Sunday, July 19, 2009

Reflections of a Road Trip: In the Amish Country





















It has probably been 18 years or better since I last visited Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This region is the very heart of Amish country, or at least that which is well-known to the non-Amish. At the time it struck me just how perilous their situation was, with incredible societal pressures bearing down on them. And not just from society in general, but from the mere specifics of their particular location--in a populated area much too close to the growing city of Lancaster. I wondered how they would be able to hold out. The fact that Lancaster County is one of the most beautiful in the nation does not help matters. But upon my recent visit, I am heartened by the fact that they seem to be holding out very well indeed. The city of Lancaster sprawls out along the Lincoln Highway, sucking up the old Amish communities of Paradise, Kinzers and Gap. Tourist enterprises seemed poised to swamp Intercourse and Bird in Hand along the Old Philadelphia Pike. But the Amish agricultural world begins immediately behind the commercial strips. By the time you have traversed several hundred feet, the sense of their world begins to take over. In short, the ramparts of defense against modernity seem to be intact.

I did not venture here to gawk at the Amish. My ancestors of the surname I bear came into the Pequea Valley from Scotland in 1720. My particular forebear, a younger son, moved on to the North Carolina frontier in the 1750s, but others of the family stayed here for a number of generations. Using the wonders of modern GIS technology, I was able to overlay their 1734 land patents onto a Google Earth aerial. So doing, I was able to pinpoint exactly where their farms were located. I wanted to see this land, as well as visit the Episcopal Church they helped found in 1729 and a couple of the old graveyards where my people buried. So, the Amish aspect was incident to my main purpose. They came later and bought up the land of the original English and Scots settlers (like mine). Today, my family's original homestead in the New World is a pristine Amish farm. It couldn't be in better hands.





















Old family farm (now Amish), Lancaster County, PA

I must say that I would have made a terrible Amish person. I am too much a product of the modern world, I suppose. But it is hard to say, looking at their world from the outside. That said, I have tremendous respect for these people. Regardless of what you think about the theological underpinnings of their way of life (which I largely reject), the culture is a silent and damning rebuke to the excesses and wreckage of modernity. The contrast could not be more stark. I stayed at an old tourist court on the Lincoln Highway. Having driven from far western Michigan the day before, I was a bit fatigued and slept a little later that Saturday morning. By the time I started my day, the tourist hordes were already milling around Paradise. Taken as a whole, we were not a pretty sight--shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops seemed to be the uniform of choice. None of us seemed to have missed many meals. After frequenting the tourist shops along the highway, many of them would probably cap-off their day in the Amish country by taking the kids to the nearby Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park, as touted by countless billboards featuring their grinning purple spokes-dragon. For you know, nothing says Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish like purple cartoon dragons.

But once you actually drove through the Amish farmlands, a different pattern of life was being played-out. This was no "weekend," but a work day like any other. The laundry was already hung out to dry on lines stretching from the farm houses to their barns. Barefoot girls were mowing the yard with manual push mowers. Men were in the fields harvesting. Young boys were moving cows from the dairy to pastures across the road. Young families were loaded into their buggies (pulled by the most beautiful horses imaginable) on quick trips into Intercourse or Bird in Hand for provisions. Everyone was brown, lean and angular. One sensed a discernible rhythm to their lives, in vivid contrast to the aimlessness of we weekenders.

I was to have supper with new friends Richard and Fran at the historic Revere Tavern that night. Their families had both lived in the area for 10 generations or so. In fact, Fran's family had owned the neighboring farm to my family back in the early 1700s. Her people had stayed put, and as a consequence she knew most everything there was to know about the area, and not only knowing everyone there, but how their family fit into the context of a 280-year local history. I found it all very European.























White Horse Tavern, Lancaster County, PA

I met Richard earlier in the day, as we walked around St. John's Cemetery, with its gravestones dating back to the 1740s. He took me on a tour of the church itself. The present structure is the 3rd, built in 1834. For lunch, we grabbed a sandwich and a couple of Yuengling lagers at the White Horse Tavern. A local family (still in the area) built this establishment in 1740. The original building survives, and most importantly, it has always been a tavern. As it is located halfway between my family's old farm and their church house, I feel confident that I was not the first of my line to put my feet under the bar there. Richard and I talked of the various pressures on their Amish neighbors. First, there is the simple fact that they have staked out a counter-cultural existence amidst the swirl of a modern world. This is exacerbated by the fact that their lands here are not isolated, but close to cities and sliced by highways. This in turn makes real estate prices sky-high, with the choice Amish land coveted for both residential and commercial development. Finally, there are simple demographics. The Amish marry young and have large families. I passed a young couple in their buggy on a back road between Paradise and Intercourse. Their very young son sat on the bench between them, while the wife held the baby. I thought it an idyllic Amish country scene. As I passed them and looked in the rear view mirror, I saw that their 3 older children were sitting on the buckboard behind. As I say, this was a young couple, and there will surely be more children beyond these 5. This is typical. Simply put, not all of these young Amish can remain here. There is not enough land for all of them to farm. So, many move on to other Amish communities in other parts of the country. Also, the young people are given a choice about the time they are 17 or 18. For a year or so, the teenagers are allowed to sample the modern world, to drink and party and experience the outside for themselves. I had seen a documentary about this before, so I was not unfamiliar with the practice. Afterwards, they choose whether they want to remain Amish or not. Richard told me that there had been tragedies. Teenage boys, trucks and alcohol are often a lethal combination. Four teenage Amish boys had been killed in a recent pile-up on the dirt road that runs beside my family's old farm. Lord have mercy.





















St. John's Episcopal Church, founded 1729

I asked Richard about one sight that caught my attention. I saw a couple of Amish men mowing their yards with new zero-turning radius riding lawnmowers. Apparently, there is some loophole, or dispensation when it comes to this sort of thing. He knew of one man who had an underground electrical line into his house which powered a washer and dryer. And, it was not unknown to see the occasional Amishman sitting at the end of the bar at the White Horse Tavern. But by and large, the center seems to be holding.

On my way out of Lancaster County, I passed along the back roads of the southern section of the county, on my way to Port Deposit, Maryland. I was interested to learn that the Amish are not merely huddled in the touristed area east of Lancaster, but are in fact scattered all over the county. Everywhere, I saw young Amish walking together in groups or taking the family buggy out for a ride together. Apparently, Sunday afternoon after church services is the free time that young Amish have to seek out their peers and hang out together, as young people are wont to do. This is how it should be.





















Family plot, St. John's Episcopal Cemetery

10 comments:

Ian Climacus said...

"the culture is a silent and damning rebuke to the excesses and wreckage of modernity."

Very challenging indeed.

Thank you again for letting me journey with you. And perhaps I am revealing too much of a base nature when I say I was taken aback reading the town named "Intercourse". A Google was informative.

Terry (John) said...

I know what you mean. Obviously, they named the town back when that word had another meaning--having to do with commerce and that sort of thing, I suppose. Even so, I did pause when writing the sentence that contained the phrase "between Paradise and Intercourse."

jccvi said...

The Amish demographic problem is rather easily solved. They buy land and start a new community where no Amish have been before. There is a group between us and Tupelo in a little town called Pontotoc, MS. Sometimes you see them (and here them speaking German) at the Memphis Zoo on the weekend.

Somewhere I've seen the statistic (maybe Rod Dreher?) that the Amish are growing at a faster rate than any religious group in the country. I doubt they're as sentimental about themselves as we are. If Lancaster County becomes a parking lot, the Amish skill set transfers easily.

Mimi said...

What beautiful photos.

Milton T. Burton said...

Now, now. Those who are proponents of the sexual revolution would have us believe that intercourse leads to paradise. And it may for a few minutes.

One thing else: the Amish are under sever pressure from the state's educrats who think they are "depriving" their children of "educational opportunities." What they are depriving them of is the enforced conformity of the modern secular schoo; system. Which is what the educational authorites really want---conformity and uniformity. They don't really care how we look or act so long as we all look and act the same. I don't like educrats, and you may be sure that when I become Emperor the hangman will be kept busy.

Terry (John) said...

jccvi,
I am familiar with Pontotoc. It will be interesting to see what the Amish make of the north Mississippi hill country.

No doubt they are not sentimental about themselves. I found it interesting that their non-Amish neighbors, while respectful, are not particularly sentimental towards them.

What impressed me was their staying power, and like you say, if they lose out in Lancaster County, their culture is strong enough to re-establish itself elsewhere.

jccvi said...

Funny enough, I saw some german speaking Amish at Mud Island today during my lunch break

Magotty Man said...

The Hutterites are one such group in Canada that keep expanding, establishing new colonies etc. The provincial government in SK have established Hutterite schools, that respect the concerns of those communities while offering them a quality education.

The Hutterites are followers of one Jacob Hutter. In religion seemingly similar to the Amish, except that they don't despise technology. It is interesting to see woman in long dresses (even at -30C!!)and headscarves, and men with suspenders etc. get into shiny new Dodge Rams!

Anonymous said...

My stepfather's family was from Lancaster and owned the house in which Robert Fulton (who built the Clermont) was born. We grew up in suburban Washington, DC, but would visit the Fulton House farm each summer. During the Cuban Missle Crisis, my parents (and others) worried about being bombed, so we spent two weeks at Fulton House, which was then out in the countryside. There were Amish farms all around. I got to watch a load of coal for winter being delivered. The family had been in the area since at least the late 1700's. The state bought the farm from the family and restored Fulton house to what it had been when Robert Fulton was born, very much smaller than the huge three story house I remember. I haven't been back there in years (ended up in Dallas for the past 35 years). Thanks for the memories and your thoughtful writing. I am also much impressed with the resilience of the Amish and their way of life, but have also heard of problems with sexual abuse.

Pintradex said...

"Using the wonders of modern GIS technology, I was able to overlay their 1734 land patents onto a Google Earth aerial... "

Sweet!