The Amish in Colonial America

I was raised as a Mennonite by parents who grew up Amish, and I have a multitude of Amish relatives. With the continuing interest in this conservative denomination and the popularity of Amish romances, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the origins of the Amish church in America, especially their main settlement in the mid 1700s, the Northkill Amish Church, named for the creek that wound through it.

Northkill Marker

For the past few years I’ve spent considerable time researching the lives of my Hochstetler ancestors for the novel a cousin, author Bob Hostetler, and I have coauthored, releasing March 1. Titled Northkill, the story focuses on the family of Jacob Hochstetler, whose farm came under attack during the French and Indian War. The story of the Hochstetler massacre is well known in the Amish and Mennonite communities, and a plaque marks the site of the farm where it happened, near present-day Shartlesville, Pennsylvania. We were determined to make our fictional depiction of this story as accurate as possible 257 years later, which meant not only doing intensive research, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually living in their time. Writing Northkill has been a fascinating and emotional journey, all the more so because as direct descendents of the story’s main characters we owe our very existence to them.

The Amish came to America because of severe persecution in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries due to their insistence on believers’ baptism and opposition to military service. They were drawn to Pennsylvania by William Penn’s assurances of religious freedom and economic opportunity denied them in Europe. The Northkill Creek area in Berks County was opened for settlement in 1736, and that year a couple of Amish families settled there, with others following the next year. My great-great-great-great-great grandfather and grandmother, with two small children, were part of a group that landed at Philadelphia on November 9, 1738, aboard the ship Charming Nancy.

They soon joined other members of their church in the Northkill settlement 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Additional groups immigrated to the area in 1742, and again in 1749, when Bishop Jacob Hertzler arrived to provide leadership for the growing congregation. The earliest known organized Amish church in America, it included nearly 200 families at its height. It remained the largest Amish settlement in America into the 1780s, when it slowly declined as families moved westward in search of better farmland.

The Northkill settlement lay at the foot of the Blue Mountain, the legal boundary of English settlements according to treaties with the Native Americans. However, white settlers persisted in crossing the mountains into territory claimed by the French and their native allies. Hostilities finally broke out in 1754, with the French enlisting the Indians to attack the border settlements. During the French and Indian War over 200 settlers were killed in Berks County alone. The Indian attack against my ancestors’ farm early on the morning of September 20, 1757, was one of those horrific incidents.

On Monday, September 19, the Hochstetler family hosted an apfelschnitzen (apple cutting) frolic for the young people of the church. The youth traditionally stayed late into the evening to enjoy games and courting, but their guests finally left and the family went to bed. In the dark hours of Tuesday morning, the oldest son still living at home, Jacob Jr., roused when the family’s dog set up a clamor. When he opened the door, 17-year-old Jacob was shot in the leg by a member of a war party composed of Delaware and Shawnee warriors who surrounded the house.

The family managed to barricade themselves inside. Because the Amish hold fast to the commandment not to kill, Jacob made what must have been a truly wrenching decision that they wouldn’t shoot at their attackers despite the hunting rifles at hand and his sons’ desperate pleas. When the Indians set fire to the house, Jacob, his wife, three sons, and a young daughter were forced to take refuge in the cellar. During the terrifying hours that followed, they repeatedly beat out flaming embers while the house burned above their heads.

Artist's Depiction of Attack on Hochstetler Farm

At last dawn brightened the sky. Seeing through a narrow window in the foundation that the Indians had withdrawn and believing themselves safe, the family hurriedly forced their way out, barely escaping the flames. But one of the warriors, a young man called Tom Lyons, had lingered in the orchard to pick ripe peaches. When he saw them emerge from the blazing structure, he called the rest of the war party back, and they fell upon their defenseless victims.

The mother, the wounded son, and the young daughter were killed and scalped. Jacob and two sons, Joseph, 15 years old, and Christian, 11, were carried away into captivity. Their journey, described in a remarkable deposition preserved in the papers of British Colonel Henry Bouquet after Jacob’s dramatic escape, will be the subject of book 2 of the series, The Return. It will cover the captives’ lives among the Indian clans the French gave them to, Jacob’s harrowing escape and his efforts to find his boys, Joseph and Christian’s forced return home after the war, and their difficulty in assimilating into a culture they had largely forgotten, while reestablishing a relationship with the father whose decision had torn apart their lives.

The story of my ancestors is a deeply moving account of obedience, hope, and endurance, and of God’s unfailing faithfulness to His people even in the worst of trials. In the centuries since the attack, our family has been extraordinarily blessed. Jacob’s descendants have spread throughout the world and their accomplishments span a wide range of endeavors. My ancestors’ example daily inspires me to faithful discipleship, and my hope and prayer is that it will equally inspire readers in their walk with the Lord.

For more information, visit my Northkill blog.

Researching the Stories of Our Ancestors

I’m currently taking a brief break from my American Revolutionary War series to finish the fictional treatment of the story of my Hochstetler ancestors that I’m writing with my cousin, multi-published author Bob Hostetler. This story, set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, is very well known among the Amish and Mennonites, and you can read more about it here as well as on the Northkill blog.

I’m now writing the section where Jakob and his sons are being carried away from their home by the Indians who killed their family members and burned their farm. A wealth of information has been preserved in the Pennsylvania Archives about this incident, as well as in accounts that have been handed down through the family. Another very helpful resource I found is a first-hand account written by Peter Williamson, whose capture by the Delaware Indians during the 1750s echos that of my ancestors to a remarkable degree.

You’ll find a pdf download of this book on my American Patriot Series website. It includes truly harrowing descriptions of massacres and torture, which I’ve only skimmed, if not skipped altogether. I recommend that anyone who wants to delve into this compelling story do the same. Following is an excerpt that begins with Peter’s treatment when he was brought to the village where he was kept, and then details the inhabitants’ practices, daily life, and moral values.

“Dancing, singing, and shouting were their general amusements; and in all their festivals and dances they relate what successes they have hand, and what damages they have sustained in their expeditions; in which I became part of their theme. The severity of the cold increasing, they stripped me of my clothes for their own use, and gave me such as they usually wore themselves, being a piece of blanket, a pair of mogganes, or shoes, with a yard of coarse cloth to put round me instead of breeches. . . .

“That they in general wear a white blanket, which, in war time, they paint with various figures, but particularly the leaves of trees, in order to deceive their enemies when in the woods. Their mogganes are made of deer-skins, and the best sort have them bound round the edges with little beads and ribbands. On their legs they wear pieces of blue cloth for stockings, some like our soldiers spatter-dashes; they reach higher than their knees, but no lower than their ankles. They esteem them easy to run in. Breeches they never wear, but instead thereof, two pieces of linen, one before and one behind. The better sort have shirts of the finest linen they can get, and to these some wear ruffles; but these they never put on till they have painted them of various colours which they get from Pecone root, and bark of trees, and never pull them off to wash, but wear them till they fall to pieces.

“They are very proud, and take great delight in wearing trinkets; such as silver plates round their wrists and necks, with several strings of wampum (which is made of cotton, interwoven with pebbles, cockle-shells, &c.) down to their breasts; and from their ears and noses they have rings or beads which hang dangling an inch or two. The men have no beards, to prevent which they use certain instruments and tricks as soon as it begins to grow. The hair of their heads is managed differently, some pluck out and destroy all, except a lock hanging from the crown of the head, which they interweave with wampum and feathers of various colours. The women wear it very long twisted down their backs, with beads, feathers and wampum; and on their heads most of them wear little coronets of brass or copper; round their middle they wear a blanket instead of a petticoat. The females are very chaste and constant to their husbands; and if any young maiden should happen to have a child before marriage, she is never esteemed afterwards.

“As for their food they get it chiefly by hunting and shooting, and boil, or roast all the meat they eat. Their standing dish consists of Indian corn soaked, then bruised and boiled over a gentle fire for ten or twelve hours. Their bread is likewise made of wild oats or sun-flower seeds. Set meals they never regard, but eat when they are hungry. Their gun, tomahawk, scalping knife, powder and shot, are all they have to carry with them in time of war, bows and arrows being seldom used by them. They generally in war decline open engagements; bush fighting or skulking is their discipline; and they are brave when engaged, having great fortitude in enduring tortures and death.

“No people have a greater love of liberty, or affection to their neighbours; but are the most implacably vindictive people upon the earth; for they revenge the death of any relation, or any great affront, whenever occasion presents, let the distance of time or place be ever so remote. To all which I may add, and which the reader has already observed, that they are inhumanely cruel. But some other nations might be more happy, if in some instances they copied them, and made wise conduct, courage, and personal strength, the chief recommendations for war captains, or werowances, as they call them.”

Researching my ancestors’ story has not only provided fascinating information about their lives, but has also inspired me with their fortitude and faith as pioneers and as Christians. I hope Northkill will also inspire all those who read it.

Does your family have an intriguing, thrilling, and/or inspiring story, whether from the distant past or more recent times, that you’d like to learn more about and perhaps even write about? If so, please share a short description in the comments.