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Old Order Amish Settlement: Diffusion and Growth Author(s): William K.

Crowley Reviewed work(s): Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Jun., 1978), pp. 249-264 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2562217 . Accessed: 26/07/2012 02:29
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OLD

ORDER AMISH SETTLEMENT: DIFFUSION AND GROWTH


WILLIAM K. CROWLEY

in Europe over 280 years ago. Although ABSTRACT. The Amish originated remarkably area, theyhave survived homeland in their disappeared eventually they in the United States enwell in the New World. The spread of Amish settlement thefrontier, periods.In theearlyperiodstheAmishfollowed compassesfivedistinct northeastern success beyondthe without but generally similarto otherAmericans, Amish numericalgrowthwas slow until the twentieth quadrant of the country. and each yearnew Amishcommunities rapidly, growing They are presently century. are established. a concede religion ULTURAL geographers and major role in culturalidentification Geographers have investiin culture formation. regated topics such as religioussettlements, for a given area, and ligious distributions have been systems, butthere modelsof religious of entire few attempts to trace the diffusion religious bodies. The generaloutlinesof spread of major religiousgroups are cited in many butthesegroupsare too largeto examine works, in totality at a finescale. The same constraints do not apply to the reand, particularly, studyof smallerreligions numbers of adherents ligioussects.The limited and the more confinedareal spread of these groups mean that their movementscan be studied in greater detail than can large reThis paper will describe ligious organizations. and growthof one and explain the diffusion such religious sect,theOld OrderAmish.1
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFUSION

in Europe, During the religiousreformation one of the religiousgroupsthat arose in conProtestant flict with whatbecametheestablished churcheswas the Anabaptists,so called because of their beliefin adultbaptism.The center of Anabaptist activityin the sixteenth wherethe folwas Zurich,Switzerland century
Dr. Crowley is Associate Professor of Geography at Sonoma State College in Rohnert Park, CA 94928. to the "Amish" are specific to the Old Order Amish, since some of the statementswhich will be made are not applicable to other Amish groups.
1 Unless otherwise identified,all future references

as Swiss were identified lowersof thisdoctrine A like group also came to lifein the Brethren. were reNetherlandswhere the practitioners ferredto as Mennonites,and soon the Swiss Brethrenalso became known as Mennonites. began in 1525, and The Anabaptistmovement because of the extremebent of many of the differpeople who were part of the movement, led to seriousfacences of opinionfrequently tional disputes.One of the disputes,over what outsiders might consider a minor point of offof a new group dogma,led to the fissioning under the leadershipof Jakob Amman in the years 1693-1697. Amman's principalconcern of excommuniwas the Meidung,or shunning had been formerly This practice catedmembers. to the Mennonites,but had more important lapsed in practiceduringAmman's day. Amthat the Meidung should man was determined He went on a tour in be observed strictly. theMeidung, and Alsace preaching Switzerland on his point of view that and was so insistent his followers formeda separate camp, excomall otherMennoniteswho did not municating the countryside By stumping practiceshunning. wherever and visiting congregations Anabaptist his he could, Ammansucceededin establishing more conservative Amish branch of Anabapof Ammanbecame known tism.The followers as "ammansch,"a name whichwas corrupted eventually to the present"Amish."2
2 This is disputed by James Landing who suggeststhe name is derived from Amish attempts to distinguish themselves from other "Menist" (Mennonite groups). "They apparently referredto themselvesas 'a-Menists' (pronounced, in German, ah-man-EESH-ta), since the Vol. 68, No. 2, June 1978

GEOGRAPHERS OF AMERICAN ANNALS OF THE ASSOCIATION Printed in U.S.A. ? 1978 by the Association of American Geographers.

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into manypointsin central the Amish filtered and and western Europe duringthe eighteenth of early nineteenth centuries. One of the first thelarger migrations musthave been from parts of Bern Canton (fromwhichthe Amish were in exiled) down the Rhine to the Netherlands 1711. Withinten years these Amish set up and Kamseparatecongregations at Groningen pen among the Dutch Mennonites.4 Between 1710 and 1825 therewere several movements out of Alsace. The Markircharea and was one of the centersof Amishfollowers fromhere emigrants moved to France, areas near the Swiss border,Lorraine, and Luxemfromthe Alsace area burg. Other movements were to Breisgauin SouthernBaden in 1759; S TRIA Uva S~~~~~ InGalicia, Austriain 1783; and Regensburg, golstadt, and Munich in Bavaria in 1802. The movementsto Austria and Bavaria were in combinationwith Amish fromthe Palatinate. Otheremigrants fromthe Palatinatemoved to T A L SJ I Y. Waldeck in 1730, Holland in 1750, Marburg in 1800, and Neuwied (date unknown).Those FIG. 1. Amish Expansion in Europe. Bern Canton, to Austrialaterjourneyed Switzerland, Alsace, and the Palatinate formed the Amishwho migrated original homeland core. to Volhynia, Russia and eventuallyto the United States.5Most of the Amish movement and earlynineteenth centuries Amishcon- in the eighteenth As a resultof Amman'sefforts, was caused The Amish by religious persecution. arose in Switzerland (Bern Canton), gregations were believers of fervent in the separation Alsace, and the Palatinate. "How large the this state church and and gained them no favor This of Amman was is unknown."13 following in manyquarters. earlyspread of the Amish factionwas accomThe peripateticaspect of the Amish years plished almost whollythroughproselytization in Europe seemedto lead themin no particular of people. Such and involvedlittlemigration within areas They remained generally to.gain adher- direction. fervor and attempts missionary of Germanic language, and they clearly avoided to theabsolutenonentsstandin vividcontrast nonreformist SouthernEurope. Most of their proselytization practicedby the Amish today. did not involve great distances,altransfers thoughthe movementof the Swiss Amish to Diffusion in Europe A partial record exists indicatingsome of Holland, and Amish fromthe Palatinate and in Europe, thoughper- Alsace to Austria,were not shortby European the Amish movement occurredinvolv- standards. In part, their destinationswere haps hundredsof migrations by where theywould be ing a fewpeople (Fig. 1). From the core areas probablydetermined to as they wished, and in permitted worship of Bern Canton, Alsace, and the Palatinate, part they were determined by the desire of Amish as farmers certain noblemen to employ contemporary accounts of that day commonly refer theyhad gained as to the 'Ominists,' the 'Hominists,' or the 'Ominists because of the reputation Society.' This term gradually became transliterated worthy ofthesoil. tillers
(sic) as 'Homish,' 'Omish,' and eventually 'Amish.'" James E. Landing, "Amish Settlement in North America: A Geographic Brief," Bulletin of the Illinois Geographical Society, Vol. 12 (December, 1970), p. 65. 3 Calvin Bachman, The Old Order Amish of Lancaster County (Lancaster: Pennsylvania German Society, 1942 and republished in 1961), Vol. 60, p. 49.
4 C. Henry Smith, The Story of the Mennonites, fourth edition (Newton, Kansas: Mennonite Publication Office,1957), pp. 141-42. 5 John Hostetler, Amish Society, second edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968), pp. 38-42.

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the Amish are now only a or perhaps Whoeveris correct, Despite theirEuropean dispersal, because of it, the Amish as a distinct religious memoryin Europe. In the 1870s European groupare no longerfoundon theirhome con- Mennonitesinvitedthe Amish to join themin in areas where they were close to tinent.Many of the faithful moved to North fellowship assented and theAmishfrequently America in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- one another, turies.Enough Amish were leftbehind,how- in the ensuingyears.10 ever,thatthey might have succeededin Europe, given the proper atmosphere.Unfortunately,Arrivalin NorthAmerica the circumstances surrounding their existence in theNew World in two The Amisharrived inEuropemade survival there nearly impossible. principalwaves of migration. The firstwave as such,and lasted fromabout 1717 to 1750 and included Therewas no Amishcommunity the Amishfamily, ratherthan the community, approximately Imfive hundred immigrants. was the social unit. The scarcityof land fre- migration then slowed and the Amish did not quently forcedthe Amishto live as tenantson come in large numbersagain untilthe period estates, mixed with non-Amishpeoples. Be- 1817-1861. During this second time span, cause of theirdispersedsituation,the Amish in theUnited Amishsettled hundred somefifteen began to associate more withlocal non-Amish and Canada. States thanwithmembers of their own faith. Marriage for the first withthenon-Amish was supposedly prohibited, The sources of the immigrants and Switzerland, were the Palatinate migration but whennecessity The arose,it was permitted. Amish also wore the same clothingas their principallythe former.All Amish, however, neighbors,and the Amish differed from the were descendantsof Swiss who had been exMennonites principally overideology, withonly iled fromtheirhomeland sometimesince the All of this first group setcentury.11 slightdifferences in materialculture.The Am- sixteenth mainlybecause of attracish, therefore, did not appear as a distinct cul- tled in Pennsylvania, fromWilliam Penn's agents. tural group in Europe, and they gradually tive land offers phased intovariousMennoniteaffiliations.6 during thisperiodwere The Amishwho arrived in Zwei- among a large group of German immigrants The last Amishin Europe, residing the Palatinate, thatlanded in Philadelphiaduring bruckenin what was formerly the first half in 1937.7 Most of the eighteenthcentury.After 1750 the joined their Mennonite brethren of the Amishin Europe were gone by the end French and Indian War slowed immigration of thenineteenth 1750 onlythree and the Amishdid not come in large numbers century. After Amish congregations were leftin Switzerland, again untilafter theNapoleonic Wars.12 by 1810 only two, and by 1850 all the Swiss the In termsof both originand destination, Amish had joined the Mennonites.Smith re- second migrationperiod differedfrom the ports that in the Netherlands the Amish con- first.The membersof the second migration gregationsremained independentfor nearly came almostentirely from Alsace and Lorraine, 200 years and then mergedinto the general thougha few were fromBavaria, and settled Dutch Mennonitebody in the nineteenth cen- mostlyin Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and southern tury.8 In conflict with Smith'sview, Hostetler Ontario. The immigrants of thisperiod moved claims that the Amish in the Netherlands lost fartherwestward because land was cheaper their consciousness afterthe firstgeneration, and more available thanin Pennsylvania. that after70 years theywere speakingDutch, waves many Amish During both migration and thattheywere absorbedwithin 100 years.9 settlements were founded,and thoughno new Amish arrived in the UnitedStates after1860, 6 Hostetler, op. cit., footnote 5, and idem, "Old manymore Amishcolonies appeared in differWorld Extinction and New World Survival of the ent sectionsof the United States.
Amish: A Study of Group Maintenance and Dissolution," Rural Sociology, Vol. 20 (1955), pp. 215-16. 7Smith, op. cit., footnote 4, p. 331. 8 Smith,op. cit., footnote4, pp. 141-42. 9 Hostetler,op. cit., footnote5, p. 43, and Hostetler, "Old World Extinction and New World Survival of the Amish . . . ," op. cit., footnote 6, p. 215. Smith, op. cit., footnote 4, pp. 329 and 581. 11 Smith,op. cit., footnote4, pp. 329 and 581. 12 Alvin Beachy, "The Amish Settlementin Somerset County, Pennsylvania," The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 8 (1934), p. 263.
10

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TEurope

1 7 1 7- 1 8 1 6
* Surviving Exti n c t -

FIG. 2. The First Wave, 1717-1816. The original period of Amish expansion in the United States. Those colonies which are still in existence are labeled "surviving," those which failed are labeled "extinct."

Foundation Periods of Settlement from the By piecing togetherinformation Mennonite Encyclopedia; from many books, the Amarticles,and dissertations concerning ish; and froma mail surveyto Amish settlements,I have compiled a fairlyaccurate acof settlement foundation count of theirhistory No claim is made for complete and failure.13 accuracysince such a featwouldbe impossible. The settlement maps showonlywheretheinitial occupants of a particularcolony came from. soon arrived from In manycases othersettlers diverseareas. I have divided Amish settlement historyin
13 The Mennonite Encyclopedia (North Newton, Kansas: Mennonite Publication Office, 1956-1959), 4 vols.

the United States into five periods. The first periodlasted from1717 to 1816 and included wave and the enmigration the era of the first suing decades. The second period extended from 1817 to 1861, the years of the second wave. The thirdperiod includedthe migration years from 1862 to 1899. At the end of the spaces in the United third periodruralfrontier period includes States were closed. The fourth World War II, through century the twentieth and represents the stage duringwhich Amish greatly fromthatof began to differ technology period, The fifth otherUnited States farmers. a time of un1945 to the present,represents for the Amish. foundation equalled settlement The First Wave, 1717-1816. During the Amish settlewave the first originalmigration ments were established at several points in southeasternPennsylvania (Fig. 2). Berks Countywas the site of the earliestsettlement, in Lancaster and withothersquicklyfollowing Chester counties. Of the firstsix settlements, thelast halfof theeighteenth onlyone survived the one begun in 1757 in Lancaster century, were County.Some of the otherearlyattempts them.14 poorlylocated and Indiansextinguished of new pointthefounding From thisstarting coloniesin thefirst periodproceededin a fairly the new colonies progression, westward regular of the older resulting largelyfromthe growth weremade in ones. The bulk of thesettlements and by the end of the eighteenth Pennsylvania, settletheAmishhad onlyone existing century mentbeyondthe bordersof thatstate (Garrett border). Marylandon thePennsylvania County, In Pennsylvania not only in colonies survived Lancaster, but also in Somerset (founded in (foundedin 1780) counties. 1768) and Mifflin theAmish Beforethesecondwave of migration had spread into Holmes and Tuscawaras counties(1809) in Ohio. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland were the only states with colLandonies at the end of thisperiod,although ing reportsthat "Amish familiesfound their
14 Maurice A. Mook, "A Brief History of Former, Now Extinct, Amish Communities in Pennsylvania," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol. 38 (1955), pp. 33-34. It is the Lancaster County settlement,continuouslyoccupied since its founding,that is perhaps the most famous Amish settlement in the United States today.

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into the Carolinas long before This was stilltwo years priorto the time that way southward the area was officially opened foroccupation.18 the Revolution."'15 In the first period the Amish establisheda Since theMennonites weretheAmishclosest failurethat continuedto religiouskin, it mightbe assumed that they patternof settlement themin later times.Eleven of fifsoughtto settlenear one anotherin the New characterize eventually failedor did not conWorld. Accordingto Beachy, exactlythe con- teen attempts traryoccurred. Bitter feelinghad developed tinue to be Amish. The Second Wave, 1817-1861. During the betweentheAmishand Mennonites in Europe. from1817 to 1861, When theyeach moved across the Atlanticin secondperiodofsettlement, of Amish movement order to sustain their religious beliefs, this therewere two currents involvedthe immigratbitterness crossedtheocean withthem.As each (Fig. 3). One current coloniesin western Ohio, group expanded beyond southeastern Pennsyl- ingAlsatiansfounding Iowa. In advania the Mennonitesmoved southward along centralIllinois,and southeastern theCumberland and Shenandoahvalleys,while dition to a search for land, the compulsory laws of Europe were an imtraining the bulk of the Amishproceededwestward up military portant impetus to Amish emigrationfrom theJuniata valley.16 A featureof the settlement of the Europe at thistime,since theAmishwere (and character The other currentevidentin Amish that became evident duringthis early are) pacifists.19 chapterof theirexistencein America,and one theseyearsinvolvedthesame sortof expansion as had occurred thatwould continuethrough each era of their from firstwave settlements last during the part of the first period. Several settlement history, includingthe present,was in Innew settlements northeastern Ohio and a predeliction formovinggreatdistancesaway In from the previous place of residence.Why? diana were the result of this progression. Often,such a move was a choice to advance some cases, Alsatians joined the established near or at the frontier, but it was not always Amish in these colonies. Outposts of Amish to move so far.The Amishleapfrog- growthin the second period were located in necessary Missouri. gingtendencies are not easilyexplained,unless New York, Ontario,and western Colonies founded exclusivelyby Alsatian one considersruggedindividualism a satisfacAmish did not survive as Amish settlements torystimulusfor such behavior. Perhaps the beyondabout 1870. In manycases the people beliefthatthe more unsettled the countryside, moved elsewhere,and in otherinstancesthey the easier it would be to followthe prescripts joined more progressiveMennonite bodies. of one's religionwas also a motivating factor. While theirAmish brethren who had come to In later years exaggerated "long hops" by the the United States in the first wave remained Amishcontributed to the failureof some com- littlechanged,the Alsatians apparently undermunities as the Amishfoundthemselves in un- went some alterationin Europe before they familiar environments and out of contactwith came to the United States. In general, they their brethren. foundthe resident Amish in the United States from The Amish arriving That the Amish were at times pioneers is too conservative.20 than unquestioned.Clearly,theywere the first set- German areas were also less progressive the Alsatians and their survival rate as Old tlers in Berks County, Pennsylvaniawhere Order Amish was significantly higher. manyof themwere vanquishedby Indians. In All of thesettlements made in Illinoisduring LancasterCounty, however, theyhad been prethe second all period, but one in Iowa, and all ceded by the Welsh.'7 The firstsettlersin one but in Ohio failed. This was eventually Somerset in 1762 arrived County, Pennsylvania the case elsewhere, one reason being generally or 1763, with the Amish followingin 1767. the large numberof Alsatian colonies amidst the total. Twenty-three of thirty-two commu15 James E. Landing, "Exploring Mennonite Settlements in Virginia," The Virginia Geographer, Vol. 4 (Spring, 1969), p. 9. 16 Beachy, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 264. 17 Grant M. Stoltzfus, "History of the First Amish Mennonite Communities in America," The Mennonite QuarterlyReview, Vol. 28 (1954), p. 242.

18 Beachy, op. cit., footnote 12. 19 Melvin Gingerich,The Mennonites in Iowa (Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1939), p. 95. 20 Gingerich,op. cit., footnote 19.

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0~~~~

r~~~~~~~
0

Ext inc t
it \e~~~~~~~~urvi

vingI

FIG. 3. The Second Wave, 1817-1861. The second period of Amish expansion in the United States, and the last period of Amish migrationfrom Europe.

nitiesfoundedduringthe second period failed theirAmish (at least in termsof maintaining deviation character).The one area of significant Indiana, fromthis trendwas in northeastern wherefivecolonies establishedduringthe second wave have survivedto the present. As Landing pointsout, success was not easy, nor of these immediate.21 The bulk of the growth
21 James E. Landing, "The Spatial Development and Organization of an Old Order Amish-Beachy Amish Settlement: Nappanee, Indiana," unpublished doctoral The Pennsylvania State University,1967. dissertation,

years. has come in the last fifty settlements Some of the largestones todaynearlywithered in the beginning. The Amish expanded their horizons very half of the nineteenth quicklyduringthe first compared to the rather particularly century, within century of the eighteenth slow diffusion theUnitedStates.The increasedrateof growth withthe Amishfronhowever, was consistent, tendencies. tiering the dates thatthe Amish first By examining establishedthemselvesin various counties,it

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can be concluded that on occasion theywere curringamong the Amish duringthis period of Amish settlethe originalpioneers in a particulararea, as are centralto a consideration since manycoloniesrose and fell, period. In most menthistory had been the case in the first otherinstancestheywere precededby Scotch- or ceased to be Old Order, as a resultof realthoughthe ligious division. Irish or otherGermanicsettlers, to followthe frontier The Amish continued far behind. been to have never seem Amish in some partsof duringthis period, much as they had during settlers Theywere the original expansioninto Ohio.22 Since the Amish reached McLean earliertimes(Fig. 4). Westward the AmishintoNorth Countyin centralIllinois by 1829 an Amish- the Great Plains brought white settlerin this Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and man was likely the first area as well. In Marshall County in northern Colorado. One adventurousgroup made it landed in the across the Rockies to Oregon, the only state whiteresidents Indiana, the first 1830s and the Amish were thereby 1839 or west of the Great Plains to experienceAmish That the Amish maintainedtheir 1840.23The earlyAmishpresencein the states settlement. to Iowa indicatestheywere record of being early on the scene of newly fromPennsylvania theirexample whereexternal available lands can be seen from territory searching foruncoveted (such as theyhad ex- in Oklahoma. UnassignedCheyenne-Arapahoe and influences pressures Reservation land in westernOklahoma was periencedin Europe) would be minimal. Amish in 1892; the first The WestwardAdvance Ends, 1862-1899. opened forsettlement in 1893.25 arrived of choosingthe 1899 date for The significance drivetheAmish to their westward In addition is of Amishdiffusion the close of thissegment True, they in otherdirections. The end of the nineteenth began to diffuse somewhatarbitrary. limitsof enteredthe northern con- had previously two new environmental century did signify in Maryland and forthe Amish: 1) fron- the South with settlements ditionsof importance deeper penetier spaces were largelygone-henceforth as Missouri, and one early forlorn the third intothe Carolinas. But during new Amish colonies were established they tration would be supplantingother rural occupants; period, more frequentand more distant atwould soon begin temptsat southernoccupation began. Missisfarmers and 2) non-Amish to mechanize, and Amish farmingmethods sippi and Arkansas,as well as Tennessee and would begin to vary greatlyfromtheirtech- Virginia, received their firstAmish settlers. nologicallymore advanced neighbors. less thantwenty Most of thesecoloniesendured up to 1890, was years,and all eventually This period, particularly faded fromthe scene. also important because of religious conflicts The ArkansasCounty, was Arkansassettlement among the Amish which led to differentiation unfor years forty lasting the most successful, of distinct Amishgroups.Followinga seriesof til 1920. conferencesfrom 1862 to yearly ministerial The Amish were moving in all directions was made to 1878, duringwhich an attempt duringthe thirdperiod, even thoughthe total standardizereligiouspractices,the term "Old established (twentynumber of settlements Order Amish" came into use. Previouslythe was relativelysmall. Along with their four) but schismsocword "Amish" was sufficient, the Amish made and southern forays, that led western curredduringthe yearlyconferences North Centralborder the move into their first groups.It became apto foundation of splinter MichiCounty, a in Newaygo states with colony parentthat all Amish could not agree on all century. of the nineteenth close the near gan major issues. During the 1880s the more progressiveelementsjoined the General Confer- They began anothernew trendwithsome colence MennoniteChurch,ceasing to be Amish became Old Order Mennonites, who representa conservative remainder The conservative altogether. oc- branching from the Mennonite General Conference. the "Old Order."24 The religiousconflicts
Gingerich,op. cit., footnote 19, p. 57. Landing, op. cit., footnote 21, p. 108. Hostetler, op. cit., footnote 5, pp. 263-65. The Old Order Amish should not be confused with yet another religious splinterof the Mennonite world, the
22 23 24

This was not the end of schismatic tendencies amongst the Amish. Two major groups have formed from the the Conservacentury, Old Order during the twentieth tive Amish Mennonites and the Beachy Amish. 25 Velma K. Branson, "The Amish of Thomas, Oklahoma: A Study in Cultural Geography," unpublished Masters thesis, Universityof Oklahoma, 1967.

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1862-1899
Su rvi vi ng .
Ex tinct o

H
4S

,a

FIG. 4. The Westward Advance Ends, 1862-1899. The third period of Amish expansion in the United States.

onists going fromwest to east to starta new colony, as with the case of Amish moving fromKansas to starta settlement in Madison County,Ohio in 1896. New settlements continued to be established in theircentralarea of occupation. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinoiseach had threenew colonies, while no other state had more than two. Strangely, Pennsylvania recordedno new congregations duringthe thirdperiod.26 The main sources of settlers for the new colonies were Ohio and Indiana. The ultimate failure rateduringthisfinalera of pioneerexpansionremained consistentwith the rate establishedin prior time segments. Three-quartersof the third period colonies are no longerextant.The area of greatest success remainedin the core states (Pennsylvania,Ohio, and Indiana), while all but one in more peripheraland far attempts areas weredestined flung to extinction. The Early Modern Era, 1900-1944. The rateof foundation of new settlements continued to be about the same duringthe fourth period as it had been during the previous period.
This is possibly the result of a flaw in the literature ratherthan a real circumstance.
26

The distribution of new settlements, however, differchanged markedly.One distributional ence was the virtualabsence of colonizationin the core area, exceptfornorthwestern Pennsylvania, and the increasednumberof settlements made in peripheralstates-those states surrounding the core (Fig. 5). The Great Plains and the NorthCentralborderstates each had six new settlements whiletheSouthbecame the Eleven mostimportant zone of Amishactivity. Amishcommunities appearedin theSouth,five of themin the Deep South. Delaware, Florida, Wisconsin, and New Mexico represented virgin areas of Amishexploration. Toward the end of this period the Amish enteredLatin America for the first time,with an attempt to set up a colony in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1943. This site soon provedunsatisfactory, and two locationsin the state of San Luis Potosi weretriedbeforetheMexican Amish returned to theUnitedStatesin 1946.27The Amish first tryin a new culturalmilieu was short-lived.
27 Harry L. Sawatzky, They Sought a Country,Mennonite Colonization in Mexico (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), pp. 84-86.

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FIG. 5. The Early Modern Era, 1900-1944. The fourth period of Amish expansion in the United States.

Why the new Amish communitieswere still thriving) colony was founded in Kent largelyfoundedin peripherallocations is not County. readilyexplained. Undoubtedlyland was still In sum, the various paths followedby the more available in such locations, despite the Old Orderduring thisperiodpresenta confusclosingof the frontier, than in the statesfrom ing spatial arraywhen consideredin toto. The Pennsylvania to Iowa, which "filled-up" at an mixed pattern becomes more perplexing when earlierdate. No otherfactoroffers a verysatis- one notes thatwidelyseparatedplaces such as factory explanation of the observedpattern. Reno County,Kansas and variousOhio settleA perceptible movement from to south mentsled theway in providing north members to the is evident withthe large numberof new south- largestnumberof new communities. ern colonies. In the case of Sarasota County, Amishsettlements continued to fail at nearly Florida, the Amish movementcontinued to the same rate as in the firstthreeperiodsreflect currentspresent among the general twenty-one out of thirty-two-andone must United States populace. As atypicaland "un- remember thatas we approach the present the Amish"as it seems,thepurposein Florida was probability of a colony still being around into set up a winterhaven for Amish retirees. creases,i.e., the more recently it was founded Sarasota was not a farm-oriented colony. the greaterthe likelihood that it still exists. Once again an identifiable west to east cur- The rate of success was much higherin the rentwas in evidence.Kansas Amish moved to core area than outsideit, a conditionreminisWisconsinand Missouri,Iowa Amish leftfor cent of the previousperiod. Indiana, and Ohio Old Orderfolkwere largely Duringthefourth periodtheAmishbegan to responsiblefor the clusterof new settlements stand out more markedly fromtheirneighbors in northwestern Pennsylvania. Most extreme of than was previously the case. Their clothing, all (and about as extremeas one can get in generalplainness,and religious beliefshad prethe United States) was a jaunt by a group of viouslymade themdistinctive. Now theirfarmOregonAmishto Delaware wherea new (and ingtechniques and their meansoftransportation

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-the horse and buggy-began to be regarded isted. The exceptionsto this were moves to as "old-fashioned."In earlier times Amish Tennessee,Missouri, and Minnesota. Kentucky, farmers had oftenbeen known for advanced Tennessee and Missouri,of course,previously methods and agricultural innovations.28 Now had Amish communities. Amishcommunities A decidedlynew trendbegan in the 1960s began to represent pockets of retention of methods abandoned by more as the Amish began a more intensive penetraprogressive agriculturalists. The Amishfarmer's tion of Latin America. In the last half of the role in the countryside had undergonea two 1960s Amish fromPennsylvania, Ohio, Indicenturydevolution,and he had come to be ana, Arkansas,Ontario,and perhapselsewhere consideredbackward. This refusal to change startednew colonies in Belize (1965), Paraways carriedover to otherarenas such as edu- guay (1967), and Honduras (1968). How cation, and new problemsbegan to confront these particularcountrieswere chosen is not Amish existence. Amish distinctiveness in the case of Belize, it is known had clear,though markedlyincreased duringthe first were also involvedin the new four-and- thatMennonites one-half decades of thetwentieth colony.30 An obvious assumption century. in interpretThe Modern Era, 1945-Present.One might ingthesemovesis thatthe Amishwere looking assume that as the technologicalchanges of for areas where the pervasiveness of modern the twentieth was less apparent. century continueto invade our technology everyday Withinthe United States the Amish termiexistence, the problemof an Amishman remaining an Amishmanwould increase. nated theirfar western flings, the westernmost Put another way, one would think that the settlements being made in Minnesota.Perhaps greater the attraction of the outsideworld,and Latin America became a surrogatefor the themoreintensethedesireto quit doingthings AmericanWest for those Amish who insisted the"hardway" amongtherestof thepopulace, on thefrontier and truly longhaul transfers. the greaterwould be the number of Amish The Amish made more frequent foraysbethat would leave the church.Exactly the re- yond the core as evidencedby the large numverseis true.In thelast threedecades forty-two ber of new coloniesin statessuch as Michigan, percentof all recordedAmish settlements at- Wisconsin,and Missouri.This trendmay lead tempted in theUnitedStateshave been founded. to expansionof the core area itselfby several The last 30 years have produced nearly as statesin the near future. Many of the colonies many settlements as did the first 225 years.29 in the peripheralstates are quite small, howThis large numberof new communities is di- ever, and may not survivefor long. At least rectly related to rapid population increases two settlements in Missouri are apparently amongthe Amish,and suggests ministers, and thatis a signof possible thatan appar- without ent paradox is at play. The more different decay. the imminent The state with the greatestnumberof new Amish become, the greateris their survival rate. communities is Pennsylvania. This is a strong In thefifth to theprevious periodtheAmishmovedin many contrast twoperiodswhich, with as might of the northwestern be surmised directions, withso many theexception cornerof the new colonies being founded (Fig. 6). Large state duringthe fourthperiod, saw no new numbersof new settlements appeared in sev- Pennsylvaniacolonies. Twenty-three new coleral states outside the Amish core of occupa- onies have been founded in Pennsylvaniain tion but, generally, the Amish settledwithin the last thirty years.The centralportionof the states where Amish communities already ex- state and the northwestern cornerhave large clustersof new settlements, but several other 28 Victor Stoltzfus, "Amish Agriculture: Adoptive communities have been establishedin areas Strategiesfor Economic Survival of CommunityLife," more isolated from other Amish. The data Rural Sociology, Vol. 38 (1973), p. 197. 29 It is more likely that the record on Amish settleavailable indicatethat the originof the occument attemptsis also much fuller for this more recent pants of the new Pennsylvania colonies is priperiod. There are undoubtedly several attempts from marily itself. Pennsylvania Data are stilllacking earlier periods that I have not recorded. Nonetheless, however. the modern era has certainly had a minimum of formanyof the settlements,
thirty-five to fortypercent of all New World Amish settlements.
30

Sawatzky, op. cit., footnote27, p. 363.

1978

AMISH SETTLEMENT

259

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.0

0.

~~~~~~0

Bri tish -~~~~~

Hondu ras

1945 -1976
Surviving E x tin c t 0

FIG. 6. The Modern Era, 1945-1976. The most recent period of Amish expansion in the United States. Many settlements have no arrows drawn to them because the sources of settlers are unknown.

For the whole of "Amishdom" the prime The Ohio and Indiana Amishhave spreadin all forthemyriad of settlements directions, sourcesof settlers willing to go whereverconditions (Figs. 7 and 8). In contrast, of the fifth period is logicallythe core area. appear promising Amishhave remainedlargely Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania,and also Iowa the Pennsylvania of expansion. inside the state,with some spillingacross the have been the main reservoirs

260

WILLIAM K. CROWLEY

June

OHIO

PENNSYLVANIA

Honduras

Honduras

FIG. 7. Known Old Order Amish emigrationsfrom Ohio settlements,1945-1976, for the purpose of establishingnew colonies.

west, within Iowa, and into adjacent Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, but some Iowa

New York, and state line into westernmost othersmovingas far away as Ohio (Fig. 9). The Iowa Amishhave been mostactivefarther

FIG. 9. Known Old Order Amish emigrations from Pennsylvania settlements, 1945-1976, for the purpose of establishing new colonies. Many other in Pennsylvania were undoubtedlyfounded settlements by Pennsylvania Amish, so that this map is much I have been sparser than it should be. Unfortunately, unable to corroborate my suspicions.

Amish have helped create new communities in Ohio (Fig 10).

INDIANA

Paragu ay

FIG. 8. Known Old Order Amish emigrationsfrom Indiana settlements, 1945-1976, for the purpose of establishing new colonies.

from FIG. 10. Known Old Order Amish emigrations Iowa settlements,1945-1976, for the purpose of establishing new communities.

1978

AMISH

SETTLEMENT

261

TABLE I -SURVIVING OLD ORDER AMISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES BY PERIOD OF FOUNDATION Period Surviving Settlements in 1976

FirstWave, 1717-1816 Second Wave, 1817-1861 WestwardAdvance Ends, 1862-1899 Early Modern, 1900-1944 Modern, 1945-1976 Total

4 8 6 11 69 98

variationin settlement size means that despite therelatively wide dispersion of colonies in the "homeland" area, the individual Amish are quite concentrated. Wisconsin and Missouri, despitetheirnumeroussettlements, have small Amishpopulationtotals.The threecore states (in descendingorder of total Amish population) of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana contain an estimated three-fourths of all the "plain people."
AMISH GROWTH AND THE FUTURE

Almost everything we read and hear tellsus that culturaldeviants,such as the Amish, are dwindling in numbers because of the pressures of assimilation from the"progressive" twentieth A concern for the modernization century. of nonmodern peoples, whether theyare Indians in the Amazon or Masai cattle-herders in East Africa,has been expressedby manysocial scientists.Yet the Amish case illustrates that acculturation, and eventually are not assimilation, unavoidable consequences of living within a modernization-oriented society. Theirhighrateof naturalincreasehas made theOld OrderAmishone of thefastest-growing (percentagewise) religious denominationsin THE PRESENT PATTERN OF the United States. Exact populationtotals for AMISH SETTLEMENT the Amish are difficult to obtain since many As of 1976 there were a totalof ninety-eight communities refuseto partakein any kind of Old OrderAmishcoloniesin the UnitedStates data gathering. In addition, onlybaptizedmemIndi(Fig. 11).31 Pennsylvania (twenty-nine), bers of the community are consideredchurch ana (eleven), Missouri(ten), Ohio (nine), and and only adultsare baptized.An inmembers, Wisconsin(nine) werethe stateswiththelargdicationof the problemin determining Amish In all, eighest numberof Amish settlements. numbers is evidentfromtwo estimates of their teen statespossessed at least one Amish contotal populationmade in 1966. Hostetlerestigregation.These states are largely restricted mated therewere 49,371 Amish in that year, to the northeastern quadrant of the country, and derived his total by multiplying known thepresent day Amish"homeland."Amongthe baptizedmembers by an estimate of theirratio surviving colonies,all periodsof UnitedStates to nonbaptizedmembers.32 This ratio was obare represented Amish settlement history (T'atainedfroma studyof a sample of churchdisble 1). tricts. for 1966 was 63,900 Landing's estimate The sizes of Amishcommunities varywidely. and the mannerin whichhe derivedhis figures The colony centeredin Holmes County,Ohio is not precisely explained.33 In two laterpubliis the largest, possessingapproximately 14,000 cations, however, Landingoffers 1970 estimates The which are somewhat smaller than his 1966 residentsand eighty-six church districts. smallest Amish settlements have fewer than estimate.34 100 personsand only one churchdistrict. The To myknowledge, onlytwelvepercent of the fifth period settlements have failed. Since the is slow, flowon such occurrences information itis possiblethefigure maybe as highas twenty percent.Even thisfigure would be a verylow percentage comparedto theaverageof seventyone percentfor the four earliereras. Because of the recency of the fifth period a muchlower failurerate shouldbe expected.The small size of many of the newersettlements may, in the end, mean a shortlife span for them,and the failurerate may eventually equal that of previous times.
31 No attempt is made to follow the expansion of settlementin Canada. To my knowledge it has been limited to the southwesternpeninsula of Ontario between Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. There are also Amish communities in British Honduras, Honduras, and Paraguay. Hostetler,op. cit., footnote5, pp. 80-81. Landing, op. cit., footnote21, p. 27. 34 James E. Landing, "Old Order Amish Population," Mennonite Historical Bulletin, Vol. 31 (Oct., 1970), p. 3; and idem, "The Amish, the Automobile, and Social Interaction," Journal of Geography, Vol. 71(1972), p. 55.
33 32

262

WILLIAM K. CROWLEY

June

.0

Ogf

0~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~2-5
-0

-10

'<
]~

~S U R V I V I N G

TL E ME NT S SET ~

FIG. 11. Known Old Order Amish settlementsin the United States, 1976. The number of is a good indicator of its size. church districtswithina settlement

Hostetleralso found,as a resultof a large in five states,that sample of churchdistricts the total numberof churchdisby multiplying by 168 (the averagenumberof baptized tricts and nonbaptizedpersons per districtin the sample study) one could closely approximate the total Amish population. Hostetlerthen Amishpopulations to estimate used thismethod century, at specifictimesduringthe twentieth
35

Hostetler,op. cit., footnote 5, pp. 80-81.

thatwere since the numberof churchdistricts is known (Table 2). present century of the twentieth Near the beginning and therewere 43 Old Order churchdistricts, an estimated9100 adherents.By 1976 the totals had increased to 462 church districts (446 in the United States) and 70,000 worincreaseto say the This is a spirited shippers. least (nearly 700 percent!) and immediately on what must causes one to pause and reflect among the Amish duringthe have transpired eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies in the

1978
TABLE 2.-ESTIMATES
Year

AMISH SETTLEMENT
OF AMISH POPULATIONa
Percentage Increase

263

Population

1905 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1966 1976

9,100 13,900 18,500 25,900 33,100 43,300 50,700 67,100

2.8 2.9 3.4 2.5 2.7 2.6 2.8

a This table is based on Hostetler, op. cit., footnote 5, p. 80 and calculations of my own. The number of church districts for each year shown is multiplied by 168 to obtain the population estimates. For 1976, however, a lower multiplier was used because of the many new small districts that have appeared, and for 1905 a larger multiplier is used because of the unrealistically low total that would otherwise result. Using the 168 multiplier would give a 1976 estimate of 77,600 which is unlikely since the growth rate from 1966 to 1976 would had to have averaged 4.3 percent per annum. The 1976 and 1905 figures are based on using the same growth rate of 2.8 percent per year that the Amish averaged from 1920 to 1966. Some of the figures in the table differ from those shown by Hostetler because of apparent arithmetic errors in Hostetler's tabulation.

to leave homewithmanyindividuals unwilling base, Amishmenhave begun to accept nontraditional (i.e., nonrural)employment opportunities.This is largelya post-WorldWar II trend,but one whichhas had a major impact in some colonies. By 1966 only forty-seven percentof the employedAmish in the large (thirty-three churchdistricts)Geauga County, Ohio settlement were farmers; twenty-nine percent were employedin jobs relatedto farming, but a fulltwenty-seven percentwere not farmoriented,and the majority of these were facIn two districtssampled in tory workers.37 MarshallCounty,Indiana in 1966, onlythirtytwo percentof the economically activewere in while forty-five farming, percenthad factory Two possible threats to Amishgrowth raise themselves as a result of nonfarm employment: 1) withgreater dailycontactswithnon-Amish, and withmoretimespentin an urban environment, how can Amish values-ensconced in rurality-survive? 2) Lacking a need forfarm help, will nonfarm-employed Amish begin to limitthe sizes of theirfamilies, a practicethat, historically, has been followed byvirtually every ethnicand religiousgroupin the UnitedStates situationpreonce an urbanizedemployment semiurban Old Order vailed?Is therea nascent, Amishsegment on thehorizon?
ENVOI

jobs.38

are proof numbers UnitedStates.Theirgrowing certainthatthe Old Order has somehowbeen than century more successfulin the twentieth it was in earlier days. This success is being to one-tenth an estimated achievedeven though leaves the church of each generation one-third and despite the fact that the Amish do not proselytize. over AmerEven withthis apparentvictory it is not clear how long the ica's inclusiveness, theirconservaAmishwill be able to maintain alien society. in an still rapidly grow tismand One ominoussignhas alreadyappeared. Land shortagesexist around several colonies and,
36 The Schwiedersestimateone-tenth (Elmer Schwieder and Dorothy Schwieder,A Peculiar People: Iowa's Old Order Amish [Ames: Iowa State UniversityPress, 1975], p. 176), while Hostetler and Landing both cite a figure of one-third (Hostetler, op. cit., footnote 5, p. 81; and Landing, op. cit., footnote 34, p. 3). work, has even suggestedthat Hostetler, in a different "sixty to seventy percent of the children born into Amish families in the New World have merged with Mennonite (non-Amish) groups"; Hostetler, "Old World Extinction and New World Survival of the Amish . . . ," op. cit., footnote 6, p. 217. While this may have been the case in the nineteenth century, twentiethcentury growth rates clearly make such a figureimpossible.

The futurepromisesto be provocativefor theAmish.Theymaintain their novel character (with many local variationsto be sure) althoughthey lack a geographicalfocus and a churchhierarchy. directive-issuing They have areas of concentration where theirlandscape impactis obvious (southeastern Pennsylvania, east-central Ohio, and northeastern Indiana), but therealso are many areas of weak dispersion wheretheyhave a minorinfluence. They from have translocated European origins, penesouth fromareas farther tratedand retreated west thantheirpresentarea of ocand farther theUnitedStates,and they have cupancewithin a currentproclivity to expand demonstrated close to home (e.g., Pennsylvania). If one sites of Amishdifwishesto plot likelyfuture fusion withinthe United States, one should
37 38

Landing, op. cit., footnote21, p. 117. Landing, op. cit., footnote21, p. 118.

264

WILLIAM

K.

CROWLEY

June

look forareas of small,abandonedfarms where theland is stillcapable of producing reasonable crops withoutmechanized labor, and where public school authorities can be expected to keep educational harassmentat a minimum. Present trendsleave little doubt that several

new Amish colonies will be made beforethe end of the 1970s. An urbanizing, efficiencymad nationis apparently the right place foran expansionist, rural-oriented sect thatcontinues to defyAmerica'sassimilative spirit.

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