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EDITED BY John C. Parish
Associate Editor of the State Historical Society of Iowa
| Volume II |
July 1921 |
No. 7 |
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Copyright 1921 by the State Historical Society of Iowa
(Transcribed by Gayle Harper)
AMANA
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In one of the garden spots of Iowa there is a charming little
valley through which the historic Iowa River flows peacefully
to the eastward. A closer view reveals seven old-fashioned
villages nestling among the trees or sleeping on the
hillsides. About these seven villages stretch twenty-six
thousand goodly acres clothed with fields of corn, pastures,
meadows, gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and seas of waving
grain. Beyond and above, surrounding the little valley, are
richly timbered hills forming as though by design a frame for
this quaint picture of Amana—the home of the Community of True
Inspiration.
And what is Amana? To the traveler,
viewing the fleeting landscape from the observation car of the
Rocky Mountain Limited, it is a singular cluster of unpainted
houses and barns amid battalions of vine-covered bean poles
and blossoming onion tops, surrounded by well tilled fields.
To the speeding motorist on the River to River Road, bent on
making the distance between Davenport and Des Moines in a day,
it furnishes a curiously delightful stopping place for rest
and refreshment and a fresh supply of gasoline. To the
historian it is a bit of Europe in America, a voice out of the
past on the world's western frontier; while to the political
and social philosopher it is the nearest approach in our day
to the Utopian's dream of a community of men and women living
together in peace, plenty, and happiness, away from the
"world" and its many distractions.
To the villagers
themselves, with their aversion to mixing "philosophy and
human science with divine wisdom", Amana with its villages and
gardens, its orchards and vineyards, its mills and factories,
its rich harvest fields and wooded hills, and its abiding
peace and cheerfulness is the visible expression of the Lord's
will: to them the establishment of villages, the growth and
development of industries, and the success of communism are
all incidental to the life and thought of the Community whose
chief concern is spiritual. Born of religious enthusiasm and
disciplined by persecution, it has ever remained primarily a
Church. And so the real Amana is Amana the Church—Amana the
Community of True Inspiration.
In language, in manners,
in dress, in traditions, as well as in religious and economic
institutions, the Community of True Inspiration is foreign to
its surroundings—so much so that the visitor is at once
impressed with the fact that here is something different from
the surrounding world. In the eighteenth century the
Inspirationists paid the penalty in the Old World for their
non-conformity to established customs by imprisonment and
exile in the twentieth century they are objects of curiosity
to their neighbors and the subject of no little speculation.
The Inspirationist is by nature and by discipline given to
attending quietly to his own business; and much impertinent
inquiry on the part of visitors has intensified his reticence.
But Amana has no secrets to hide from the world. To be granted
full liberty to worship in their own way and to work out their
own salvation is all that the men and women of this Community
have ever asked.
There is much in the life of the
people of Amana that seems plain and monotonous to the outside
world. And yet we are compelled to acknowledge that in many
respects theirs is a more rational and ideal life than that
which is found in the average country village. It is more
genuine and uniform. There is less extravagance; no living
beyond one's means; no keeping up of "appearances"; and fewer
attempts to pass for more than one is worth.
But of
more fundamental concern than plain living is the fact that
the Community of True Inspiration has throughout its history
been dominated by a spiritual ideal and a determined purpose
to realize that ideal. To this end the Inspirationists
persevered, suffered, and sacrificed for more than two hundred
years. And finally, that their ideal of a simple religious
life might prevail, they substituted a system of brotherly
cooperation for one of individual competition.
It is
apparent, however, that that isolation from the "world" for
which the Community of True Inspiration has so earnestly
striven and which it has so jealously guarded for six
generations becomes less and less easy to preserve. The
railroad and airplane, the telephone and telegraph, the
newspaper and magazine, the endless procession of automobiles,
and the great World War have at last brought the Community and
the "world" so close together that marked changes are taking
place in the customs of the people and in their attitude
toward life. Indeed, it is the intelligent adjustment of the
life of the Community to the new order that explains
the-"blessed continuation" of Amana in this day and
generation.
To the German Mystics and Pietists of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Community of True
Inspiration traces its origin—developing into a distinct
religious sect about the year 1714. Protesting against the
dogmatism 'of the Lutheran Church and refusing to conform to
its ritual, the Inspirationists were persecuted and
prosecuted.
They were fined, pilloried, flogged,
imprisoned, legislated against, exiled, and stripped of their
possessions.
It was a simple faith—a belief in guidance
through divine revelation—that held together the early
congregations of Inspirationists despite humiliation and
torture. "Does not the same God live to-day'", they said, "and
is it not reasonable to believe that He will inspire His
followers now as then t There is no reason to believe that God
has in any way changed His methods of communication, and as He
revealed hidden things through visions, dreams, and by
revelations in olden times He will lead His people to-day by
the words of His Inspiration if they but listen to His voice."
And so from time to time spiritual leaders arose and
"prophesied like the prophets of old", and all their sayings
were faithfully recorded by scribes and published as sacred
"testimonies". It was this simple faith that sustained the
Community through years of persecution and trial in the Old
World and through years of suffering and sacrifice in the New
World.
Although the Community has enjoyed the spiritual
leadership of a very considerable number of great
personalities—such as Eberhard Ludwig Gruber, Johann
Friederich Rock, Michael Kraussert, and Barbara Heinemann—it
is to the religious zeal and practical genius of Christian
Hetz, a young carpenter of Ronneburg, that the Community owes
its greatest debt. Even to this day the spell of the influence
of this remarkable leader is felt throughout Amana.
It
was Christian Hetz who first conceived the idea of leasing
estates in common as a refuge for the faithful; and while the
original intention had been to live together simply as a
congregation or church, Christian Metz foresaw that a system
of,communism would be the natural outcome of the mode of life
which these people had been forced to adopt. And he foresaw
that exorbitant rents and unfriendly governments in the Old
World would one day make it necessary for the Inspirationists
to find a home in the New World "where they and their children
could live in peace and liberty".
Never shall I forget
the day, some years ago, when from the ruined tower of
Ronneburg Castle I looked out over those German estates which
had been the Old World home of the Community of True
Inspiration. The friendly keeper eagerly called my attention
to eleven villages in the distance, and apologized for a
gathering rain which obscured "oh so many more". Then he
pointed with pride into a mass of clouds where on a clear day
and with a field glass one could see Frankfurt. But through
the mists I seemed only to see the beautiful Iowa Amana with
its villages and vineyards, its gardens and orchards, its
fields and pastures and meadows "where all that believed were
together and had all things in common". I seemed only to hear
in the rising wind the hum of Amana's varied industries "where
each was given an opportunity to earn his living according to
his calling or inclination". My thoughts were of Christian
Metz, the carpenter prophet, "who kept these things in his
heart and pondered them over". And I thought too of the
splendid young men of Amana of my own day, six generations
removed from the worshipping congregation on the hill of
Ronneburg, still making the ancient sacrifice for a spiritual
ideal in this turbulent quarter of the twentieth century when
brotherly love and idealism have grown timid in the company of
selfishness and materialism.
It was in 1842 that a
committee of four led by Christian Metz set out to find a new
home in America, and it was their sincere and devout belief
that the journey had been "ordained and directed by divine
revelation". For three months these conscientious
Inspirationists, ever mindful of the responsibilities that
rested with them, suffered the winter wind and cold of the
region of the Great Lakes while they examined tracts of land,
dealt with unscrupulous land companies, and weighed the
advantages of various situations. In the end they purchased
the Seneca Indian Reservation—a tract of five thousand acres
near Buffalo, Erie County, N. Y.
Within four months of
the purchase of the Reservation the first village of the
Community was laid out and peopled. Five others were soon
established, and more than eight hundred members crossed the
water to join the group of pioneers at "Ebenezer" —so named in
a song by Christian Hetz recorded before the final purchase
was made:
Ebenezer you shall call it
Hitherto our Lord has helped us
He was with us on
our journey
And from many perils saved us
His
path and way are wonderful
And the end makes clear
the start. |
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Each village had its store, its school, and its church; soon
there arose the cheerful hum of sawmills, woolen mills, and
flour mills. A temporary constitution providing for "common
possession" was adopted, and the Community was formally
organized under the name of "Ebenezer Society". For twelve
years they toiled in the mills and factories and tilled the
newly broken fields when it became apparent that more land
than was available so near the growing city of Buffalo would
be necessary to accommodate the increasing membership. And
once more a committee of four, with Christian Metz as its
leader, was "ordained and directed" to go forth to "find a new
home in the far West". To Kansas they went, but returned
discouraged and disheartened. Then out to the new State of
Iowa they journeyed to inspect the large tracts of United
States government lands that were still available. Lands in
Iowa County were described in such glowing terms that a
purchase of nearly eighteen thousand acres was made by them
without further delay. A better location or more valuable
tract of land than the new site in Iowa could hardly be
imagined. Through it ran the beautiful Iowa River bordered
with the wonderful black soil of its wide valley. On one side
were the bluffs and the uplands covered with a luxuriant
growth of timber—promising an almost limitless supply of fuel
and building material. There were a few quarries of sandstone
and limestone along the river; while the clay in the hills was
unexcelled for the manufacture of brick. On the other side of
the river stretched the rolling prairie land. To the
Inspirationists, who had been obliged to cut heavy timber and
remove stones and boulders from the Ebenezer land before it
could be tilled, the long green stretches of virgin prairie
"ready for the plow" seemed the most wonderful feature of the
splendid new domain on which all the hopes of the future were
centered.
But it takes more than a beautiful location
and natural resources to make a successful community: it takes
moral earnestness and untiring industry. These the
Inspirationists brought with them to their new home. Then,
too, the Ebenezer experiment had added twelve years of
experience in pioneering. Unlike Etienne Cabet's French
tailors and shoemakers of the Icarian Community, the
Inspirationists knew how to turn the matted sod of the
prairie. Bountiful harvests rewarded their industry and skill.
With a will they set to work to cut the timber and quarry
the stone and build new houses, shops, mills, factories,
churches, and schoolhouses. They planted orchards and
vineyards, and purchased flocks and herds. They revived the
old industries and started new ones. There was some sickness
incident to pioneering, but withal they felt that in this new
home to which "the Lord had directed them" the fulfillment of
all the early prophecies was at hand. Bodily ills are more
easily healed than spiritual ones; and so, in spite of the
malaria and the ague the Inspirationists flourished and were
content in their new home.
There was no rush to the
country so gloriously described by the Iowa fore-guards—though
no one can doubt the eagerness with which every member looked
forward to the upbuilding of the new home. The removal from
Ebenezer extended over a period of ten years and was carried
through with that prudence, judgment, and common sense which
has always characterized these people in the conduct of their
business affairs.
While one detail of members prepared
the new home in Iowa, the other looked to the profitable
selling of the old estate in New York. As they found
purchasers for the latter, they sent families to the -former.
To their business credit it is recorded that they were able to
dispose of the whole of the eight thousand acre tract in the
State of New York with all the improvements without the loss
of a single dollar, notwithstanding such a sale presented
great difficulties—for the six communistic villages and their
peculiar arrangement of buildings, with mills, factories, and
workshops had peculiarities which detracted from their value
for individual uses. Much of the Ebenezer land had been
surveyed and laid out in lots; and when disposed of it was
sold piece by piece, a task which required much time and
patience.
The first village on the Iowa purchase was
laid out during the summer of 1855 on a sloping hillside north
of the Iowa River, and it was called "Amana" by Christian
Metz—the word signifying "remain true" or "believe faithfully"
and was suggested, it is said, by the resemblance between the
bluff overlooking the site of the new village and "the top of
Amana" described in the Song of Solomon. Five more villages
were laid out within a radius of six miles from Amana and were
named in accordance with their locations, West Amana, South
Amana, High Amana, East Amana, and Middle Amana.
Modeled after the country villages of middle Europe, the
houses of the "Amana Colonies", as they are commonly called,
were clustered together on one long straggling street with
several irregular offshoots, with the barns and sheds at one
end, the factories and workshops at the other, and on either
side the orchards, the vineyards, and the gardens.
Up
to 1861 the nearest railroad station had been Iowa City, which
was twenty miles distant; but in that year the Mississippi and
Missouri Railroad was completed as far as Homestead, a small
town south of the Community's territory. All goods from the
East would now be unloaded there, and it would also form the
shipping point for the neighboring farming population. The
Community saw the necessity of owning this railroad station,
and so the entire village of Homestead was purchased.
In the system of village life, which has been the great
conservator of the Community's purity and simplicity, the
Inspirationists have shown their farsightedness. The villages
are near enough to one another to facilitate superintendence
and to preserve a feeling of unity. At the same time they are
far enough apart to maintain a simplicity of living, which
would probably be impossible with the same number of people
congregated in one place. By this means the Community, while
taking advantage of every progressive step in the methods of
agriculture and the processes of manufacture, has been able to
sustain in its social, political, and religious life an
insular position.
By the time the sale of the Ebenezer
land had been completed, the Community's territory in Iowa
consisted of twenty-six thousand acres—which is approximately
the amount owned at the present time. With the exception of
some seventeen hundred acres in the adjoining county of
Johnson, all of the land lies within the boundaries of Iowa
County.
Two steps of great importance were taken by the
Community soon after its removal to Iowa. One was its
incorporation under the laws of the State as the "Amana
Society"; and the other was the adoption of a new
constitution.
Unlike some of its contemporaries, the
fundamental law of the Amana Society is neither a "Declaration
of Mental Independence" nor the outlines of a scheme of a
"World-wide Socialistic Brotherhood". On the contrary, it
provides simply and briefly a civil organization for a
religious society. It is worthy of comment that, unlike Owen's
New Harmony Society which adopted seven constitutions in two
years, the Amana Society still lives under the provisions of
the instrument which went into effect on the first day of
January, 1860, and which has received the signature of every
member of the Society since its adoption in December, 1859.
Materially all of the fondest hopes of the little band of
Inspirationists in the Old World struggling to pay the rent of
their first estate have been realized in the Iowa home. The
membership, numbering eight hundred when the Community
migrated to New York and twelve hundred when the removal to
Iowa took place, has increased to fifteen hundred at the
present day. Bountiful harvests have rewarded their untiring
industry; the products of their mills and factories have found
a market from Maine to California; and in the books of the
Auditors of Iowa and Johnson counties, their real and personal
property was listed in 1920 at $2,102,984.
Communistic
societies are like individuals: many have been able to stand
adversity, but only the steadiest minded are able to stand
prosperity. The Amana Society belongs to the extremely small
class of the latter. In spite of the continued material
success of the last half century, the "solidarity" of the
Community is still intact. To the force, patience, sagacity,
broad-mindedness and withal the faithful service of competent
leaders the Community of True Inspiration owes in a large
measure its success and continuity. And the difficulties of
administration of so human an institution are apparent. Six
generations of precept and practice in self-denial and
brotherly love have not of course completely annihilated the
dissatisfied and troublesome. Nor was there ever a
congregation of fifteen hundred souls without its hampering
Brothers—those upon whom the responsibility of protecting the
highly cherished good name of the organization rests but
lightly, those who enjoy its material blessings and benefits
but are reluctant to share the burdens and cares and the
necessary sacrifice.
Under the terms of the
constitution of the Amana Society such presumptuous members
can be expelled as from any other church organization. But
such an expulsion, however, presents baffling complications
since it involves the actual turning out of house and home of
the disturbing elements. It is in the successful solution of
such problems quite as much as in the business foresight of
its administrative officers that one discovers the explanation
of the Community's long life. The predominating spirit is
still the spirit of the forefathers. Were it not so the
Community could not be held together, for the Amana Society is
after all simply a voluntary association depending for its
perpetuity upon the general good will and good faith of its
members.
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| TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL
RULE |
Extreme democracy in government and administration has never
been the political ideal of the Inspirationists, but rather a
strong central authority wisely administered and implicitly
obeyed. The entire conduct of the affairs of the Amana Society
rests with a Board of Trustees consisting of thirteen members
who are elected annually by popular vote out of the whole
number of Elders in the Community. Moreover, the members of
the Board of Trustees are the spiritual as well as temporal
leaders of the Community, and as such are known as the "Great
Council of the Brethren". Thus there has been effected in the
Community an harmonious blending of temporal rule and
spiritual authority, which is regarded as the fulfillment of
the will of the Lord as revealed through Inspiration.
The Trustees elect annually on the second Tuesday of the month
of December out of their own number a President, a Vice
President, and a Secretary. The incumbents are usually
reelected; for rotation in office has never been a part of the
Amana theory of government.
There has always been a
strong religious sentiment against allowing personal ambition
to play much if any part in the government of the Community.
To disregard any of the duties entrusted to a member is to
"break the sacred covenant which the Brethren have made with
the Lord and with one another." The-officeholder is expected
to accept office not for its honors or its perquisites, but as
a sacred responsibility.
In the month of June in each
year the Trustees exhibit to the voting members of the Society
(who comprise, according to the by-laws, all male members who
have signed the constitution, all widows, and such female
members as are thirty years of age and are not represented
through some male member) a full statement of "the real and
personal estate of the Society". In matters of great
importance special meetings of the whole Society may be
called. But in general the Society has avoided the mistake
(common enough in many contemporary communities) of too many
mass meetings. It took five upheavals of the Icarian Community
to teach the lesson of leaving routine administration to
committees instead of discussing every detail in frequent
meetings of the assembly.
The Amana Society aims to
keep its members informed on the general condition of affairs;
but there is a decided tendency to reduce unnecessary
discussion to the minimum by "leaving such things to those
that best understand them." The Board of Trustees is the high
court of appeal in cases of disagreements, dissension, and
complaints within the Society. Owing to the nature of the
Community there are no lawyers in Amana. However, in suits
with outside parties the Society does not hesitate to employ
counsel.
Each village is governed by a group of elders
varying in number—not necessarily old men, but men who are
deemed to be of deep piety and spirituality. At the same time
the Community profoundly believes that "Days should speak and
multitude of years should teach wisdom." By that, nice
adjustment of functions that necessarily grows up in such a
community, the highest authority in the village in matters
spiritual is the Head Elder; in matters temporal, the resident
Trustee. And although the Trustee is a member of the Great
Council itself, which is the spiritual head of the Community,
in the village church the Head Elder outranks the Trustee.
Each village keeps its own books and manages its own
affairs in accordance with the resolutions of the Great
Council; but all accounts are finally sent to the headquarters
at Amana where they are inspected and the balance of profit or
loss is discovered. It is presumed that the labor of each
village produces a profit; but whether it does or not makes no
difference in the supplies allotted to the village or to
members thereof. The system of government is thus a sort of
federation wherein each village maintains a certain sphere of
independence in local administration, but is under the general
control and supervision of a governing central authority—the
Board of Trustees or Great Council of the Brethren.
Generations of right thinking and right living seem to have
produced a distinct type in the Community of True Inspiration.
The older men and women are plain and direct of speech, self
possessed and sedate. They have strong faces and honest eyes
—faces refined by much thought upon spiritual things and
purified by sacrifice and high aims. There is a gentleness in
their demeanor that reminds one of the Quakers, and a firmness
and a seriousness in the manner that bespeak their Pietist
ancestry. They live quiet and peaceful lives and do not like
to admit strangers to their privacy. They have a reputation
for honesty and fair dealing among their neighbors and
wherever the* products are bought and sold. "If you have made
a promise so keep it, and beware of untruthfulness and lies",
is one of the fundamental precepts in the training of the
Inspirationist.
It is doubtful whether there are many
places in the world outside of Amana where more tender care
and respectful attention are given to the aged and infirm.
Unproductive members of the Community enjoy all the privileges
and comforts that the Community has to give. When the
dissolution of the corporation was suggested in a recent
lawsuit, it was the problem of the old people that caused the
greatest concern in the Community. "It would be wrong to
dissolve our brotherhood", said the Elders "for if this should
happen, what would become of our old people?"
There is
no prettier picture anywhere than an Amana grandmother with
her knitting (and what wonderful things she can do with those
needles without seeming to look at them!) unless it is,
perhaps the homage she is paid by the younger members of the
household. And what a wealth of stories the dear grandmother
has to tell the eager little folks of our forefathers in the
old country", of the early days at Ebenezer and the trouble
with the Seneca Indians, and of the long, long journey across
the country to the Iowa prairie! And grandfather, his
forefinger marking the place in the old Bible he is reading,
looks up to add his word of testimony to the fulfillment of
the "gracious promise of the early prophecies". Who can
estimate the influence on the younger generation of the memory
of these "old defenders of the faith" who embody in their
personalities fourscore years and more of the most romantic
history of the Community.
While the Community of True
Inspiration aims at the widest possible community of goods
there is in the homes of its members a fine blending of
individualism and communism which would hardly be possible in
a community established with communism alone as its ideal. The
Teutonic instinct of individual freedom, coupled with an
intense love of home, led its members to preserve a wholesome
sphere of domestic independence. Each family lives in a house
which is the property of the Society. But the Amana "home" is
nevertheless the sanctuary of its occupants. And to each
member of the Community there is allowed, out of the common
fund, enough personal property to assure personal comfort and
to satisfy that desire of every human heart to have something
of its very own. Indeed, the separatism of the Amana home,
though not in accord with the principles of complete
communism, has been an important factor in the perpetuity and
prosperity of the Community of True Inspiration.
The
cheerless cloisters of the Ephrata Community (notwithstanding
the religious fervor of the early Brothers and Sisters) are
empty to-day. One by one the "Family Houses" of the True
Believers of the Shaker Communities have been closed. Even the
great five-storied home of the Centre Family of Lebanon has
been deserted; and the United Society of Believers is
represented by only a small group of the old guard. The Oneida
Community with its Mansion House "as a peculiar form of
Society", to quote one of its own members, "is practically no
more." In truth the whole host of brotherhoods that have set
sail on the communistic sea with the "Unitary Dwelling" and
"Great House" ideal (despite the undeniable saving of labor
and expense of such a plan) have miserably failed. The devoted
men to whom the management of the Community of True
Inspiration has been entrusted for the past century may not
have been students of social science; but that they have been
profound students of human nature is evidenced on every hand.
The Amana houses are substantially built, and quite
unpretentious. It has been the purpose of the Community to
construct the houses as nearly alike as possible. There is no
hard and fast rule, but the aim is to make one as desirable as
the other. There is in the private homes no kitchen, no
dining-room, no parlor—just a series of sitting-rooms and
bedrooms, which are, almost without exception, roomy and
homelike. In addition to the general family sitting-room, each
member of a household has as a rule his own individual
sitting-room as well as his own individual bedroom. Here he is
at liberty to indulge his own taste in decoration—provided
that he does not go beyond his allowance or violate the rules
of the Community. Here he may ride his hobbies or store his
keepsakes without being disturbed —which accounts in part for
the general content of the young people.
General
housekeeping in Amana is a comparatively simple matter. At
more or less regular intervals in each village there is a
"kitchen-house"—a little larger than the ordinary dwelling—
where the meals for the families in the immediate neighborhood
are prepared and served. From sixteen to fifty persons eat at
one kitchen, the number depending largely upon the location.
The places are assigned by the resident Trustee or local
Council, the chief consideration being the convenience of
those concerned.
The kitchen-house system of Amana may
lack the economy of the communistic ideal—the unitary
dining-room—but there is much to be said in its favor. To the
Great Council of the Brethren the purity and simplicity of the
Community have ever been more important considerations than
minimum expenditure. And they have felt that these could best
be preserved by avoiding, what has proved to be the cause of
the downfall of so many communities, frequent congregations of
large numbers of individuals. However, the mass meeting is in
no way a part of the working scheme of the Amana Society Even
in the church there are separate apartments or meeting-rooms
for the young men, the young women, and the older members.
Indeed, if Amana has made any distinctive contribution to
practical, working communism it is in the combination, or
rather the nice adjustment, between separatism and communism
whereby mutual interest is maintained without inviting the
pitfalls of "too much getting together".
The Amana
kitchen is large and airy, often extending through the full
depth of the house. Each kitchen has its supply of hot and
cold water and its sink and drain. Every pan and kettle has
its shelf or hook; and there are more conveniences for paring
and slicing, chopping and grinding, than the average housewife
of the world ever dreamed of. But the really distinct feature
of the Amana kitchen is the long low brick stove with its iron
plate top. This is built along one side of the room; and back
of it there is a sheet of tin several feet high which shines
like a mirror. From its upper edge hangs a most surprising
variety of strainers, spoons, dippers, and ladles. On top of
the brick store are the huge copper boilers and kettles which
a community kitchen necessitates. In recent years there has
been added to each kitchen a modern cook-stove, which is used
during the winter for heating as well as for cooking purposes.
In the kitchen everything from the floor to ceiling is as
clean and bright as can be made by soap and water, brooms and
mops. The Amana woman knows none of the vexations of the
village housewife of the world, in whose home as a rule proper
conveniences for the kitchen are the last to be provided.
Woodsheds and store-houses are built in the most convenient
places; there are covered passage-ways from the house to the
"bake-oven" and outbuildings; and there is commonly a hired
man at the kitchen- house for the carrying of water and hewing
of wood. There is absolute system in every detail of the
housework. Everything is thoroughly and effectively done; and
the women do not appear to be overworked.
Each kitchen
is superintended by a woman appointed by the Elders, who is
assisted by three of the younger women, each taking her turn
in attending to the dining-room, preparing vegetables,
cooking, and washing dishes. As a general rule one week of
"part time" follows two weeks of service in the kitchen—which,
it must be admitted, is a great improvement over the ceaseless
routine of the life of the average housewife of the world.
The older women do not work in the kitchen as a rule; hence it
is sometimes necessary to hire help from the outside. It is
the aim of the Community to have hired help in the hotel
kitchens in order to shield its own young women from too close
contact with the world. The [act that the average summer
visitor too often leaves his manners in the city when he
chances to take an outing makes the wisdom of such a rule
evident.
Wagons from the village bakery, butcher shop, and
dairy make the daily rounds of the kitchens. Cheese and
unsalted butter for table use are made in each kitchen, along
with its own special cooking and baking. Large dryers at the
woolen mills, where steam heat can be utilized are now used
for the drying of vegetables for winter use. Ptomaine
poisoning and adulterated foods have little chance to do their
deadly work in Amana.
It is the aim of the Community to
produce as far as practicable all the food consumed by the
members. At the same time the Amana people do not deny
themselves any comforts which are compatible with simplicity
of life. The tables are bountifully laden with wholesome food;
but the menu is practically the same from day to day, except
as varied by the presence of fresh fruits and vegetables in
their season. The Inspirationists are not faddists in their
diet; they have no theories regarding the effect of a
vegetable and fruit diet on "the health of the body, and the
purity of the mind, and the happiness of society." They have
no decided opinions regarding the relative merits of lard and
tallow, and no rule against the "eating of dead creatures."
Tea and coffee are commonly used. In short the food throughout
the Community is well cooked and substantial, but unmodified
by any modern "dietetic philosophy".
Breakfast is
served in the Amana kitchens at six o'clock in the summer-time
and half an hour later in the winter-time. The dinner hour is
11:30 the year round. With the supper bell, which rings at
half past six in the winter-time and at seven o'clock in the
summer-time, the day's work closes. In addition to these three
meals the Inspirationist takes a lunch in the middle of each
half day. Those who work at considerable distance from the
kitchen carry their lunches with them. When the supper things
are cleared the members gather in small groups at different
places in the villages for the evening prayer- meeting.
There was a time in the pioneer days of the Community
(when all energies were bent to the building of a new home in
the wilderness) when the women, in the manner of our Puritan
grandmothers, shared almost equally the physical labors of the
men. But as the Community prospered the lot of the women
became easier; and to- day the woman of Amana knows nothing of
the cares of the average housemother who is expected to
perform the combined duties of housemaid and nurse, hostess
and church worker.
In every department of service in
which woman participates the work is carefully apportioned to
her strength.
The woman with children under the age of two
is not required to take part in the general village work, and
her meals are brought to her home in a basket from the nearest
kitchen-house. There is a nursery or kindergarten in each
village well supplied with sand piles and the variety of
playthings deemed necessary to keep children interested. Here
the little folks between three years and school age are cared
for when necessary to enable their mothers to take part in the
village work. In connection with every kitchen-house is a
vegetable garden of from two to three acres. The heaviest of
the garden work is always done by the hired man, but the
superintendence and general care of the garden are entrusted
to the women. This work is lighter than the kitchen work and
the hours are shorter; and so the garden work is allotted to
the middle-aged and older women. Whoever has fared on the
produce of the kitchen-house garden can understand the feeling
of the Amana prodigal who returned to the Community because
there was "nothing fit to eat in the world." There is fresh
lettuce from March to December, grown in hotbeds at one end of
the season and kept in sand in the cellar at the other. There
is evergreen spinach that is delicious the whole summer long;
and the garden superintendent knows how to lengthen the green
pea and wax bean season to the most surprising extent. There
are great white cauliflower averaging ten inches across; there
are kale and salsify, red cabbage and yellow tomatoes, and
much more that the visitor from the world does not even know
by name. At one end of the summer the kitchen garden brings
forth huge strawberries and raspberries, to which even the
gorgeously illustrated seed catalogues can not do justice; and
at the other end a marvelous variety of apples, and pears, and
plums, and grapes.
In their dress (like the Shakers,
the Mennonites, and in truth all of the communities whose
religion prohibits "a life of vanity") the members of the
Amana Community are "plain". And like the Shakers, too, they
do not profess to adhere to a uniform, but claim to have
adopted and retained what they find to be a convenient style
of dress. This is particularly true of the dress of the women.
There is nothing distinctive in the dress of the men of
Amana to-day. While there is still a great aversion among the
pious to "looking proud", there is an equal dislike on the
part of the younger members of being conspicuous on account of
their clothes. And so the men, particularly those who come in
contact with the world, dress in much the same fashion as do
men of the world—a little more given to "plain goods",
perhaps, and a little less responsive to the latest edicts of
fashion.
Formerly the village tailor made all of the
clothing for the men, but it was found to be cheaper to buy
"ready-made" clothes for ordinary wear. The "best clothes" are
still quite generally made by the Community tailor; for the
young man gets his goods at cost from the woolen mills and, as
the time of the tailor belongs to the Society, he is thus
enabled to dress well on less than one-fourth of what it costs
his brother in the world. The older Brothers are a little more
orthodox and still wear "Colony" trousers and a Sunday coat
without lapels; but unlike the Amish man, with whom he is
often confused, he does not regard the button as an "emblem of
vanity", not cut his hair in "pumpkin-shell" fashion. He does,
however, resemble both the Amish man and the Shaker in the cut
of his beard and in the absence of a mustache, which latter is
regarded as a badge of worldliness.
The costume of the
women might almost be called a uniform two hundred years old,
the dress of today among the more orthodox being practically
the same as at the founding of the Community. "Do not adorn
yourself in dress for luxury's sake", reads one of the
precepts of the Community, "as a feast for the eyes or to
please yourself or others, but only for necessity's sake. What
you seek and use beyond necessity is sin." For mother and
grandmother this is still the law and the gospel; but
granddaughter, in the manner of the "growing-up-youth" of all
ages, is less inclined to follow rules and regulations and oft
times discards the "shoulder-shawl" and black cap, originally
designed to suppress pride, changes perhaps the cut of her
Quaker-like gown, and wears a bit of Jewelry or a pretty
slipper. Until recently the summer clothing of the women was
made largely of the calico printed by the Community and known
from Maine to California as "Amana Calico". The printing
works, however, were closed during the World War owing to the
impossibility of obtaining reliable dyes—particularly the
indigo for the Society's best known "Colony Blue"—and up to
the present time the industry has not been resumed. The only
head dress in the summer time is a sun bonnet with a long
cape; a hood takes its place in cold weather.
How it
came to pass that the planting of flowers escaped condemnation
as "a pleasure to the eye" is more than the "worldly minded"
can explain. We only know that it is so and are thankful.
For all the pent-up love for the beautiful in the
Community of True Inspiration for six generations seems to
find expression in the cultivation of flowers, which are found
in great profusion everywhere—around each dwelling, in front
of the church, and even in the hotel and school yards. Indeed,
the Amana village from June to October is one huge garden all
aglow with quaint old-fashioned flowers. There are great rows
of four-o 'crocks and lady-slippers, borders of candytuft and
six-weeks-stock; gorgeous masses of zinnias, marigolds, and
geraniums; great pansy beds and rose gardens—all laid out with
precision and cared for with such devotion and such genuine
pleasure that the visitor too rejoices.
The
picturesqueness of the Amana estate is enhanced by a
mill-race—a canal seven miles long which furnishes the water
power for the mills and factories. This mill-race is now old
enough to be fringed with pickerel weed and dwarf willows bent
by the weight of wild grape vines. Here and there the race is
spanned by quaint wooden bridges. Halfway between two of the
villages the mill-race expands into a lake which covers about-
two hundred acres and is now almost filled with the American
lotus or yellow nelumbo. In July when the lotus lifts hundreds
of great buff blossoms above the water, the quiet Sunday of
the peace loving Inspirationist and his family is sadly
disturbed by the endless procession of automobile visitors and
their attendant noise and dust.
"To be a church always" is the essential aim of the Community
of True Inspiration; and it is in the personal service and the
practical devotion of six generations to a spiritual ideal
that we find the real explanation of the Amana of to-day. The
dreams of men live on triumphantly through the ages when the
visible structure of their civilization has crumbled away. The
old feudal castle of Ronneburg is an empty echoing shell, but
the spirit of "the old defenders of the faith" who there
strove for religious liberty in the early years of the
eighteenth century still lives in the little valley of the
Iowa River which has been the dwelling place of their
descendants for more than three score years.
Sincerely
and most devoutly do these people believe that from the
beginning of the "New Spiritual Economy" they have received in
all spiritual matters, and in those temporal affairs which
concerned their spiritual welfare, divine guidance through
specially endowed individuals. They believe that the beautiful
Amana of to-day is simply the expression of the Lord's will as
revealed directly to them from time to time through their
prophets. They believe they were commanded by "a decisive word
of the Lord" to dwell together in the Fatherland; to come to
America where they might "live in peace and religious
liberty"; to adopt communism in the "new home in the
wilderness"; to leave Ebenezer and move to Iowa; and there to
buy land and establish factories in order that the brotherhood
might be maintained in "the faith which has love and the bond
of peace for its essence."
Since the death of Barbara
Heinemann, who received her gift of inspiration at about the
same time as Christian Metz and who outlived him by sixteen
years, there have been no "Instruments" and no new
revelations; but "still living witnesses" and "well founded
Brethren" carry on the work as of old, and much inspired
literature remains for the assurance and guidance of the
congregations of to-day. Of testimonies alone there are
forty-two printed volumes, besides many collections of poetry
and songs.
The stranger in the Amana villages would
have some difficulty in finding the church buildings, unless
perhaps his attention were challenged by their inordinate
length; for the Amana church is no "steeple house", but simply
a series of rooms made necessary by the fact that in the
larger villages the men and women of certain spiritual orders
meet separately on Sunday morning, when four services are
conducted simultaneously. The general meetings on Saturday
morning and Sunday afternoon are held in a large assembly room
of the church.
The interior of the Amana meeting-house
is marked by its plainness. The whitewashed walls, the bare
floors, and the long unpainted benches worn smooth with much
use and frequent scrubbings, all bespeak the character of the
service which is simple, sincere, and deeply impressive. There
is no pulpit, but instead a plain table where the presiding
Elder sits. On either side of him, facing the congregation, is
seated a row of Elders who possess the necessary "measure of
enlightenment and discrimination" to "fulfill the calling of
the shepherd of souls."
In the general meeting the men
sit on one side of the church and the women on the other, both
groups according to age and spiritual rank—the youngsters on
the front benches under the watchful eye of the Elders, the
older members behind. Each member of the congregation from
little Wilhelm and Johanna to the presiding Elder comes armed
with a Bible and a copy of the ponderous Psalter-Spiel in a
pasteboard case.
The religious services of the
Community of True Inspiration are numerous but extremely
simple. There is no attempt at rhetorical effect or eloquence
on the part of the Elders, the hymns are chanted without
instrumental accompaniment and oft times the prayer is
"unhindered by words". The service is dignified and breathes
throughout a reverent and devout spirit, and ever there
remains the sincere effort of the forefathers to eliminate all
that is formal and bound to the letter. At the close of the
service the congregation quietly files out of the church. If
it chances to be a general meeting the women all leave the
church by one exit and the men by another. This no doubt is
calculated to prevent "silly conversation and trifling
conduct". There are no greetings, no good-byes, no visiting on
the steps of the church—nothing in fact that would tend to
lessen the solemnity of the occasion.
The religious
service which is held upon the death of a member is conducted
in the church. The body, however, remains in the home. The
service is the regular church service with the lesson drawn
from the life and death of the departed Brother or Sister.
After the service the entire congregation, including the
children, are permitted to go to the home to view the remains.
Then the plain casket is placed in a light open wagon and the
little procession proceeds on foot down the flower-bordered
street to the cemetery. At the side of the wagon or behind it
are the pall bearers, the family of the deceased, and the
relatives, who are followed by the Elders, the school children
accompanied by their teacher, and the members of the
Community. There is no service at the grave save a hymn and a
silent prayer offered by the entire congregation with bowed
heads as the body is lowered into the earth.
There is
no outward mourning for the dead. Indeed, the faith of the
Community teaches that death is but "the blessed release of
the spirit', from the pain and suffering, the sorrow and
trouble which is the lot of man during his "pilgrimage on
earth." The unencumbered spirit passes beyond into "a blissful
eternity" where other souls will join it as they in turn are
"freed of their burdens."
Amana's simple doctrine of "Brothers all as God's children" is
maintained even in death. In the cemetery there are no family
lots, no monuments.
The departed members of each
village are buried side by side in the order of their death in
rows of military precision, regardless of birth, family, or
spiritual rank. The graves are marked by a low stone or white
painted head-board with only the name and date of death on the
side facing the grave. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is
for Brethren to dwell together in unity", quoted Gruber to his
little congregation two centuries ago. Eloquently the simple,
silent, clover-scented Amana cemetery with its
incense-breathing hedge of cedar speaks of the many sacrifices
of personal ambition, of material prosperity, and of
individual pleasures dear to the human heart made and suffered
by those who have endeavored to "remain true", to "believe
faithfully", and to live together in unity. In the center of
that quiet solemn place the men whose wealth made possible the
establishment of the new home in the West sleep beside their
Brothers who had naught to give to the Community save the
labor of their hands. And beyond, resting beside the least
among them, lies the great-hearted Christian Metz, whose
head-stone reads simply: CHRISTIAN METZ 24 July 1867. The
rest—the loving tribute of his followers—is graven upon the
heart of every member of the Community.
Two generations
have passed since that gifted Brother was "recalled from the
field of his endeavor". One by one the "still living
witnesses" have joined the silent Brotherhood in the cedar-
bordered lot, and a newer generation with less of the austere
spirit and more of the ways of the world have quietly accepted
the call to service. The casual visitor notes the changes and
asks: "What of Amana in the future?" Were Amana simply an
experiment in communism one might venture an opinion as to its
permanency. But the real Amana, in spite of modifications in
the distinctive life which characterized the Community in an
earlier day, is still Amana the Church—Amana the Community of
True Inspiration.
The Community to-day is a living
history of all of the work and character and ideals that have
been associated with it in the past; and when we look into the
faces of the splendid young men and women to whom it has been
handed on as a precious inheritance, when we hear the chant of
the "primer class" as it floats out of the vine- covered
school window, we know that in spite of external modifications
and adjustments, in spite of the occasional "emblem of vanity"
and "worldly amusement", in spite of the inevitable "black
sheep" in the fold, much of the beautiful spirit of "the old
defenders of the faith" still pervades the Community. The
history of mankind teaches that "religion often makes
practicable that which were else impossible, and divine love
triumphs when human science is baffled."
BERTHA M. H.
SHAMBAUGH
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