Jacob Hochstetler knew they were blessed every time he looked at his wife, his children, and their prosperous farms. ![]() The Amish community along Northkill Creek-the first of its kind in the New World-was strong and growing. Never mind that their neighbors-English, Welsh, Scots-Irish, even their fellow Germans, the Lutherans and Reformeds who worshipped together at the union church down the Tulpehocken Valley-were not always the most welcoming, calling them “Amish” or looking askance at their pacifist ways in these troubled times of war. ![]() The apple trees, planted almost twenty years earlier, hung ripe with fruit-a testimony to God’s mercy, which, having brought these followers of the Mennonite elder Jakob Ammann out of persecution in Germany and Switzerland, led them to this new land of Pennsylvania, William Penn’s “holy experiment” of religious tolerance. On the Hochstetler farm, which in September 1757 sat like an oasis of orchards and fields below the dark forests of the Kittochtinny Hills in eastern Pennsylvania, there was a rhythm to the seasons, and for the young people of the surrounding German community, ebbelschnitz time was one of the highlights of autumn.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |