . . Though 
 there be so many sorts of religion going on, we 
 don't quarrel about it. We not only live peace- 
 ably, but seem to love one another." 
 
 This harmony among the multitudinous sects 
 in Pennsylvania must have been the more re- 
 markable to Mr. Andrews, from his having been 
 born and educated in Massachusetts, where a very 
 different state of affairs had prevailed. 
 
 * This mention of the Switzers' wagons reminds me of the 
 great Conestoga wagons, which, before the construction of 
 railroads, conveyed the produce of the interior to Philadelphia. 
 With their long bodies roofed with white canvas, they went 
 along almost, I might say, like moving houses. They were 
 drawn by six powerful horses, at times furnished with trap- 
 pings and bells ; and the wagoner's trade was qno of importance.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 101 
 
 On this subject Rupp says, " The descendants 
 of the Puritans boast that their ancestors fled 
 from persecution, willing to encounter perils in 
 the wilderness, and perils by the heathen, rather 
 than be deprived of the free exercise of their 
 religion. 
 
 " The descendants of the Swiss Mennonites in 
 Lancaster County claim that while their ances- 
 tors sought for the same liberty, they did not 
 persecute others who differed from them in re- 
 ligious opinion."* 
 
 The letter of Mr. Andrews, lately quoted, bears 
 date 1730. Twelve years after, or in 1742, a re- 
 spectable number of the Amish (pronounced 
 Ommish) of Lancaster County petitioned the 
 General Assembly that a special law of naturali- 
 zation might be passed for their benefit. They 
 stated that they had emigrated from Europe by 
 an invitation from the proprietaries ; that they 
 had been brought up in and were attached to the 
 Amish doctrine, and were conscientiously scru- 
 pulous against taking oaths ; " they therefore can- 
 not be naturalized agreeably to the existing law." 
 An act was passed in conformity to their request. 
 
 * A test-oatb, or oath of abjuration, seems to have been in 
 force at one time in Pennsylvania, concerning the Roman 
 Catholics. (See Rupp's History of Berks and Lebanon.) 
 Must we not attribute this act to the Royal Home government 
 rather than to William Penn ?
 
 102 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 (I give this statement as I find it, although some- 
 what surprised if the laws of Pennsylvania did 
 not always allow those to affirm who were con- 
 scientiously opposed to oaths.) 
 
 The history of our Swiss Exiles is nearly fin- 
 ished. It is chiefly when a nation is in adversity 
 that its history is interesting to us. What is there 
 to tell of a well-to-do farming population, who 
 do not participate in battles, and who live almost 
 entirely secluded from public affairs ? 
 
 Under the date 1754, it is noted that Governor 
 Pownall, traveling in Lancaster County, says, 
 " I saw the finest farm one can possibly con- 
 ceive, in the highest culture; it belongs to a- 
 Switzer." Thus Gray's lines (slightly altered) 
 may be said to comprise most of the external 
 history of these people for a century and a 
 half: 
 
 Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 
 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke ; 
 
 How early did they drive their team a-field, 
 How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! 
 
 Some difficulty had arisen, however, between 
 the Germans of our county and the "Scotch- 
 Irish." Thus, Day, in his Historical Collections, 
 says, " The Presbyterians from the north of 
 Ireland came in at about the same time with 
 the Germans, and occupied the townships of 
 Donegal and Paxton." (Paxton, now Dauphin
 
 SWISS EXILES. 103 
 
 County.) " Collisions afterwards occurring be- 
 tween them and the Germans, concerning elec- 
 tions, bearing of arms, the treatment of the 
 Indians, etc., the proprietaries instructed their 
 agents in 1755 that the Germans should be en- 
 couraged, and in a manner directed to settle 
 along the southern boundary of the province, in 
 Lancaster and York Counties, while the Irish 
 were to be located nearer to the Kittatinny 
 Mountain, in the region now forming Dauphin 
 and Cumberland Counties.* 
 
 In the Revolutionary War, the German Men- 
 nonites did not early espouse the cause of inde- 
 pendence. Some of them doubtless felt bound by 
 their promise of loyalty to the established gov- 
 ernment, while others were perhaps influenced 
 by the motive lately attributed to them in the 
 correspondence of one of our county papers (" Ex- 
 aminer and Herald," Lancaster, October 27th, 
 1869). The writer tells us that Lancaster County 
 was settled principally by Mennonites, etc., who 
 are strict non-resistants. They were peculiarly 
 solicitous to manifest their loyalty to the powers 
 that be, because they had been accused by their 
 
 * It was not long after this date (in 1763) that the "Pax- 
 ton Boys" made a raid down to Lancaster and massacred 
 the remnant of Conestoga Indians, in the jail of that town. 
 
 Day says that there was policy in the order above given ; 
 that the Irish were warlike, and could defend the frontier.
 
 104 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 enemies of having been implicated in rebellion 
 during the unhappy events at Miinster, Germany, 
 in the years 1635-36. 
 
 When our Revolutionary struggle began, these 
 people were cautious in resisting the established 
 government. 
 
 During the late rebellion, although very few 
 of our German Baptists bore arms, yet some, I 
 think, were active in raising funds to pay bounties 
 to persons who did enlist. 
 
 It appears to the writer that there can scarcely 
 be a people in our country among whom the 
 ancient practices are more faithfully maintained 
 than among the Amish of Lancaster County.* 
 
 In the great falling off" from ancient principles 
 and practices which we read of among Holland 
 Mennonites (see Herzog's Cyclopaedia and the 
 Encyclopaedia Americana), it seems that there are 
 yet left in Europe others of the stricter rule. 
 
 In Friesland, Holland, where the Mennonites 
 are divided, as here, into three classes, there are 
 found, by comparison, most traces of the old 
 Mennonism. (See Herzog.) 
 
 * The Amish seem to have originated in Europe, about the 
 year 1700, when Jacob Amen, a Swiss preacher, set up, or 
 returned to, the more severe rule, distasteful to brethren in 
 Alsace, etc., and enforced the ban of excommunication upon 
 some or all of those who disagreed with him. 
 
 A small pamphlet upon this subject has been published at 
 Elkhart, Indiana, and is for sale at the office of the Herald of 
 Truth.
 
 SWISS EXILES. 105 
 
 And we have lately heard of Amish in France. 
 A letter from that country, published in the 
 Herald of Truth (Elkhart, Indiana, July, 1871) 
 alludes to the late European war. The writer 
 says, "The loss we here sustained is indescrib- 
 able. Many houses have been entirely shattered 
 to pieces by the cannon-balls, and others totally 
 destroyed by fire." He adds, " As you desire to 
 know what kind of Mennonites there are residing 
 here in France, I will briefly state that most of 
 them are Amish Mennonites." He signs him- 
 self Isaac Rich, Etupes, par Audincourt, Doubs, 
 France. This locality, as I understand, is not 
 far from Switzerland and Alsace. 
 
 The church history of our Mennonites has not 
 been entirely uneventful. 
 
 Rupp tells us that they were very numerous 
 about the year 1792, and that Martin Boehm and 
 others made inroads upon them. A considerable 
 number seceded and joined the United Brethren, 
 or Vereinigte Briider. 
 
 A society of Dunkers was formed near the 
 Susquehanna, many years ago, by Jacob Engle, 
 who had been a Mennonite. This society is 
 called " The River Brethren," and from it has 
 been formed the "Brinser Brethren," popularly 
 so called. 
 
 The Rev. John Herr is generally considered 
 the founder of a sect popularly called "New 
 Mennists." They call themselves, however, 
 10
 
 106 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 "Keformed Mennonites," and claim that they 
 have only returned to the ancient purity of 
 doctrine. 
 
 How far the " Albrechtsleut," or "Dutch 
 Methodists," the Evangelical Association, as 
 they call themselves, have made converts among 
 the Mennonites, I cannot tell. 
 
 Mr. Eupp, whose History of Lancaster County 
 is as yet the standard, speaks of the Mennonites 
 as the prevailing religious denomination in 1843, 
 having about forty-five ministers preaching in 
 German, and over thirty-five meeting-houses. 
 
 The Amish meet in private houses. 
 
 Although I have never heard that our Men- 
 nonites as a religious body passed any rules for- 
 bidding slaveholding, as did the Quakers, yet 
 they are in sentiment strongly anti-slavery, hav- 
 ing great faith in those who are willing to labor 
 with their own hands. 
 
 Of this strong anti-slavery sentiment I offer 
 convincing proof in the votes by which they 
 supported in Congress our late highly distin- 
 guished representative, Thaddeus Stevens.* 
 
 * Traditionary stories exist in our county concerning the 
 Swiss origin, etc., of certain families. I have heard one con- 
 cerning the Engles, and one of the Stauffers. One of the 
 Johns family has told me of their Swiss origin, and of their 
 name being formerly written Tschantz. 
 
 It is probable that other traditionary stories concerning 
 Swiss families could now be collected, if some one would exert 
 himself to do it before their custodians " fall asleep."
 
 SWISS EXILES. 107 
 
 But let those -who gather these stories beware of the " fine 
 writer," lest he add what he considers embellishments, and 
 make the narratives improbable. 
 
 The Stauffer traditions were mentioned to me by a venerable 
 member of the family, one who has kindly lent me his aid and 
 sympathy in some of my records of the " Pennsylvania Dutch. " 
 
 John Stauffer is now a great-grandfather, and he calculates 
 that it was, at the nearest, his own great-great-grandfather 
 who, with his mother and his three brothers, came to this 
 country, his ancestors being of Swiss origin. " The mother," 
 says my neighbor (in substance), " weighed three hundred, and 
 the sons made a wagon, all of wood, and drawed her to the 
 Khine. When they got to Philadelphia, they put their mother 
 into tie wagon and drawed her up here to Warwick township. 
 There they settled on a pretty spring ; that is what our people 
 like." 
 
 The reader of this little story may remember the "pious 
 -<Eneas," who "from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulders," 
 the old Anchises bore. 
 
 The tradition of the Engle family was narrated to me by 
 two of its members. 
 
 Mr. Henry M. Engle has felt some difficulty in reconciling 
 the tradition with the fact of the family's having been in this 
 country only about one hundred years, and with his idea that 
 the Swiss persecution must have ceased before that period. 
 
 But we have seen that some Baptist families tarried in the 
 Palatinate, etc. before coming here, and a circumstance like 
 the imprisonment of one of their women would be remem- 
 bered among them for a long time. 
 
 Tradition says that it was the grandmother's mother or 
 grandmother of Henry M. Engle and Jacob M. Engle who 
 was a prisoner in Switzerland for her faith. The turnkey's 
 wife is said to have sympathized with the prisoner, because she 
 knew that Annie had children at home. So she said to her, in 
 the Swiss dialect, "Annie, if I were you, I would go away 
 once." (" Annie, wann i die war, i det mohl geh." " Annie, 
 wenn ich dich ware, ich thut einmal gehen.")
 
 108 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 She therefore set Annie to washing clothes, and, turning her 
 back upon her, gave her opportunity to escape. 
 
 Annie's husband was not a Baptist ; nevertheless, he was 
 so friendly as to prepare a hiding-place for her, into which she 
 could go down, if the persecutors came, by means of a trap- 
 door ; and she was never taken prisoner again.
 
 THE DDNKEB LOVE-FEAST. 
 
 ON the morning of the 25th of September, 1871, 
 I took the cars of the Pennsylvania Central Rail- 
 road for the borough of Mount Joy, in the north- 
 west part of this county. Finding no public 
 conveyance thence to the village of C., I ob- 
 tained from my landlord a horse and buggy and 
 an obliging driver, who took me four or five miles, 
 for two dollars. We took a drive round by the 
 new Dunker meeting-house, which is a neat frame 
 building, brown, picked out with white win- 
 dow-frames. Behind it is a wood, upon which 
 the church-doors open, instead of upon the 
 highway. 
 
 We heard here that the meeting would not 
 begin till one o'clock on the next day. Some of 
 the brethren were at the church, however, with 
 their teams, having brought provisions, straw, 
 and bedding. We went into the neat meeting- 
 room, and above into the garret, where straw was 
 being laid down. A partition ran down the 
 middle, and upon the women's side a small room 
 10* (109)
 
 110 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 had also been divided from the rest, wherein 
 were one or two bedsteads and the inevitable 
 cradle. The basement had a hard earthen floor, 
 and was divided into dining-room, kitchen, and 
 cellar. Upon spacious shelves in the cellar a 
 brother and sister were placing the food. Many 
 large loaves of bread were there. The sister was 
 taking pies from a great basket, and bright coffee- 
 pots stood upon the kitchen-table. 
 
 All here seemed to speak " Dutch," but several 
 talked English with me. They seemed sur- 
 prised that I had come so far as twenty-three 
 miles in order to attend the meeting. One re- 
 marked that it was no member that had put the 
 notice of the meeting in the paper which I had 
 seen. Others, however, seemed interested, al- 
 though by my dress it was very plain that I was 
 quite an outsider. I found C. a neat place of 
 about a dozen houses, and we drove to the only 
 tavern. The landlady was young and pleasant, 
 but she could speak little English. She was 
 quite sociable, however, and thought that she 
 could teach me Dutch and I her English. By 
 means of some German on my part, we got along 
 tolerably together. She took me to a good cham- 
 ber, and began removing from it some of their 
 best clothing. Showing me two sun-bonnets, one 
 of them made of black silk, she said, " It is the 
 fashion." " The fashion ?" said I. "Yes; the 
 fashion for married women." This was, doubt-
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. HI 
 
 less, the Dunker influence even among those not 
 members. 
 
 Being at leisure in the afternoon, I walked to 
 an ancient Moravian church in the neighbor- 
 hood, with the landlady's little daughter, a 
 pretty child. 
 
 ' Her mother said, " Geh mit der aunty :" so 
 she went with her adopted relative. 
 
 " Do you speak English ?" I said to the little 
 one. 
 
 " Na !" she answered. 
 
 " Hast du ein Bruder ?" (Have you a brother ?) 
 I continued. 
 
 "Na!" she replied, in the dialect. 
 
 " Wie alt bist du ?" (How old are you ?) I said 
 afterward.* 
 
 " Vaze es net." (I don't know.) 
 
 Conversation flagged. 
 
 I found the church a small log building that 
 had been covered with boards. Many of the 
 tombstones were in the Moravian fashion, such 
 as I had seen at Litiz, small square slabs, lying 
 flat in the grass ; and some were numbered at the 
 top of the inscription. One of these is said to be 
 one hundred and twenty years old, and when it 
 was laid this was doubtless an Indian mission. 
 But the Herrnhiiter (as my landlady said) are all 
 
 * Our "Dutch" all of them, I believe use the singular 
 pronoun du, thou.
 
 112 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 gone, and another society holds meetings in the 
 lowly church. 
 
 Although my little guide of six years could 
 not speak English, she was not wanting in good 
 sense. As I was trying to secure the graveyard 
 gate, holding it with one hand, and stooping to 
 roll up the stone that served to keep it fast, the 
 little one, too, put out her hand, unbidden, to 
 hold the gate. I thought that there were some 
 English children that would not have been so 
 helpful, and reflected, as I walked along, upon 
 unspoken language, if I may use the expression. 
 
 The landlady had a plentiful supper after we 
 returned. I was the only guest, and, as is usual 
 here, the maid sat down with us. "We had fried 
 beef, sweet potatoes, pie, very nice apple-butter, 
 canned peaches, barley-cofiee, brown sugar, etc. 
 The charge for board was at the rate of one dol- 
 lar per day. 
 
 In the evening I heard my hostess up-stairs 
 preparing my bed, as I supposed. My surprise 
 was therefore considerable, on turning down the 
 woolen coverlet, to find no sheets upon the 
 feather bed. On lifting this light and downy 
 bed, which was neatly covered with white, I 
 found one sheet, a straw bed, and then a bed- 
 cord in the place of a sacking-bottom. I at once 
 perceived that the feather bed was a feather 
 cover, of which I had often heard, but had never 
 met with one before during my sojourn in
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 113 
 
 Pennsylvania " Dutchland." I should think that 
 this downy covering might be pleasant in cold 
 weather, but now I rolled it off upon the floor, 
 and, with the help of a spare comfortable, was 
 soon at rest. The pillow-cases, which were 
 trimmed with edging, were marked with black 
 silk, in a large running-hand, in this manner : 
 " Henry G. Kreider, 1864." 
 
 As I sat the next morning awhile with the 
 landlady in her basement kitchen, she remarked, 
 " Here is it as Dutch as Dutchlant." But she 
 said that my Dutch was not like theirs. The 
 neighborhood, however, is not nearly so German 
 as Germany. I was told by an intelligent young 
 man that half the grown men did not speak 
 English : I understand by this, not that they do 
 not speak our language at all, but not habitually 
 and with fluency. Many speak English very 
 well, but the " Dutch" accent is universal. For 
 several years the school-books in the township 
 have all been English. I laughed with the land- 
 lady, who herself seemed somewhat amused, at 
 the children having English books and speaking 
 Dutch, or, as she would say, " Die Kinner lerne 
 Englisch und schwetze Deitsch." However, at 
 the Dunker church, a pretty girl told me after- 
 ward that she had had no difficulty at school 
 the preceding winter, although " we always talk 
 German at home." 
 
 At breakfast this morning, among other dishes,
 
 114 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 we had raisin-pie. Not a great while after this 
 meal was over, the morning having proved wet, 
 a neighbor took me over to the church in his buggy 
 for twenty-five cents. Although the hour was so 
 early, and meeting was fixed to begin at one, I 
 found a considerable number here, which did not 
 surprise me, as I knew the early habits of our 
 " Dutch" people. Taking a seat, I began to read 
 a number of the Living Age, when a black-eyed 
 maid before me, in Duuker dress, handed me her 
 neatly-bound hymn-book, in English and Ger- 
 man. I told her that I could read German, and 
 when I read a verse in that language, she said, 
 "But you don't know what it means." Reading 
 German is with us a much rarer accomplishment 
 than speaking the dialect. 
 
 Ere long, a stranger came and sat down behind 
 me, and entered into conversation. He was a 
 preacher from a distance, named L., and spoke 
 very good English. "We soon found that we had 
 mutual acquaintances in another county, and 
 when dinner was ready he invited me down to 
 partake. 
 
 Here the men sat upon one side, and the women 
 on the other, of one of the long tables, upon which 
 was laid a strip of white muslin. "We had bowls 
 without spoons, into which was poured by attend- 
 ant brethren very hot coffee, containing milk 
 or cream, but no sugar. We had the fine Lan- 
 caster County bread, good and abundant butter,
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 115 
 
 apple-butter, pickles, and pies. The provisions 
 for these meals are contributed by the members 
 at a previous meeting, where each tells what he 
 intends to furnish, how many loaves of bread, etc., 
 while some prefer to give money.* Whatever 
 food is left over after the four meals are done is 
 given to the poor, without distinction of sect; 
 " whoever needs it most," as a sister said. 
 
 At this dinner, before eating, my new acquaint- 
 ance, L., gave out, by two lines at a time, the 
 verse, 
 
 " Eternal are thy mercies, Lord." 
 
 But few joined in the singing. They would 
 doubtless have preferred German. In that lan- 
 guage thanks were returned after eating. 
 
 When we went up into the meeting-room 
 again, a young man of an interesting counte- 
 nance, a preacher, named Z., asked me if I was 
 not the one who had written an article which had 
 lately appeared in one of our county papers. It 
 was very gratifying to be thus recognized among 
 strangers. 
 
 An elderly sister, who sat down by me and 
 began to talk, was named Murphy. The name 
 surprised me much, but it was not the only Irish 
 one here. It is probable that these persons were 
 
 * To furnish provisions would be natural to a people of 
 whom about seventy-five in a hundred are farmers, as among 
 the Dunkers.
 
 
 116 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 taken into Dunker families when young to be 
 brought up, and thus had been led to join a 
 church so different from the Roman Catholic. 
 
 Having observed that there was a good deal 
 of labor to be performed here in waiting upon 
 BO many people, I asked Mrs. Murphy whether 
 there were women hired. She told me, " There's 
 a couple of women that's hired; but the members 
 does a heap, too." 
 
 On another occasion, I made a remark to a 
 friendly sister about the brethren's waiting upon 
 the table, as they did. She answ^fed that it was 
 according to the Testament to help each other ; 
 the women cooked, and the men waited upon 
 the table. She did not seem able to give the text. 
 It may be, " Bear ye one another's burdens." I 
 was amused that it should be so kindly applied 
 to the brethren's helping the sisters. 
 
 Before meeting began in the afternoon, a 
 lovely aged brother, with silvery hair and beard, 
 and wearing a woolen coat nearly white, showed 
 me how the seats were made, so that by turning 
 down the backs of some, tables could be formed 
 for the Love-Feast. He told me that the Dun- 
 kers number about one hundred thousand, that 
 they have increased much in the "West, but not 
 in the Eastern States. To which I rejoined, 
 smiling, " You Dutch folks do not like poor land, 
 like much of that at the East." 
 
 " This is not good laud," he said. " We have
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. H7 
 
 improved it;" for I had left the rich limestone 
 soil and had come to the gravelly land in the 
 northern part of the county. But as regards 
 Massachusetts, can it be that there is yet a trace 
 of the ancient antagonism of the Puritans to the 
 Baptists ? 
 
 When meeting began, as brethren came in, I 
 saw some of these bearded men kissing each 
 other. These holy kisses, as will be s^en here- 
 after, are frequent among the Dunk^rs, and, 
 as the men shave only the upper lip, it seems 
 strange to us who are unaccustomed to the sight 
 and the sound. The oft-repeated kissing was 
 to me, perhaps, the least agreeable part of the 
 ceremonial. 
 
 The afternoon meeting became very crowded, 
 and, as is usual among our "Dutch" people, a 
 number of babies were in attendance. During 
 the sessions their voices sometimes rose high, but 
 the noise did not seem to affect those who were 
 preaching or praying. They felt it perhaps like 
 the wailing and sighing of the wind, which they 
 regard not, and would rather bear the inconve- 
 nience of the children than to have the mothers 
 stay away from meeting. This afternoon, during 
 prayer, a little fellow behind me kept saying, 
 " Want to go to pappy ;" but if his father was 
 among the brethren, he was on the other side of 
 the house. 
 
 My new acquaintance, L., was the only preacher 
 11
 
 118 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 here who spoke in English. All the other exer- 
 cises, except a little singing, were in German or 
 in our Pennsylvania dialect. This afternoon L. 
 said, among many remarks more sectarian, or less 
 broad, " Faith is swallowed up in sight ; hope, in 
 possession ; but charity, or love, is eternal. It 
 came from God, for God is love." The allusion 
 here is to Paul's celebrated panegyric on charity ; 
 but how much more charming it is in the German 
 version, "Faith, hope, love; but the greatest of 
 these is love. Love suffereth long and is kind, 
 is not puffed up," etc. 
 
 About the middle of the afternoon I perceived 
 a speaker giving some directions, and I asked 
 the women near me what he had said. One 
 answered and said something about "Wahl 
 halten fur Prediger," by which I perceived that 
 the election for a preacher was now to take 
 place. Both brethren and sisters were to vote ; 
 not to select from a certain set of candidates, 
 however; but at random, among the congrega- 
 tion, or Family, as it is sometimes called ("for 
 all ye are brethren"). 
 
 In the room above-stairs were the bishop or 
 elder and an assistant to receive the votes. This 
 bishop we might call the father of this family, 
 which has four preachers and as many meeting- 
 houses. The bishop is always that preacher who 
 is oldest in the ministry. Meeting is held by 
 turns in the different houses, occurring only once
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 119 
 
 in six weeks in the large new house which we 
 then occupied. These particulars, which I gath- 
 ered in conversation, are, I believe, substantially 
 correct. 
 
 During the interval of the election I sat and 
 read, or looked out from my window at the young 
 people, the gayly-dressed girls mostly grouped 
 together. Some of these were, probably, rela- 
 tives of the members, while others may have come 
 for the ride and the fun, to see and to be seen, 
 meetings of this kind being great occasions in the 
 country-side. 
 
 The young men stood around on the outside of 
 these groups of girls, some holding their whips 
 and twirling them with the butts resting upon 
 the ground. Of course the young girls were not 
 conscious of the presence of the beaux. 
 
 On the front of the house, or rather the back, 
 for, as I have said, the main doors open upon 
 the wood instead of upon the roadside, were 
 more young girls, and plain sisters and brethren. 
 
 I asked a nice-looking woman about the elec- 
 tion, but she could not tell me, although she 
 wore the plain cap. " Most of the women do 
 around here," she said, and added that Dunker 
 women in meeting had offered to kiss her. 
 " You know they greet each other with a kiss." 
 
 After the brethren, the sisters were called up 
 to vote. I laughed, in talking with some of 
 the members, at the women's being allowed to
 
 120 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 vote, in contrast to the usual custom. Mrs. 
 Murphy reckoned it would be different if the 
 women should undertake to vote for Governor or 
 President. 
 
 I said to some of the sisters, " Who do you think 
 will be chosen ?" But they pleasantly informed 
 me that to talk upon this point was against their 
 rules, it was a matter for internal reflection. 
 
 After meeting was over next day, as the bishop 
 was talking with a sister, I ventured to ask him 
 whether a majority was necessary to elect a 
 preacher, or only a plurality. He seemed quite 
 willing to talk, displaying no clerical pride, and 
 ausw.ered, " A majority," adding, " Do you speak 
 German ?" I feared that I could not readily un- 
 derstand him on such a subject, and put the case 
 to him thus in English : " Suppose one man has 
 twenty votes, another fifteen, and another ten ?" 
 Then the bishop said that the one having twenty 
 would be elected ; whence it seems that a plurality 
 only is required. On this occasion the vote was 
 doubtless much divided, for I afterward heard 
 that the bishop had said to the congregation that 
 it seemed there were a good many there that 
 were thought fit for preachers. 
 
 As sunset approached, some of the members 
 began to form tables from the benches, for the 
 Love-Feast, which made me wonder when sup- 
 per was to be ready. I soon found, however, 
 that my ignorance of the language had pre-
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 121 
 
 vented my observing that while the " Family" 
 voted the rest of the congregation supped. I 
 was told, however, that if I would go down I 
 could still get something to eat. These meals 
 were free to every one that came. All were re- 
 ceived, in the hope that they would obtain some 
 spiritual good. 
 
 In the basement I found a number of men 
 sitting at the end of one of the tables, waiting 
 for food, and I also sat down near them. I was 
 invited, however, by a sister to step into the 
 kitchen, where I stood and partook of hot cof- 
 fee, bread and butter, etc. As we went along 
 through the dining-room, I thought that the 
 sister cast a reproachful glance at a disorderly 
 man seated at the table with his whip, and who 
 was, perhaps, intoxicated. I wondered that she 
 should have taken me from the table to stand 
 in the kitchen, till I remembered that that was 
 a men's table. 
 
 In the kitchen, brethren were busily occupied 
 cutting large loaves of bread into quarters for 
 the coming Love-Feast ; and when I returned to 
 the room above, active preparations were still 
 going on, which consumed much time. The im- 
 provised tables were neatly covered with white 
 cloths, and hanging lamps shed down light upon 
 the scene. Piles of tin pans were placed upon 
 the table, knives, forks, and spoons, and some- 
 times a bowl. The tables occupied nearly the 
 11*
 
 122 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 whole floor of the church, leaving but little 
 room for spectators. I was myself crowded 
 into a corner, where the stairs came up from 
 the basement and went up to the loft; but, 
 though flt times I was much pressed for room, 
 I had an excellent plfcce to observe, for I stood 
 at the end of the main table. Here stood, too, 
 a bright and social sister from a neighboring 
 congregation, who did not partake of the feast, 
 and was able and willing to explain the cere- 
 monial j[o" me, in English, Mrs. E., as I will call 
 her. 
 
 Near fey at the table, among the older sisters, 
 sat a pair who attracted a great deal of my 
 attention a young mother and her babe her- 
 self so quiet, and such a quiet babe! They 
 might have been photographed. Once or twice 
 the little six-weeks' child gave a feeble young 
 wail, and I saw the youthful mother modestly 
 give it that nourishment which nature provides. 
 
 The brethren came up carrying tubs of meat, 
 which smelt savory, for I was fasting from flesh 
 since the morning. Then came great vessels of 
 soup, one of them a very large tin wash-boiler. 
 The soup was taken out into the tin pans before 
 mentioned, and the plates of meat were set upon 
 the top, as if to keep both hot. And, now that 
 "at the long last" the Love-Feast tables were 
 spread, the fasting family was ready to begin, 
 not the supper, but the feet-washing ! This was
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 123 
 
 the more remarkable, because the Testament, 
 their rule of action, relates that, supper being 
 ended, Jesus washed the disciples' feet. 
 
 The bishop arose in his place at the table, 
 and, lamp in one hand and book in the other, 
 read in German the account of the feet-washing 
 in John's Gospel. 
 
 Four men who stood in front of him, watch- 
 ing his words, started when he said " legte seine 
 Kleider ab" (" laid aside his garments"), and, in 
 imitation of Jesus, took oft' their coats ; and, as 
 the Scripture says, " He took a towel and girded 
 himself," they, or two of them, put on long white 
 aprons, tied around the waist. Two washed feet 
 and two wiped, and then he who was thus min- 
 istered unto was kissed by one or both of the 
 ministering brethren. I was a little surprised 
 that two should perform that office, which Jesus 
 is said to have performed alone; but Mrs. R. 
 told me that, as the Church was one body, it 
 was considered that it made no difference to 
 have two persons. 
 
 The four who had ministered took their seats, 
 and were served in their turn, four others taking 
 their places, and so on. Upon the sisters' side 
 of the house, on a front bench, the sisters were, 
 in a similar manner, performing the same ordi- 
 nance. 
 
 "While the religious services of the evening 
 were going on within, from without there came
 
 124 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 the sound of voices and laughter, from where 
 the young people of the world were enjoying 
 themselves in the clear, cool moonlight. I doubt 
 not that, by this time, the girls had recognized 
 the presence of the young men. 
 
 Once there was a shriek or a yell, and Mrs. 
 R. said, "Oh, the drunken rowdies! there's 
 always some of them here!" 
 
 Having heard of the non-resistant or wehrlos 
 tenets of the Dunkers, I wondered what they 
 would do should the disturbance without be- 
 come very great and unpleasant. Mrs. Murphy 
 thought that the other people would interfere 
 in such a case, that is, that those not members 
 would interest themselves to maintain order. 
 But on this point I afterward received informa- 
 tion from a brother, as I shall mention. The 
 services were so long that I told Mrs. K. I 
 thought that the soup would be cold. " Oh, 
 no!" she said, "that won't get cold so soon." 
 So I ventured to- put my finger against a pan 
 near me, and it was yet warm. She asked me, 
 during feet- washing, whether I did not think 
 that I would feel hapgy to be there, partaking 
 of that exercise. 
 
 I answered, in a non-committal manner, that 
 if I had been brought up to such things, as she 
 had been, I might feel so, but that all my friends 
 and acquaintances were of a different mind. She 
 rejoined, "But we must follow Christ, and serve
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 125 
 
 God, in spite of the world." Even after the feet 
 were all washed, the fasting family could not yet 
 eat, on account of the protracted exhortations. 
 
 At length they broke their fast. From two 
 to four persons, each with a spoon, ate together 
 from one pan of soup, very quietly, fifty feed- 
 ing like one, so to speak, the absence of sound 
 proceeding in part from the absence of earthen 
 plates. Then they cut from the meat and from 
 the quarter-loaves, and partook of the butter, 
 these being all the food. There was no salt nor 
 any other condiment. The occasional bowl was 
 for water. I suppose that most persons would 
 think that there had been enough kissing of the 
 kind ; but about this time a young bishop, an 
 assistant, stood up at the centre of the main 
 table, and after some remarks shook hands 
 with the sister upon his left and kissed the 
 brother upon his right, and from brother to 
 brother, and from sister to sister, the kiss went 
 around the congregation. 
 
 The bishop, and this assistant, went around 
 upon ours, the women's side, superintending 
 this ceremony, as if to see that none failed in 
 this expression of unity, and that it was con- 
 ducted in an orderly manner. The last sister 
 who has no one to kiss goes forward, and 
 kisses the first one, with whom the bishop had 
 shaken hands, thus completing the chain of 
 unity. This was doubtless done before the
 
 126 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.' 1 
 
 Communion, and showed that brotherly love 
 existed among these brethren, fitting them to 
 partake of the Sacrament. I was also told 
 that the latter half of the afternoon meeting 
 had been for self-examination on the same 
 subject. 
 
 About this time of the evening Mrs. R. told 
 me that if I would go down I could get some 
 of the soup, as there was plenty left. I was 
 willing to partake, not having had a regular 
 supper, and I got a bowl of good mutton-broth, 
 containing rice or barley, etc. 
 
 After the Love-Feast, these " Old Brethren," 
 as they are' sometimes called, held the Com- 
 munion. The bread and wine were placed 
 upon the general or main table being set 
 before the bishops and were covered with a 
 white cloth. 
 
 Before the celebration of the ordinance, there 
 was read in German the passage of Scripture 
 upon which it is founded ; and also, as it seemed 
 to me, the narrative of the crucifixion. The 
 hymn now sung was an English one, and the 
 only one in our language that was sung by the 
 whole congregation during the two days' meet- 
 ing. It was, 
 
 "Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed." 
 
 Meantime, the assistant bishop divided the 
 bread, or cakes, which were unleavened and
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 127 
 
 sweetened. He directed the members, while 
 eating the bread, to reflect upon the sufferings 
 of the Saviour. His manner was devout and 
 
 impressive. As he and Bishop D passed 
 
 around among the women, distributing the 
 bread, the former repeated several times, in a 
 sonorous voice, these or similar words: "Das 
 Brod das wir brechen ist die Gemeinschaft des 
 Leibes Christi." (" The bread that we break is 
 the communion of the body of Christ.") 
 
 The wine, which smelt strong, was the juice of 
 the grape, and was made in the neighborhood. 
 An aged bishop from another congregation made 
 some observations, and while speaking marked 
 the length of something upon his finger. Mrs. 
 R. said that he was showing the size of the 
 thorns in the crown. She added, " They are 
 there yet." I looked at her in much surprise, 
 wondering whether she believed in the pres- 
 ervation of the actual thorns; whereupon she 
 added, " They grow there still. Did you never 
 read it in Bausman's book on the Holy Land ? 
 Bausman, the Reformed preacher." The sim- 
 plicity of the surroundings upon this occasion 
 were, it seemed to me, in keeping with those 
 of the original Supper, at which sat the " Car- 
 penter's Son" and the fishermen. 
 
 When meeting was over, as I did not see my 
 escort to the public house, and as I had been 
 told that I could stay here, I followed those who
 
 128 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 went above-stairs, and received a bolster made 
 of a grain-bag filled with hay or straw. I shared 
 it with Mrs. Murphy. Our bed was composed 
 of straw laid upon the floor, and covered, or 
 nearly so, with pieces of domestic carpet. We 
 had a coverlet to lay over us. I talked with 
 some of the other women who lay beside us, 
 and could not get to sleep immediately ; but at 
 last I slept so sweetly that it was not agreeable 
 to be disturbed at four o'clock, when the sisters, 
 by my reckoning, began to rise. When some 
 of these had gone down, I should perhaps have 
 slept again, had it not been for a continued talk- 
 ing upon the men's side of the partition, quite 
 audible, as the partition only ran up to a dis- 
 tance of some feet, not nearly so high as the lofty 
 ridge of the building. The voices appeared to 
 be those of a young man and one or two boys, 
 talking in the dialect. A woman near me 
 laughed. 
 
 4 'What is it?" said I. 
 
 " It's too mean to tell," she answered. 
 
 I surmise that the Dunker brethren had gone 
 down and left these youths. Although a baby 
 was crying, I lay still until two girls in Dunker 
 caps one ten years old, the other twelve came 
 with a candle, looking at us, smiling, and making 
 remarks, perhaps thinking that it was time for 
 us to be up. 
 
 I asked the eldest what o'clock it was.
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 129 
 
 She did not know. 
 
 " What made you get up, then ?" 
 
 " I got up when the others did." 
 
 Then some one explained that there were a 
 good many dishes left unwashed the evening 
 before. 
 
 I was surprised to see such young persons 
 members of the meeting, for I supposed that 
 the Dunkers, like the Mennonites, are opposed 
 to infant baptism. The former explained to 
 me, however, that they thought such persons 
 as these old enough to distinguish right from 
 wrong. I was told, too, of one girl, still younger, 
 who had insisted on wearing the cap. The Men- 
 nonites baptize persons as young as fifteen. 
 Both sects seem to hold peculiar views upon 
 original sin. 
 
 A Dunker preacher once said to me, 
 
 "We believe that, after Adam, all were born 
 in sin ; but, after Christ, all were born without 
 sin." 
 
 And a Mennist neighbor says, 
 
 " Children have no sin ; the kingdom of hea- 
 ven is of little children." 
 
 I continued to lie still, looking at the rafters 
 and roof, and speculating as to their being so 
 clean, and clear of cobwebs, and whether they 
 had been laboriously swept ; and then, gathering 
 my wardrobe together with some little trouble, 
 I was at last ready to go down. As I went to 
 
 12
 
 130 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 one of the windows, I saw Orion and Sirius, and 
 the coming day. 
 
 Going down to wash at the pump, in the morn- 
 ing gloaming, while the landscape still lay in 
 shade, I found two or three lads at the pump, 
 and one of them pumped for me. I was so 
 ignorant of pump-washing as to wonder why 
 he pumped so small a stream, and to suspect 
 that he was making fun; but thus it seems it is 
 proper to do, to avoid wetting the sleeves. 
 
 Here I met a pretty young sister, from Cum- 
 berland County, fat and fair, whose acquaint- 
 ance I had made the day before. Her cap was 
 of lace, and not so plain as the rest. There 
 was with her at the pump one of the world's 
 people, a young girl in a blue dress. 
 
 " Is that your sister ?" I asked. 
 
 " It's the daughter of the woman I live with," 
 she replied* "I have no sister. I am hired 
 with her mother/' 
 
 To my inexperienced eye it was not easy to 
 tell the rich Dunkers from the poor, when all 
 wore so plain a dress. I was afterward much 
 surprised on discovering that this pretty sister 
 did not understand German. Another from 
 Cumberland County told me that I ought to 
 come to their meeting, which was nearly all 
 English. 
 
 After washing I went up into the meeting- 
 house, where the lamps were yet burning. A
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 131 
 
 few sisters were sitting here, and two little 
 maidens were making a baby laugh and scream 
 by walking her back and forth along the empty 
 benches. About sunrise the bishop had arrived, 
 and a number of brethren ranged themselves 
 upon the benches and began to sing. Before 
 long, we, who had stayed over-night, had our 
 breakfast, having cold meat at this and the 
 succeeding meal. I think it was at breakfast 
 that my pleasant friend with the silvery hair 
 mentioned that there was still a store of bread 
 and pies. 
 
 The great event of the morning meeting was 
 the " making the preacher." At my usual seat, 
 at a distant window, I was so busily occupied 
 with my notes that I did not perceive what was 
 going on at the preacher's table, until I saw a 
 man and woman standing before the table with 
 their backs to the rest of the congregation. I 
 made my way to my former corner of observa- 
 tion, and found that there was another brother 
 standing with them, the sister in the middle, 
 and these were receiving the greetings of the 
 Family. The brethren came up, one by one, 
 kissed one of the men, shook hands with the 
 sister, and kissed the other man. This last was 
 the newly-chosen preacher, the former brother, 
 named Z., being a preacher who, by the consent 
 of the members (also given yesterday), was now 
 advanced one degree in the ministry, and was
 
 132 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 henceforth to have power to marry and to bap- 
 tize. The sister was his wife. She is expected 
 to support her husband in the ministry, and to 
 be ready to receive those women who, after bap- 
 tism, come up from the water. This office and 
 that of voting seem to be the only important 
 ones held by women in this society. Herein 
 they differ greatly from another plain sect, 
 Friends or Quakers, among whom women min- 
 ister, transact business, etc.* 
 
 After the brethren were done, the sisters came 
 
 * A friend tells me that he once heard a discourse from a 
 celebrated Dunker preacher, named Sarah Keiter. She was 
 allowed to preach, it seems, by a liberal construction of Paul's 
 celebrated edict, because she was unmarried. 
 
 Even when afterward married, by a more liberal con- 
 struction still, the liberty to preach was not forbidden her. 
 Possibly it was assumed that her husband at home was not 
 able to answer all her questions upon spiritual matters. Sho 
 removed to Ohio. 
 
 In the Encyclopaedia Americana, the following are given as 
 propositions of some of the former Anabaptists: "Impiety 
 prevails everywhere. It is therefore necessary that a new 
 family of holy persons should bo founded, enjoying without 
 distinction of sex the gift of prophecy, and skill to interpret 
 divine revelations. Hence they need no learning, for the in- 
 ternal word is more than the outward expression." 
 
 At this time, however, while our German Baptists still be- 
 lieve in an unpaid, untaught ministry, none of them, I think, 
 hold to the doctrine that the gift of prophecy or preaching 
 is without distinction of sex. 
 
 In this respect, George Fox seems to have agreed with the 
 early Anabaptists just mentioned.
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 133 
 
 up, shook hands with Z., kissed his wife, and 
 shook hands with the new preacher, whose wife, 
 I believe, was not present. 
 
 The bishop invited the sisters to come forward: 
 " Koomet alle ! alle die will. Koomet alle !" 
 
 "While this salutation was in progress, L., who 
 spoke in English, made some explanatory re- 
 marks. He told us that he had read or heard of 
 two men traveling together, of whom one was a 
 doctor of divinity. The latter asked the younger 
 man what he was now doing. He replied that 
 he was studying divinity. He had formerly been 
 studying law, but on looking around he saw no 
 opening in the law, so he was now studying di- 
 vinity, which course or which change met the 
 approval of the reverend doctor. 
 
 " Now," said L., ' we do not approve of men- 
 made preachers ;" a striking remark in a congre- 
 gation where a preacher had just been elected by 
 a plurality. But he went on to explain that he 
 trusted that there was no brother or sister who 
 had voted for him who had just been chosen for 
 this arm of the church, who had not prayed God 
 earnestly that they might make such a choice as 
 would be profitable in the church. He went on 
 to explain that the newly-chosen preacher was 
 now receiving from the congregation an expres- 
 sion of unity. 
 
 There were various other exercises this morn- 
 ing, preaching, praying, and singing, before 
 12*
 
 134 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 the final adjournment. At the close we had din- 
 ner. I made an estimate of the number who par- 
 took of this meal as about five hundred and fifty. 
 One of the men guessed a thousand; but we are 
 prone to exaggerate numbers where our feelings 
 are interested. 
 
 Before we parted, I had some conversation with 
 certain brethren, principally upon the non-resist- 
 ant doctrines of the society. In my own neigh- 
 borhood, not a great while before, a Dunker had 
 been robbed under peculiar circumstances. Sev- 
 eral men had entered his house at night, and, 
 binding him and other members of the family, 
 had forced him to tell where his United States 
 and other bonds were placed, and had carried 
 off property worth four thousand dollars. The 
 brother had gone in pursuit of them, visiting the 
 mayor of our town, and the police in neighboring 
 cities (without recovering his property). I asked 
 these brethren at different times whether his 
 course was in agreement with their rules. They 
 answered that it was not. 
 
 On the present occasion I repeated the ques- 
 tion as to what they would have done on the 
 previous evening if the disturbance had risen 
 to a great height. One of the brethren, in reply, 
 quoted from the Acts of the Apostles, where it 
 is narrated that forty Jews entered into a con- 
 spiracy to kill Paul. But Paul sent his nephew to 
 the chief captain to inform him of the conspiracy.
 
 THE DUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 135 
 
 The captain then put Paul under the charge 
 of soldiers, to be brought safe unto Felix the 
 governor. 
 
 From this passage the Dunkers feel at liberty 
 to appeal to the police for their protection, but 
 only once; if protection be not then afforded 
 them, they must do without it. 
 
 I further mentioned to these brethren a case 
 which had been told to me some time before by 
 a Dunker preacher, of a certain brother who had 
 been sued in the settlement of an estate, and had 
 received a writ from the sheriff. This writ was 
 considered by the Dunkers as a call from the 
 powers that be, to whom they are ordered to be 
 subservient, and the brother therefore went with 
 some brethren to the office of a lawyer, who fur- 
 nished him with subpoenas to summon witnesses 
 in his defence. But the Dunkers argued among 
 themselves that for him to take these legal papers 
 from his pocket would be to draw the sword. He 
 therefore sent word to his friends, informally, to 
 come to the office of a magistrate; and, the evi- 
 dence being in his favor, he was released. "This," 
 said my informant, " is the only lawsuit that I 
 have known in our society since I joined the 
 meeting," which was, I believe, a period of about 
 seven years. 
 
 In repeating this narrative to the brethren at 
 the Love-Feast, I learned that they are now at 
 liberty to engage in defensive lawsuits. They
 
 136 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 have, as I understood one to say, no creed and no 
 discipline (although I believe that a certain con- 
 fession of faith is required). The New Testament 
 (or, as they say, the Testament) they claim to be 
 their creed and their discipline. There is also 
 much independence in the congregations. But 
 in some cases they have resort to a general coun- 
 cil, and here it has been decided that a Dunker 
 may defend himself in a lawsuit, but only once. 
 Should an appeal be taken to another court, the 
 Dunker can go no farther. This reminds me of 
 Paul's question to the Corinthians, " Why do you 
 not rather suffer loss than go to law ?"* Does it 
 not seem hard to practice such non-resistance, to 
 remain upright and open-minded, and at the same 
 time to acquire much wealth ? 
 
 The Dunkers do not like to be called by this 
 name. Their chosen title is Brethren. 
 
 The Love- Feast, above described, was held by the 
 " Old Brethren," who originated in Germany about the 
 year 1708. 
 
 It has been said that they originated among the 
 Pietists; but a very great resemblance will be found 
 among them to our German Baptists of the Mennonite 
 or Anabaptist stock. 
 
 I afterward visited other Dunkers, belonging to a 
 division called the " River Brethren." They originated 
 
 * See the questions in full, I. Corinthians, chap. vi.
 
 THE BUNKER LOVE-FEAST. 137 
 
 near the Susquehanna River, but they have now spread 
 as far as Ohio, if not farther. 
 
 That these are of the old Baptist stock there is no 
 doubt, as Jacob Engle, their founder, was of a Men- 
 nonite family, a family which boasts that one of their 
 ancestors was a prisoner in Switzerland on account 
 of her faith. (See note on " Swiss Exiles.") 
 
 In coming to this country, about one hundred years 
 ago, tradition tells us that the Engle family joined with 
 thirty others, who were upon the same vessel, to re- 
 main bound together in life and in death. The young 
 infants of these families all died upon the voyage, ex- 
 cept Jacob Engle, whereupon an old nurse said, " God 
 has preserved him for an especial purpose." 
 
 He became a preacher, and this his friends regarded 
 as a fulfillment of the prophecy. 
 
 Jacob Engle, or " Yokely Engle," as he was some- 
 times called, considered that there was not sufficient 
 warmth and zeal among the Mennonites at that time. 
 
 He became very zealous; experiencing, as he be- 
 lieved, a change of heart. 
 
 Before he became a preacher, some joined him in 
 holding prayer-meetings. It was found that some 
 wished to be baptized by immersion, and the rite was 
 thus performed (whereas the Mennonites baptize by 
 pouring). 
 
 A common observer would see very little difference 
 between these Brethren and the Old Dunkers. The 
 River Brethren allow all present to partake of the 
 Love-Feast, or Paschal Supper. Some of them have 
 said that the Paschal Supper is an expression of the 
 love of God to all mankind, and love toward all men
 
 138 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 constrains them to invite all to partake thereof. But 
 from the Lord's Supper they exclude all strangers. 
 
 Their meetings are usually held in private houses, 
 or, in summer, in barns. 
 
 Some of their preachers have been heard, upon rising 
 to speak, to declare that they intend to say only what 
 the Spirit teaches them. 
 
 One of their most striking peculiarities is their op- 
 position to the use of lightning-rods. A preacher said 
 to me, when talking upon this subject, " If God wishes 
 to preserve the building, he can preserve it without the 
 lightning-rod. If he does not wish to preserve it, I 
 am willing to submit to the result." 
 
 It has been thought that an acquaintance with the 
 laws of electricity would remove this objection which 
 they feel. 
 
 The Brinser Brethren were formed from the River 
 Brethren some years ago. They are popularly thus 
 called from an able preacher named Matthias Brinser. 
 They erect meeting-houses, in preference, as I under- 
 stand, to meeting in private houses. Their church has 
 not opposed electrical conductors, though some mem- 
 bers feel conscientious in the matter. 
 
 The question of erecting meeting-houses seems to 
 have caused considerable trouble among the River 
 Brethren. A gentleman of our county remarked to me 
 that the custom of meeting in private houses is tra- 
 ditional among our people, and dates from times of 
 persecution.
 
 EPHRATA. 
 
 THIS quiet village in Lancaster County has 
 been for over a century distinguished as the seat 
 of a Protestant monastic institution, established 
 by the Seventh -Day German Baptists about the 
 year 1738. 
 
 Conrad Beissel, the founder of the cloister, was 
 born in Germany, at Oberbach, in the Palatinate, 
 in the year 1691. 
 
 He was by trade a baker, but, after coming to 
 this country, he worked at weaving with Peter 
 Becker, the Dunker preacher, at Germantown. 
 
 lie is said to have been a Presbyterian, which 
 I interpret a member of the German Reformed 
 Church. 
 
 According to the inscription upon his tom]j- 
 stone, his "spiritual life" began in 1716, or eight 
 years before he was baptized among the Bunkers. 
 
 This may be explained by an article written 
 by the Rev. Christian Endress,* who seems to 
 
 * See Hazard's Kegister, vol. v. C. L. F. Endress, D.D., 
 preached twelve years in Trinity (Lutheran) Church, Lan- 
 caster. 
 
 (139)
 
 140 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 have studied the Ephrata Community more, in 
 connection with their published writings, than 
 have the mass of persons who have endeavored 
 to describe this peculiar people.* 
 
 Mr. Endress says, "The Tankers trace their 
 origin from the Pietists near Schwarzenau, in 
 Germany.f 
 
 While they yet belonged among the Pietists, 
 there was a society formed at Schwarzenau com- 
 posed of eight persons, whose spiritual leader was 
 Alexander Mack, a miller of Schriesheim. 
 
 The members of this little society are said to 
 have been re-baptized (by immersion), because 
 they considered their infant baptism as unavail- 
 
 * At the present time, the learned Dr. Seidensticker, of 
 Philadelphia, is preparing an article upon this subject. To 
 him, and to Mr. J. D. Kupp, I am indebted for assistance. 
 
 t A new movement in German theology arose in the second 
 half of the seventeenth century, through Spener, the founder 
 of Pietism. The central principle of Pietism was that Chris- 
 tianity was first of all life, and that the strongest proof of the 
 truth of its doctrines was to be found in the religious experi- 
 ence of the believing subject. The principles of the Pietists 
 were in the main shared by the Moravians. (See American 
 Cyclopaedia, article German Theology.) Compare this state- 
 ment of the main principle of Pietism with this of the Ana- 
 baptists, whom the mass of our Bunkers so much resemble : 
 " The opinions common to the Anabaptists are founded on the 
 principle that Christ's kingdom on earth, or the church, is a 
 visible society of pious and holy persons, with none of those 
 institutions which human sagacity has devised for the un- 
 godly." (See American Cyclopaedia, article Anabaptist.)
 
 EPHRATA. 141 
 
 ing, and to have first assumed the name of 
 Taeuffer, or Baptists.* 
 
 The Dunkers first appeared in America in 
 1719, when about twenty families landed in 
 Philadelphia, and dispersed to Germantown, 
 Conestoga, and elsewhere. 
 
 Beissel was baptized among them in 1724, in 
 Pequea Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna. 
 He lived for awhile at Miihlbach (or Mill Creek, 
 now in Lebanon County ?). About a year after 
 his baptism, he published a tract upon the Sev- 
 enth Day as the true Sabbath. This tract caused 
 a disturbance among the brethren at Mill Creek, 
 and about three years after, in 1728, Beissel and 
 some with him withdrew from the other Dun- 
 kers, and Beissel re-baptized those of his own 
 society. 
 
 Not long after, says Endress, Beissel, who had 
 appointed several elders over his people, with- 
 drew from them, and retired to live a solitary 
 life in a cottage that had been built for a similar 
 purpose, and occupied by a brother called Elime- 
 lech. This cottage stood near the place where 
 the convent was afterward built. 
 
 Here we infer that he lived for several years. 
 
 * They took for themselves the name of Brethren, says an 
 article in Rupp's "Keligious Denominations." The Dunkers 
 in our county call themselves Brethren, "Old Brethren," 
 " River Brethren," etc. "Whether the Ephrata Dunkers 
 adopted the same name, I cannot say. 
 13
 
 142 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 To live the life of cenobites or hermits, says 
 Rupp, was in some measure peculiar to many of 
 the Pietists who had fled from Germany to seek 
 an asylum in Pennsylvania. " On the banks of 
 the Wissahickon, near Philadelphia, severM 
 hermits had their cells, some of them men of 
 fine talents and profound erudition." 
 
 Of some of these hermits, and of the monastic 
 community afterward settled at Ephrata, it is 
 probable that a ruling idea was the speedy com- 
 ing of Christ to judge the world. 
 
 It is stated that after the formation of Beissel's 
 " camp" (or Lager) midnight meetings were held, 
 for some time, to await the coming of judgment. 
 
 Those who remember the Millerite, or Second 
 Advent, excitement of the year 1843, can appre- 
 ciate the effect that this idea would have upon 
 the minds of the Dunkers, and how it could 
 stimulate them to suffer many inconveniences 
 for the brief season that they expected to tarry 
 in the world.* 
 
 "While Beissel was dwelling in his solitary cot, 
 about the year 1730, two married women joined 
 the society, of whom the Ephrata Chronicle tells 
 us that they left their husbands and placed them- 
 
 * In the time of the Millerite excitement above alluded 
 to, many prepared ascension robes. One person whom I heard 
 of went to the roof of his house, where, in his robe, he could 
 look for the coming of Christ, and where he was prepared im- 
 mediately to ascend.
 
 EPHRATA. 143 
 
 selves under the lead of the director (or Vorsteher, 
 the title applied to Beissel in the " Chronicon"). 
 He received them, although it was against the 
 canon of the new society. One of these was 
 Maria Christiana, the wife of Christopher Sower, 
 he who afterward established the celebrated 
 German printing-office at Germantown. She 
 escaped in the year 1730, and was baptized the 
 same fall. In the beginning, she dwelt alone in 
 the desert, " and showed by her example that a 
 manly spirit can dwell in a female creature."* 
 
 While Beissel was still in his hermitage, dis- 
 cord and strife arose among the brethren of his 
 society, news of which reached him by some 
 means, for in the year 1733 he cited them to 
 appear at his cottage. 
 
 They met, and some of the single brethren 
 agreed to build a second cottage near that oc- 
 cupied by their leader. Besides this, a house 
 was also built for females, and in May, 1733, 
 two single women retired into it.f 
 
 In 1734, a third house for male brethren was 
 
 * " Afterward, she held to edification for many years, in the 
 Sister-convent, the office of a sub-prioress, under the name of 
 Marcella. Finally, in her age, she was induced by her son to 
 return to her husband although another motive was the 
 severe manner of life in the Encampment, which she could 
 no longer bear." Chronicon Ephratense, p. 45. 
 
 f Are these the married womon just spoken of, who had be- 
 come single ?
 
 144 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 built and occupied by the brothers Onesimus 
 and Jotham, whose family name was Eckerlin.* 
 
 * These remarkable men seem to deserve especial notice. 
 
 In Eupp's History of Lancaster County, it is stated that 
 they were from Germany, and had been brought up Catho- 
 lics. Israel Eckerlin ( Brother Onesimus) became prior of the 
 Brother-House at Ephrata. Peter Miller, in an original letter, 
 complains that he obliged them to meddle with worldly things 
 further than their obligations permitted ; and that when money 
 came in it was put out at interest, "contrary to our principles." 
 
 They could not, however, have been very rich, for when in 
 1 745 a bell arrived in Philadelphia, from England, which had 
 been ordered by Eckerlin, and which cost eighty pounds, they 
 k new not how to pay for it. The name of Onesimus had been 
 placed upon the bell. 
 
 When the news of its arrival was received, a council was 
 held in the presence of the spiritual father, Beissel, and it was 
 concluded to break the bell to pieces and bury it in the earth. 
 
 The next morning, however, the father appeared in the 
 council, and said that he had reflected that as the Brothers 
 were p oor, the bell should be pardoned. It therefore was sold, 
 and was placed upon the Lutheran church in Lancaster. 
 
 Miller says that the prior (Eckerlin) conceived a notion to 
 make himself independent of Beissel, and was stripped of all 
 his dignities. 
 
 The Eckcrlins, says Hupp, afterward moved to Virginia. 
 In Day's Historical Collections, article Greene County, it is 
 stated that three brothers named Eckarly, Dunkards by pro- 
 fession, left the eastern parts of Pennsylvania and plunged 
 into the western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was 
 on a creek flowing into the Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, to 
 which stream they gave the name of Dunkard Creek, which it 
 still bears. These men of peace employed themselves in ex- 
 ploring the country in every direction. 
 
 They afterward removed to Dunkards' Bottom, on Cheat
 
 EPHRATA. 145 
 
 Soon after, says Endress, they all united in 
 the building of a bake-house and a storehouse 
 for the poor. And now the whole was called 
 the camp (das Lager). 
 
 About this time, he continues, there was what 
 the Tuukers called a revival in Falconer Swamp, 
 
 Kiver, which they made their permanent residence ; "and, with 
 a savage war raging at no considerable distance, they spent 
 some years unmolested." 
 
 In the same narrative it is stated that Dr. Thomas Eckarly, 
 in order to obtain salt, ammunition, and clothing, recrossed 
 the mountains with some skins. Upon his return, he was un- 
 avoidably detained. On approaching the cabin where he had 
 left his brothers, he found a heap of ashes. " In the yard lay 
 the mangled and putrid remains of the two brothers," and the 
 hoops on which their scalps had been dried. 
 
 This seems a very sorrowful termination to the lives of men 
 of peace, but the reader may be consoled by hearing Miller's 
 account of the brothers, who are but two, it appears in his 
 narrative. 
 
 He says, " The prior quitted the camp, and established a new 
 settlement for hermits on the banks of the new river." (Ohio ?) 
 
 After many vicissitudes, he and his brother were taken 
 prisoners by seven Mohawks, and sold to Quebec, whence they 
 were transported to France, "where, after our prior had re- 
 ceived the tonsure and become a friar of their church, they 
 both died." The Ephrata Chronicle says (chap, xxiii.) that 
 the prior went out of time twenty years before Beissel. The 
 latter died in 1768. By the former reckoning, the prior went 
 out of time in 1748, or about three years after the difficulty 
 about the bell at Ephrata. It is possible that his death is 
 antedated in the Chronicle; but history, like other human 
 evidence, is sometimes a strange thing. * 
 
 (Day, after speaking of the Eckerlins at Ephrata, refers us 
 to the Greene County narrative, above given in brief.) 
 13*
 
 146 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 in consequence of which many families took up 
 land round about the camp, and moved upon it. 
 Another revival on the banks of the Schuylkill 
 drove many more into the neighborhood ; by it 
 the Sister establishment gained accessions ; but 
 only two, Drusilla and Basilla, remained steadfast. 
 "A further revival in Tolpehoccon," 1735, 
 brought many to the society. Hereupon they built 
 a meeting-house, with rooms attached to it for 
 the purpose of holding [preparing?] love-feasts, 
 and called it Kedar. About the same time, a 
 revival in Gerraantown sent additional Brothers 
 and Sisters to the camp. 
 
 It was in 1735, during the revival at Tulpe- 
 hocken, that Peter Miller was baptized.* Miller, 
 in one of his letters (see Hazard's Register, vol. 
 xvi.), speaks of several persons who, as it appears, 
 were baptized with him; namely, the school- 
 master, three Elderlings (one of them Conrad 
 Weyser), five families, and some single persons. 
 This, he says, raised such a fermentation in that 
 church (by which I suppose he means the Re- 
 formed Church, which they left), that a perse- 
 cution might have followed had the magistrates 
 consented with the generality. 
 
 * The Tulpehocken Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill, 
 which rises in Lebanon County, and empties at Reading, 
 in Berks County. It was, I suppose, within the limits of 
 Lebanon County, with perhaps adjoining parts of Berks, that 
 Miller preached.
 
 EPHRATA. 147 
 
 Peter Miller, whom we are now quoting, was 
 one of the most remarkable men that joined the 
 Ephrata Baptists. He was born in the Palati- 
 nate, and is said to have been educated at Heidel- 
 berg. He came to this country when about 
 twenty years old. He is mentioned, it seems, in 
 an interesting letter of the Rev. Jedediah An- 
 drews, under date of Philadelphia, 1730, which 
 letter may be found in Hazard's Register. He 
 says that there are " in tl^is province a vast 
 number of Palatines. Those that have come of 
 late years are mostly Presbyterian, or, as they 
 call themselves, Reformed, the Palatines being 
 about three-fifths of that sort of people." 
 
 Mr. Andrews says, in substance, "There is 
 lately come over a Palatine candidate for the 
 ministry, who applied to us at the Synod for 
 ordination. He is an extraordinary person for 
 sense and learning. His name is John Peter 
 Miller,* and he speaks Latin as readily as we 
 do our vernacular tongue."f 
 
 * In Kupp's " Thirty Thousand Names" of immigrants to 
 Pennsylvania, there will be found under date of August 29th, 
 1730, the names of Palatines with their families, imported in 
 the ship Thistle of Glasgow, from Eotterdam, last from Cowes. 
 Among these occurs Peter Miiller, whom by a note Kupp con- 
 nects with the Peter Miller of the text. 
 
 As to the name John Peter, as given by Andrews, it is sur- 
 prising to see how many of these immigrants bear the names 
 of John, Hans, Johan, Jqhann, and Johannes, prefixed to 
 other names. I count twenty in a column of thirty-four. 
 
 f Mr. Andrews, froin whom I quote, was a graduate of
 
 148 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Peter Miller, in one of his letters, speaks of 
 his baptism (or re-baptism) in the year 1735. 
 He says at that time the solitary Brethren and 
 Sisters lived dispersed "in the wilderness of 
 Canestogues, each for himself, as heremits, and 
 I following that same way did set up my hermit- 
 age in Dulpehakin [Tulpehocken], at the foot 
 of a mountain, on a limpid spring; the house is 
 still extant [1790], with an old orchard. There 
 did I lay the foundation of solitary life.* 
 
 "However,'' he continues, "I had not lived 
 there half a year, when a great change hap- 
 pened; for a camp was laid out for all solitary 
 persons, at the very spot where now Ephrata 
 stands, and where at that same time the presi- 
 dent [Beissel] lived with some heremits. And 
 now, when all heremits were called in, I also 
 quitted my solitude, and changed the same for 
 a monastic life; which was judged to be more 
 inservient to sanctification than the life of a 
 
 Harvard, who seems to have come to Philadelphia in 1698, 
 and to have preached in an Independent or Presbyterian 
 church, or both. 
 
 * The Conestogas were a small tribe . . . consisting in 
 all of some dozen or twenty families, who dwelt a few miles 
 below Lancaster. They sent messengers with corn, venison, 
 and skins, to welcome William Penn. When the whites 
 began to settle around them, Penn assigned them a residence 
 on the manor of Conestoga. (See Day's Historical Collections.) 
 The Conestoga Creek empties into the Susquehanna, below 
 Lancaster.
 
 EPHRA TA. 149 
 
 heremit, where many under a pretence of holi- 
 ness did nothing but nourish their own self- 
 ishness. . . . We were now, by necessity, 
 compelled to learn obedience. ... At that 
 time, works of charity hath been our chief 
 occupation.* 
 
 " Canestogues was then a great wilderness, and 
 began to be settled by poor Germans, which de- 
 sired our assistance in building houses for them ; 
 which not only kept us employed several sum- 
 mers in hard carpenter's-work, but also increased 
 our poverty so much that we wanted even things 
 necessary for life." 
 
 He also says, "When we settled here, our 
 number was forty Brethren, and about so many 
 Sisters,f all in the vigor and prime of their ages, 
 never before wearied of social life, but were com- 
 pelled, . . . with reluctance of our nature, 
 to select this life."J 
 
 * "When this letter was written, Miller was about eighty 
 years old. He doubtless spoke German during the sixty years 
 that he lived at Ephrata, as well as before that time. It will 
 be observed that he does not write English elegantly. 
 
 f In the year 1740, says Fahnestock, there were thirty-six 
 single Brethren in the cloisters, and thirty-five Sisters ; and at 
 one time the society, including the members living in the 
 neighborhood, numbered nearly three hundred. 
 
 J Rev. C. Endress says that some were anxious to retain the 
 solitary life, and some (it appears) were opposed to giving to 
 Beissel the title of Father. Sangmeister left the society and 
 retired to a solitary life in Virginia. " His book," says the
 
 150 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 3t was, as it appears, about the same time that 
 Miller was baptized .that the midnight meetings 
 were held at the camp, " for the purpose of 
 awaiting the coming of judgment." 
 
 Not long after the building of the meeting- 
 house called Kedar (says Endress), a widower, 
 Sigmund Lambert, having joined the camp, built 
 out of his own means an addition to the meet- 
 ing-house and a dwelling for Beissel. Another 
 gave all his property to the society, and now 
 Kedar was transformed into a Sister-convent, 
 and a new meeting-house was erected. 
 
 Soon after 1738, a large house for the Brethren 
 was built, called Zion, and the whole camp was 
 named Ephrata.* 
 
 The solitary life was changed into the con- 
 ventual one ; Zion was called a Kloster, or con- 
 vent, and put under monastic rules. Onesimus 
 (Eckerlin) was appointed prior, and Conrad 
 Beissel named Father, f 
 
 It was probably about this time, or before, 
 that the constable entered the camp, according 
 
 same writer, " is much tainted with bitterness, and undertakes 
 to cast a dark shade upon the whole establishment." 
 
 * Larger accommodations were afterward built in the 
 meadow below ; a Sister-house, called Saron, a Brother-house, 
 named Bethania, etc. Most of these are still standing, I be- 
 lieve, in 1872; but the former buildings on the hill long since 
 disappeared. 
 
 f His general title appears to be Vorsteher, superintendent 
 or principal.
 
 EPHRATA. 151 
 
 to Miller, and demanded the single man's tax. 
 Some paid, but some refused. Miller says that 
 some claimed personal immunity on the ground 
 that " we were not inferior" to the monks and 
 hermits in the Eastern country, who supplied 
 the prisons in Alexandria with bread, and who 
 were declared free of taxes by Theodosius the 
 Great and other emperors. But these Ephrata 
 Brethren were not to be thus exempted. Six 
 lay in prison at Lancaster ten days, when they 
 were released on bail of a "venerable old justice 
 of peace." When the Brethren appeared before 
 the board of assessment, the gentlemen who were 
 their judges saw six men who in the prime of 
 their ages had been reduced to skeletons by 
 penitential works. The gentlemen granted them 
 their freedom on condition that they should be 
 taxed as one family for their real estate, " which 
 is still in force (1790), although these things hap- 
 pened fifty years ago." (See Miller's letters in 
 Hazard's Register.) 
 
 A monastic dress was adopted by the Brethren 
 and Sisters, resembling that of the Capuchins.* 
 
 * The Ephrata Chronicle speaks nearly in this manner of 
 that of the Sisters: 
 
 Their dress was ordered, like that of the Brethren, so that 
 little was to be seen of the disagreeable human figure (von 
 dem verdricsslichen Bild das durch die Siind ist offenbar 
 worden). They wore caps like the Brethren, but not pointed 
 ones. While at work, these caps or cowls hung down their
 
 152 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 The Chronicle, published in 1786, speaks of 
 the Sisters as having carefully maintained the 
 dress of the order for nearly fifty years. About 
 the same date we read of Miller in his cowl. 
 
 It appears from the Chronicle that the other 
 members of the society at one time adopted a 
 similar dress, but that the celibates (die Ein- 
 samen) appeared at worship in white dresses, 
 and the other members (die Hausstande) in 
 gray ones. The secular members, however, 
 " saddled themselves again" and conformed to 
 the world in clothing and in other things. 
 
 In an article upon Ephrata in Hazard's Regis- 
 ter, vol. v., 1830, will be found the statement 
 that, thirty or forty years before, the Dunkers 
 were occasionally noticed in Philadelphia (when 
 they came down with produce), with long beards 
 and Capuchin habiliments ; but this statement 
 does not seem to agree in date with that of the 
 Chronicle, if these were secular brethren. 
 
 Among the austerities practiced at Ephrata 
 
 backs ; but when they saw anybody, they drew them over 
 their heads, so that but little could be seen of their faces. But 
 the principal token of their spiritual betrothal was a great veil, 
 which in front covered them altogether, and behind down to 
 the girdle. Koman Catholics who saw this garment said that 
 it resembled the habit of the scapular. 
 
 At Ephrata, in the winter of 1872, Sister showed me 
 
 in the Sister-house a garment of white cotton, composed of the 
 cowl, to which were attached long pieces before and behind, 
 coming down, I think, nearly to the feet.
 
 EPHRATA. 153 
 
 formerly, was sleeping upon a bench with a 
 block of wood for a pillow.* 
 
 A recent writer, Dr. "William Fahnestock, tells 
 us that these and other austerities were not in- 
 tended for penance, but were undertaken from 
 economy. Their circumstances were very re- 
 stricted, and their undertaking was great. They 
 studied the strictest simplicity and economy. 
 For the Communion they used wooden flagons, 
 goblets, and trays. The plates from which they 
 ate were thin octagonal pieces of poplar board, 
 their forks and candlesticks were of wood, and 
 every article that could be made of that sub- 
 stance was used by the whole community. 
 
 Rupp says that the chimneys, which remain 
 in use to this day (1844), are of wood ; and the 
 attention of the present writer in 1872 was 
 called to the wooden door-hinges. 
 
 Rupp says that they all observed great abste- 
 miousness in their diet; they were vegetarians, 
 and submitted to many privations and to a 
 rigid discipline exerted over them by a some- 
 what austere spiritual father. 
 
 Peter Miller himself says that he stood under 
 BeissePs direction for thirty years, and that it 
 
 *The Chronicle tells us that once, in Beissel's absence, a 
 costly feather bed was brought into his sleeping-room. He 
 made use of it one night, but sent it away afterward, and 
 not even in dying could be brought to give up the sleeping- 
 bench (der Schlafbanck). 
 
 14
 
 154 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 was as severe as any related in the Roman 
 Church (but this sounds exaggerated). 
 
 In the Brother- and Sister-houses, it has been 
 stated that six dormitories surrounded a common 
 room in which the members of each subdivision 
 pursued their respective employments. "Each 
 dormitory was hardly large enough to contain a 
 cot, a closet, and an hour-glass."* 
 
 Of the industries established at Ephrata, one 
 of Peter Miller's letters gives us a good idea. 
 He complains, as before mentioned, of Eckerlin's 
 obliging them to interfere so far in worldly 
 things, and of money's being put out at interest. 
 
 He adds that they erected a grist-mill, with 
 three pairs of stones ; a saw-mill, paper-mill, oil- 
 mill, and fulling-mill ; had besides three wagons 
 with proper teams, a printing-office, and sundry 
 other trades. 
 
 He adds, " Our president [by whom he means 
 Beissel] never meddled with temporal things." 
 
 Mr. Rupp (who cites the Life of Rittenhouse) 
 
 * In Carey's Museum for 1789, will be found a letter from a 
 British officer to the editorof the Edinburgh Magazine, whence 
 it appears that at that time, 1786, a rug was laid upon the 
 sleeping-bench. The writer says that each brother had a cell, 
 with a closet adjoining; that the smallness of the rooms was 
 very disagreeable, and that they were not clean. The churches 
 were clean and neat, but perfectly unadorned, except by some 
 German texts. The house " occupied by the nuns" was uni- 
 formly clean, and the cells were in excellent order. (Some of 
 the statements of this writer appear very loose.)
 
 EPHRATA. 155 
 
 says that the women were employed in spinning, 
 knitting, sewing, making paper lanterns and other 
 toys. A room was set apart for ornamental writ- 
 ing, called "Das Schreibzimmer," and "several 
 Sisters," it has been said, devoted their whole at- 
 tention to this labor, as well as to transcribing the 
 writings of the founder of the society; thus mul- 
 tiplying copies before they had a press. 
 
 But the press appears to have been early estab- 
 lished, and it was the second German one in our 
 State. It has been stated that Miller was at one 
 time the printer.* 
 
 Among the books published at Ephrata, were 
 some of Beissel's, who had adopted the title, it 
 seems, of Peaceful (Friedsam). One of their pub- 
 lications was a collection of hymns, and was en- 
 titled " The Song of the Solitary and Abandoned 
 Turtle Dove, namely, the Christian Church, 
 by a Peaceful Pilgrim traveling 
 towards Quiet Eternity." Ephrata, from the press 
 of the Fraternity, 1747. 500 pages, quarto.f 
 
 * At Ephrata, in the winter of 1872, I was told that Miller 
 was once met, as he was taking a load of paper from the mill 
 to the press, by a certain man named Widman. This Wid- 
 man, according to tradition, had been a vestryman in Miller's 
 former church. " Is this the way they treat you," said 
 Widman, "harnessing you up to a wheelbarrow?" and he 
 spit in Miller's face. 
 
 Allusion will be made hereafter to the traditionary tale of 
 Miller and Widman. 
 
 f Of one of the collections of hymns published at Ephrata,
 
 156 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Beissel also wrote a Dissertation on Man's 
 Fall, which Miller seems to have much admired. 
 He says (1790)," When, in the late war, a marquis 
 from Milan, in Italy, lodged a night in our con- 
 vent, I presented to him the said dissertation, 
 and desired him to publish it at home, and dedi- 
 cate it to his Holiness," etc. 
 
 In 1748, a stupendous book was published by 
 the society at Ephrata. It is the Martyr's Mirror, 
 in folio, of which copies may be seen at the 
 libraries of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
 and of the German Society, in Philadelphia. 
 
 The Chronicon Ephratense, orEphrata Chroni- 
 cle, so often alluded to in this article, was also 
 from their press, but was published thirty-eight 
 years later. 
 
 It contains the life of the venerable " Father 
 in Christ, Peaceful Godright (Gottrecht), late 
 founder and Vorsteher of the Spiritual Order of 
 the Solitary (Einsamen) in Ephrata, collected by 
 Brothers Lamech and Agrippa." I have heard 
 within this year of three copies still extant, one 
 in Lancaster County, one in Montgomery, and 
 one in the Library of the Historical Society at 
 
 Fnhnestock says that four hundred and forty-one were written 
 by Beissel, seventy-three by the Brethren in the cloister, one 
 hundred by the single Sisters, and one hundred and twelve by 
 the out-door members. 
 
 Endress speaks in unfavorable terms of the literary merits 
 of some of the Ephrata hymns.
 
 EPHRATA. 157 
 
 Philadelphia. The last I have been allowed to 
 consult. 
 
 In speaking of the industries practiced at 
 Ephrata, it may be permitted to include music. 
 Beissel is said to have been an excellent musi- 
 cian and composer. " There was another tran- 
 scribing-room," says Fahnestock, " appropriated 
 to copying music. Hundreds of volumes, each 
 containing five or six hundred pieces, were trans- 
 ferred from book to book, with as much accu- 
 racy, and almost as much neatness, as if done 
 with a graver." 
 
 In composing music, Beissel is said to have 
 taken his style from nature. " The singing is 
 the ^Eolian harp harmonized. . . . Their 
 music is set in four, six, and eight parts." 
 
 Morgan Edwards* (as cited in Day's Histori- 
 cal Collections) says, "Their singing is charm- 
 ing, partly owing to the pleasantness of their 
 voices, the variety of parts they carry on to- 
 gether, and the devout manner of performance." 
 This style of singing is said by Rupp (1844) to 
 be entirely lost at Ephrata, but to be preserved 
 in a measure at Snow Hill, in Franklin County. 
 Fahnestock, who was himself a Seventh-Day 
 Baptist (or Siebtaeger), gives a very enthusiastic 
 
 * " Materials towards a History of the American Baptists." 
 1770. 
 
 14*
 
 158 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 account of the singing at Snow Hill. It may 
 be found in Day's Historical Collections, article 
 '" Franklin County."* 
 
 In addition to the various industries which 
 claimed the attention of the community, there 
 must not be forgotten the care of their landed 
 estate. It has been said that they bought about 
 two hundred and fifty acres of land.f 
 
 A very large tract was once offered to them 
 by one of the Penns, but they refused it. (I was 
 told at Ephrata that they were " afraid they would 
 get too vain.") 
 
 Count Zinzendorf, the celebrated Moravian 
 
 * Dr. Fahnestock resided for awhile in the latter part of his 
 life in the Sister-house, at Ephrata. Here Mr. Rupp, the his- 
 torian, visited him. Rev. Mr. Shrigley, librarian of the Penn- 
 sylvania Historical Society, who visited Ephrata, has spoken 
 to me of Fahnestock's venerable appearance. 
 
 f In after-years they seem to have been much troubled by 
 litigation. Dr. Fahnestock says that they considered conten- 
 tion with arms, and at law, unchristian ; but that they unfor- 
 tunately had to defend themselves often in courts of justice. 
 To set an example of forbearance and Christian meekness, they 
 suffered themselves for a long time to be plundered, until for- 
 bearance was no longer a virtue. He says (Hazard's Register, 
 1835) that the society is just escaping from heavy embarrass- 
 ments which they incurred in defending themselves from the 
 aggressions of their neighbors. 
 
 The British officer, whose statement was published as early 
 as 1789, speaks of Peter Miller as often engaged in litigation. 
 
 In a recent work (Belcher's History of Religious Denomi- 
 nations, 1854), the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata are said 
 to possess about one hundred and forty acres.
 
 EPHRATA. 159 
 
 bishop, came to Pennsylvania in 1741. At one 
 time he visited Ephrata, and was entertained in 
 the convent, where his friendly behavior was 
 very agreeable to the Brothers. (We can sup- 
 pose that Miller, and Eckerlin, who was not yet 
 deposed, were men fit to entertain him.) He 
 also expressed a wish to see Beissel. This was 
 made known to the latter, who answered, after a 
 little reflection, that = = = =* was no wonder 
 to him, but if he himself were a wonder to him 
 (Zinzendorf), he must come to him (to Beissel's 
 house?). 
 
 Zinzendorf was now in doubt what to do, but 
 he turned away and left without seeing the 
 Father (Vorsteher). 
 
 The Chronicle adds that thus did two great 
 lights of the church meet as on the threshold, 
 and yet neither ever saw the other in his 
 life. 
 
 At a later date, the Moravians erected Bro- 
 ther- and Sister-houses at Litiz, in our county, 
 and elsewhere, but they were not monastic 
 institutions.! 
 
 Is it possible that the idea of erecting those 
 
 * = = = = (printed thus in the Chronicle). Were they 
 ashamed to insert the name Zinzendorf, or his title, " The 
 Ordinary"? 
 
 f It does not appear that the Celibates at Ephrata were 
 bound by vows. All our other German Baptists are consci- 
 entiously opposed to oaths.
 
 160 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 houses originated from this visit of their great 
 leader to Ephrata ? 
 
 Dissension arose at one time between some of 
 the Brethren (apparently secular brothers) and 
 Count Zinzendorf, at a conference held by the 
 latter at Oley, now in Berks County. Zinzeudorf 
 seems to have desired to unite some of the sects 
 with which Pennsylvania was so well supplied. 
 But the Solitary Brethren (of Ephrata) were so 
 suspicious of the thing that they would no longer 
 unite with it. They had prepared a writing upon 
 Marriage, how far it is from God, and that it 
 was only a praiseworthy ordinance of nature. 
 This they presented, whereupon there arose a 
 violent conflict in words. 
 
 The Ordinarius (Zinzendorf) said that he was 
 by no means pleased with this paper; his mar- 
 riage had not such a beginning; his marriage 
 stood higher than the solitary life in Ephrata. 
 The Ephrata delegates strove to make all right 
 again, and spoke of families in their Society who 
 had many children. (See Chronicle.) 
 
 But Zinzendorf left his seat as chairman, . . . 
 and at last the conference came to an end, all 
 present being displeased.* 
 
 * A writer in the Chronicle speaks of being at one of the 
 Count's conferences, where there were Mennonites, Separat- 
 ists, and Baptists. 
 
 But when he came home, he told the Vorsteher that he re-
 
 EPHEATA. 161 
 
 About this date (or about 1740) took place 
 the formation of the Sabbath-school, by Ludwig 
 Hoecker, called Brother Obed. He was a 
 teacher in the secular school at Ephrata, a 
 school which seems to have enjoyed consider- 
 able reputation. The Sabbath-school (held on 
 Saturday afternoon) is said to have been kept 
 up over thirty years. This was begun long be- 
 fore the present Sunday-school system was in- 
 troduced by Robert Raikes.* (American Cy- 
 clopaedia, article "Bunkers.") . 
 
 Not long after the visit of Zinzendorf, or about 
 1745, occurred the deposition of Eckerlin, the 
 Prior Onesimus. 
 
 In one of his letters, Miller says (1790), " Re- 
 member, we have lost our first prior and the 
 
 garded the Count's conference as a snare to bring simple awak- 
 ened souls again into infant-baptism and church-going. 
 
 Then they held a council, and resolved to have a yearly 
 conference of their own. 
 
 The above expression infant-baptism and church-going 
 sounds so much like the account of the Baptist or Anabaptist 
 persecutions narrated in the Martyr-book, that we might al- 
 most conclude that the Bunkers had a direct connection with 
 the Anabaptists, instead of originating among the Pietists. 
 But it will be remembered that the Ephrata Dunkers had 
 published an edition of the great Martyr-book, and it is most 
 probable that some of them were familiar with it. Still, there 
 may have been among the Pietists some who were or had 
 been Baptists. 
 
 * Near the close of this sketch mention is made of" Hoeckers 
 a Creveld." Perhaps Ludwig belonged to the same family.
 
 162 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Sisters their first mother .... because they 
 stood in self-elevation, and did govern despotic- 
 ally ;" and adds, " The desire to govern is the 
 last thing which dies within a man." 
 
 (It seems probable that Eckerlin has not re- 
 ceived sufficient credit for the pecuniary success 
 of the infant community.) 
 
 Some ten years after this occurrence (or in 
 1755), began the old French and Indian war. 
 
 Fahnestock tells us that the doors of the clois- 
 ter, including the chapels, etc., were opened as 
 a refuge for the inhabitants of Tulpehocken and 
 Paxton* settlements, which were then the fron- 
 tiers, to protect the people from the incursions 
 of the hostile Indians. He adds that all these 
 refugees were received and kept by the Society 
 during the period of alarm and danger. Upon 
 hearing of which, a company of infantry was 
 despatched by the royal government from Phila- 
 delphia to protect Ephrata. 
 
 But why, we might ask, did these people seek 
 refuge in a community of non-combatants? The 
 question bears upon the yet unsettled contro- 
 versy, as to whether the men of peace or the 
 men of war were nearerf right in their dealings 
 with the savages. 
 
 * Paxton Township is now Dauphin County. (See Day.) 
 The Paxton church was three miles east of Harrisburg. 
 
 \ The Mennonites, Moravians, and Quakers were peaceably 
 disposed towards the Indians, but the Presbyterians from the
 
 EPHRATA. 163 
 
 Beissel died in the year 1768, or about thirty 
 years after the establishment of the cloister. 
 
 Upon his tombstone was placed, in German, 
 this inscription : 
 
 "Here rests a Birth of the love of God, Peace- 
 ful, a Solitary, but who afterward became a 
 Superintendent of the Solitary Community of 
 Christ in and around Ephrata: born in Ober- 
 bach in the Palatinate, and named Conrad Beis- 
 sel. 
 
 "He fell asleep the 6th of July, A.D. 1768 : of 
 his spiritual life 52, but of his natural one, 77 
 years and 4 months." 
 
 The character of Beissel is thus spoken of by 
 Mr. Endress : 
 
 " He appears to me to have been a man pos- 
 sessed of a considerable degree of the spirit of 
 rule; his mind bent from the beginning upon 
 the acquirement of authority, power and as- 
 cendency." For ourselves, we have just seen 
 
 north of Ireland, who were settled at Paxton, felt a deadly 
 animosity against them, and, as Day says, against the peaceful 
 Moravians and Quakers, who wished to protect the Indians, 
 as the Paxton men thought, at the expense of the lives of the 
 settlers. The Paxton Eangers were commanded by the Pres- 
 byterian minister, the Kev. Colonel Elder. 
 
 Mr. Elder seems to have opposed the massacre of the 
 Indians at Lancaster by the " Paxton boys." 
 
 " No historian," says Day, "ought to excuse or justify the 
 murders at Lancaster and Conestoga. . . . They must ever 
 remain . . . dark and bloody spots in our provincial history."
 
 164 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 how he received the Count Zinzendorf, a reli- 
 gious nobleman, who had crossed the ocean, and 
 come, as it were, to his threshold. 
 
 Mr. Endress further says, 
 
 "Beissel, good or bad, lived and died the 
 master-spirit of the brotherhood. "With him it 
 sank into decay." 
 
 The British officer who wrote in 1786 (?), 
 eighteen years after Beissel's death, gives the 
 number of the celibates as seven rnen and five 
 women. 
 
 I do not consider him good authority ; but if 
 the numbers were so much reduced from those 
 of 1740, it seems probable that they had begun 
 to decline before the decease of Beissel.* 
 
 Eighteen years after BeissePs death, was pub- 
 lished atEphrata the Chronicle of which I have 
 so often spoken, giving an account of his life. 
 Beissel was succeeded by Peter Miller. 
 
 Miller was sixty-five when our Revolutionary 
 war broke out, and had been the leader at 
 Ephrata seven years. 
 
 Fahnestock says that after the battle of Bran- 
 dywirie " the whole establishment was opened 
 to receive the wounded Americans, great num- 
 bers of whom (Rupp says four or five hundred) 
 were brought here in wagons a distance of more 
 
 * See Carey's American Museum.
 
 EPHRA TA. 165 
 
 than forty miles, and one hundred and fifty of 
 whom died and are buried on Mt. Z'ton."* 
 
 It is also narrated that before the battle of 
 Germantown, a quantity of unbound books were 
 seized at Ephrata by some of our soldiers, in 
 order to make cartridges. " An embargo," 
 says Miller, "was laid on all our printed paper, 
 so that for a time we could not sell any printed 
 book." (See Carey's American Museum.) 
 
 A story has appeared in print, and not always 
 in the same manner, about Miller's going to 
 General Washington and receiving from him a 
 pardon for his old enemy Widman, who was 
 condemned to die. 
 
 This story Mr. Rupp thinks is based upon tra- 
 dition ; one version has been told in a glowing 
 manner, and is attributed to Dr. Fahnestock. 
 It runs thus. On the breaking out of the Rev- 
 olution, Committees of Safety were formed in 
 different districts to support our cause. At the 
 head of the Lancaster County Committee was 
 Michael Widman, who kept a public house, and 
 who had been a vestryman in the Reformed 
 Church. This church Miller had left when he 
 joined the Baptists. He persecuted Miller to a 
 shameful extent, even spitting in his face when 
 he met him. 
 
 * An insignificant hill overlooking the meadow where the 
 Brother- and Sister-houses now stand. 
 15
 
 166 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Widman was at first bold and active in the 
 cause of Independence, but he became discour- 
 aged, and resolved to go to Philadelphia and 
 conciliate General Howe, the British commander, 
 who then held that city. Howe, however, de- 
 clined his services,* but gave orders to see him. 
 safely beyond the British outposts. 
 
 His treasonable intentions having become 
 known to the Americans, he was arrested and 
 taken to the nearest block-house, at the Turk's 
 Head, now Westchester; was tried by court- 
 martial, and sentenced to be hung. 
 
 Peter Miller, hearing of his arrest, went to 
 General Washington and pleaded for mercy to- 
 wards him. The general answered that the state 
 of public affairs was such as to make it necessary 
 that renegades should suffer, " otherwise I should 
 most cheerfully release your friend." 
 
 "Friend!" exclaimed Miller: "he is my worst 
 enemy, my incessant reviler." 
 
 Said the general, "My dear friend, I thank 
 you for this example of Christian charity!" and 
 he granted Miller's petition. 
 
 It is not necessary for me to go further, and 
 describe the scene of Miller's arriving upon the 
 ground with the pardon just as Widman was to 
 be hung, nor the subsequent proceedings there, 
 for I am quite sure that they did not take place. 
 
 * A remarkable statement.
 
 EPHRATA. 167 
 
 The evidence to this effect is found in the 
 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. ix., where Peter 
 Miller writes to Secretary Matlack, interceding 
 (apparently) for a man named Rein. 
 
 Miller says, " I have thought his case was 
 similar to Michael Wittman's, who received 
 pardon without a previous trial." 
 
 The secretary replies (1781), "Witman did 
 not receive a pardon previous to a surrender." 
 
 Thus it seems that the story of Widman's 
 trial by court-martial is also* wrong. That his 
 property was confiscated, as I was lately told at 
 Ephrata, I have no reason to doubt, as the Colo- 
 nial Records, vol. xii., show that in council, in 
 1779, it was resolved that the agents for forfeited 
 estates should sell that of Michael Wittman, sub- 
 ject to a certain claim.* 
 
 At Ephrata, during the past winter, I stood 
 in the loft of the Brother-house beside a great 
 chimney of wood and clay, and was told that 
 here Widman had been hidden. Whether he 
 actually concealed himself in the Brother-house, 
 as has been narrated, I do not find that history 
 declares. 
 
 At a subsequent date, 1783, we find in the 
 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. ix., that Miller in- 
 tercedes for certain Mennonites who had been 
 
 * The different modes of spelling the above name will not 
 surprise those who are familiar with our Pennsylvania Gor- 
 man names.
 
 168 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 fined for not apprehending British deserters ; 
 the Mennonites not being permitted by their 
 principles to do so. 
 
 Does this mean deserters from ourselves to 
 the British? who were, as deserters, liable to 
 the punishment of death ? a punishment which 
 the Mennonites, as non-resistants, could not 
 inflict. 
 
 Certain letters of Peter Miller, published in 
 Hazard's Register, and of which I have made 
 considerable use, were written at an advanced 
 age, eighty or thereabout. He says in one of 
 them (Dec., 1790), " Age, infirmity, and defect 
 in sight are causes that the letter wants more 
 perspicuity, for which I beg pardon." 
 
 He died about six years after, having lived 
 some sixty years a member of the community 
 at Ephrata. 
 
 Upon his tombstone was placed this inscrip- 
 tion in German: 
 
 "Here lies buried Peter Miller, born in Ober- 
 ampt Lautern, in the Palatinate (Chur-Pfalz) ; 
 came as a Reformed preacher to America in the 
 year 1730 ; was baptized by the Community at 
 Ephrata in the year 1735, and named Brother 
 Jaebez ; also he was afterward a preacher (Leh- 
 rer) until his end. He fell asleep the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, 1796, at the age of eighty-six years and 
 nine months." 
 
 In the plain upon the banks of the Cocalico
 
 EPHRATA. 169 
 
 still stand the Brother- and Sister-houses,* and, 
 I was told in 1872, the houses of Conrad Beissel 
 and of Peter Miller. 
 
 But the society is feeble in numbers, and the 
 buildings are going to decay. They are still, 
 however, occupied, or partly so. Several women 
 live here. Some of these were never married, 
 but the majority are widows ; and not all of them 
 are members of the Baptist congregation. Nor 
 are the voices of children wanting. 
 
 The last celibate brother died some forty years 
 ago. One, indeed, has been here since, but, as I 
 was told, " he did not like it," and went to the 
 more flourishing community of Snow Hill, in 
 Franklin County. 
 
 The little Ephrata association (which still owns 
 a farm), instead of supporting its unmarried mem- 
 bers, now furnishes to them only house-rent, fuel, 
 and flour. The printing-press long since ceased 
 from its labors, and many of the other industrial 
 pursuits have declined. 
 
 No longer do the unmarried or celibate mem- 
 bers own all the property, but it is now vested in 
 all who belong to the meeting, single and married, 
 and is in the hands of trustees. The income is, I 
 presume, but small. 
 
 The unmarried members wear our usual dress, 
 and none are strictly recluse. 
 
 * Not the buildings first erected. 
 15*
 
 170 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 Formerly a large room or chapel was connected 
 with the Brother-house. It was furnished with 
 galleries, where sat the sister^ while the brethren 
 occupied the floor below. This building, I am 
 told, is not standing. In the smaller room or 
 chapel (Saal) connected with the Sister-house, 
 about twenty people meet on the Seventh day 
 for public worship. But among all these changes 
 the German language still remains ! All the ser- 
 vices that I heard while attending here in Feb- 
 ruary of 1872, were in that tongue, except two 
 hymns at the close. "We must not suppose that 
 this language is employed because the mem- 
 bers are natives of Germany. One or two may 
 be, but the preacher's father or grandfather came 
 to this country when a boy. 
 
 Around the meeting-room are hung charts or 
 sheets of grayish paper, containing German verses 
 in ornamental writing, the ancient labors of the 
 celibates, or perhaps of the sisters alone. One 
 small chart here is said to represent the three 
 heavens, and to contain three hundred figures in 
 Capuchin dress, with harps in their hands, and 
 two hundred archangels. 
 
 But for these old labors in pen and ink, the 
 chapel is as plain as a Quaker meeting-house, 
 and is kept beautifully clean.* 
 
 * It may be observed how nearly this description of the 
 chapel agrees with that given by the British officer of the 
 one he visited here some eighty-five years ago.
 
 EPHRATA. 171 
 
 Opening out of it is a kitchen, furnished with 
 the apparatus for cooking and serving the simple 
 repasts of the love- feasts. 
 
 Among these Baptists, love-feasts are held not 
 only, as I understand, in a similar manner to 
 the other Dunkers, but upon funeral occasions, 
 a short period after the interment of a brother 
 or sister. 
 
 Hupp speaks of their eating lamb and mutton 
 at their Paschal feasts. In the old monastic time, 
 it was only at love-feasts that the celibate Bro- 
 thers and Sisters met. 
 
 Here was I shown a wooden goblet made by 
 the brethren for the Communion. It has been 
 said that they preferred to use such, even after 
 more costly ones had been given to them. 
 
 After attending the religious services in the 
 chapel, three or four of us strangers were sup- 
 plied with dinner in the Brother-house, at a neat 
 and well-tilled table.* 
 
 I afterward sat for an hour in the neat and com- 
 fortable apartment of Sister in the Sister- 
 house. Here she has lived twenty-two years, and, 
 though now much advanced in life, has not that 
 appearance. She seemed lovely, and, I was told, 
 had not been unsought. 
 
 * Fahnestock says that, like some dilapidated castles, Ephrata 
 yet contains many habitable and comfortable apartments. The 
 Brother- and Sister-houses, etc., form but a small part of the 
 modern village of Ephrata.
 
 172 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 One of her brothers has been thirty-three 
 years at the Snow Hill community. 
 
 Sister produced for me a white cotton 
 
 over-dress, such as was formerly worn by the 
 Sisters. It was a cap or cowl, with long pieces 
 hanging down in front and behind nearly to the 
 feet; and, if I remember it right, not of the pat- 
 tern described in the Chronicle. But fashions 
 change in fifty to a hundred years. 
 
 Sister also showed me some verses re- 
 cently written or copied by one of the brethren 
 at Snow Hill. They were in German, of which 
 I offer an uurhymed version : 
 
 " Oh divine life, ornament of virginity 1 
 How art thou despised by all men here below! 
 And yet art a branch from the heavenly throne, 
 And borne by the virgin Son of God." 
 
 I was surprised to find such prominence still 
 given to the idea of the merits of celibacy, for I 
 had not then seen the Chronicon Ephratense. 
 
 One object which especially attracted my at- 
 tention was an upright clock, which stood in the 
 
 room of Sister , and which was kept in nice 
 
 order. It was somewhat smaller than the high 
 clocks that were common forty or fifty years ago. 
 
 All that I heard of its history was that it had 
 come from Germany. It had four weights sus- 
 pended on chains. Above the dial-plate hovered 
 two little angels, apparently made of lead, one
 
 EPHRATA. 173 
 
 on either side of a small disk, which bore the 
 inscription " Hoeckers a Creveld," as I interpret, 
 made by the Hoeckers at Crefeld. Crefeld, 
 historic town ! Here then was a relic of it, and 
 standing quite disregarded, it was only an old 
 German clock. 
 
 When the Bunkers were persecuted in Europe, 
 soon after their establishment, some of them took 
 refuge in Crefeld, in the duchy of Cleves. 
 
 I have lately read that in Crefeld, Muhlheim, 
 etc., William Penn and others gained adherents 
 to the doctrine of the Quakers.* 
 
 We also find in the American Cyclopaedia that 
 at Crefeld (German, Krefeld), a colony of Hugue- 
 not refugees in the seventeenth century intro- 
 duced the manufacture of silk. The town is now 
 in Rhenish Prussia (says the Cyclopaedia). D lin- 
 kers, Quakers, Huguenots, fleeing perhaps from 
 France when Louis XIV. revoked that edict of 
 Nantes, which had so long protected them ! 
 
 Who were the Heckers, or who was the 
 Hoecker, that made this old clock ? Who bought 
 it in historic Crefeld ? Who brought it from 
 Europe, got it up into Lancaster County, and 
 lodged it in the monastery or nunnery at Ephrata? 
 What, if anything, had Ludwig Hoecker or Bro- 
 ther Obed to do with it ? What tales could it not 
 
 * See article " Francis Daniel Pastorius," by Dr. Seiden- 
 sticker, in the Penn Monthly, January and February, 1872.
 
 174 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 tell! But it is well cared for in the comfortable 
 apartment of the kindly sister. 
 
 The Snow-Hill settlement, I presume, is named 
 from the family of Snowberger (Schneeberger?), 
 one of whom endowed the society. It is situated 
 at Antietam, Franklin County, Pennsylvania; 
 where a large farm belongs to "the nunnery" 
 (to quote an expression that I heard at Ephrata). 
 There were, until lately, five Sisters and four 
 brothers at Antietam, but one of the Brethren 
 recently died. 
 
 The Brethren have sufficient occupation in 
 taking care of their property ; the Sisters keep 
 house, eating in the same apartment at the same 
 time with the Brothers. Under these circum- 
 stances I could imagine the comfort and order 
 of the establishment, and think of the Brothers 
 and Sisters meeting in a cool and shaded dining- 
 room. What question then should I be likely 
 to ask ? This one : " Do they never marry ?" 
 
 I was told that marriages between the Brothers 
 and Sisters are not unknown ; but I also under- 
 stood that such a thing is considered backsliding. 
 
 Persons thus married remain members of the 
 church, but must leave the community, and find 
 support elsewhere.* 
 
 * Mr. Endress tells us that with many of the single Breth- 
 ren and Sisters at Ephrata, the mystical idea of the union with 
 Christ was evidently used to gratify one of the strongest natural 
 affectious of the human heart. " The Ecdeemer was their
 
 E PER ATA. 175 
 
 In an article by Redmond Conyngham (Haz. 
 Reg., vol. v.) will be found the statement that 
 the " President of the Bunkers" says, 
 
 "We deny eternal punishment; those souls 
 who become sensible of God's great goodness 
 and clemency, and acknowledge his lawful au- 
 thority, .... and that Christ is the only 
 true Son of God, are received into happiness; 
 but those who continue obstinate are kept in 
 darkness until the Great Day, when light will 
 make all happy." .According to Dr. Fahnestock, 
 however, the idea of a universal restoration, 
 which existed in the early days, is not now pub- 
 licly taught. 
 
 The observance of the seventh day as a Sab- 
 bath must always be onerous, in a community 
 like ours. Hired people are not required by the 
 Siebentaeger (or Seventh-day men) to work on 
 Saturday ; and, unless of their own persuasion, 
 will not work on Sunday. 
 
 It has been said that the customs at Ephrata 
 resembled the Judaic ones; and Eudress says 
 
 bridegroom or bride. . . . He was the little infant they 
 carried under their hearts, the dear little lamb they dandled 
 on their laps." 
 
 He adds that this at least was found much more among the 
 single than among those whose affections were consecrated in 
 a conjugal life. " The powers of human nature would evince 
 their authority." "According to Sangmeister, some sank 
 under the unceasing struggle." See Hazard's Register, 1830.
 
 176 "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH." 
 
 that they consider baptism similar to purification 
 in the Mosaic law, as a rite which may be re- 
 peated from time to time when the believer has 
 become defiled by the world, and would again 
 renew his union with Christ. 
 
 But Miller says (1790), " Our standard is the 
 New Testament."* 
 
 Fahnestock says that they do not approve of 
 paying their ministers ; and it seems that the 
 women, or at least the single Sisters, are at liberty 
 to speak in religious meetings. 
 
 In the correspondence of one of our Lancaster 
 papers of 1871, there was given the following 
 account: "Ephrata, May 21. The Society of 
 the Seventh-Day Baptists held their semi-annual 
 love-feast yesterday, when one new member was 
 added to the Society by immersion. In the even- 
 ing the solemn feast of the Lord's Supper was 
 celebrated, the occasion attracting a large con- 
 course of people, only about half of whom 
 could obtain seats. The conduct of a number 
 of persons on the outside was a disgrace to an 
 intelligent community." 
 
 The article also mentions preachers as present 
 from Bedford, Franklin, and Somerset Counties. 
 However, the whole number of the Seventh-Day 
 German Baptists, in our State, is very small. 
 
 * Upon this subject of the New Testament as a creed, etc., 
 all or nearly all our German Baptist sects seem to unite.
 
 EPHRA TA, 177 
 
 [NoxE. Since this article was written, the author 
 has heard what is the present location of the bell 
 which was ordered from Europe by Eckerlin, Brother 
 Onesimus, and which caused so much dissension in 
 the little Ephrata Community when it arrived in the 
 year 1T45. 
 
 This bell was sold, as has been before stated, to 
 the Lutherans of Lancaster. It was long in use upon 
 Trinity Lutheran Church, but was afterwards sold to 
 one of the fire-engine or hose companies of Lancaster, 
 and is still in use, and in good preservation, bearing 
 upon it the Latin inscription, with the name of the 
 " reverend man" Onesimus. 
 
 Is there an older bell in use upon this continent ?J 
 
 16
 
 A FRIEND. 
 
 ABOUT twenty miles from the State line that 
 divides Maryland and Pennsylvania, there stands, 
 in the latter State, a retired farm-house, which 
 was erected more than fifty years ago by Samuel 
 Wilson, a Quaker of Quakers. 
 
 His was a character so rare in its quaintness 
 and its nobility, that it might serve as a theme 
 for a pen more practiced and more skillful than 
 the one that now essays to portray it. 
 
 Samuel Wilson was by nature romantic. When 
 comparatively young, he made a pedestrian tour 
 to the Falls of Niagara, stopping upon his return 
 journey, and hiring with a farmer to recruit his 
 exhausted funds; and when he had passed his 
 grand climacteric, the enthusiasm of his friend- 
 ship for the young, fair, and virtuous, still showed 
 the poetic side of his character. 
 
 Veneration induced him to cherish the relics 
 
 of his ancestry, not only the genealogical tree, 
 
 which traced the Wilsons back to the time of 
 
 William Penn, and the marriage certificates of 
 
 (118)
 
 A FRIEND. 179 
 
 his father and grandfather, according to the reg- 
 ular order of the Society of Friends, but such 
 more humble and familiar heirlooms as the tall 
 eight-day clock, and the high bookcase upon a 
 desk and chest of drawers, that had been his 
 father's, as well as the strong kitchen-chairs and 
 extremely heavy fire-irons of his grandfather. 
 
 To this day there stands at the end of the 
 barn, near the Wilson farm-house, a stone taken 
 from one of the buildings erected by Samuel's 
 father, and preserved as an heirloom. Upon it 
 the great-grandchildren read nearly the follow- 
 ing inscription : 
 
 " James Wilson, ejus manus scripsit. Deborah 
 Wilson, 5 mo. 23d, 1757." 
 
 Samuel Wilson, having been trained from his 
 earliest years to that plainness of speech in 
 which the Discipline requires that Friends bring 
 up those under their care, not only discarded 
 in speaking the simple titles in use in common 
 conversation, but did not himself desire to be 
 addressed as Mr. Wilson. 
 
 A colored woman, the wife of one of his 
 tenants, said that he refused to answer her when 
 she thus spoke to him. 
 
 A pleasant euphemism was generally employed 
 by these people in addressing him. He and his 
 wife were "Uncle Samuel" and "Aunt Anna" 
 to their numerous dependents. 
 
 The apparel of Samuel and Anna was of the
 
 180 -A FRIEND. 
 
 strict pattern of their own religious sect. To 
 employ a figure of speech, it was the " weddiug- 
 garment," without which, at that time and place, 
 they would not have become elders in their so- 
 ciety, and thus been entitled to sit with minis- 
 ters, etc., upon the rising seats that faced the rest 
 of the meeting. But the plainness of Uncle 
 Samuel was not limited to the fashion of his own 
 garments. 
 
 When Aunt Anna had made for her son a suit 
 of domestic cloth, dyed brown with the hulls of 
 the black walnut, and had arrayed him in his 
 new clothes, of which the trousers were made 
 roomy behind, or, as the humorist says, " baggy 
 in the reverse," she looked upon him with 
 maternal pride and fondness, and exclaimed, 
 " There's my son !" 
 
 For this ejaculation she was not only reproved 
 at the time by her husband, but in after-years, 
 whenever he heard her, as he thought, thus fos- 
 tering in the mind of their dear child pride in 
 external appearance, he repeated the expression, 
 " There's my son !" which saying conveyed a 
 volume of reproof. 
 
 From this and other circumstances of the 
 kind, it may be supposed that Friend Wilson 
 was a cold or bitter ascetic. But he possessed a 
 vein of humor, and could be gently and pleas- 
 antly rallied when he seemed to run into ex- 
 tremes. But, though his intellect was good, the
 
 A FRIEND. 181 
 
 moral sentiments predominated in his character. 
 His head was lofty and arched. 
 
 His wants were very few; he possessed an 
 ample competence, and he had no ambition to 
 enter upon the fatiguing chase after riches. He 
 disliked acquisitive men as much as the latter 
 despised him. " I want so little for myself," he 
 said, " I think that I might be allowed to give 
 something away." 
 
 Sometimes but rarely a little abruptness was 
 seen in his behavior. He had the manners of a 
 gentleman by birth, tender and true, open to 
 melting charity, thinking humbly of himself, and 
 respecting others. 
 
 The vein of humor to which I have alluded 
 prompted the reply which he made on a certain 
 occasion to a mechanic or laboring-man em- 
 ployed in his own family. In this section of 
 Lancaster County, the farming population is 
 composed principally of a laborious and in 
 some respects a humble-minded people, who sit 
 at table and eat with their hired people of both 
 sexes. 
 
 The same custom was pursued by Samuel and 
 Anna; but, as their hired people were mostly 
 colored, they sometimes offended the prejudices 
 or tastes of many who were not accustomed to 
 this equality of treatment, which was maintained 
 by several families of Friends. The white hired 
 man to whom I have alluded, when he perceived 
 16*
 
 182 ^ FRIEND. 
 
 who were seated at the table, hesitated or refused 
 to sit down among them. As soon as Samuel was 
 conscious of the difficulty, for which, indeed, his 
 mind was not unprepared, he thus spoke aloud 
 to his wife : " Anna, will thee set a plate at that 
 other table for this stranger ? He does not want 
 to sit down with us." And his request was 
 quietly obeyed. The man who was thus set apart 
 probably became tired of this peculiar seclusion, 
 for he did not stay long at the Quaker homestead. 
 
 I think that Samuel was also in a humorous 
 mood when he called that unpretending instru- 
 ment, the accordeon, from which his daughter- 
 in-law was striving one evening to draw forth 
 musical sounds, " Mary's fiddle." 
 
 Indeed, he left the house and went to call upon 
 a neighbor, so greatly did he partake of that 
 prejudice which was felt by most Friends against 
 music. 
 
 The Discipline asks whether Friends are punc- 
 tual to their promises; and (to quote a very 
 different work) Fielding tells us that Squire All- 
 worthy was not only careful to keep his greater 
 engagements, but remembered also his promises 
 to visit his friends. 
 
 Anna Wilson on one occasion having thought- 
 lessly made such a promise, as, indeed, those 
 in society frequently do when their friends say, 
 " Come and see us," was often reminded of it 
 in after-years by her husband. When he heard
 
 A FRIEND. 183 
 
 her lightly accepting such invitations, he would 
 humorously reprove her by saying in private, 
 " When is thee going to see Benjamin Smith ?" 
 the neighbor to whom the ancient promise was 
 still unfulfilled. 
 
 The hospitality which the Scriptures enjoin 
 was practiced to a remarkable degree by Samuel 
 and Anna. It has always been customary in 
 their Religious Society to entertain Friends who 
 come from a distance to attend meetings, and 
 those traveling as preachers, etc. But the Wilson 
 homestead was a place of rest and entertainment 
 for many more than these. It stood not far from 
 the great highway laid out by William Penn 
 from Philadelphia westward, and here called the 
 " Old Road." Friends traveling westward in 
 their own conveyance would stop and refresh 
 themselves and their horses at the hospitable 
 mansion, and would further say to their own 
 friends, " Thee'd better stop at Samuel Wilson's. 
 Tell him I told thee to stop." But a further and 
 greater extent of hospitality I shall mention 
 hereafter. 
 
 The Discipline asks whether Friends are care- 
 ful to keep those under their charge from per- 
 nicious books and from the corrupt conversation 
 of the world; and I have heard that Samuel 
 Wilson was grieved when his son began to go to 
 the post-office and take out newspapers. Hith- 
 erto the principal periodical that came to the
 
 184 A FRIEND. 
 
 house was The Genius of Universal Emancipation, 
 a little paper issued by that pioneer, Benjamin 
 Lundy, who was born and reared in the Society 
 of Friends. It does not appear, however, that 
 the class of publications brought from the little 
 village post-office to the retired farm-house were 
 of the class usually called pernicious. They were 
 The Liberator, The Emancipator, and others of the 
 same class. 
 
 Samuel himself became interested in them, 
 but never to the exclusion of the " Friends' 
 Miscellany," a little set of volumes containing 
 religious anecdotes of Friends. These volumes 
 were by him highly prized and frequently read. 
 
 It has been said that he was a humorist; and 
 perhaps he was partly jesting when he suggested 
 that his infant grand-daughter should be named 
 Tabitha. The mother of the little one, on her 
 part, brought forward the name Helen. 
 
 " Ile-len !" the grandfather broke out in reply ; 
 " does thee know who she was ?" thus expressing 
 his antipathy to the character of the notorious 
 beauty of Greece. He did not insist, however, 
 on endowing the precious newly-born infant with 
 that peculiar name, which is by interpretation 
 Dorcas, the name of her who, in apostolic times, 
 was full of good works and alms-deeds. 
 
 Friend Wilson shared the Quaker disregard 
 for the great holidays of the Church. To the 
 colored people who surrounded him, who had
 
 A FRIEND. 185 
 
 been brought up at the South, where Christmas 
 is so great a festival, where it was so great a 
 holiday for them especially, it must have been a 
 sombre change to live in a family where the day 
 passed nearly like other working-days. One of 
 the colored men, however, who had started at 
 the time of the great festival to take *Christmas, 
 was seen, before long, coming back ; " for," 
 said he, " Massa Wilson don't 'prove on't no- 
 how." 
 
 Among the lesser peculiarities of Samuel 
 Wilson was his objection to having his picture 
 taken, an objection, however, which is felt to 
 this day by some strict people belonging to other 
 religious societies, but probably on somewhat 
 different grounds. 
 
 One who warmly loved and greatly respected 
 Friend Wilson took him once to the rooms of 
 an eminent daguerreotypist, hoping that while 
 he engaged the venerable man in looking at the 
 objects around the room, the artist might be 
 able to catch a likeness. But Samuel suspected 
 some artifice, and no picture was taken. Some 
 time after, however, the perseverance of his 
 friend was rewarded by obtaining an excellent 
 oil-painting of the aged man, from whom a re- 
 luctant consent to sit for his likeness had at 
 length been obtained. It was remarked, how- 
 ever, that the expression of the face in the paint- 
 ing was sorrowful, as if the honorable man was
 
 186 A FRIEND. 
 
 grieved at complying with a custom which he 
 had .long stigmatized as idolatrous* as idolatry 
 of the perishing body. 
 
 Although at the time of the great division in 
 the Society of Friends Samuel Wilson had de- 
 cidedly taken the part of Elias Hicks, yet was 
 he seldom or never heard to discuss those ques- 
 tions of dogmatic theology which some have 
 thought were involved in that contest. 
 
 Samuel probably held, with many others of his 
 Society, that the highest and surest guide which 
 man possesses here is that Light which has been 
 said to illumine every man that comes into the 
 world; that next in importance is a rightly 
 inspired gospel ministry, and afterward the 
 Scriptures of truth. One evening, when certain 
 mechanics in his employ were resting from their 
 labors in the old-fashioned kitchen, he fell into 
 conversation with them on matters of religion, 
 and shocked one of his family, as he entered the 
 sitting-room, by a sudden declaration of opinion. 
 It was probably the uncommon warmth of his 
 manner which produced this effect, quite as much 
 as or more than the words that he spoke, which 
 were about as follows : " There's no use talking 
 about it; the only religion in the world that's 
 worth anything is what makes men (Jo what is 
 right and leave off' doing what is wrong." 
 
 As far as was possible for one with so much 
 fearless independence of thought and action,
 
 A FRIEND. 187 
 
 Samuel Wilson maintained the testimony of 
 Friends against war. Not only did he suffer his 
 corn to be seized in the field rather than pay 
 voluntarily the military taxes of the last war with 
 Great Britain, but he went to what may appear 
 to some a laughable extreme, in forbidding his 
 young son's going to the turnpike to see the 
 grand procession which was passing near their 
 house, escorting General Lafayette on his last 
 visit to this country. He was not, however, alone 
 in this. I have heard of other decided Friends 
 who declined to swell the ovation to a man who 
 was especially distinguished as a military hero. 
 But we shall see hereafter that Friend Wilson 
 met with circumstances which tried his non-re- 
 sistant opinions further than they would bear. 
 
 The distinctive trait of his character, however, 
 that trait which made him exceptional, was 
 his attachment to the people of color. It was in 
 entertaining fugitives from slavery that he showed 
 the wide hospitality already referred to; and in 
 this active benevolence he was excelled by few 
 in our country. He inherited from his father this 
 love of man; but I have imagined that the hos- 
 tility to slavery was made broad and deep in his 
 soul by removing, with the rest of his family, in 
 his youth, from Pennsylvania into Delaware, and 
 seeing the bondage which was suffered by col- 
 ored people in the latter State contrasted with 
 what he had seen in the former. Be that as it
 
 188 A FRIEND. 
 
 may, no sooner was he a householder than his 
 door was ever open to those who were escaping 
 from the South, coming by stealth and in dark- 
 ness, having traveled in the Slave States from the 
 house of one free negro to another, and in Penn- 
 sylvania from Quaker to Quaker, until in later 
 times the hostility to slavery increased in our 
 community so far that others became agents of 
 this underground railroad, and other routes were 
 opened. 
 
 "When the Wilson family came down in the 
 morning, they saw standing around these strange 
 sable or yellow travelers (" strangers," they were 
 called in the family), who, having arrived during 
 the night, had been received by some wakeful 
 member of the household. 
 
 "What feelings filled the hearts of the exiles ! 
 Alone, at times, having left all that they had 
 ever loved of persons or of places, fearful, tired, 
 foot-sore, throwing themselves upon the charity 
 and the honor of a man unknown to them save 
 by name and the direction which they had re- 
 ceived to him, as one trustworthy. 
 
 Sometimes they came clothed in the undyed 
 woolen cloth that showed so plainly to one ex- 
 perienced in the matter the region of its manu- 
 facture, the heavy, strong cloth which had de- 
 lighted the wearer's heart when he received the 
 annual Christmas suit with which his master 
 furnished him, but which was now too peculiar
 
 A FRIEND. 189 
 
 and too striking for him to safely wear. "Women 
 and children came too, and sometimes in consid- 
 erable numbers. 
 
 When they had eaten and partaken of the 
 necessary repose, they would communicate to 
 Friend Wilson, in a secure situation, some par- 
 ticulars of their former history, especially the 
 names and residences of the masters from whom 
 they had escaped. 
 
 Some years after he had begun to entertain 
 these strangers, Friend Wilson commenced a 
 written record of those who came to him, and 
 whence and from whom they had escaped. This 
 list is estimated to have finally contained between 
 five and six hundred names. 
 
 The next care was to bestow new titles upon 
 the fugitives, that they might never be known 
 by their former names to the pursuer and the 
 betrayer. 
 
 From what has been already said, it may be 
 supposed that these names were not always se- 
 lected for their euphony or aesthetic associations. 
 One tall, finely-built yellow man, who trembled 
 when he was questioned in the sitting-room, lest 
 his conversation about his old home and the 
 free wife whom he longed to have brought to him, 
 should be overheard in the kitchen, expressed 
 to me his dissatisfaction with his new name 
 Simon. " I never knowed anybody named that," 
 he said. His beautiful bright wife bright in 
 
 n
 
 190 A FRIEND. 
 
 the colored sense that is, bright-colored, or 
 nearly white was secretly and safely brought to 
 him, and nursed him through that fatal disease 
 which made him of no value in the man-market, 
 the market which had been the great horror of 
 his life. The particulars Friend Wilson collected 
 concerning his humble charge the venerable 
 man entered in his day-book, in a place specially 
 assigned to them. If this record were still ex- 
 isting, I should, perhaps, be able to tell what 
 name the fortunate and unfortunate Simon had 
 been obliged to renounce. This record, how- 
 ever, is lost, as I shall mention hereafter. If the 
 services of any of these fugitives were needed, 
 within-doors or without, and the master's pur- 
 suit was not supposed to be imminent, they were 
 detained for awhile, or perhaps became perma- 
 nent residents in the neighborhood; otherwise, 
 they were forwarded at night to Friends living 
 nearer Philadelphia. Of these, two other families 
 willing to receive the poor exiles lived about 
 twelve miles farther on. 
 
 The house and farm were generally pretty 
 well stocked with colored people, who were a 
 wonder to the neighbors of the Wilson family; 
 for these were in a great measure "Pennsylvania 
 Dutch," a people anxious to do as much work 
 with their own hands and by the hands of their 
 own family as possible, in order to avoid expense. 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that, although
 
 A FRIEND. 191 
 
 Samuel Wilson during thirty years or more 
 entertained the humble strangers, and although 
 he received so large a number, only one of them 
 was seized upon his "plantation" and taken 
 back to slavery. This was owing partly to the 
 secluded situation of his house, and partly to the 
 prudence and discretion that he exercised. "He 
 was crafty," it has been said. 
 
 Neither did he suffer any legal expenses, such 
 as lawsuits, from the slaveholders who came in 
 pursuit of their fleeing bondmen. Two friends 
 who lived not far from him, and who prosecuted 
 kidnappers, had their barns burned, and others, 
 of whom he had knowledge, suffered great pe- 
 cuniary loss in consequence of their assisting 
 runaway slaves. He, however, limited his care 
 to receiving, entertaining, and forwarding those 
 who came to him in person, and never under- 
 took any measures of offense, any border raids, 
 so to speak, such as sending into Maryland and 
 Virginia for the relatives and friends of fugitives 
 who were still living in those States as slaves. 
 The one person of whom I have spoken, who 
 was recaptured from the Wilson farm, was a 
 young girl of fifteen or sixteen. Samuel and 
 Anna were absent from home at the time, gone 
 on a little journey, such as they frequently took, 
 to attend their own monthly and quarterly meet- 
 ings; assisting to preserve the discipline and 
 order of the Society of Friends. The men who
 
 192 A FRIEND. 
 
 came in pursuit of the young girl told her that 
 her friends, who had run away too, had con- 
 cluded to go back South again ; and the poor 
 child, under these circumstances, could hardly 
 do anything but go with the beguilers; not, 
 however, to find the friends whom she expected. 
 
 There was also a man who was very near being 
 taken, a man who had "come away," to use 
 the brief euphemism sometimes employed in the 
 "Wilson family in speaking of fugitives from 
 slavery. He escaped by having gone down the 
 creek or adjacent mill-stream to set his muskrat- 
 traps. This creek where it ran by the house was 
 well wooded ; therefore the colored man, looking 
 up to the house, could see the white strangers 
 without being seen himself. With what trem- 
 bling did he see that they were persons whom 
 he "knowed in Murrland," as he expressed it! 
 However, the friendly woods sheltered him, 
 while Samuel at the house was talking with the 
 slaveholder or his agents, kidnappers, as the 
 Wilsons called them. 
 
 The men told Samuel that they had come after 
 a runaway nigger, black, five feet ten inches 
 high, lost one of his front teeth, etc. To this 
 description Friend Wilson listened in silence. I 
 do not know what he would have done had he 
 been directly questioned by them, for the differ- 
 ent items suited him of the muskrats, the man 
 who had gone to the woods. But during Samuel's
 
 A FRIEXD. 193 
 
 continued silence they went on to say, "He's a 
 very ornary nigger ; no dependence to be placed 
 on him nohow." " There is no man here," re- 
 joined Samuel, greatly relieved, " that answers 
 the description." " We've very good reason to 
 think he came here," said one; "we got word 
 very direct; reckon he's lyin' around here. 
 Hain't there been no strange nigger here?" 
 
 " There was a colored man here, but he has 
 gone away; I don't know as he will ever come 
 back again." For, from the man's protracted ab- 
 sence, he doubtless had some idea of his having 
 seen his pursuers, and having sought shelter. 
 
 "Tell him that his master says that- if he will 
 only come back again, down to Baltimore county, 
 he sha'n't be whipped, nor sold, nor uuthiu', 
 but everything shall be looked over." 
 
 "I'll tell him what you say," said Samuel, "if 
 ever I see him again ; but," he added, regaining 
 his accustomed independence, " I'll tell him, too, 
 that if I wtis in his place I'd never go back to 
 you again." 
 
 The men left, and under cover of the friendly 
 night the fugitive sought a more secure hiding- 
 place. 
 
 There was one heroic black man in whom 
 Samuel Wilson felt an abiding interest. When 
 Jimmy Franklin told the tale of his perilous 
 escapes and recaptures in the States of Maryland, 
 North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 
 17*
 
 194 A FRIEND. 
 
 when he showed the shot still remaining in his 
 legs shot that had been fired ut him as he~ran, 
 and, working through to the front, were perceived 
 through the skin, like warts upon his legs, the 
 lads of the family looking and listening had their 
 sympathies enkindled in such a manner as could 
 never entirely die out. One of them, in after- 
 years, was asked : 
 
 "How does thee account for that man's per- 
 sistent love of freedom ? What traits of char- 
 acter did he possess that would account for his 
 doing so much more than others to escape from 
 the far South?" 
 
 " I don't know," was the reply, in the freedom 
 of familiar conversation. " What was the reason 
 that Fulton invented his steamboat ? or that Ba- 
 con wrote his System ? or that Napier invented 
 Logarithms? 
 
 " This man was agenius, a greater man, in his 
 way, than those I spoke of. If he had had edu- 
 cation, and had been placed in circumstances to 
 draw him out, he would have been the leader in 
 some great movement among men." 
 
 The narrative of James Franklin was taken 
 down by a dear friend of him whom I call Sam- 
 uel Wilson, but is supposed to have been burned 
 when the mob destroyed Pennsylvania Hall. 
 
 It was in relation to these fugitives that Sam- 
 uel sometimes forgot for awhile his strictly peace- 
 ful principles; for there were to be found among
 
 A FRIEND. 1<J5 
 
 the men of color those who could be induced to 
 betray to the pursuers their fugitive brethren, 
 giving such information as would lead to their 
 recapture; or, if they should escape this, to their 
 being obliged to abandon their resting-places 
 and to flee again for safety. 
 
 It was iu talking of some such betrayer that 
 Samuel Wilson said to his colored friends, 
 " What would you do with that man, if you had 
 him on Mill-Creek bridge?" (a lofty structure 
 by which the railroad crossed the adjacent 
 stream,) thus hinting at a swift mode of punish- 
 ment, and one that might possibly have been a 
 fatal one. 
 
 Though with an unskilled pen, yet have I en- 
 deavored to describe that quiet family, among 
 whom the fugitive-slave law of 1850 fell like a 
 blow. Samuel Wilson had ample opportunity 
 to study its provisions and its peculiarities from 
 the newspapers of which I have before spoken, 
 and from the conversation which these journals 
 called forth. 
 
 This horrible act gave the commissioner before 
 whom the colored man was tried five dollars 
 only if the man went free from the tribunal, 
 but ten dollars if he was sent into slavery. Hith- 
 erto, men had suffered in assisting the fugitive 
 to escape; now it was made a penal offense to 
 refuse to lend active assistance in apprehending 
 him.
 
 196 A F&IEND. 
 
 Friend Wilson had read much of fines and 
 imprisonment, having studied the sufferings of 
 the people called Quakers. (Even a lady of so 
 high a standing as she who became the wife of 
 George Fox was not exempt from many years' 
 imprisonment; nor from persecution at the hands 
 of her own son.) Friend Wilson was about 
 seventy-five years old when the fugitive-slave bill 
 was passed. In spite of his advanced years, how- 
 ever, after sorrowful reflection upon it, he said 
 to one of his household, " I have made up my 
 mind to go to jail." 
 
 That hospitality and chanty which had so 
 long been the rule of his life he was not now 
 prepared to forego through fear of any penalties 
 which human laws would inflict upon him. 
 
 It was while suffering from the infirmities of 
 advanced years, and from the solicitude which 
 this abominable enactment had called forth, that 
 Samuel destroyed the record which he had kept 
 for so many years of the slaves that had taken 
 refuge with him. This record was contained in 
 about forty pages of his clay-book, and these he 
 cut out and burned. How would they now be 
 prized had they not thus been lost ! 
 
 Samuel Wilson saw with the prophetic eye of 
 faith and hope, what he did not live to behold 
 in the flesh, the abolition of slavery. His mor- 
 tal remains repose beside the Quaker meeting-
 
 A FRIEND. 197 
 
 house where he so long ministered as an elder. 
 No monumental stone marks his humble resting- 
 place; but these simple lines of mine, that por- 
 tray a character so rare, may serve for an affec- 
 tionate memorial.
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 
 
 "WELL, Phebe, I guess thee did not expect 
 me this afternoon. Don't get up. I will jnst 
 lay my bonnet in the bedroom myself. Dinah 
 Paddock told me thy quilt was in ; so I came up 
 as soon as I could. Laid out in orange-peel ! I 
 always did like orange-peel. Dinah's was her- 
 ring-bone; and thine is filled with wool, and 
 plims up, and shows the works, as mother used 
 to say. I'll help thee roll before I sit down. 
 Now then. Days are long, and we'll try to do a 
 stroke of work, for thee's a branch quitter, I've 
 heard say. 
 
 " Jethro Mitchell stopped to see me this morn- 
 ing. They got home from Ohio last week, and 
 he says that Cousin Jemima Osborne's very bad 
 with typhoid fever. Poor Jemima! It had been 
 pretty much through the family, and after nurs- 
 ing the rest she was taken 'down. I almost know 
 she has no one tit to take care of her, only 
 Samuel and the three boys, and maybe some 
 hired girl that has all the housework to do. 
 (198)
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 199 
 
 The neighbors will be very kind, to be sure, sit- 
 ting up at night; but there's been so much sick- 
 ness in that country lately. 
 
 " Jemima was Uncle Brown Coffin's daughter, 
 thee knows, who used to live down at Sandwich, 
 on the Cape, when thee and I w T ere girls. She 
 always came to Nantucket to Quarterly Meeting 
 with. Uncle Brown arid Aunt Judith ; and folks 
 used to say she wasn't a bit of a coof, if she was 
 born on the Cape. When Samuel and she were 
 married, they asked me and Gorham Hussey to 
 stand up with them. Jemima looked very pretty 
 in her lavender silk and round rosy cheeks. 
 When meeting was over, she whispered to me 
 that there was a wasp or bee under her neck- 
 handkerchief that had stung her while she was 
 saying the ceremony. But I don't think any- 
 body perceived it, she was so quiet. Poor dear! 
 I seem to see her now on a sick-bed and a rolling 
 pillow. 
 
 " After my Edward died, I was so much alone 
 that I thought I couldn't bear it any longer, and 
 I must just get up and go to Ohio, as Samuel 
 and 'Mima had often asked me to. I stopped on 
 the way at Mary Cooper's at Beaver; and Mary's 
 son was joking a little about Cousin Samuel's 
 farming, and said he didn't quite remember 
 whether it was two or three fences that they had 
 to climb going from the house to the barnyard. 
 I told him that Samuel wasn't brought up to
 
 200 COUSIN JEMIMA. 
 
 farming; he bought land when he moved out 
 West. 
 
 "I found Jemima a good deal altered, now 
 that she had a grown family ; but we just began 
 where we left off, the same friendliness and 
 kindness. When I was in Ohio was just when 
 the English Friends, Jonathan and Hannah Pur- 
 ley, were in the country. We met them at Marl- 
 borough Quarterly Meeting. We were all to- 
 gether at William Smith's house, one of the 
 neatest of places, everything like waxwork, 
 with three such daughters at home. How they 
 worked to entertain Friends ! 
 
 " First-day a great many world's people were 
 at meeting on account of the strange Friends. 
 Meeting was very full, nearly as many out in 
 the yard as in the house. Very weighty remarks 
 were made by Jonathan and Hannah. She spoke 
 to my own state : ' Leave thy widows, and let 
 thy fatherless children trust in Me.' The meet- 
 ing was disturbed some by the young babies; 
 but we could hardly expect the mothers to stay 
 away. 
 
 " Second-day was Quarterly Meeting. Of 
 course the English Friends, being at William 
 Smith's, drew a great many others. We had 
 forty to dinner. One of William's daughters 
 stayed in the kitchen, one waited on the table, and 
 one sat down midway, where she could pass 
 everything, and wait on the Friends. It was in
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 201 
 
 the Eighth Month, and we had a bountiful tahle 
 of all the good things of that time of year, 
 vegetables and fruits too. William was a nur- 
 sery-man. 
 
 " There was a little disturbance at breakfast, 
 William's son a rather wild young man mak- 
 ing the young people laugh. We had fish, 
 mackerel, and little fresh fish out of the mill- 
 dam. I sat near the middle, and heard Friend 
 Smith at one end say to each, ' Will thee have 
 some of the mackerel, or some of these little 
 dam-fish ?' Then young William, at the other 
 end, spoke low to his friends : * Will thee have 
 some of the mackerel, or some of these dam 
 little fish?' But most of the young women 
 kept pretty serious countenances. When Quar- 
 terly Meeting was over, the English Friends 
 went out to Indiana, visiting meetings and 
 Friends' families, and I went back with Cousin 
 Samuels'. 
 
 "I was dreadfully disappointed once. One 
 evening Samuel and 'Mima and the rest of us 
 were sitting round the table, and Samuel put 
 his hand into his coat-pocket and drew out the 
 paper and two or three letters. As he read, I 
 noticed that one of the letters had not been 
 opened, and caught sight of my name Priscilla 
 Gardner ; so I put out my hand and took it. It 
 was from sister Mary, just as James and she 
 were starting for California. She told me that 
 18
 
 202 COUSIN JEMIMA. 
 
 they should stay in Pittsburgh over one night, 
 and she hoped I should be able to meet them 
 th ere and bid them a long farewell. But when 
 I looked again at the date of the letter, and 
 glanced at the paper that Samuel was reading, I 
 found that my letter was ten days old. The 
 time had gone by. Oh, dear ! I walked out into 
 the kitchen and stood by the stove, in the dark, 
 and cried. Some one came up behind me. Of 
 course it was Jemima. She kissed me, and 
 waited for me to speak. I gave her the letter, 
 and in about ten minutes I felt able to go back 
 to the sitting-room. When I sat down, Samuel 
 said, ' 'Mima tells me, Priscilla, that thee is 
 very much disappointed about thy letter. I had 
 on this coat when I went to the post-office a 
 week ago, and I didn't put it on again till to- 
 day. I hope thee'll excuse me. Thomas, my 
 son, will thee bring us some red-streaks ? I feel 
 as if I could eat a few apples.' 
 
 "I felt sorrowful for some time about my 
 sister; but my mind was diverted when we got 
 word that the English Friends were coming to 
 our Monthly Meeting on their way back from 
 Indiana ; and as we lived very near the meeting- 
 house, of course they would be at Samuel's. As 
 the time came near, Jemima and I were a good 
 deal interested to have things nice. They were 
 going to be at William Smith's again, where 
 every thing was so neat, and I felt very anxious
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 203 
 
 to make every thing in-doors, at Jemima's, as 
 neat as we could. 
 
 "In the sitting-room was one empty corner, 
 where the great rocking-chair ought to stand. It 
 was broken, and put away in the bedroom. I 
 wanted very much to have it mended; but it 
 seemed as if we could not get it to Salem. One 
 time the load would be too large, one time the 
 chair would be forgotten. At last one day it was 
 put in the back of the covered wagon, and fairly 
 started. When Samuel got home it was rather 
 late in the evening, and I heard him say to 
 'Mima, * Only think of my forgetting thy large 
 chair. I was late starting from home, thee 
 knows; and when I got to Salem there was a 
 good deal of talk about the war; and when I 
 got half-way home I remembered the big chair 
 in the back of the wagon. It can go in next 
 week.' "We did send it again, but it did not get 
 home before Monthly Meeting. 
 
 " Jemima had a very neat home-made carpet 
 on the sitting-room : she had a great taste for 
 carpets. As there had been some yards left, she 
 let me cover the front entry too, and her young- 
 est son Edward, a nice lad, helped me put it 
 down. A little colored girl, near by, rubbed up 
 the brass andirons for us, and Edward built up a 
 nice pile of wood ready to kindle the fire when 
 it was wanted. A good many panes of glass 
 had been broken, and as we had just had an
 
 204 COUSIN JEMIMA. 
 
 equinoctial storm, some old coats, and so on, 
 had been stuffed in at several places ; but we 
 managed to get most of the glass put in before 
 Monthly Meeting. 
 
 " When we had done all we could to the house, 
 of course we began to think of the cooking. 
 Jemima said, 'I sha'n't be able to get Mary 
 Pearson to come and cook : she is nursing. I 
 wonder whether I hadn't better heat the oven on 
 meeting-day. I can get the dinner in before I 
 go ; and then between meetings I can run over 
 and see to it. I shall hardly be missed. I can 
 slip in at the side-door of the meeting-house 
 before Mary Ann has done reading the Minutes.' 
 'Then thee will heat the oven?' said I. 'I 
 reckon,' she said; 'but it is only a mud oven. 
 Samuel has been talking for a good while about 
 having a brick oven. This one is not very safe.' 
 ' Suppose I make a little sponge-cake, and put 
 it in too,' said I. Til send for some sugar, if 
 thee is willing. Polly Evans used to call me a 
 dabster at sponge-cake.' 
 
 " Jemima was willing, and we began to get 
 ready to go to the store. Edward and the little 
 colored girl hunted the barn and the straw-shed, 
 and brought in a quantity of eggs. All could 
 not be sent, because we needed some at home, 
 and some had been set on, and some had lain 
 too long. Then Jemima sent to the garret for 
 brooms and rags, and spared a little butter, not
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 205 
 
 much, to be sure, when Monthly Meeting was 
 coming. I thought I might as well ride over with 
 Edward ; and when we had got coffee, and tea, 
 and so on, and were just starting home, I caught 
 sight of some lemons. I bought a few, and when 
 I got home asked Jemima if she would not like 
 some lemon-puddings. ' Thy apple-pies and rice- 
 puddings are nice, dear/ I said ; * but Hannah 
 Purley and Jonathan are such strangers, we 
 might go a little out of the common way.' Je- 
 mima smiled some at my being so anxious, but 
 agreed, as she generally did. 
 
 u Fourth-day morning we were up very early. 
 Jemima was going to roast some fowls and a 
 loin of veal. Edward and the little colored girl 
 helped me to beat eggs, grate lemons, and roll 
 sugar ; and every thing was ready for the oven 
 before the Friends came in from a distance, who 
 always stopped before meeting to get a cup of 
 tea. 
 
 " We had a nice little table for them, of course, 
 dried beef, preserves, and so on ; and one 
 woman Friend, a single woman, asked for a 
 warm flat-iron to press out her cap and hand- 
 kerchief. At last we were ready to start. Je- 
 mima had set every thing into the oven, which 
 stood out in the yard. She put the meats back, 
 and the cakes and puddings near the door, where 
 it was not so hot. ' The door isn't very safe,'
 
 206 COUSIN JEMIMA. 
 
 said she, * and I propped a stick against it to 
 keep it up. Don't let the dog knock it down, 
 Susan, while we are gone.' 
 
 " The day was beautiful ; all signs of the storm 
 over, except the roads a little muddy ; and as we 
 stepped over to the meeting-house Jemima whis- 
 pered, ' I am glad I told Susan to set both tables. 
 I think we shall have a good many to dinner. I 
 wanted cole-slaw, like Pennsylvania folks, but 
 the cows broke in last night and ate all the solid 
 cabbage.' She did not talk of these things gen- 
 erally going into meeting ; but our minds were 
 very full. 
 
 "First Meeting was rather long, for several 
 Friends spoke besides the strangers. "When it 
 broke, Jemima stepped out, and I quietly fol- 
 lowed her. We walked over to the house, and 
 round into the side-yard, going toward the oven. 
 But just as we had got into the yard we saw the 
 old sow. She had broken out of the barn-yard, 
 and had been wallowing in a pond of brown 
 water near the fence. Now she had knocked 
 down Jemima's stick, and as the door fell I 
 guess she smelt our good things, for she had her 
 fore-feet upon the oven floor. We ran and 
 screamed, but she did not turn. She made a 
 jump up to the oven, over my cakes and pud- 
 dings, the veal and chickens, and carried the 
 oven roof off with her. Oh, dear! oh, dear!
 
 COUSIN JEMIMA. 207 
 
 poor Jemima ! I could laugh too, if it wasn't so 
 dreadful." 
 
 Header. And what did they do then ? 
 
 Writer. The best that they could. I do won- 
 der at Jemima, poor thing, to undertake so much 
 on Monthly Meeting day. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 oictory. We should be glad to see this 
 
 book generally in the hands of the littlo 
 folks; it is written so clearly and plea* 
 antly that they will take to it readily. But 
 there are many grown folks also who 
 wouM be glad to know something mort 
 of botany than they do, but who have 
 neither time nor inclination for ponderoui 
 technical and scientific volumes. To the** 
 also we can heartily commend Mr. Bai'.v* 
 book." A'.)'. Even. Mail.
 
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 author of "Countess Gisela," "Gold Elsie," &c. Third edition. 
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 PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 Our Oivn Birds of the United States. A familiar 
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 rangement and system that will often make 
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 describes some twenty pastimes, all more 
 
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 or less intellectual, all provident of mirth. 
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 more costly apparatus than ready wit and 
 genial disposition." Philada. Nortk 
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 "An excellent design happily executed.' 
 N.Y. Times. 
 
 " History is presented in a very attractive 
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 The Diamond Edition of the Poetical Works of 
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 With numerous additions. i8mo. Tinted paper. Fine cloth, %\. 
 
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 Hundred pages, the whole of Burns' poems, 
 ith a glossary and index. It is cheap, 
 
 elegant and convenient, bringing the works 
 of one of the most popular of British poets 
 within the means of every reader." Sot- 
 ton Kvtn. Transcript.
 
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