The Amish
Photos taken at a Quilt auction in Wisconsin
Freeman
Yoder
Bonduel, Wisconsin
Amish, North American Protestant group of Mennonite origin. The Amish have maintained a distinctive and conservative agricultural way of life despite the influences of modern industrial society.The name Amish is derived from Jakob Amman, a Swiss Mennonite bishop. He insisted that discipline within the church be maintained by excommunication. This entailed the avoidance, or shunning, by the faithful of those excommunicated. Conventional social relationships with the excommunicated, such as eating at the same table, buying and selling, and, in the case of a married person, marital relations, were forbidden. The Amish, subject to persecution in Europe, migrated in the 18th century to Pennsylvania, where their descendants are called Pennsylvania Dutch (the German deutsch,"German," was misunderstood as "Dutch"). They then spread into Ohio, other Midwestern states, and Canada. A rural people, their skill in farming is exemplary.
The most conservative are known as Old Order Amish. They dress in a severely plain style, using hooks and eyes instead of buttons to fasten their clothes.
Amish buggy
They ride in horse-drawn buggies instead of automobiles, and the adult males wear beards.
Religious services are held in homes; foot washing is practiced in connection with the communion service; discipline is enforced by shunning; and marriage with outsiders is condemned. Other Amish groups are milder in discipline and less set apart from the world. All share the practice of believer's, or adult, baptism and often refuse to take part in civil affairs—to vote, serve in the military, and so forth. The Old Order Amish numbered about 80,800 in the early 1990s.
Amish girls
(Quilt auction was to benefit their school)
Mennonite family
(somewhat less conservative in dress)The Amish have sometimes come into conflict with the larger society. In particular, they have resisted compulsory education requirements as a threat to their separate way of life. In the case of Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the state sought to require the children of an Amish family to attend school until the age of 16. The parents were willing to allow them to attend through the eighth grade but argued that high school education would make them unfit to carry on the Amish tradition. The Supreme Court of the United States agreed that their right to the free exercise of their religion is protected and that the state's concern for compulsory public education must yield to that consideration.
Selling the furniture they made
need a quilt?
a rack to display it
Mader and Mader auctioneers
in Memorium Robert Mader (1941-2006)
A ringman
or buy a donut for the benefit of their school
Photos of the Amish Quilt Auction, Bonduel 2001
To see the asking price for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Amish Quilts see:
