Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 24, No. 3

Ursinus College
Digital Commons @ Ursinus College
Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine
Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection
Spring 1975
Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 24, No. 3
Paul H. Douglas
Vernon H. Nelson
Carol Wojtowicz
Theodore W. Jentsch
William Woys Weaver
See next page for additional authors
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Recommended Citation
Douglas, Paul H.; Nelson, Vernon H.; Wojtowicz, Carol; Jentsch, Theodore W.; Weaver, William Woys; and Winkler, Louis,
"Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 24, No. 3" (1975). Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine. Book 63.
http://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/63
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Authors
Paul H. Douglas, Vernon H. Nelson, Carol Wojtowicz, Theodore W. Jentsch, William Woys Weaver, and Louis
Winkler
This book is available at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College: http://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/63
SPRING 1975
A STREET VIEW IN ECONOMY.
URSINUS COLLEGE
STUDIES AT FESTIVAL
The Pennsylvania Folklife Society feels greatly
honored to host a series of Pennsylvania Dutch
Studies Programs to be given concurrently with our
26th Annual Festival.
PDS 432 - The Country School
One credit . The course emphasis will be on the
usage of the Pennsylvania Dutch Dialect and the
functions and folkways of the one room school.
We hope that this effort will mark the beginning
of an even closer association of the Pennsylvania
Folklife Society with Ursinus College. It will now
be possible for students visiting the Festival not
only to enjoy its wealth of Folk Culture but also to
gain College Credits. The courses to be given at
the Festival - only a portion of the Pennsylvania
Dutch Studies offerings of the College during their
summer session - are as follows:
PDS - 433 - Powwowing and Hexerei
One credit . Black and White Magic, Powwowing
and Hexerei all have a prominent place in the
Dutch Culture. These and other aspects of Dutch
folk belief and practice will be discussed and demonstrated.
PDS 431 - Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Art
One credit. Symbolic motifs, craft items, architectural decoration, fraktur and broadside illustrations, will be covered in a course utilizing the many
Craftsmen practicing on the festival grounds.
For further information concerning these and
other Pennsylvania Dutch Study Courses please
contact:
Dr. William Parsons
Dept. of Pennsylvania Du tch Studies
Ursinus College
Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426
Summer Program in Pennsylvania Dutch Studies at Ursinus College
The Second Annual Institute on Pennsylvania Dutch Affairs of Ursinus College, scheduled for a six-week period in
the Summer of 1975, between June 25 and August 6, will
present a variety of offerings to persons interested in the
history, culture and folklife of the Pennsylvania Dutch
(pennsylvania Germans). The Institute serves as a focus for
related activities throughout the Dutch Country during the
Summer months.
Basic to the program are two college credit courses, one
in Pennsylyania Dutch Culture and History, the other in
Pennsylfawnisch Deitsch, the dialect language. Either
course may be taken for three-week or six-week periods.
Dr. William T. Parsons, Director of the Pennsylvania Dutch
Studies Program at Ursinus College, leads a teaching staff in
the Culture and History course (pDS 401, 402) in which
visiting lecturers, audio and visual materials, and field trips
will supplement class offerings. The wealth of resources
found in Southeastern Pennsylvania will serve as practical
examples of today's heritage from the nearly three centuries
of German contributions on the Pennsylvania scene. In-service Certification approval from Harrisburg is pending.
Dr. Evan S. Snyd er will teach the dialect course (PDS
411, 412) and will preside over certain specialties in the
Culture and History course. From his own experience and
from comparative studies of dialect variations, he presents
the language as oral experience. Personnel and material resources are used to implement ordinary classroom situations.
Folksongs, tales and dialect poetry illustrate the flexibility
of the oral language.
Additional musical programs and other cultural attractions at occasional evening and weekend times, complement
the formal program and offer further opportunity to view
facets of Dutch Country life; Sunday Services and Special
Events in the dialect, will likewise be available to program
participants. In addition, Bicentennial Activities geared to
ethnic and religious values, and especially pertinent in the
Cradle of American Liberties, Southeastern Pennsylvania,
will receive general support and assistance from the Pennsylvania Dutch Studies Program.
EDITOR:
Dr. Don Yoder
SPRING 1975, VOL. XXIV, No.3
ASSISTANT EDITOR:
Dr. William Pa rsons
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE:
Dr. M ac E. Barrick
LeR oy Gensler
Dr. H enry Glassie
Dr. J ohn A. H ostetler
D avid J. Hufford
Dr. Phil J ack
Dr. Hilda A. Kring
Dr. M a urice A. Mook
Dr. Earl F. R obacker
Dr. Alta Schrock
FOLK FESTIVAL DIRECTOR :
Mark R. Eaby, Jr.
F OLK FESTIVAL P UBLIC RELATIONS:
Peg Zecher
Contents
2
PAUL H. DOUGLAS
15
MSS AND PHOTOGRAPHS:
The Editor will be glad to consider
MSS a nd photographs sent with a
view to publication. When unsuitable, and if accompanied by return
p ostage, every care wi ll be exercised
toward their return, although no
responsibility for their safety is assumed.
Editori al correspond ence :
Dr. D on Yoder, Logan Hall
Box 13, University of Pennsylvania'
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174:
Folk Fes ti val co rrespondence:
College Blvd. and Vine,
K utztow n, Pennsylvania 19530.
Folk Festival publi c relations :
Peg Zecher, 717 N. Swarthmore Ave.,
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 1908 1.
Subscription, business co rrespondence:
Box 1053, Lancaster, Pennsylvani a.
Contents copyrighted.
Entered as second class matter at Lancaster, Pa .
Gennan Script Course, 1974
VERNON H. NELSON
17
Play in Philadelphia
CAROL WOJTOWICZ
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Doris E. Stief
PENNSYLVANIA FOLKLIFE,
Winter 1974-75, Vol. 24, No.2, published five times a year by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society, Inc., La ncaster, P en nsylvania. $1.50 for
single copies; Autumn, Winter,
Spring and Summer. $1.00 for F olk
F estival Supplement. Year! y subscription $7.00.
The Material Culture of the Hannony Society
24
Education, Occupation, and Economics
among Old Order Mennonites of the East
Penn Valley
THEODORE W. JENTSCH
36
Pennsylvania German Architecture: Bibliography in European Backgrounds
WILLIAM WOYS WEAVER
41
Pennsylvania Gennan Astronomy and
Astrology X:
Christoph Saur's Almanacs
LOUIS WINKLER
48
Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 38:
Reading Matter in the Pennsylvania Home
Contributors to this Issue
(Inside back cover)
COVER:
A Street View in Economy from Charles Nordhoff's,
"The Communistic Societies of the United States"
(1875).
The Material Culture
of the Harmony Society
By PAUL H. DOUGLAS
From J ohn Humphrey Noyes, who published his
History of American So cialisms' in 1870, to Mich ael
F ellma n, whose Th e Unbounded Fram e' came out in
197 3, observers of the 19th Century communita ri an
experience in America ha ve, for the most pa rt, focused
on the religious attitudes, the social a rrangements, a nd
the economic systems of one or a number of communes.
Only a few have looked analytically a t the m a terial
culture of communal groups: most notably, Edward
Deming Andrews and F aith Andrews, whose books
Shak er Furnit ure' a nd R eligion in W oo d: a nd a rticles
have rela ted the simplicity of Shaker pieces to the
g roup' s aesthetic-religious philosophy of regu la rity,
ha rmony, a nd orde r, a nd to the Shaker belief tha t
th ese virtues must be ma nifest in every aspect of their
li ves, including their a rchitecture a nd their furniture.
Although th e relatio nship between material culture
and phi losophy is less striking in other communal
societies in the 19th C entury, it does exist a nd does
provide heretofore unexamined source material for
interpreting th e socia l structures, li vi ng patterns, a ttitudinal cha nges, a nd cultural milieu of these groups.
'John Humphrey Noyes, Histo ry of A merica n Socialisms
( Philad elphi a : Lippin co tt, 1970).
' Mi chael Fellman , Th e Unbounded Frame: Freedom and
Community 'in N ine teent h Century Ameri can U topian ism
( Wes tport, Conn ecticu t: Greenwood Press, 19 73) .
' Edward D em ing Andrews and F a ith Andrews, S h aker
Furniture ( ew York : D ove r Books, 1950 ) .
'Edward D em in g Andrews a nd Fa ith Andrews, R eligio n
in /-v'ood (Bloo ming ton: Ind ia na Univers ity Press, 1955) .
THE MATERIAL C U LT U RE OF THE
HARMONY S OCIETY
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Robert Owen's proposal for a community at New Harmony, Indiana. Owen bought New Harmony from the Harmonists
in 1824.
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Old Oiltlllery
B3tk House
Slaulh trr Haul(
Dyrr's Shop
IJ. T Oi nnery
H Granary
15. Bu n
16. C3tpenter's Shop
17. Lime StonKe
18. StOi ble
19. Weaver's Shop OInd Sc::hool
20. Georle Rapp', Rf:'1 idence
Zl Store
1:2. Frederick ROIpp's Res idence
ZJ. Commun ity Kitchen
2". Hotel
25. Stable
26. HOi tm aker', Shop
tJ. RopcmOiker', Shop
28. Cooper's Shop
29. BOirns
30. Shoemaker, T l ilor, .li nd Wuehouse
JI. Mu hine Shop
J2. DistIllery
lJ. Blacksmllh', Shoo
3-1. Sml ll Barns
J5. H.lI y House
J6. W.lIlOn Shop
37. Infinn.llry and Apothecary Shop
l8. B.lIrn
39. StOi ble
40. C.lI blnc tm ake r's Shop
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25. Church
26. Old Church
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29. Shuemaket', Shop
30. COIIOn Gi n
JI. Brude rh:lus So. I
.n. Sc::hool
J1. ma eksmith's Shop
J.I \\':I ,on Sho ~
J5. Store
J6 ".lIII",'~ Shop
J7. SI~ ul:hler HOll1e
JS. ."pothecOifY
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2. Corn Y.lI rd
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4. Dre" ery
5 "OIsh II!Juse
6. P i.. St;u
7. Crne Yard
s.. Orchud
9. DistIllery
10. Corn (nbs
II. S tOib lu
11. Cr.llnur and Fort
IJ. Greenhouse
1-'. \\ inc a nd Ci(Jcr rren
15. GHden
16. Ceorl:c R3PP', Res idence
17. Drud r rluus X'o. 1 (Dormitory)
18. S.lIddlcr', Shop
19. C 4 r~cn:er ' , Shop
20. COuper', Shop
21. C3 rpf nler', Shop
Zl. Btu(Jcr itau s X.... -'
Harmony, Pennsylvania
The H a rmon y Society, a group of German Pietists
who came to this country from the Southern Germa n
sta te of Wiirttemberg in 1804, is a good exampl e. The
Harmonists, un like any other communal group in 19th
Century America, set up three successive vill ages, reshaping them to meet their beliefs a nd needs. As a
resul t, cha nges tha t ap pear in the philosophy of the
group a re more evident in the ma terial culture th an
th ey would be if the Society had remained in the same
village throughout its existence. A substantial amount
of this material culture remains a t their third village,
Economy, Pen nsylva nia, which was taken over by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylva ni a in 1905 a nd which is
now a museum vill age.
The usual picture of the H a rmony Society in the
histo ri es of the Community is that of a group of Germa n
pietists \-vho left Europe to escape religious persecution,
used their religious beliefs to justify eco nomi c communali sm a nd celibacy as ways of mee ting dema nds
of the new la nd , and prospered as a result of the strong
religious leadership of George R app and th e financi al
expe rtise of his adopted son, Frederick Reichert R app.
Yet such a view can explain on ly partly why this communal society thrived for almost a century whil e most
19th Century communes lasted less than a year.
M y study of the materi al culture of the H armony
Society suggests additional reasons for the group's suc-
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45. S u ble
46. H atm lker's Shop
Ha tnlaker'. Shop
Wuh HUL1 le
(orn Yard
Gn nOifY
SI. \\'U \"fr'1 Shop
52. Stu rn Houle
51. Lime SIOrlle
54. Dyer's Shop
55. G ril l l l ill
S6.Wuh H ou se
57. Su:l pm:lker' s Shop
58. T:l nnery
59. Nursery (ho rtic ulture )
60. St :lble
61 . Barn
62. Corn Yard
6J. Sheep Suble
6·t Sheep St able
M. Brick Yard
47.
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Harmony, Indiana
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Z. Wu hHoult
3. Distillery
4. Older Honse
5. $.oa.pmOlkcr's Shop
6. Sla uKhter H OUle
7. Silk F.lI Clory
8. Tue rn S tOible
9. Hay H ouse
10. Ox Sti ble
11 , On), Ho ue SI:lblt
12. S uble
lJ. Wa Ron Shed
14. Calf Stable
15, H orse Stables
16. Bun
17. Sheep SUbi e
18. Stnw Shed
19. H:lY HOUle
20. Bun
21. Stable
22. Calf Stable
23. Cooper's S hop
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11. Dormitory
28. Old Church
19. H .. l1er', Sh09
JO. Do rm itory
11. H(H pital
32. H otd and Tuem
lJ. Dormitory
34. Do rm itory
J~ . Dorm itory
.)6. Qurch
:rJ. Saddler', Shop
l8. Dormitory
39. Dormito ry
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42. Bark House
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48. Granlry
49, Community K itchea
Cabinetmaker's S hop
SI. Mus ic Hall
S2. Tailor'. aad Shot-maker'. ShQ9
SJ. Store .lind Apotheury
S4. The Grell Hoult. Rnidence 01
GeOr,c and Frederick RallO
55. Guden Pool
S6.. MeditatioG Cf'Otto
rI. B"ker,.
5& Greenhouse
59. Wheclwri,ht' J Shop
lIO. Dr,;nl H oulc (Woolco Will)
61. Wool StOrllt
62. D1tr', Shop
6J. p.int Shop
6t Wentr', Shop
6S. Old Winc Prul
66. Wool Sioral('(
61. Woolen lUll
61. Gn" Yard
so.
Economy, Pennsylvania
3
cess: their a rchitecture, town pl a nning, a nd a rtifacts
re veal tha t the Society was m uch more sophisticated
a nd com plex in its social, cultural, alld intellectual
environment th an most histories rela te, a nd therefore
may ha ve been a more a ttractive alterna tive to life
on the outsid e tha n has been assumed .
First, the H a rmonists were not prima rily conserva tive
peasa nts with a reactionary concept of a n ideal commu nity pegged a t a certain level in tim e, but instead
were experimental a nd somewha t prog ressive, capable
of cha nging to meet different conditi ons in time a nd
pl ace. The Society was in ma ny respects fluid a nd
flex ible, providing for the intellectual a nd cultural
needs of the members with schools for both the children a nd adults, a libra ry, a ba nd, bota nical a nd pl easure gardens, a nd a museum . The Society achieved
a n as tounding economic prosperity by cha nging from
a n essentially agricultural to an industri al community,
a nd its leaders responded to cha nging conditions within
the community by incorpora ting new m a terial forms ,
a bandoning old ones, a nd modifying o thers.
Second, the H a rmonists were not isol a ted visiona ries,
blind to the cultures of the past a nd to those surround-
ing them, but were instead aware of a nd took from
these cultures in the pla nning of their vill ages a nd in
the style of their architecture a nd a rtifacts. They did
no t, as D o nald Drew Egbert has said of the religious
utopia n communities, "show a fear of any kind of a rt
or a rt theory th a t is in a nyway pagan or worldly.'''
The H a rmonist concept of the physical form of the
ideal vill age occupied a middl e ground between the
futuri stic community proposed by Cha rles Fourier a nd
the backwa rd looking community of Ephra ta, with its
essenti a lly medieval forms. The H a rmonists created
a community in m a ny ways simil a r to those th a t the
members had known in G ermany. It incl uded public
gardens, vineyards, a nd a town h all , as well as a few
m edieval fo rms in a rchitecture a nd furnishings. H owever, the H a rmonists were not reactionary in their
creation of the ideal community. N ot only did they
use the rela tively new steam engine to power fac tories,
laundri es a nd wine presses, as well as to heat som e
bui ldings, but they incl uded a number of elements in
their ma terial cul ture tha t refl ected a n enlightenment
' D ona ld Drew Egbe rt, S ocialism and American A rt ( Princeto n : Pr ince to n Un iversity Press, 1967), p . 5.
Village center of Economy.
4
Feast Hall at Economy, Pennsylvania. This large (54' x
120 ') building contained a museum, school for children and
adults, library, music practice room, and meeting hall.
ra ther than a medieva l aesthetic, a nd as such reveals
the H a rmonist imitation of the near, rather than the
distant past.
This constituted a major element of the H a rmony
Society tha t has been overlooked: that is, the classical
influence on the community (or on its major movers ),
and its expression in a number of aspects of the material
culture.
A brief examina tion of the town planning, the buildings, and the artifacts at the H a rmonist villages will
give some idea of the nature of the H a rmony Society
a nd may suggest ways of examining other communal
groups.
HARMONIST TOWN PLANNING
The three villages of the H a rmony Society were
situated for considerations of agriculture a nd trade,
and for the changing concept of the communal good,
which by the 1820's includ ed a substantial amou'n t of
interaction with the outside world on economic terms.
The adaptability and the practical nature of the Society
a re revealed in its willingness to twice aba ndon a settled
village in America for a new one, to a lter or discard
some of the elements of the previous vill age, and to
create new elements in the new village.
The locations of the three villages indicate changes
in the economic orientation of the Society. H a rmony,
the first village, was located in western Pennsylvania
on the banks of the Connoquenessing Creek. At H armony the group planned to build a village with an
economic base of agricultural production tha t would
become a commercial center for the area. By 1811
the group had built grist, oil, hemp, and fulling mills
a nd was providing the surrounding area with a variety
of goods, including whiskey, shoes, and hats. However,
the Connoquenessing was not a navigible river and
could not be used to transport the increasing amount
of goods being sent to agents in Philadelphia, Lancaster,
and Pittsburgh. Thus, in 1814, to take advantage of the
growi ng Western market, the H armonists moved to N ew
H armony, Indiana, purchasing over 20,000 acres on
the Wabash, a river both navigible a nd easily accessible from the Ohio River. Although the H armonists
were dependent on the Wabash for transportation, their
increasing use of steam engines to power the mills freed
them from the seasonal changes in that river a nd allowed them to ldcate their manufacturing structures
where they could be used most efficiently.
The frontier, however, appears to have been an unsatisfactory environment for communitarian societies,
The Shakers a t West Union, Indiana, not far from New
Harmony, lasted for 17 years and the Harmonists stayed
in Indiana for only 10 years. For the Harmonists the
fluctuating economic market in the W est was the major
factor in their decision to leave, and there were positive
economic advantages to be realized by relocating in
a more settled and industrialized area of the country.
For this reason the Society made its third home at
Economy, Pennsylvania, 20 miles from their first village
and 25 miles from Pittsburgh. Their location on the
Ohio River placed them in a strategic spot to ship their
manufactured goods to the major markets in the Ohio
River Valley and to take advantage of the trade from
the river. At Economy they purchased only 3,000 acres.
While they continued with their farming and viniculture there, their woolen and cotton mills provided their
means for success. Thus, the combination of an efficient communal system of production and a shifting
economic market in America gradually increased the
Society's economic inter.action with the outside world
and significantly influenced its choice of location.
Not only did the Society change locations in America,
but it altered the layout of the towns as well. With
the adoption of the grid, or rectilinear, street pattern
a t a ll three towns, the Harmonists abandoned the typical
The "saal," or meeting hall, is the Feast Hall building. The
members of the community would meet,here during special
occasions. The women sat on one side of the hall, and the
men on the other. Note the "trompe I'oil " columns at the
end of the hall.
5
Philadelphia, using the rectilinear pattern when the
Harmonists arrived in America.'
The first two Harmonist villages centered around a
square, which was appropriate for a society based on
the idea of limited trade within the village and its
environs ; with the gradual expansion of the economy
and its growing interaction with outside markets, however, the square was abandoned as unnecessary at
Economy and a formal garden was created as the focal
point of the village. By the 1820s the Harmonist economy had p assed out of the village handicraft stage and
into manufacturing on a large scale which depended
on the markets in the Ohio River Valley. At Economy
the Ohio River provided the Society with a major
transportation route and strengthened its economic ties
with the outside world.
Although the large formal garden behind the George
Rapp house was accessible to the average member, and
as such was a communal garden, it also fun ctioned as
a private garden for Rapp similar to the elaborate
formal gardens of German nobility or the simpler ones
that graced the homes of the clergy in German villages.
From the piazza on the back of his house, Rapp, who
might be considered as a combination German nobleman and minister, cou ld admire his gar,d en and could
see the members of his community enjoying themselves
during the periods of leisure.
At all three communities there was a core area at
the center of town which provided basic services for
the Harmonist and for the outsider who brought hard
cash. Buildings there included the community kitchen,
The church at Economy, Pennsylvania.
'For a discussion of the rectilin ear plan in Pennsylvania
see Richard Pillsbury, "The Urban Street Pattern as a Cultural Indicator: Pennsylvania, 1682-1815," A nnals of the
Association of American Geographers, LX (September, 1970),
428-446.
street pattern of the rural German village. Even though
there are a number of practical a nd theoretical reasons
for a communal society to choose the rectilinear pattern,
the Harmonists were probably influenced by similar
plans in Germany or Pennsylvania.
The systematized towns that evolved from the R enaissance seem to have been centered mainly in Wiirttemberg: the area from which the Harmonists emigrated. Examples of southern German towns that took
on a classical pattern in the 17th and 18th Centuries
were Freudenstadt, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, and Ludwigsburg. If the classical influence on town planning
was centered in the Wiirttemberg area, more than likely a stone mason such as Frederick Rapp would have
been aware of it. And if the Harmonist town planner
was not influenced by the rectilinear plan in Germany,
• he was obviously aware of its existence in Pennsylvania,
where there were almost 100 towns, not to mention
·Frederick Hiorns, T own-Building
G . G . Harrap, 1956), p. 262.
6
in
History
(London:
The Pavilion at Economy. Within the Pavilion is a carved
figure of "Harmonia," who, by the Economy period, represented the Harmony that the Society had achieved. The
present statue is a reproduction of the one carved for the
Harmonists by the Philadelphia sculptor William Rush and
destroyed in the 1890 'so
Dormitory at New Harmony, Indiana. By the early 18th Century variations of the mLlnsard roof were common in Germany,
especially in the public buildings of more than two stories where the architect wanted to emulate the classical style. The
striking difference between the Harmonists' classically influenced dormitory and the medieval dormitory at Ephrata is indicative of the more sophisticated aesthetic philosophy of the Harmonist architect.
the store, the church, the inn, the warehouse, the
doctor's office, and the homes of G eorge and Fred ~rick
R app. At New Harmony, two commu nal dorm itories,
in a ddition to the above structures, were located in
the village core, and at Economy there was a Feast
Hall and a large granary. Surrounding this area at
all three villages was a ring of family dwellings and
shops, and beyond this the fi elds and buildings related
to agriculture.
The location of a number of houses a t the H armonist
villages reveals that in this communal society there
existed a certain degree of social stratification. When
the R everend William Passavant visited Economy in
1840 he noted that the houses located near to R app's
were inhabited by the "the most inAu ential m embers,
and those who originally invested the largest capital."·
A similar arra ngement seems to have ex isted at the
other villages. An exam ination of Harmonist maps reveals that not only did the inAu cn tial have homes near
the center of the village, but of the fou r couples who
'w. A. Passavant, "A Visi t to Economy in the Spring of
1840," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, IV, 3
(Ju ly, 1921), 145.
had large families at New Harmony, at least two of
them had houses on the perimeters of the town, a
subtle form of community disapproval for their failure
to practice celibacy.
Other elements of the town pl anning at Economy
were the water system, the placement of buildings
emitting noxious odors to leeward of the town center,
the deer park, brick sidewalks, and the graded main
street. There is no doubt that the Harmonist leaders
were aware of the value of a planned community. Since
the size of the Society remained stable, the leaders were
able to visualize the ultimate shape of the community
and to improve each subsequent village.
HARMONIST BUILDINGS
It is not surprising that there was no one architectural
style common to the American communes that flourished
in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Communitarian groups
originated in different periods, had various national
origins, and exhibited a wide variety of philosophies.
The most famous of the communal groups in America,
the Shakers, had an essentially rural Anglo-Saxon membership and a philosophy of aesthetics that stressed
7
I
I
I
I
Granary at Economy . No te the
half-timber first
story.
sim plicity, regul arity, and order. As a res ul t, the typ ical
architecture of the Shakers, whose first communities
were in New York and New England, evolved from
th e sim ple d wellings, barns, and public buildings common in the Yankee countryside.' On the other ha nd ,
the 18th C en tu ry G erman communi ty at Ephrata,
Pennsylvania, had a distinctively medieval architecture
characterized by steep roofs, small windows, and shed
dormers. Fina lly, there were pl ans for ideal vill ages
by such reformers as R obert Owen and Ch a rl es Fourier
who advocated radical socia l cha nge and to that end
p roposed buildings combining contemporary and futuristic a rchitectural styles.
The a rchitecture of the H a rmonists is unlike that
of a ny of these groups. The H a rmonist vill ages contained characteristics from the members' German med ieval heritage, from the Georgian style tha t was prevalent
in 18th Century America, and perha ps to a greater
degree, especially in the public buildings, from the
Ge rman rena issance style.
A study of the architectura l forms used by the H a rmonists in their vill ages provid es a number of insights
into the aspects of institutional persistence a nd change
in the Society. The ways in which the H armonists
mainta ined , abandoned, or modified their German
cultural traditions a re illumina ted in their building
styles and fun ctions. In addition, changes in the styles
'D . M . C . H opping and Gerald R . Wa tl and , "The Architecture of th e Shakers," Antiques, LXXII (O ctober, 1957 ), 33 5.
8
and [unctions of buildings indicate changes that took
pl ace in the cu ltural, social, or religious thou ght of
the com munity.
H armony, Pennsylvania, the fi rst village, was characterized by log dwellings, public structures wi th elaborately carved stone lintels and doorways in the m edieval fas hion, and arched cell a rs in a t least two buildings
for the storage of wines. H ere, in short, the H a rmonists
reprod uced many of the forms that they had known
as peasants in Germany. Only the Geo rgian d oorway
of the house of Frederick R app, the architect, hints
at the cl assical strain which became evident in the
Society's later villages.
Indeed, at New H a rmony a nd Economy much of
the medieval G erman heritage was abandoned. A few
exceptions were the trunca ted gabl es of a granary at
New H a rmony; and at Economy the truncated gabl es
of the Great H ouse, the carved stone lintel on a fl ax
house, and the half-timber first fl oor of the Granary.
Simultaneously, the cl assical element was growing in
prominence. At New H armony one of the four dormitories had a gambrel roof, a style common to public
buildings of the German renaissance. At Econom y the
Feast H a ll had G eorgian doorw~ys, a gambrel roo f,
a nd a trompe l'oeil design on the second fl oor hall ; the
Grea t H ouse had G eorgian ·d oorways; a nd the ga rden
conta ined a classical pavilion.
The dwellings a t the H armonist villages show changes
in the social structure of the community. Like most
successful communitarian groups, the H a rmonists modifi ed the traditional nuclear family for social and religious reasons. The Harmonists were simil a r to the
Shakers in their advocacy of celibacy ; however, since
celibacy was adopted as a tenet ra ther th an a rul e after
the Society was formed by a la rge number of married
people, the ultimate form that the H a rmonist " family"
took emerged gradually. The changes a re refl ected in
the dwellings. Since celibacy was not promulgated unti:
three years after the Harmonists began their first vill age,
most of the houses at H armony were one or two-story
log, fram e, or brick structures for the nuclear fami ly.
The on ly exceptions were the few la rger houses occupied
by the leaders a nd those who had brought a good deal
of money into the community. At New Harmony, however, only the house of G eorge R app was la rger than
the others, indicating a consolid ation of his power and
a waning of the influence of the others. A significant
cha nge in the social system is evident in the remaining
dormitory a t N ew H armony, one of four built for the
large number of young, unmarried members during the
Indiana period . The experiment with the dormitory
system was apparently unsuccessful, for it was abandoned qt Economy. A remark by G eorge R app suggests that he felt that the dormitories were potentially
disruptive elements in the community, and it may be
significant that there was a major schism a few years
after the Harmonists moved from N ew H armony.
At Economy all of the members lived in two-story
brick or frame dwellings of virtually identical dimensions. In these houses som e four to eleven members,
both male and femal e, and often married but celibate
couples, lived together. Thus, by the Economy period
the nuclear famil y was transform ed into a small housp.-
Wine Cellar at Economy.
hold after the experimentation with the dormitory system. For the H a rmonist, unlike the Shaker, a measure
of freedom was available within the limits of his own
household group . Although he was a member of a
communitarian society in which each individual identity was submerged, he was also a member of an intimate group of people who lived in a semi-priva te
dwelling. The institution of the household may h ave
eliminated the exclusiveness engendered by the nuclear
famil y, yet it provided a sense of belonging to a group
smaller than the community as a whole.
Th e H a rmonists also experimented with the size and
style of their church buildings. Three of the churches
at the villages were similar structures with clock
towers and renaissance cupolas. At N ew H a rmony,
however, after building their first church, the Harmonists constructed .a large and elaborate church in the
form of a Greek cross with each two-story transept
and two-story na ve 120 feet long. One visitor said that
he was told that George R app had seen the plan of the
church in a dream a nd had therefore ordered that it
be built. Another was informed that the first church ,
which was wooden, was too hot in the summer. Both
of these explanations are plausibl e, but another is that
by the N ew H armony p eriod George R app saw the
need for a large structure with a floor plan which would
serve both the religious and the social needs of almost
one thousa nd members. Wh en the H a rmonists moved
to Economy they abandoned this style a nd built a traditional church. R a ther than combine the religious and
social fun ctions in the church building, the la rge and
impressive F east Hall was constructed to serve the social,
cultural, a nd in tell ectu al needs of the members.
It is the Feas t H all and the Great House which a re
the ultim a te expressions of the Society. These structures
are two of th e largest buildings at E conomy and are
embl ematic of two seem ingly dispara te strains which
combined to m ake the group live and prosper for one
hundred years: these were, first, G eorge R a pp's strong
and ack nowl edged lead ership ; a nd second , the Society's
commun al a nd basicall y egalitarian na ture.
The reaso n tha t R app's power was generally accepted
by th e members may be evident in the F east H all. For
the H a rmonists the F eas t Hall served as a community
cen te r, combining social, religious, cultural, and intellectu al fun ctions. On its first floor the m embers pursued lessons in drafting a nd h a ndicra fts, practiced for
the community band, used th e libra ry, and enjoyed the
eclectic wonders of the museum which contained zoological specimens, items of historical interest, a nd religious a nd secular paintings. A visitor to the museum ,
which was open to the public, for a small fee, noted
such non-religious paintings as "two tawdry French
prints, representing V enus and Cupid, one as 'L' Amour
supplicant' a nd the other as 'L'Amour triomphante'
9
Carved stone lintel at Harmony, Pennsylvania, representing
the Virgin Sophia.
The Virgin Sophia on a lintel at Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Ceiling of the Grotto.
Carved stone lintel at Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Geor~an doorway of Frederick Rapp's house at Harmony,
Pennsylvania. Indicates the emergence of the classical strain
in Harmonist architecture. F. Rapp was the community
architect and financial leader.
10
a nd a still more tawdry English caricature m the
'Portrait of Tim Bobbin'.'''·
On the second floor Saal the members met almost
once a month for community feasts which served to
remind them of their communal goals and nature. H ere
food was brought from a separate kitchen building a nd
placed before the men seated on one side of the hall
and the women on the other side. One historian more
concerned with drama than fact said that the doors
on either end of the hall and ha lfway up the walls
were used by G eorge R app to appear suddenly before
th e assembled members in- the manner of a mad despot.
H owever, the similar door in the church leading to a
balcony indica tes that balconies were planned for the
Feast H a ll but, perhaps for structural considerations,
were never completed.
The Feast Hall, then, represents the element that
bala nced R app's power: that is, the weight given the
needs of the members after the exigencies of physical
surviva l and economic success had passed. It is quite
'·James Silk Buckingham , Th e Eastern and Western States
of America (London, 1842 ), II , 225.
The Feast Hall at Economy.
possible that th e Feast H all was built by R ap p a t a
time when th ere were dema nds by the members for
more freedom a nd privileges.
Drawing of the church at New Harmony. (Old Economy
Archives)
The Great House stood as testimony to the Society's
acceptance of R app's strength in the community and
served to compl ement his position. In add ition, the
Great House was used as a kind of public relations
device. H ere inAuential visitors met with George or
Frederick, shared food and wine, and p erha ps heard
Gertrude, George's grandda ughter, sing or play the
pi a no. The house actu all y consists of two structures:
one was occupied by G eorge, his fa mily and fri ends,
and the other by Frederick. It is interesting to note
that in the 1870s, when the R apps were dead and when
the community was turning more a nd more to investm ents in the outside world, buying ba nks, ra ilroads
and the like, the Germanic truncated roof was ch anged
to th e more Americanized gabl e. R ecent restorations
have put it in its origin al shape.
In the G a rden behind the Great H ouse is the Grotto,
with its rough ba rk exterior and elegant interior. Supposedly the exterior represented m a n's debased body
while the interior, which is in the Greek R evival style,
represents the beauty of his sou l. The point I wa nt
to m a ke here is th a t if one is examining th e m a terial
cu lture of a pietistic group su ch as the H a rmonists,
11
he houl d not get too ca rried away with what appear
to be mystical or symbolic clements. At least two writer<;
have said tha t the " 144 projecting blocks on the interior of the Grotto represent the 144,000 chosen souls
in Christian theology."I1 ' H owever, the tedious job of
ou nting the blocks shows tha t there a re only 142 a nd
quick ly di sproves tha t theory.
A structure in the garden with a strong c1as ical
p recedent is the Pavilion, which is a variation of the
classical rotunda found in many renaissance a nd la ter
la ndscape gardens. Th e Petite Tria non at V ersaill es,
by the way, contained both a grotto a nd a pavilion.
The P avilion a t Economy indicates the growing p rosperity of the communi ty by the 1830' s. As a focal
poin t for the garden a nd as a ba nd pl a tform for the
H a rmonist musicia ns who gave concerts periodically
to the members a nd to outsiders, the Pa vilion served
socia l a nd aesthetic needs. At neither H a rmony nor
N ew H a rmony did the comm unity h a ve the time to
indul ge its aesthetic sensibilities with su ch a structure.
In no oth er communita ria n vill age in 19th Centu ry
America is there a stru cture which so obviously reflects
the high European culture of the renaissance a nd enlightenment. If, as some h ave sugges ted, the ascetic
na ture of the Sha kers is revealed in their un adorned
furniture a nd a rchitecture, it is eq ually a ppa rent tha t
the strong classical stra in in the H a rmony Society as
well as its concern for aesthetic needs is mad e ma nifest
in the Pavilion.
HARMONIST ARTIFACT S
The furniture of the Society was m a inly a combina tion of Germa n and American folk styles, but in
addition there were a number of pieces a t Economy
in the high or " cultiva ted" tradition. The m ost obvious
indication of the Germa n heritage is th e pl a nk cha ir,
or Sluhl, which is a simpl e Germ a n folk p iece. It seems
likely tha t the H a rmonists had a number of these chairs
a t H a rmony, but with a few e;:xceptions gradu ally a ba ndoned the medieva l style by the Economy p eriod . The
H a rmonist kitchen tabl es a re furth er indications of the
G erm a n heritage of the community, although th e basically folk piece shown h ere with its low skirt has rather
elegant Queen Anne feet-an indication of the combina tion of the folk with the cultiva ted tradition.
The numerous cane-bottom ladderback chairs a t
Economy show the American vernacul a r influence.
The ladderbacks usu all y ha ve three sl a ts, turned stretchers, a nd back post finials tha t often differ from chair
to cha ir, indicating tha t the cabinet m a ker, unlike his
counterpa rt in a Sha ker community, had no rigid pa ttern tha t he was required to foll ow. Also, the ch airs
ha ve va ria tions in the dista nce from fl oor to seat, sugI1See, for example, George A. Hays, Th e Grott o at Old
Eco nom y (Ambrid ge : The H armony Press, 1959 ), p. 2.
12
ge ting that they were m ade for individ uals or households rather than fo r the com mu nity as a whole.
A thi rd style of furniture that wa used at Econom v
reRects the cul tivated trad ition. T he growing in volvement of the Society with the ou tside wo rld by the
1820's seems to have influenced the form of their
m a terial culture. At Economy there a re p ieces in su ch
styles as H eppelwhite, Federal, Empire, a nd there is
even a n Egyptia n revival wine cu pboard . In addition
to paintings a nd prints in the Great H ouse, there are
exta nt a silver tea service, a set of Hitchcock ch airs
with a stencilled design, a n Empire gateleg table, a nd
a m ahogany S chran k with inlay. Som e of the fin e pieces
were mad e by H a rmonist cabinetma kers, others were
commissioned by the Society, a nd still others were
purch ased by Frederick or George R a pp.
The va rious styl es of H a rmonist furni shings a nd interiors a re not so significant in th emselves as is the
contrast between those pieces found in the Great H ouse
tha t I h a ve just m entioned a nd those in the typical
dwelling. Ju st a s the Great H ouse is la rger a nd a rchitecturally more sophistica ted tha n the other dwellings, so is the furniture in tha t building more elegant.
One exa mple is the bed used by G eorge R app with its
ela bora te turnings, compa red with the beds of the
average members. Obviously R a pp's a u thority in the
community was acknowl edged a nd his position honored.
There a re certa in items which refl ect the communal
or celiba te na ture of the Society, including the simil a r
single-width beds, the side tabl es th a t were probably
in each household, simil a r bla nket chests, the stoves
a nd la rge kettles in th e community kitchen, and the
bench es a nd tabl es in the Feast H all. There is also
the virtuall y iden tica l clothing whi ch served to create
The symbolic golden rose on a newel post in the Great
House.
what R osabeth K a nter calls " insul a ting bounda ries''''
between the community and the outside world, and
which gave a sense of uniqueness as a community to
its members. The uniform dress was also a m eans of
discouraging individual vanity a nd the importa nce of
the self, and it was cheap a nd efficient to m ake.
The Harmony Society had an element of mysticism
in its religious philosophy a nd some items a t the three
villages have symbolic reference reflecting deeply h eld
beliefs of the m embers. However, since the Harmonists
were breaking away from the established church, which
they felt was corrupted and encumbered by an over12R osabeth
(Camb rid ge:
M oss K anter, Commitment and
H a rvard U niversi ty Press, 1972).
Community
Egyptian revival style wine cupboard at Economy.
Bed of a memf?er of the Harmony Society.
Harm o nist
"stuhl. "
13
George Rapp's Bed.
Harmonist kitchen table and chairs. This basically German
table with its low skirts has rather elegant Queen Anne feet.
abundance of religious artifacts having little or no relationship to true religion, the symbolic motifs had a
general rather than a specific purpose in reminding the
members of their special role. Since the village as a
whole was an exemplum of the true church, specifically
religious objects were unnecesary.
Thus, the material culture of the H armon ists reveals
certai n things abou t the Society that standard histories
have not. It is hoped that my comments will stimul ate
inquiry into the material culture of othr 19th Century
communes.
The most commonly used motif by the Harmonists
was the Golden Rose which had long been associated
with the beauty and majesty of Christ. For the H armonists the rose was the symbol of the risen Christ
who would reign during the millennium. Since their
community was built in preparation for that period,
the rose was their inspiration. At Economy the rose is
found not in the church, but on such practical items
as a newel post in the Great House, some flat irons,
and ladies' shawls.
One also finds the Lily, which indicated longing or
hope for redemption, on a lintel a t H a rmony, a nd on
the same lintel is the Virgin Sophia, who represented
the wisdom that Adam had abandoned. The Society
believed that it was pursuing a course of spiritual
wisdom guided by Sophia.
Finally, the Pelican, a common symbol for Christ
in medieval and renaissance Europe, is seen on a slipware pie plate and on a drinking glass that was probably made for George Rapp.
Objects at the community which indicate the intellectual climate at Economy include the line drawings
by members of the drafting classes, the paintings of
birds by one of the members, and the large collection
of books in the library. These items and others serve
to dispel the idea that the Harmonists were, as one
traveler said, "an ignorant· and priest-ridden set of
people," and instead show that opportunities for selfdevelopment were available for the members.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS RELATING
TO THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF COMMUNIT ARIAN
SOCIETIES
Albers, M arj orie K . Old Amana Furniture. Shena ndoah,
Iowa : Locust H ouse, 1970.
Andrews, Edward D em ing. "Commun al Architecture of
the Shakers," Magazine of Art, XXX (December, 1937) ,
710-715 .
Andrews, Edward D eming, and Fa ith Andrews. R eligio n
in Wo od. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965 .
- - - . Shaker Furniture. New York : D over, 1963.
Blair, Don. " H arm onist Construction," Indiana Historical
S ociety Publications, XXIII : 2 ( 1964).
Egbert, Donald Drew. Socialism and American Art. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 196 7.
H opping, D. M . C ., and Gerald P. Watland. "The Architecture of the Shakers," A ntiq1Les, LXXII: 4 (October,
1957 ), 335-339.
Kring, Hilda A. "The Harmonists: A Folk-Cultural Approach," D oc toral Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania,
1969.
La m er, J ohn . "Nails and Sundry M edi cines : Town Planning and Public H ealth in the H armony Society, 1805-1840,"
Western Pennsylvania Hist orical Magazin e, XLV: 2 (June,
196 2), 115-1 38 ; and XLV: 3 (September, 1962 ), 209-227 .
M cArtor, Wilfred Freed. "Arts an d Industries of the Zoarites," M . A. Thesis, Ohio State University, 1939.
Nelson , R onald E. "Bishop Hill," Antiques, XCIX (January, 1971 ), 140-147.
Quimby, Ia n. ed . Winterthur Portfolio 8. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia, 1973.
R amsey, John . "Economy and Its Crafts," Antiques, LVII
( May, 1950 ), 366-367 .
" Zoa r and Its Ind ustries," Antiques, XLVI
(D ecember, 1944 ), 333-335 .
Reps, John. Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Shea, John G . Th e American Shakers and Th eir Furniture.
N ew York: Van Nostrand R ei nhold , 19 71.
Stotz, Charles. Th e Architectural H eritage of Early Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,
1966.
14
German Script Course~ 1974
By VERNON H. NELSON
Twenty-one students spent two weeks at the Archives
from June 10 to 21 at the fourth German Script Course
offered by the Archives' staff. The first course was
offered in 1971. The 1974 enrollment was the largest
so far.
Sale bill of 1743, for plantation in what is now York
County. Editors Collection.
The instruction was presented by V ernon H. Nelson,
Archivist, and Dr. Lothar Madeheim, Assistant Archivist, as in past years.
Most of the samples of German Script read by the
class were taken from the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Actual documents were used, in xerox copies, including
letters of August G. Spangenberg and Peter Boehler,
a travel diary by John Ettwein, several L ebenslaufe
or memoirs, and other items. As a special treat near
the end of the course a letter from 1571 was read,
and the students found little difficulty with it (the
earlier documents often are easier to read due to a
more orthodox letter e and the existence of very capable
scribes) .
The mornings were devoted to instruction, except for
the coffee break. The instruction was intensive and
often consisted of small group work. Students were
asked to spend each afternoon or evening preparing
a selection for the next day. The selections became
more difficult as the days passed.
The students came from a wide geographical area;
some were preparing to travel to Europe shortly after
the course. There were two students from Salt Lake
City who came the furthest. Most of the students had
Ph.D's, were working on their doctoral degrees, or
had completed their formal education. They all had
very specific reasons for studying German Script. The
largest number of participants were historians. There
were also German professors, archivists or librarians,
musicologists, and theologians. No formal tests were
given, and no credit was earned for taking the course.
Each student will receive a certificate that he has completed the amount of work. All participants had to
have a basic reading knowledge of German before
enrolling.
As a change of pace from the tedious and physically
tiring work of deciphering German Script, brief lectures
were given on subjects closely related to German Script.
Dr. M ad eheim lectured on "Abbreviations found in
German Script." Dr. John R. W einlick, the Moravian
historian and biographer of Zinzendorf, spoke on the
life of Count Zinzendorf. Four minilectures were given
by persons actively using German Script, all entitled:
"How I Use Germa n Script." Robert Steel man and
Richa rd Cl aypool, music researchers employed by the
Moravian Music Foundation to work with the Bethlehem music, spoke on "How I Use German Script:
15
THE AR C HIVES OF THE M O RAVIAN C HURCH
8 tTHLIEHIE M , P ENNSVLV A NI A
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... o oabulAry . p l"Ul unc latloo __ xo e pt .a lt N! h te. t o Ge rma n So rlpt .
In.t~o toM.
The . R.1'. Vernon H . Ne1..on. A.r- ohln . t o r the Mo ra Vian
ebur:oh. 8oEhlebol!l , P•• , .nd 0:- . Lo tha r Hadehe h l, Aa s lat an t Ar o h.1 ... ht .
Plu • • pe c l. l gu..t • •
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Kor"Dl~8.
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9,)0 t o 10 1)0
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10,)0 t o 11100
Corte. 8 NaIr:
11, 00 to 1lilS
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11115 to 11 130
D18oU881oo o r K1nJ.-lAotwoe
UI )O t o 121 JO
Se oond Se . . len
Jun. 10- 14. 17- 2 1 .
pag a 2
pag e J
At ternoons and E'Y e nlne; s . Normell,. art.. rnoon end evonlng nours
a roe lett t re e r or a tudJ . At tl llle. tno f'O wl11 be st)e c lal o 1'ents
t o r . t. ud o nt a, the i r wive s or husbandll . S i nce the 300 Cl.l e ven tll
a roe no t d irect l ,. re a te d to l)er-l. n Sorlp t, theJ ' 1"0 opttonll.l.
E'1'ent a wh l c h II\IIIJ be II che du le d. , cco !"CI1.nJl; t o t. he Interest a of th e
0 1 • •• , lnclud,,:
Bou . 1nB: in Be t hle heM .
n.. Rotel Be t. hle h e M l a v1thl o v .l.Ill nR d leta no.
the " o t o lJl .re .e 'ler. l ml l ea . 1..I eJ : Rowerd John l o n's . nd Kollde J
Ina • • nIOng o t her •. " e n o an . t. ,. a t the YMCA t n Bethle he m. We
ar. ala o . b le t o put ,.ou In contac t v1 th tndl .. l dual a who will r.nt.
ro o m. at ,.. •• ena ble r.te . . Tllere are rea. OQa bl,. _pr l c e d re s t a ur.nt.
v1t bin e a.,. w. lk lng dh t.en c e c t t. he Arcb he ••
Wal kin!,: t ou r or h l.torl o Betbl e halll af'O'
"
MO"''I la n Hh to r lo a l Tou r , c0 1'e r1.n<>: t. he old Hora1' l l n bulld lng a
btO CIII •• bot end b lm\ld .
n : ~~ ~:u ;= ~ :: :~ t ~J~ the Morulln HlIItorl ca l Soo le t J , 'oIhlte-
Ill no • • . In c • • e ot 11 lnea. ro q u 1.r t ~ 1.mr.r.od1eta doc t o .. ' ,
•• • ia fen c e, It Ie bo e t to !,:O dl f'O otl, t. o t.he Dao rgonc y 'Ward
.t S t ~ Luke' a Ho. pl tal. wbor-e ra pld lI e .... l oe Is . ... Il . ble .
"
Tho " I n l - Lecture s . The I"It nl - l o ctu ""s de.l wi t h subj e c ts related
Eo Ce rTIan Scri pt. such 11 11 : Hl l1 tory end Blbl1OR;rll phy of f,ert"lln
Sor tpt; N~l"I8s, Abbre .. l l1t l on s , La t tn Scr i pt, othe .. de t atlll In re.d11\1J Oem.en Sorlpt; l"oO m.en Prln tlnJl;; (''''M'IIn - Llln~U'lI; e He po sltor i e s
I n Pe nns, l "lI nt a and e l l e whe i"I!I, e t c .
:~~~¥~~:! tti · re ~l~ s~I"IO",,!~a ~~~p:~u~:n~o n: ~II~ da ~1~!f~~~~~lng
with t.he h andw r i t t e n . lpha be t . S tuden t s anould, ho we.er, be a ble
t o raa d a \l"Iple printe d Gol"n!l n , oo t o re ule LnR t.hl ll course .
It 1a
not neo e , s lr')' t o s po ak Go""e n or unde .. stand spoken Gon:r.l n ; tne
a.a. l onll a roo cond uoted I n En~ Ua h .
:n~a~~:;lj
ttl :t : a~:!Et:~:iO~t:~~a ~ por
and ponoil .
an,.
We
ArM1'a l in Sa t h lo h" l"I . I t ,.o u be1'O
t rou ble wtr.e n ,.ou . rrl'e
GI & £6 1e6_ . p10 ue c I ll the t o llowtna:
g~~ ~r- ~~~ ~:~ ~~. Archh lat
Ve rno o R. N. la on
EX'mina t lon ' , Th e l"fl a r e no r omal e .u.,lnatlon a connoct e d .... Ith
th e oou .. s e . Ove rn l J1;ht a a s l sn.,e nt. s .re nade a nd t he I"Osultll are
r e .. l ewed In c la a s aossl on e. Al l th e a • • l e nnent. consl at or re. dLng o r de c l phe .. l nR Olrrel'fl n t aanploa or Ga nna n Scri pt .
Re g i lltra t i on . Tha N! a re no ape cl . l r'OlI;ll traUon r Onll"
Pro. pect i ve aE udents . hou l d wro lte t o t.he Arcn l v h t sl cml r ,.trut tne lr
1.nte nt to ta ke th e cours e .
I n t he l e t t,er p le.~ e I nclude 1.nforl'llltl on o n ,.ou r level of r.o l"!'lli n ab I Ut,.. '!he Arcn l vle t. ... t ll oonl' l nn
,.our r e g l at r .t lon 1'1,. l e tter •
Fina nc l a l . Coa t • • re 1.0 12'$ ro .. t u ltl on .nd S15 t or l'lllteriala.
ThIs III"IOun t 1"1.,. be pai d l.n a .tunce or
du ri ng tM rlrat wee le of sell alon l . Che ck • • hou l d be II\III de p.,. a ble
to "The " o ra .. lan Arch l'lea ."
~ota l o r ~ l..40 .
&rirt;o
Ir~nLr~;a!~r ;e 1' :~:~ l~~~ui!r a!r~::. bfA~l:~~~~; t) 1 r Ll ne • •
Tho Rell dl n ll; R. I ll"'O. d I'UJl S cOlTTlut er a e rvt o e bet..,een Be t hle he lll . nd
PhLla de lph ia • • nd th ere Ie: r l"O quen t bu. a ll "1' l o . be t wee n Be t h l e h el"l
. nd Phlhdelph l ll (bo th t ro ", Treilw. y a a nd Gre,.hound t e rTI i n. l a ) .
Thero 1 . r. t r l ,. tl"O quent bua a e rv lc e t o and tr olll Ile w Yo rk Cit,.
(P ort Authorl t,. ) . Be thle ho M Itael..t ha a pu blio t. ... nal t .nd t ho t'O
a bu • • t o p o utal de t he Ar ch lvea.
Musicology." Al bert J orda n, a local ama teur historian,
spoke on " H ow I Use German Script: H andwri ting
Id entifi cation." H e referred to his recent experience in
reading and identi fy ing the handwriting of van ou s
Bethl ehem archi fects. K aren Zerbe, R esearcher a t
Historic Bethlehem, Inc., spoke on "How I U se German
Script : Historic R estoration." Donald Lineback, German professor a t H ollins College, H ollins College, Virginia, spoke on " H ow I U se German Script: D octoral
R esearch." Lineback was on his way to H errnhut,
G ermany, to do fu rther research on H enry Mill er,
prominent as a printer in Philadelphia at the outbreak
of the American R evolution. Both M iss Zerbe a nd
Mr. Lineback had also taken the G erma n Script Course
in previous years.
T wo major lectures were given by Mr. N elson on
"A Brief History of German H a ndwriting a nd Printing,"
and " German Script R esources." German Script is an
evolution of thc Gothic scripts which first appeared in
northern France in the 11 th Century. There a re millions of pages of original m anuscripts written in German
Script in the United States and Canada, plus millions
of pages of photocopies.
Most of the students were able to visit some of the
historical sites in Bethlehem during their stay. There '
were several social events, including a class picnic at
Monocacy Park on the last Thursd ay.
The M oravian Archives is the only institution offering a German Script Course in this country, except for
professors who tutor their students or teach small
classes. The Founda tion for R eforma tion R esearch in
16
&:~III~a cr~a ~l~;t~~j ~: ~;le~n~· t~~~ ;n 1nBe ~~~~ t~: ::~! ~
"
St. Louis incl udes some Germ an In its 16th Century
Paleography Course.
Si nce the Moravians generall y wrote in H ochdeutsch
a nd had represented in their mi dst many varieties of
wri ting- from tha t of the scribe to the poorly trained
writer- the M oravian Archi ves isa good place to study
Germa n Scri pt. T hrough the years the Archives h ad
acquired ma ny of the major works on German Scri pt
prin ted in Germany.
V ery few of the students taking the Germ an Script
Cou rses have intended to do research in Moravian
records. Some have been in terested in turn-of-th e-century Germ an literary figures, or Austrian politics, or
the impact of Germans in America, or possibly in a
M oravian subj ect. N evertheless, the presentation of
this course has In four years produ ced over forty
students with some facility or promise of facility in
German Script, and in the long run it is expected
tha t the M oravian Archives will be helped considerabl y- as well as all places with German records. In
fact, it was the realization that so m any researchers
came to records in Bethlehem completely unprepared
to read them that gave the impetus to sta rt a G erman
Script Course.
The Moravian Archives occupies a three-story stone
structure on the Moravian College campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The building and its contents are
owned a nd operated by the Moravian Church. The
staff is now p reparing for a major renovation a nd expa nsion to take place probably in 1975. A fifth G erman
Script Course will be held in June, 1975.
I
/ ,<
.
- -....~ .... ~ ..
~-
THE
Play
•
In
SLE I G H
RIDE.
Philadelphia
By CAROL WOJTOWICZ
INTRODUCTION
Games have been an integra l part of life for innumerable years. Before the 16th Century work did
not occupy as much of the day as it later did and
games were a principal activity of adults as well as
children. They were a means of unifying the society.'
In colonial Am erica they took the form of holid ays
[or adults with special celebrations for each day. Children, however, played in mu ch the same ma nner as
they do today. " Even in distri cts distingu ished by the
severity of moral doctrines, it does not a ppear that
any attempt was made to interfere with the liberty of
youth. Nowhere have the old sports (often, it is true,
in crude rustic forms ) been more generally m aintained
than in localities famou s for Puritanism.'" W e have
accounts of Samuel Sewall having to climb out onto
his roof a nd fix his rain spout which was clogged by
a trap-ball. H e also reco rds the pl aying of football
in his ·di ary. Boston City Documents record fines imposed [or those who play foot-ball within the town
streets or throw firecrackers or snowballs.' This proves
tha t such activities must haw' been very common in
this Puritan town .
It seems even more likely then that in Quaker Philadelphia the children played freely both in the streets
and in the pa rks that Will iam Penn set aside when
he pl anned the town.
Fra nklin in his proposals on education stressed the
need ensuring the physical fitn e~s of students. "That,
to keep them in H ealth, and to strengthen and render
active their Bodies, they be frequently exercis'd in
Running, Leaping, Wrestling, and Swimming, &c."
Children played, however, regard less of adu lt sancti on or organization. Some of their early games are
recorded by Newell in his coll ection of Games and Songs
o f American Children, first published in 1883. Newell
'Phillippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood, trans. Robert Baldick (London, 1962), p . 67 .
' Will iam W . Newell , Games and Songs of American Children ( ew York , 1883), p. 2.
' Ind ex of American Culture, ~ assachuse tts Reco rds , 1625fil e nos. 857 a nd 524, compIled by Dr. Anthony G a rva n
University of P en nsylvania.
'
J 700,
17
used infonnants of a ll age groups a nd from all pa rts
of the country. M ost of the games he described were
universally pl ayed but there were regional variations.
T ag was one of the most popul a r games a nd in Philadelphia there were severa l unique versions. One was
"T ag, T ag, Tell a Body," which was played in the
usu al fashion, the difference being that a ll pl ayers were
forbidden to reveal the id entity of "IT," on penalty of
rep lacing him. Another va ria tion of this was " London
Loo" which used the following song:
" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - L ondon!"
" Loo!"
" I'll try to catch one of you!'"
In the 19th C entury children also played circle
games, hiding games, m a rbles, hop-scotch, mumbletypeg, dra ma games and numerous others. Flower oracl es
were popular suc'h as chanting "He loves m e, he loves
me not" while stripping the petals of a d aisy. Som e
of these oracles are now used as jumping-rope rhymes
such as "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
doctor, lawyer, India n chief." Counting-out games
we re a lso popular. One exclusively from Phil ad elphia
was " Engine No.9, Out goes she" ." This too (in an
altered form ) is now a jumping rhyme:
Engine, engine No.9
Going dow n Chicago line
If th e tMin goes off the track
D o you want your money back?
Y es, no, maybe so . . .
Children played wherever they could, but children
la rgely seemed to play in the streets. Educators and
mora lists began to worry about the ha rmful physical
<md spiritual effects this had on the city's youth. They
felt that "unguided play and socia bility" could ruin
their lives and characters.' They saw playgrounds as
a suppl ement to the schools and churches in guiding
the training of childrens' minds and bodies. In 1893
the movement was begun with the form a tion of the
Culture Extension League. They sought first to utilize
the existing school yards and vacant lots, and by 1894
the first playgrounds were opened. These were funded
by private subscriptions and staffed by volunteers.
In 1895 the trolley system was inaugurated in Philadelphia and the children playing in the streets were
injured by numerous traffic accidents. This added
impetus to the playground movement. Great support
by the Board of Education was largely responsible for
its success; they contributed the schoolyards, equipment and teachers . City Council granted funds and
twenty-three such playgrounds were opened. The Cu'l'Benjamin Fra nklin, Th e Autobiograph y and Other Writings,
ed. L. J esse Lemisch ( I\i'ew York, 1961 ), p. 212 .
• ewell, p . 159.
"Ibid., p . 203.
'Stoya n Vasil Tsanoff, Edu cational Value of the Children's
PlaJlgro unds ( Philad elphia, 1897 ), p. 127.
18
ture Extension League then turned its attention toward
procuring a nd converting vacant lots. This was the
beginning of the present D epartment of R ecreation.'
This pa per is a n a ttempt to trace the evolution
through time of where children in Phil adelphia pl ayed
a nd what they pl ayed . The emphasis is on exploring
in particul a r the play ha bits of the last three generations. The information was la rgely coll ected by interviews with numerous persons of each genera tion who
grew up and pl ayed in Phil adelphia. It is supplemented
by m agazine a rticles of th e time describing the activities and pl ay a reas. I have restricted accounts of
games to those played in the schoolya rd a nd on the
playgrounds. It would be too m assive a task to attempt to describe street games. Moreover a further
attempt of this p aper is to examine the influence of
pl ay a reas upon pl ay. The activities described are
strictly those of the elementary school level.
1.
The first group of people from whom I collected
informa tion either by a personal interview or by a
qu estionnaire were those who attended elem entary
school in the pre-World War I era. These p eo ple
were all of a white, middle-class background . They
lived in va rious sections of the city. They were growing
up in th e early days of the pl ayground movement yet
none can recall ever going to one. There were still
only a few in proportion to the city's popula tion and
size, a nd a ppa rently were not located near the homes
of a ny of the informa nts . Conseq uently these children
pl ayed eith er in the schoolyards or nea r their homes,
Schoolyards were small in comparison to more
modern school yards. They were all concrete areas
with no surrounding fi elds a nd with little or no equipm ent. Consequently games were played th a t required
c nly a small amount of space a nd required either no
equipment or tha t which children could bring. The
most games seem ed to be Tag, Dodge Ball, Voll ey Ball
and Shadows. Shadows was pl ayed with two people
in the sunshine (one advantage of a schoolyard without trees was that there was always sun ) . The object
was for the pursuer to try to step in the other p erson's
shadow a nd na turally the other person had to keep
moving to prevent this. Jumping Rope and playing
Jacks were favorite p ast-times of the girls and the boys
played marbles. Ring games were also popular such
as Loopty-Loo. This was a dance done in a circle
with all players holding hands and moving in a clockwise direction while singing the following words and
carrying out the instructions.
Here we go loopty loo
Here we go loopty ligh
H ere we go loopty loo
All on a Saturday night.
'Ibid., pp. 128- 143.
Y ou put your right foo t in
(all pl ayers stick right foot in circle)
Y ou take your right foot ou t
Y ou give your rig ht foo t a shake, shake, shake
A n d turn yourself about (all drop ha nds a nd turn )
T he chorus is sung again a nd then the left foot substituted for the right a nd then in the foll owing order:
the right a rm, left a rm, right side, left side a nd fin ally
the whole self.
Y ou put you n w hole self in
Y ou take your w hole self out
Y ou give your w hole self a shake, shake, shake,
A nd tu rn yourself 'about
(repeat chorus)
A va ria tion on this is R okey Pokey which is done to
the same tune with a pproxima tely the same words.
One woma n reported ma rkings for End B.all in her
schoolyard ; a nd this was a mu ch enj oyed activity
there. This was a va ria tion of V oll ey Ball ; the group
was di vided into two teams. Each team then divided
itself in h alf a nd half of each team was on either side
of the net. The obj ect of the game was to hit the ball
back a nd forth over the net, but to keep it in the h a nds
of your own players.
Therefore team A who stood in the front would
try to hit the ba ll to their pl ayers who were in the
back of the other side. M eanwhile team B which was
in the fron t would try to capture the ball.
For the most p art games did not a ppear to be organized by the teachers ; they were entered into sponta neously by the children.
II.
The second group of persons I in terviewed were
th ose who attended elementary school in the la te twenties a nd thirties. They were also of a white, middlecl ass background . By this time the pl ayground movement was well established a nd m a ny more of my informa nts reported having used them . There were still
not nearly as ma ny as there a re today a nd m a ny of
the women did not use them as mu ch as the m en
because of the dista nce involved. Their mothers preferred to have them p laying nea rby where they could
wa tch them. Those women who did go , however ,
delighted in the summer a rts a nd crafts programs.
M oreover the playgrounds a nd community centers had
quite a few toys tha t these children of the depression
years did not h.ave, a nd they often went to pl ay with
them. The m en I spoke with used pl aygrounds primarily as a reas in which they played Football , Baseball ,
a nd Soccer. The equipment in most of these areas
consisted of the traditiona l swings, sliding boards, m aypoles, a nd m onkeyba rs. While they enj oyed using the
equipment a t some times, it w.as never the principal
reason for going to the -pl ayground.
There was one p layground, however, which was
famed for its equipmen t: several persons recounted
their trips there. This was Smith Memorial Playground.
I t had a huge slid ing board (approximately 12 feet by
12 feet ), enclosed in glass, which was for adults as
well .as for children. There were also swings, see-saws,
a merry-go-round, a nd a nursery for m others to use
in caring fo r young children. An a rticle which appeared
in the April 1953 issue of R ecreation described a program which had been conducted at the Smith playground for the p ast thirty years. Twice each week a
village was set u p for the ch ildren who played there,
using folding stores, houses, furnishings a nd assorted
goods. C hildren came and .acted out real life situations of caring for fa milies, tending businesses, teaching
school, etc. The p rogram was so popul a r tha t it w.as
extended to other playgrounds:
It seems for the most p a rt, however, tha t children
of this period still pl ayed prima rily in the schooly.ards,
streets, and vacant lots near their homes. There still
were not enough pl aygrounds for them to be readily
accessible.
Schoolyards differed little from those described by
the previous group . They all consisted of concrete yards
with no grass or trees, fenced in on all sides. Most had
no equipment a lthough a few had swings and monkey
bars. These were utilized but the traditional games of
Jumping R ope, H op-Scotch, T ag, etc., seemed most
popul ar.
Games seemed to be organized more frequently for
the girl s than the boys. Such games would include
V oll eyball, D odge Ball, R elay R aces, a nd Baby-in-theAir. This is a game in which one person gives all pl ayers
a number including the person who is IT. The p erson
then throws the ball into the air a nd calls out "Baby
in the air number[- J," picking a number at random.
The person holding tha t number runs to catch the ball
while the rem aining players scatter. When he catches
the ball he yells for them to stop and then taking three
steps towa rd the person closest to him would try to
hit him with the ball. If he succeeded that person was
IT a nd received the letter "B". If he fail ed to hit him
he w.as IT again and he had "B" . The first p erson
to receive " B A B Y" lost the ga me and suffered dire
consequences.
Circula r games were also popular such as Cat and
M ouse. In this game all pl ayers but two (the cat and
the mouse) form ed a circle with the mouse on the
inside a nd the cat on the outside. The obj ect was for
the cat to capture the mouse and to avoid this the
mou se ra n in a nd out of the circle as the cat pursued
him .
'Thatcher N. Bowers, " A Children's Village," Recreation ,
46-A (April 1953), 11 - 14.
19
Another fa vorite game was .a varia tion of Drop-theH a ndkerchief. Again all players except I T formed a
circl e with their ha nd held p alms up behind their back.
IT walked around the circle cha nting:
H ad a little dog
And he won' t bite you
A nd he won' t bite you
But he will bit e you.
At this point he drops the handkerchief into the hands
of the person he is standing behind. Tha t person then
a ttempts to catch IT as he races .a round the circle and
tries to slip into the vacated spot. If he succeeds the
person with the ha ndkerchief is IT ; if he is caught
he is IT again .
Simon Says,
imi tate Simon
directions with
orite games of
a game m which all persons pl aying
(but only when Simon prefixes his
Simon Says ), a nd Sta tues were favboth sexes.
One woman reports playing J elly Roll. This was
organized by a teacher a nd as m a ny as a hundred
children played. The children would form .a long
line holding h a nds and the te.acher would sta rt winding
the beginning of the line into a tight circle much like
a jelly roll. After the children were tightly wound,
they would begin the unwinding process.
Buck-buck was a variation of Leapfrog a nd frequently seen in Ph iladelphia schoolyards. One boy
a nchored himself against the wall a nd the rema mmg
members of his team bent over in a long line a nd
held on to each other. M embers of the other team
would then turn one a t a time a nd jump on the backs
of the members of the first tea m. The object was to
try a nd coll apse the team underneath. If this didn't
occur then the leader of that team would decide upon
a number from one to ten a nd pl ace tha t m a ny fingers
against the wall. The members of the opposing team
would then try to gu ess the number ; if they lost they
beca me the bottom team.
These were all games tha t required little or no
t'quipment. The children used what they had a nd
seemed to h ave a wide v.ariety of games from which
to choose.
III.
Th e third group tha t I dealt with were those of my
genera tion who a ttended elementary school in the la te
M a rbl es were still .a favorite of the boys a nd they
shot them in all types of weather. They also shot
bottlecaps ; this was known as D eadbox.
The obj ect w.as to shoot the bottlecaps from one consecutive number to a nother being sure to a void deadbox (the center ) . D odgeba ll, Stickball, Hide a nd Seek,
a nd T ag were also favorites. One m a n records having
played five-step which was played with a football and
two teams. The ball was kicked by one side and if
caught by the other, tha t team got to ta ke five gia nt
steps toward the opposing team's goal. The obj ect was
to kick the ball over the other team's goal line by a
drop kick which consisted of dropping the ball and
whil e it touched the ground kicking it.
Mumblety-Peg was another favorite. The obj ect of
this was to throw a pen-knife with its bl ade straight
into the ground by flipping it from a series of different
positions, such as from the pa lm of your hand, the back
of your hand, your knuckles, etc.
Sever.al m en remembered playing Peggy at R ecess.
This was done with a broomstick which was divided
into a long pa rt and a short end which was whittled
into a point. This short end was placed on the ground,
hit a t the point with the longer stick and when it flew
into the a ir the longer stick was used as a ba t. The
rest of the game was played like baseball. *
*S ee D enis M ercier, et aI. , " Nipsy": The Ethnography of
a Tradit ional Game of Pennsylva n ia's An thrac ite R egion,"
Pennsylvania Folkli/e, XXIII: 4 ( 1974 ), 12-2 1. Ed.
20
Types of Apparatus and Rules for Their
Use in Philadelphia Playgrounds
S
C H OO L pl aygro u nd ac t iv it ies a rc o utlined in th e A nnu a l Repo rt r ec ent ly
iss ued by th e Boa rd o f P ub li c E du cati ou o f P hil ade lph ia . T h e sys te m o f th is
c ity, whi c h is u nd e r th e d irec t io n of Wi lli am A. St ech e r , Dir ec to r of P h ys ic a l E duca ti o n o f th e D e pa rt m e nt o f S u pe r int e ndl' Il Ce, consists o f J28 pla y g ro u n ds located ill
thr ee di stri c ts. S ince th e es t a bl is h m en t o f
th e fir s t p lay g ro u nds (fo u r in n um be r) in
1&j5, th ey h ave m e t wi th m a rk ed s ucc ess,
illus tra t ed by a t o ta l a tt e nd a nce, fo r t e n
mo n t h s in ' 9 '4- ' 5, o f 6 19,88 1.
T h e e x pe rie n ce in P h ilad e lph ia h as
sh o w n th e wi sdo m o f adop ti ng' ce rt ai n rul es
wh ic h, it h as bee n fou nd, c h ild re n not o nl y
live up to, b ut sec to it t ha t ot h e r s a lso
obey. T h e follow in g a re so m e o f th e r ul es
fo r t he p r e ve nti o n o f a cci d e n ts a nd prese r vi ng' t h e g e n e ra l 1l1 o r ~d t OIl C o f th e pl ay gro und :
IlU J. E S
FO il
U S INr; I' J. .\Y(;[W UN IJ
i\ I' P A Il .H US
T n preven t acci dcn l ": . a l ways lonk fu r t hc rbl1s(' r
ZO Il ~.
( Th ('<,c arc (, ithc r l ines l'a in t('J o n t h ~ J.:rou nd ,
o r rOI'e: <; stre: tc:h e:d ~ ea r '-011l e: cl a n ~ero u ~ places. )
~H' I'!P{- It IS a gain s t t he r ul {'~ :
I. 'T o !'Ia nl! II !} o n t he ~l'a l 1\1 s wiu/ot u r to 31a t t
tile ....... i II 10: .
':? Fo t t wo c1 ul .lre n 10 occupy 111 Ie .. ('a l.
3. T o pu ... h ,ulIl run uml e r t he ~ WIIlJ.: , or 10 pll"h
Ly ho ld i ng o n 10 the: fe:et o f t ll o~c wll o a re:
!'wll1gi n ~ .
S fl dillg DonrdJ- Jt i" a ga inst t he: r ules :
1. T o s l,,\e dow n in a ... tamli n,:: pos lli o n .
2. T o walk nT cn wl \I I' Ihe ~lirt e .
Cla n t St ,.id,·- II i .. 0lJ;3.i n3t ti le ruks :
1. T o t a k e 3. t wi ....
2 . T o 1111 ... 11 anyo n e a rountl
3. T o t. c t hc rope' loge: th c r
TZ~lbit~~~ v.~tl;iS~ llb;{: aL~~1 L;~~IJm: lb~ \:~cJi~ tj:::;
IH= rml~~ion is Granle:~ by Ihe: offi ce: .
farg(' ya r d" if
SU/o/... i" g is pO'ii t lvciy prol.tlll t('J .
"/ul /./J-(:lll ldrcn aTt: fOTllldllen to pl a y gam(',
a rolllHI lolie lS. 1\11 peT>:o on ... a Te wa r ll ed against I
!Il l> n ca r OT
th e to.lets.
.n
O f fllrl h e r ill te r est to th ose who d(
to kce p in to uc h with p l ay~ ro \llld dcve
111(.'l1t ar e t h e r cco1ll11lc nd:,t io ns as to r
gro ll nd equiplll e nt. S up e r viso r P hili li
Le wi s, in h is sec ti o n o f th c r epo rt, al
ca tes th e fo llow ing: a fo u r-sca t s\
framc, g iallt s tr id c, seesaw (two boar
sa lld bi ll, s lid illg iJoa rd, a dOllble hori z(
bar, so m c ba ll s, rin g toss and rubhe r ql l
Th e cos t o f Cq u iplIl Cllt o f thi s c hara ctt
a pp roxi lll 3t l' Iy $ 200, ~ Ir , Lew is not rs
t he r ce rt a in 1' lmp ro ve l11 c n ts ill th e
J\ ppa r<l tu s," a s fo ll o ws:
ci~~··~~':~:;:.1 ~~~ ~~ltll~I~I:~v...e 3h~~\,,~~ ~tI :I~~~:i~c ~,\lltht h!
and a l II.e r UlJ.: un Ihe cro~ .. he;a m .
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SUl'pv rt .1 r"!,l' ... Ircld.ed :I TOll ll d a n y 3 1'(la T;a IIl:> III
I ht· (" h lld" ' 1\ Hf datlJ:; "r,
GIIUI ' .\trid,· FIIIIII~ tl l(' "1'1 i", 111 pll'l' Wll h II' ~
In .1" ... 1,11 t h, ,,'11111.1 .,f lilt" dl:t ll l I.. II",I..III~ ,' J.:.IIII
p.l'l' .... a I.:rl ,.1 illll' l "\IIlU' 1I1.
,\.1111/ Jill! - 'I' bl' 111 11 I'" 11 0'" 111 :•• 1., ,·"I1.II'''II,k .
mal ll.lhlc I TOII ~I,h: ;111,1 (,"TII,' r (.1 11111.:... . 'I hI' I,"
Lc II1L1 IIIJ.:('lhc=r and 1;\1.., 11 ara Tl "'llhm. 1 ,III )'
~('I""\\" or t oul.,
UuJI...·tb,III- 'J'h c OilIe r .. , ' ;alii h:tll iii T(' info rl.d
a 1'31eh on Ih,l t !lil T! uf t lte " ;111 ",I 'l'fe t il(' 111,1
o ( lite "'l'alll'" 1II,'ct . 'I hI' r,·... 1I1t I... 111,, 1 1.1 .. 1 )1.: ,
lI .. n l !t..... h ,lI1-. t ha ll III I h.' "'·\l' r.1I "'·,I " "lh I'tn"
Jllll v lI,. f l ,H.-I •• dls -'1'1 ., . . I.o;.a ll I" no\\ I.l·.1I1: ...... 1.:
tht: OIlI,' T "'(';tlll, al ... o "' LI lt a IIlIl("It h (',lvltr I.uh
ou te r ~Ialll 1'11 .•"1.-::. Ihe !l-::lch. r to T('I •• II T Ih,' I,
a 1I .lIch ... h.. I,,·r '11IIe ;.allo! wi t h 111111'11 I...... ,) 1I"r lilt )'
{()llIu·r ly . Thi .. h,tli I;I""~ IIl1lCh IUIl/o:,' r , I'all ,111
I .• r ... ,·alll h.ll!.
H,'f'III"
' I Ill' Il'·n · ..... l t y o f lul .... l alll ly rt I'
I';.all ... l,rUIIII'I,.1 t ill' .. k;.a (I f ;.a rlpa lT kit 10 ('"Ul;.al
f"II""'I1I/o: .• I"IIt).- ..
SI'( :!I i illeh r oulIIl pO lilt c
11\1' .)).-"' ; "
).Ird ... of r;.awillde b ein e, 3/ I Ci IIU
"1111(' ,:. L\·,"'\\ ,IX; I l ube:: r uJ,l" r Ct'nll'lI l ("111,111
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o f hlll'lI Ihrt":IJ (o r .. ,'Wlll/o: I,;all..
M uch mon,:,
IJlIIl ~ ,l\ld I,) t he . 1I1 ..... JUt:!IVIl u r 1111 5 r(' pJ lr kll
",t
Pioneer article on schoolground equipment for Philadelphia,
from "The American City," May, 1916,
fifties and sixties. Theoretically children of today are
within this generation but there are differences in the
way they play and the way we played which I will
attempt to deal with a little later.
I n 1952 playgrounds in Philadelphia began to be
revitalized. Before that they were more often than not
high fenced lots of concrete with little equipment.
Frederick R. Mann then became the first R ecreation
Commissioner for the city and he brought with him
numerous changes. The D epartment of R ecreation was
enl a rged, trained personnel employed and all types of
cheerful new equipment was purchased and installed
in the playgrounds. This work was con tinued by R obert
Crawford, the next Commissioner of R ecreation. lo Crawford believed that children must crawl and climb a nd
for that purpose he purchased a ll types of equipment
one could climb over, under and through such as igloos,
cactus trees, turtles, trains, spiral slides, climbing nets,
a nd castl es with moats. "There are even magic carpet,
w ing~ding and hinky-dink climbers." " These changes
were ta king place as my friends and I were growing up
and by the time we were old enough to go to playgrounds alone they were delightful places to visit.
During the summer we would go several times a
week and stay for long periods using the equipment
for a spiral slide waS" infinitely more exciting than a
plain slide a nd castles in the sand provided a greater
outlet for our imaginations than a sandbox. The boys
still went primarily to use the fields an d the pools
while the girls went to use the apparatus. This seemed
to be a set p attern for all the persons I interviewed .
Playgrou nds during the summer at this time competed with the schoolyards for children's attendance.
The D epartment of R ecreation in co-operation with
the Board of Education set up summer playgrounds
in the schoolyards where they had trained personnel
who organized games, songs, a nd a rts and crafts.
Those persons who lived near the schools which
had this usually said they were there almost daily.
Children then, were definitely using playgrounds more
than a ny previous generation . It does not mean that
street games were abandoned, simply that playgrounds
were more utilized for they offered activities and opportunities the streets could not. They gave one a
cha nce to explore movement through means of the
equipment and offered imagination a wider scope. W e
often played house at home, but we never played castle
as we did at the playground.
Schoolyards were still a big center for play activities,
however-before school, after school, during lunch
a nd recess. A few more persons reported having
IOMargo Tupper, No Place to Play ( Philadelphia and New
York, 1966 ), p. 74.
" Hugh Scott, "From Wing-Ding to Hinky-Dink," Recreation, 55 (M ay 1962 ), 250.
some equipment in their schoolyards such as swings or
monkey-bars or markings for broad jumps or hopscotch
courts, and these were utilized . I can recall that in
my school we did not have stationary equpiment but
when we were in kindergarten at each recess we would
bring different objects out and construct our play
appara tus making things like slides from boards leaned
against wagons. We then spent recess either in playing with the equipment or in playing games organized
by the teacher such as the fa rmer-in-the-dell or ringaround-a-rosy. In later grades games were not organized and this seems to be true for all p ersons with
whom I spoke. Games were begun spontaneously by
the children a nd included the traditional H opscotch
and Jumping Rope for girls while boys played D eadbox, Tag, and Buck-buck. Flipping base ball cards
seemed to be a new innovation at this time. Boys
would coll ect the baseball cards you got with p acks
of bubble gum and during recess would, in turn, flip
a card onto the ground. Whoever managed to flip
c ne directly on top of another got to keep all that h ad
already been thrown. This was a chief means of increasing one's collection .
There were numerous variations of Tag. One of
these was Fox in the M orning. It was played with two
teams who stood in lines 25 to 50 feet apart : one
p erson (IT ) stood in the middle. When all players
yelled "Gold Rush" they rushed to the other team's
line and IT tried to tag whomever he could. Anyone
who was tagged had to rem ain in the center with him
and tag others. The object was to get everyone into
the center.
Another popular game was Man Hunt. The players
were divided into two groups. One group tried to
capture the other; a ny players they caught were placed
in an area designated as the "jail." The only way they
would be freed was if an uncaught member of their
team ma naged to slip into the boundaries of the jail
a nd yell "Free." If he was caught before entering the
area he too was imprisoned.
Spring was pa rticularly apropos for Philadelphia
schoolyards. A player would begin by standing about
twenty-five feet from the wall and then run towards
it. Upon reaching it, you placed your foot as high up
the wall as you could and then you stretched your
a rms and the rest of your body as high up against the
wall as possible.
Girls' games were more sedate. This was still an
era when girls had to wear dresses to school and "behave like ladies." Hoola hoops were popular then and
several persons recalled actually taking them to school.
M ost games, however, were ones that required small
equipment such as Jacks or Mimsie. Mimsie was played
with a small ball; a formula was chanted and one
suited one's actions to it.
21
A mimsie (throw ball up in the air )
A clapsy (clap h ands while ball is in a ir )
T wirl my hands (while ba ll is in air)
To bapsy (touch shoulders with ha nds while ball
is in air)
My right hand (throw ba ll up with right ha nd )
My left hand ( throw ball up with left ha nd )
High as the sky .. (throw ball up high )
Low as the sea (throw ba ll low but catch it before
it touches ground )
T ouch m y knee (with right h and while ball is
in air )
T ouch m y heel (with right ha nd while ball is in
air)
T ouch m y toe (with right ha nd whil e ball is in air)
Under we go (throw ball under leg)
After completing this one pairs up the motions a nd
th e series is built up . If you miss a t a ny point you
have to start a t the beginning of th a t series. V a ria tions
on this game included throwing the ball agains t the
wall while performing the motions instead of in the
aIr.
Clapping a nd motion gam es with partners or in
circles of girls were also popul a r. Two of the most
common were: A Sailor Went to Sea a nd Who Stole
the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? A Sailor Went to
Sea was done with two people facing each other. They
alternated clapping their own ha nds together and then
they would clap the right ha nd of one and the left
h a nd of the other together a nd vice-versa, all the while
chanting this rhyme:
A sailor went to sea-sea-sea
(here they pause a nd touch eyes)
T o see what he could see-see-see
(here they pa use a nd touch eyes)
A nd all that he co uld see-see-see
(here they pause a nd touch eyes )
Was the bott om of the deep blue sea-sea-sea.
(here they pa use a nd touch eyes)
Different parts of the body were then substituted for th e
eyes, for exampl e, a sailor went to ankle, ankle, ankle,
or knee, knee, knee, and when one came to this part of
the rhyme you would pause from cl ap ping a nd touch the
a ppropriate body part As m a ny parts as you wanted
to includ e you could. This was a pparently played by
a few children of the previous generation but seemingly not to the same extent as we played it when we were
young.
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? was
done in a circle. While cha nting the rhyme all pl ayers
first clapped their own ha nds together and then their
neighbors'. All players had an assigned number. They.
then began the chant:
(all )
Wh o stole the coo kie fr om the
c-c-cookie jar?
( it calls) Number 3 stole th e cookie from th e
c-c-cookie Jar.
(No.3 ) Who m e?
(all )
Y es, you !
22
(No.3)
(all )
(No.3)
Couldn't be.
Th en w ho?
Number 1 stole the cookie from the
c-c-cookie jar.
And then it repeats itself. There were numerous other
variations of these games. They were quite popular
because they did not require a grea t deal of room in
which to play them. They were popu la r waiting games
as weIl , a pleasant way to spen d time in line waiting
to go into the school room.
Jumping rope, D ouble-Dutch a nd Chinese Jump
R ope were a lso favorites as was H op-Sco tch and variations on that. Yo-yos were also seen in abundance.
Games varied depending upon the size of the schoolyards a nd the number of children. Where there was
a lot of room running games were most popular; if it
was extremely crowded the more confined games were
played.
In talking with teachers a nd my own younger brother
a nd sisters and from my own observa tions it seems that
children today play fewer games in the schoolyard. They
sti lI play T ag a nd Spring, H a ndball and Jump-Rop e,
but there a re fewer circle games. This m ay be because
teachers a re not tra nsmitting them. The role of teachers in schoolyard play is often overlooked, but they do
have a strong influence. One informa nt of my genera tion told m e tha t h e and his mother pl ayed nearly
the same games a t school, because they had the sa me
teachers, although thirty years apart, who organized
the games.
Children, however, do utilize the playgrounds to the
same or even greater extent tha n we did. The equipment today is even more exciting tha n it was ten years
ago a nd children enjoy it so much more than the traditional equipment They still seem to enj oy most, however, the equipm ent that moves a nd this seems to be
a theory tha t has withstood the passage of time, for
they were always most popula r."
CONCLUSIONS
Several conclusions can be drawn from this study.
Pl aygrounds are becoming an increasingly important
a rea in which children play. The first generation I
questioned played at school, a t home or in the vacant
lots. The second generation began to use the pl aygrounds but prima rily for their organized sports or
arts a nd cra fts activities. Now children a re using
playgrounds for all of those reasons, but also simply
to use the play equipment Pl aygrounds have also
played a la rge role in introducing sports of different
types to children such as Soccer, I ce-Hockey, Street
Hockey, and T ennis. Many of the e games a re then
taken by them into the streets and into the schoolya rds .
" H al Zion, D epartment of Pl anning and Cons truction, Department of R ecreation, interv iewed by Carol Wojtowicz,
November 9, 1973.
Schoolyard games themselves, however, seem less
form alized than they were thirty years ago. Circle
games are no longer played as frequently as they were
and games today seem more concerned with running
and free movement. Moreover the schoolyards themselves are changing. Few of the old Philadelphia schoolyards had any type of equipment. There has been a
growing cooperation between the Board of Education
a nd the D epartment of R ecreation. In some cases the
Department of R ecreation is installing tot lots on
schoolyards. In another insta nce the school and playground are adjoining and they share facilities. The
school board itself is looking into creative equipment
for its schoolyards as a means of instructing its students
in areas such as movement exploration, obstacle courses
and dramatic play. Experimental pieces of apparatus
have already been installed in four schoolyards. Such
equipment does influence schoolyard play."
Many of the old games seem to have completely disappeared; Peggy and Mumblety-Peg never seem to be
played now and Marbles seldom are. The traditional
games and variations of them such as Tag, Hide and
Seek, Jump-Rope, Ball, Sledding and Snowball Fights,
etc. still remain, however, which makes me tend to
believe that Newell's claim made in 1883 still holds
true, that is, that "the feelings and tastes of children
have not been changed by time, they are little altered
by civilization."" They have been altered somewhat, but
basically the children of Philadelphia are still playing
many of the same games wherever they possibly can.
PLAYGROUND
QUESTIONNAIRE
I used this questionnaire to collect information from
those persons I was unable to interview personally.
Public Playgrounds
1) Please describe the public playground you used
when you were small (under twelve). Was it near
your home? What type of equipment did it have?
Was the surface concrete or grass? Was it fenced in?
2 ) Did you have special games you liked to use the
equipment for? What was your favorite piece?
3) Was there any organized play by playground supervisors? Did you usually participate in it?
4) What types of games did you play there?
School Yards
5 ) Describe your schoolyard. Did it have playground
equipment? Were there playing fields? Did the
" Mr. Brodie, D epartm ent of Ph ysical Education, Board of
Education, interviewed by Carol Wojtowi cz, November 13,
1973.
"Newell, p . 29.
The descriptions of playgrounds, schoolyards, and games
were furni shed by interviews with approximately ten to fifte en
people in each age group. Further information was obtained
from talking with three teachers and recording th eir observations on differences in the way chi ldren play.
6)
7)
8)
9)
yard have basketball hoops or hopscotch courts or
any other markings?
Did you have recess in the mornings and afternoons?
What types of games did you pLay? If there are
any that children do not seem to play today please
describe them for me.
Were games organized by teachers or students?
Have you noticed changes in children's games over
the years? If so please go into more detail. Do
you recall your pa rents talking about certain games
they played? Please describe them if possible.
Do you feel that children were more or less creative
before than they are today? Do you believe that
playgrounds and playground equipment has affected
this?
Personal Data
Did you attend a private, parochial or public school?
Did you live in an urban or rural area? In which
section of the country was it ? Wha t were the approximate years when you attended elementary school?
Y our Sex-male or female
Thank you so much for all your help.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aries, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood . Trans. Robert
Baldick . London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.
Bengtsson, Arvid. En viro nmental Planning for Children's
Play. London: Crosby Lockwood and Son Ltd ., 1970.
Bowers, Thatcher N. "A Children's Village." Recreation,
46-A (April 1953) , 11-14.
Brodie, D epartment of Physical Edu cation, Board of Education. Interviewed by Carol Wojtowi cz, November 13, 1973.
Dauncey, Helen M . "Games on the Playground ." Recreation, 45 (April 1951) , 32-34.
Franklin, Benj amin . The A utobiography and Other Writings. Ed . L. Jesse L emisch . New York:
ew American Library, 1961.
Halsey, Elizabeth, and Lorena Porter. "Outdoor Play Areas ."
Recreatio n, 53 (April 1965 ), 189-190.
H olme, Anthea, a nd Peter Massie. Children's Play: A Study
of Needs and Opportunities. London: Michael J osep h, 1970.
Ind ex of American Culture, Massachusetts Records 16251700, fil e nos . 857 and 524, compil ed by Dr. Anthony Garvan,
University of Pennsylvania.
Newell, Willi am W ells. Games and Songs of American
Children. New York : Harper and Brothers, 1883 .
,
Opie, Pete r and I ona. Children's Games in Street and Playground. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
"The Play's the Thing." Newsweek, D ecember 27, 1971,
p. 30.
Scott, Hugh. "From Win g-Ding to Hinky-Dink." Recreation, 55 ( May 1962 ), 248-250.
Shed loch, Mr. Assistant Superintend ent of Abington Township, D epartment of R ecrea tion . Interviewed by Carol Wojtowicz, D ecembe r 11, 1973 .
Shriver, Paul. "The Flower Mark et Tot Lot Playgrou nd."
Recreatio n, 27 (June 1933 ), 120-1 25, 154-156; (July 1933) ,
16 3- 168, 202.
Sutton-Smith, Brian, and B. G. Rosenberg. "Sixty Years
of Historical Change in the Game Preferences of American
Children." Journal of American Folklore, 74 (1961), 17-46.
Tsanoff, Stoyan Vasil. Educational Value of the Children's
Playgrounds: A N ovel Plan for Character Building. Philadelphia: Tsanoff, 1897.
Tupper, M argo. No Place to Play. Philadelphia and New
York : Chilton Books, 1966.
Zion, Hal. D epartment of Recreation , D epartment of Constru ction and Pl anning. Interviewed by Carol Wojtowicz,
November 9, 1973.
23
Education., Occupation., and Economics
Among Old Order Mennonites
of the East Penn Valley
By THEODORE W. JENTSCH
1. EDUCATION
As with a ny society which considers its way of
life worth preserving the M ennonites of the East
Penn V alley - are- concerned with the socialization of
their offspring. The four one-room schoolhouses supported by the community are a powerful vehicle for
the tra nsmitting of the knowledge, norms and values
together with the orienta tional a nd motivational underpinnings requisite to the M ennonite wa y of life.
In answer to this researcher's questions concerning
the sta ted goals of the community's schools the response
of the bishop is significant:
we don' t care much for science a nd things like tha t.
We do not teach about sex a nd other subj ects tha t
are being taught in public school.
A teacher competent to do so will also add high
German to the list of studies in order to assist the
child' in learning to read the German hymns sung
during the church services:
An importa nt portion of each day's schooling is
devoted to Bible reading, the singing of hymns (mostly
English language, revival type), the Lord's Prayer, and
m em orizing Bible p assages.
Well, we of course want obedience. We want an
education that we feel is necessa ry in our way cf
life. This includes reading a nd writing in English
because we a re in an English world, a nd arithmetic
so that we can ha ndle our business affairs. Our
schools must teach history because we a re a Christian people and believe in Scriptural history, also
the history of the country a nd we should learn
about geography to learn about our neighbors. But
All instruction, in accordance with the sta te law, is
done in the English language, but the writer has ob-
ACCOMM O DATION WITH THE STATE
' School chil dre n a re u n iversally referred to by m embers
o f the co mmu n ity as "scholars" ra th er th a n "pu pi ls" or
" st ud en ts."
' Num erous M en nonites have con fid ed to the writer that they
ca n not und ersta nd or at best a re un sure of m an y of t he high
Germ a n word s of the hymns sung at Su nd ay worship.
Old Order M ennonite Farmhollse with many additions.
24
served tha t all conversation ou tside the classroom is
in the dialect. Indeed, it is in the classroom tha t m ost
members of the community encounter their first, a nd
perhaps only, systema tic use of English.
School is in session 180 days a year, the mlmmum
allowed by Pennsylvania law. The school year runs
roughly from 1 September to the middle of M ay.
Classes are condu cted Monday through Frid ay. There
are no vaca tions except for Christmas D ay, Tha nksgiving D ay and Good Friday. Classes are also suspended
the day of a funeral in the community a nd the day of
some special religious activity such as the ordina tion
of a new minister or the visit of a minister from a nother
community.
Adherence is made to the compulsory attendance law
of the state which allows no more than three consecutive
days a bsence for reasons other than illness. Attendance
records a re regularly forward ed to the state's D epartment of Public Instruction, the agency charged with
the oversight of all instruction in the state, public,
priva te, and parochial.
Most children begin first grade a t age six. All new
schola rs submit to vaccination requirements . Schooling ordinarily ends a t grade eight which is usually
a ttained a t age fifteen. A ninth grade or " vocationa l
class" meeting one day a week (on Fridays ) is required
of those who ha ve finished eighth grade a nd a re not
yet fifteen years of age. Young people leave this cl ass
the day after their fifteenth birthday, thus having fulfi lled the absolute minimum imposed by the sta te.
This vocational cl ass is devoted la rgely to a rithmetic
and spelling. In a n accommoda tive gesture the sta te
has m erely required tha t those enrolled in this class
keep a dia ry of their week's work activities and that
this diary be kept on fil e should the sta te ever require
a n examina tion of them . One of the original settlers
of the community h as coll ected these dia ries over the
years but reports tha t sta te a uthorities have never asked
to see them. The teacher uses these diaries as a device
to teach gramma r, spelling, a nd la nguage usage. At
the beginning of each Friday session the scholar su bmits
the record of his week' s activities on rough tablet p aper.
The teacher ma kes corrections as necessary. The schola r tha n copies the polished report in a cardboardcovered com position book which, as indicated above,
becomes the dia ry on fil e.
F ACILITIES AN D P E R SONNEL
T he first settlers of the Old O rder M en nonite commu nity a rrived in the Kutztown a rea in the Spring of
1949. Their school-age children were enrolled in the
K utztown elemen tary school un til 1956 when the community was able to purch ase, at public sale, a n a ba ndoned one-room townsh ip schoolhouse. T h is build ing
served, although awkwardl y because of location, until
1964 when it was sold' and the Oak H aven a nd Pleasant Hill schools were erected in a reas more accessible
to larger numbers. T he growth of the community h as
necessitated the erection, in 1969 a nd 1970, of two
addi tional buildings; the Willow Creek school a t the
southwestern a nd the Hidden V alley school a t the
northeastern extremities of the community. The distance
between these schools is eleven road miles. There are
114 children currently enroll ed in these four schools:
32 a t both O a k H aven a nd Pleasant Hill , 31 a t Willow
Creek and 19 a t Hidden Va lley.
Until most recently all teachers were products of
a nd recruited from the local community a nd its schools.
But the teacher turnover is ra ther ra pid as the most
positively sanctioned female role in the community
is still tha t of wife/mother, a nd the development of a
four school system has overtaxed the local teacher
resources. Currently, the teacher a t the Willow Creek
school is a H orning (Black Bumper ) M ennonite from
a neighboring county but who is living with a family
of the East Penn V alley community during the school
year. This is her first year in teaching. The teacher
a t the Pleasa nt Hill school is a married woman, a
member of the local community and mother of three.
Two of her children attend the school at which she
teaches a nd the third is now beyond school age. The
size of this fa mily is quite a typical as is the situa tion
Gf a m other engaged in teaching. The teacher of the
Hidden Valley school is the eighteen-year-old daughter
of one of the community's ministers. She a ttended the
Fleetwood area public school' due to the fact that
during her school years the community's schools were
not convenient to her place of residence. The Willow
Creek school now serves h er residence a rea . The teacher in her second year a t the O a k H a ven school is
the longest in service, previously having taught at the
Pl easant Hill school for four years following her
education in the Kutztown a rea school system as well
as the community's schools.
R ecruitment is prima rily on the basis of a person's
" interest in teaching" as a m ember of the school board
told this writer, a nd individua ls a re hired by the board
at a ra te ra nging from $8.00 to $ 10.50 daily dep ending
on size of class and experience of teacher. The folk
cha racter of this community is evident in the lack of
written contract. All arra ngements between teach er
a nd school board are "understood"-a clear evidence
of a status-based ra ther than a contract-oriented society.
The school board is com prised of five m en each
elected for five year term s. The term of one m ember
' To one of the few members of th e commun ity engaged
wholl y in nonagricu ltural work. It has bee n converted to a
hardware store an d bicycle repair shop .
'Fleetwood is a small town four mi les southwest of Ku tztow n.
25
expires each year. Elections are co nducted in the Fall
immediately preceding the school year. All m arried
members of the community are invited to participate
in the election, including those who have no children
in school. There are no nomina tions ; those participating
in the election simply place the name of their choice
on a slip of paper. The person receiving the largest
number of such votes is declared elected.
The newly elected member of the boa rd serves as a
director for two years. The third year of his term h e
fills the position of secretary. During his fourth year
he is treasurer a nd completes his final year in the office
of president. Board members a re eligible for unlimited
re-election.
Board members are involved with securing teachers,
obtaining supplies, seeing to building maintenance,
periodic visits to the schools and adequate financing .
Originally, pa rents of school aged children were assessed a specific .a mount for the operation of th e school
system but currently all finan cing is done on a voluntary
basis although it is understood that the yearly contribution should be $150 for the first child and $50 for
each additional child in school.
A TYPICAL DAY AT OAK HAVEN SCHOOL
At 6: 45 A.M . Miss M. slips a black bonnet over her
pr.ayer cap, throws a shawl over her shoulders and
w.alks the several hundred feet from the farm house
that provides her room and boa rd to the 27 by 35 foot
frame building in which she teaches 32 children in
grades one through eight. On Friday of each week this
number is swelled by five young people who are involved in the ninth grade vocational class described
earlier in this chapter.
Miss M. is the longest in service (this is her sixth
year in teaching), the highest paid ($ 10.50 p er day
plus room and board ), and the best educated (grades
one and two in the community school, grades three
through eight in the Kutzt~wn public school, grade
nine in the community school and a correspondence
course leading to a high school diploma) of the four
teachers in the system.'
After preliminary chores, which in winter include
stoking up the wood-fired hot air furnace (probably
in semi-darkness as the building has no electricity) ,
Miss M . makes final preparation, usually including
some blackboard work, for the day's academic activities.
At 8 A.M. the scholars begin to appear, barefoot
in summer, some having walked more than a mile
from home. By 8: 30 all are in place and the day's
activities begin with hymn singing, Scripture reading,
sharing of memorized Bible verses and the praying of
the Lord's Prayer.
' Miss M . is the only p erson
high school diploma.
26
In
the community to hold a
Today all gra des begin with a rithmetic: drill in
multiplication, blackboard work in addition, counting
buttons for the first graders to introduce number concepts. R ecess from 10 to 10 : 15 provides the day's first
recreational break.
Spelling now occupies some of the children's attention (practice on the new words introduced yesterday and ha ving sentences assigned for tomorrow ) while
gra mma r is the hurdle for others: sentence structure
a nd short paragraphs written on rough ta blet paper
to be handed in and checked by the teacher.
Lunch [rom 11 : 30 until the teacher swings her hand
bell at 12: 15 provides an outlet for exuberant youth.
The swing set is covered with rosy-cheeked , braidedhair girls while barefoot boys in wide-brimmed straw
hats interrupt their softball game to cluster excitedlv
a t the door as the by this time rather familiar figure
of "the J entsch" appears on the scene to arrange for
a n interview with the teacher.
Following lunch grades three through eight engage
in social studies (a combination introduction to history
a nd geography ) while grades one and two are immersed
in more English studies; grade one in phonics and
grade two in reading. Grad e one will begin reading
later in the term . Grades three and four are reading
about rural a nd urban homes and schools and how they
have changed in appearance and activities through the
years. Grades five and six are studying United States
history with the current unit concerning the revolutionary war. Grades seven and eight are studying world
history and geography with current emphasis on the
life of early man. Upon questioning about possible
conflict between creation and evolution points of view
the teacher strongly indicated that no teaching was
done concerning the origins of man. This is evidently
left to the instruction class, conducted by the bishop,
that the young people attend prior to their baptism
if indeed the point is raised at all. The teacher, in a
subsequent short conversation with the writer, did not
seem to quite understand what was meant by evolution,
evidence that the Biblical account of creation is literally accepted as is the case with all other content m a tter
of what the community views as God's holy and immutable Word.
Final recess is from 1 :45 to 2 P.M. after which the
lower grades are now concerned with health and hygiene practices while the seventh and eighth grades
are completing work that should have been covered
in the morning's English session. Assignments are
made and preparations begun to go home. Paper is
picked up and desks are cleared off and straightened
in their rows. Older children (boys ) burn the waste
paper and (girls ) wash the blackboards. Younger children "clap" the erasers outside.
By rows the children fil e to the rear of the room,
collect lunch boxes and outer wear a nd return to their
seats for a moment of absolute quiet. After an exchange of "good night" between teacher and pupils
dismissal takes place at 3: 15 a nd Miss M . spends
another hour or so co rrecting pa per a nd preparing for
tomorrow.
CHILDREN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL
There a re always a few families within the community who elect to send their children or some of their
children to public school." This decision m ay stem from
a variety of reasons:
1. The public school system provides services for
mentally and physically handicapped children that the
community's schools cannot.
2. In some cases accessibility to the public schools
and the inconvenience of travel by foot or buggy to
the community school is a factor.
3. Economics plays a p art in some insta nces as
public education is already paid for by school taxes
(which every land owner p ays) and attend a nce at the
community's schools requires fina ncial support over and
above taxes paid to the state.
4. Some parents seem to prefer tha t their children
get at least some exposure to the outside world through
attendance for a year or so in the public schools.
This situation causes some interesting cultural interaction where, for example, the M ennonite child m ay
sing during rehearsals with the school chorus but not
be allowed to sing a t a public evening performa nce
or, in another example the M ennonite gi rl will be
excu sed from physical education activities because of
her refusal to wear the skimpy "gym suit" required.
These situations seem to be handl ed amicably on the
few occasions in which they arise.
S UMMARY AND EVAL UATION
The M ennonites of the East Penn Valley have been
extremely tenacious in their stand against high school
education or school attendance after fifteen years of
age, while at the same time being quite accommodative to the state in the realm of record keeping and
adherence to attendance laws. They want to retain
the one-room school. They see their system of education
as adequate for their way of life if not superior in many
ways to the public school system. There are no m embers
of the community on welfare, none unemployed, no
delinquency, no drug problem, no alcoholism. All these
the M ennonites see in the public school oriented society
around them. Public school m eans contact with m a ny
of the worldly forces a nd activities rejected by the community: radio, television, motion pictures, musical inOAt the present time there are 26 children from eleven of
th e community's famili t;s attending public school.
struments, au tomobiles, jewelry, gaudy clothing, values
and morals foreign to the M ennonite mentality. The
principle of nonconformity to the world and separation
from it both requires a nd is reinforced by the community's parochial school system. This writer also sees
in the one-room school an importa nt tra ining ground
for the mutual aid principle. In the one-room school
the teacher often delegates responsibilities to children
on the seventh a nd eighth grade levels by having them
assist children at lower grade levels with difficult problems or assignments. Such a system stimulates cooperation ra ther tha n competition a nd a cooperative spirit
is essential to the M ennonite way of life.
IS
The rationale behind the Mennonite parochial school
perhaps best expressed in the following:
The reason tha t M ennonites want p arochial
schools or private Christian day schools in our
day is the same reason for which they came to
America. They wanted then to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences,
without civil interference.
The secul ar world is fund amentally selfish and
often dishonest. The earlier guileless simplicity of
of the Lancaster County M ennonite furnished
fertile soil for misrepresentation. The agrarian
mind lent itself to sepa ration and simplicity and
fund amental honesty.
The secula r social citizenship emphasis in the
public schools is fa r from satisfactory to a personally converted Christian individual. The civil influ ence of our day is so completely and entirely
pragmatic th at the na tional philosophy is satisfied
with the theory of rela tivism which disregards all
revelation from J ehovah a nd wholeheartedly accepts the notion that truth is what the m ajority
wants.
The typical, secular, behavioristic, materialistic,
social , economic American public school curriculum has been an underl ying cause of the political
a nd social unrest, juvenil e delinquency a nd general
moral breakdown so preva lent in our country. The
sturdy solid mores of our past have been up-rooted
by the rationalistic relativity of pragmatism and
the moorings of our civilization have been swept
away by the resulting flood of social and moral
a narchy. This too has alarmed the peace loving,
conservative, rural-minded M ennonites.'
Education as provided by the East Penn Valley community is designed to meet the increasing problem of
the impingem ent of the surrounding secular and materialistic world. The community is largely suspicious
of public education . It is seen as a vehicle for the
erosion of basic M ennonite principles; the teaching
of science leads p eople away from reliance on God
and the teacher in the secular school tends to undermine parental authority. In contradistinction to this the
community's schools provide a milieu in which its
children can be engaged in intense a nd mutually sup'Quoted fr om Silas H ertzler's M ennonite Paro chial Schools.
27
portive interaction a nd communication, thus minimizing
the impact of ou tside cu ltural values. s
Separation from the world is a fundam ental tenet
of M en nonite fait h. The East Penn V all ey's Mennon ite
schools a re fun ctional in the m aintenance of separation
a nd, through this isolation, the avoid a nce of many of
the temptations of the outside world . M y inform ants,
without exception, vi ew the community's educative
system as a major bulwark of defense against assimila tion into the surrounding culture. I view the community's ed ucative sys tem as a major vehicl e whereby the
old values a re tra nsmitted and reinforced , values which
tend to contribute to community stability a nd negate
change.
This research reveals the M ennonite school as an
importa nt medium for the promul gation of common
beliefs ;).nd practices which increase the cohesion of
the ground : This homogeneity of experience is a source
of strength as the community struggles to maintain its
identity, its distinctive way of life, in its collision with
the domina nt society surrounding it.
2. OCCUPATION
" Farmin g .and our way of life just go together.
Y ou feel closer to God on the farm w hen yo u work
w ith animals and crops than you do in the city.''''
The tilling of the soil is a m a jor value within the
East Penn V a lley community. The a lmost exclusive
dependence on fa rming and farm related work is
illustra ted in the following:
Numb er
1. O ccupation by head of family
46
Farming
O w ner of hardware, farm equipmen t and
1
bicycle store
O wner of coach works repairing and building
1
buggies, carriages and sleighs
Owner of mower aTl;d saw shop, tree
trimming and agent for Amway home
1
produ cts
1
Cabinet maker
3
Employed at Fleetwood .applejuice fa ctory
1
Farming for wages on a Horning farm
Jack of all trades (silo filling, crop picking,
tobacco spearing, cultivating)
Operat es very small farm plus part time
work at coach works, trimming trees,
A m way sales
1
Of the 46 heads of family engaged primarily In
farming the following receive additional income from
the sources indicated. One man operates a welding
shop; one does bulldozing; one repairs impl ements; one
man operates a harness repair shop as well as being
an agent for fertilizer, paint and seed corn; five are
SFor a discussion of the importance of interaction a nd communi ca tion in the development of group cohesion and thus,
in th e co ntext of this investigation, to the d efense of a community's values, see Emil Durkheim in Suicide, p. 208 tr.
' Op cit., p. 170.
"Informant BA.
28
engaged in carpentry; one works, as time p ermits,
at the ha rd wa re store a nd a nother at the mower shop
owned by m embers of the commu nity. One is engaged
in horscshoeing a nd two do tobacco steaming in the
Springtime. Two work one d ay weekly a t a nearby
auction receiving and driving cattle. Numerous of the
farm ers sell at the roadside as various crops come into
scason. One has a permanent roadsid e stand a nd docs
a substantial a mount of regul a r and repeat business.
Another opera tes a greenhouse on his property sell ing
a wide variety of pl a nts a nd Rowers. T wo serve as
ja nitors at the church houses for small salaries.
Of the three rema ining heads of households, two
a re retired a nd one is servi ng hi s co nscientious objector
( l-W dra ft classification) time as a ha ndyma n a nd
attenda nt a t a home for the aged in th e central p a rt
of the state. One of the retired men, a widower, works
twice weekly at a uctions receiving a nd dri ving cattle.
H e a lso does occasional unl o.ading of lumber at a local
firm a nd cleans out mushroom houses. The other retired m a n does considerable buying a nd selling of steers
a r a uctions for his sons a nd nephews.
The community al so contains two widows, one of
\I·hom gains some income by supplying a local drygoods
store with quilt p atches a nd finished quilts. This
woma n, a lthough she lives with a married son m ainta ins he r own room a nd engages In independent mea l
preparation.
2. Family m emb ers engage d in income produ cing
work off the farm
Full time
T eaching in community school system
1 m a rried woman, 2 girls
aged eighteen and twentytwo
H ousework
1 girl aged 20
Fleetwood shirt
fa ctory
2 girls aged 20 and 21
Kutztown knitting
mill
3 girls all aged 21
Fleetwoo d applejuice
factory
1 boy aged 20
Part time
H ousework outside of 7 girls aged 16 to 19
community
Working for Kut z town 3 boys aged 17, 18 and 20
carpenter / contractor
Tending cattle at
auction
2 boys aged 18 and 19
Up to age 20 or 21 , depending on family custom,
any incom e gained by an individual goes to the family
in return for full support. In some families the child
may be allowed to keep a small p ortion for p ersonal
use. A few families ha ve this arrangement only to
age 18. At the age specified by the family , money
ea rned by the individual may be retained by the individua l but then board must be paid for in cash or
in services to the family.
It is clear that the basic endeavor open to the youth
of the comm unity is farming, following in the footste p ~
of fa ther a nd grandfa ther. At present all 59 heads of
family come from families that a re now or were engaged in full time farming.
THE FARM
A fa ttening p en for beef cattle a nd pigs IS cha racteristic of the majority of fa rms in the community.
Tobacco is a primary cash crop a nd provides yearround work for the family. There a re a few dailY
herds, fewer than in the past because of more stringent
controls im posed by state health au thorities. N on dairy
farms always have a cow or two to provide the fam ily
with milk. In recent years toma toes a nd pickles have
been ra ised by some of the fam ilies on a contract basis
for large processing pla nts outside the immediate area.
Most grain crops such as corn, wheat, rye a nd oats
a re utilized within the community for feed purposes
but surplus crops, when they occur, a re sold on the
open market. The farm ers raise their own silage a nd
grass for h ay.
The community's farms a re small in size, ra nging
between fifteen and 203 acres a nd averaging about
74 acres." This is in contrast with a n 122.8 acre ave ra~e
for Berks County, in which the community is located,
and a n 159 acre average for the state of Pennsylvania
as recently reported by the agricultural extension service
of the Pennsylva nia State University.
In the United States the trend ove r the years has
been that the number of farms has decreased while the
size of the fa rm has increased , as shown in T able 11 ,
following.
Table 11 .
Number a nd Average Size of F a rms in the
United States, 1930 - 1970.
Number of farms
( in 1,000s)
Average size
Source:
1930
6,546
1940
6,350
1950
5,648
1960
3,962
151
167
2 13
29 7
1970 (est. )
2,895
387
Statistical Abstract of the United States,
1970, United States D epartment of Commerce, Bureau of Census.
The reverse of this trend is evident among the M ennonite and Amish people in general a nd within, specificall y, the East Penn V a lley community. Existing fa rms
are being divided among surviving sons . La nd h as been
taken by the state for a four lane high-speed highway
a nd additional la nd will be claimed in the near future
"Farml and acreage refers to a ll land under the control of
a farm operator a nd considered as part of h is holdings including land not actuall y und er cultivation or used for pasture
or grazing.
for the widening of a n existing main road. The electric
utility company has recently cut a power line right-ofway through the valley.
FAR'M
AND F AMlLY
Whil e technology makes the la rge fa rm possible a nd
indeed economically necessary for the nation as a whole,
the small fa rm reinforces the fa mily-centered culture
of the East Pen n V alley com munity. The M ennonite
fa mil y can be correctly called farm -centered and
the Mennonite fa rm can be correctly termed familycentered .
The occupation of fa rming helps to unite all m embers
of the family ,a round a common activity. And the small
fa rm provides the environment wh ere each member
of the fa mily, however la rge tha t fa mily may be, is
engaged in usefu l work. M a ny ha nds require less investment in machinery a nd hence less d ependence on
the outsid e world. H a rd work and long hours a t common tasks tend to increase the solid a rity of the family
by postponing the condition tha t has enveloped many
in the outside world, i.e., "increased household leisure
th at has often contributed to divorce, desertion a nd
other rising symptoms of family disorganiza tion.""
F a rming in the East Penn V alley community is a
family affair in which members of the family are accountabl e to a nd supportive of each other. This value
of interdependence in daily work is another avenue
through which rela tive independence is m ainta ined
from the outside world.
Fa rming as a year-round family affair is illustra ted
by the work involved with the tobacco crop. The first
activity of the yearl y cycle ta kes place in April when
the seedbeds are cleared of Winter debris and steam ed
to kill weed seeds. This steaming is done by a very
old wood-fired engine which is pulled from field to
field on its large iron wheels. The occasional release
of the steam pressu re through its whistle relief valve
evokes nostalgic visions of the age of the iron horse
as the sound echoes across the valley. Then dry seed
or sprouted seedlings (seeds which have been placed
in a jar of water and gently agitated several times a
week ) a re spread in the sterilized seedbed, covered
with sheets of muslin and watered regula rly until they
a re la rge enough to be transpla nted to the fields, usually in la te Mayor early June. Before the pla nts are
se t, an a rdu ous hand opera tion, the fields must be
carefull y plowed, ha rrowed, disked and rolled.
Cultivation by ha nd hoe between the plants and by
horse drawn cultivator between the rows provides work
for many hands a nd keeps the fi elds free of weeds while
the pla nts a re young. The children, both boys a nd girls,
12H erbert Black, Disorganization, p . 55.
29
are set to the task of plucking suckers from the plants
a nd "topping" the pla nts to prevent seeding. (Seeds
a re all owed to develop on two or three plants to
provide seed for next year's pla nting. Enough seeds
a re produced by two or three pl a nts for many acres .
The seeds a re so fin e th a t th ey a re spread on the
original seedbed s mixed with water a pplied from a
watering can.)
The crop is harvested in late August or early September, the leaves being cut from th e pla nt by the
men a nd older boys with a long-ha ndl ed shears and
speared on four foot poles which in turn a re hun ~
on racks in the speciall y designed ba rns with their
hinged a nd slatted sidings which a llow for the free
circul a tion of air.
After the drying process during which the leaves
turn from their light green to a ru st brown hue, usually by late D ecember or early J a nua ry, th e crop is taken
to the tobacco cell a r under the barn. H ere throughout
the winter months all members of the fa mil y can be
found, a t various times, prepa ring the dried leaves fo r
shipment : sorting in to two grades, top leaf or wrapper
grade a nd lower leaf or fi ll er grade; stripping the leaves
from the stalks; tying the leaves into bundles; placing
the bundles into a paper-lined baling device; op erating
the device a nd fin a lly tying the bale with heavy cord .
The farmer must then a rra nge for the bales to be delivered to a warehouse in the city of La ncaster, some
45 mil es to the southwest of Kutztown. There a re
num erous peopl e in the a rea who do tru cking for these
people a nd those in Lancaster County who do not own
or opera te moto r vehicl es.
The tobacco crop is fun ctional in rela tion to both
family enterprise a nd fin a ncial necessity. It provides
the cash tha t the community needs in its dealings with
the outside world. It provides work for alI m embers
of the fa mily except the very youngest. It calIs for
differing skilI levels. It provides a great d eal of activity
for the otherwise quiet Winter months thereby keeping
h a nds a nd minds occupied a t a time when other fa rm
activities are a t a minimum.
IMPLICATIONS
FOR
STABILITY
The multiplicity and distribution of occupations is
a measure of cha nge in a na tion or a subculture. For
exampl e, in 1870 about one half of the workers in the
United States were engaged in agricultural occupations.
This ratio consistently decreased until by 1920 only
about thirty p ercent were so occupied. By 1957 the
farm popul a tion had dwindled to ten percent of the
total popula tion. And by 1969 the fi gure h ad plummeted to five p ercent."
Those once engaged in agriculture are now redis" R eport of the United States Department of Agriculture,
Economi c Research Service, 1970.
30
tributed in new occupations. This redistribution process
is ra pid and ongoing in a technological society for each
new invention requires a reall ocation of workers. The
increase in the number of occupations is accompa nied
by specialization, di vision of labor, which is a prominent
cha racteristic of the techo-bureaucratic form of social
organization. Thi s, in turn, inevitabl y produces a segmenta tion of interests in a culture a nd segmenta tion of
interests is a powerful impetus toward social cha nge.
The specific value of fa rming, that is, the conscious
effort by parents to stimul a te their children's interest
in a nd develop their skills for fa rming, has been a
major deterrent to social change in the East Penn V alley community. There simply has not been that degree
of occupat ional cha nge whi ch would resu lt in the modificat ion of th e original social organ ization. The original cul tural homogeneity has been ma intained, partially
at least, as the result of the absence of occupational
differentia tion.
The pa tria rchal fam ily organization is greatly enha nced when son folIows in fa ther's footsteps. F a ther
serves as model and in the East Penn ValIey community
the close ties between father a nd son, strengthened by
common occupational interests, a re abund a ntly evident.
O ccupa tional differentia tion increases standard o f
living a nd status "spread" and enlarges opportunity
for associa tive relationships with p ersons of differing
va lu es a nd interests. The almost completely h omogeneous occupational activity of the M ennonite community
la rgely precludes the developmen t of these kinds of
relationships . The usual vertical mosaic of class, status,
wealth , power, is virtually absent in the community.
There is, of course, a certain degree of stratification
in th e East Penn V alIey community as there is in all
huma n colIectivities, but from the viewpoint of the
observer it assumes much more a fl a t, linear shape
than a pyramidal shape.. Equality ra ther th a n prestige
is the norm. This value is greatl y enha nced by com mon dress style, common mode of tra nsporta tion, common house structure as welI as common occupation.
Even the bishop, who signifi cantly has been chosen for
his office by the Holy Spirit" rather than by political
m eans or through his own d esires, when a ddressing his
fl ock sta nds on floor level with them. H e is, of course,
also one of them by virtue of his farmin g occupation.
It remains for another study of the community, in
a nother twenty years, to discover whether or not occupational change, if it does occur to any great extent,
wilI result in decreasing community cohesion and solidarity. What little has occurred to this date has not
done so, although there m ay be a few isolated hints
of erosion. One of the nonfarming minority spoke to
m e during an interview rather disparagingly of those
"See Chapter V, Section 2.
who did not use electricity a nd therefore thought they
were better than those who did use electricity. A more
severe evid ence of erosion may be the fact that the
hardwa re store owned by a member of the com munity
was open for business as usual on the Saturday on
which the annual baptismal service was conducted.
The demands of the secular society which affords this
man much of his business were apparently more pressing than the demands of the community, evidence to
the writer of the process Nisbet calls "individualization"
evoking social change."
WHAT OF THE FUT U RE?
Although the community is essentially a collectivity
under divine rul e it is surrounded by a nd becoming
increasingly dependent upon a ma terialistically based
culture.
The simple fact of the matter is that the farmer of
the East Penn V alley community is not self-sufficient.
H e must relate to the cash economy of the outside
world. Although, as will be seen later in this study,
there is much in the form of mutu al aid and intracommunity lending of money without interest, the
member of the community needs cash to pay taxes, buy
cloth, purchase equipment, erect silos a nd, increasingly,
pay telephone and electricity bills. Livestock a nd tobacco must get to ma rket. Pickles a nd tomatoes must get
to the processor. The horse and wagon are no longer
abl e to accomplish this on the expanding network of
express highways . M embers of the community must
therefore hire trucks a nd drivers from outside the community. Tractors are being used increasingly. Electricity is installed in order tha t the convenience of refrige rator and freezer may be enjoyed . Complicated
machinery must be serviced by factor y ex perts. The
whole family, and through it the network of families
that ma ke up the community, becomes increasingly
dependent upon the outside world for fu el, electricity,
and various other artifacts a nd services.
The interactions which develop in situations such
as these may, in time, destroy the social isolation so
necessary to the perpetuation of the closed community.
Increased dependence on the larger economy may indeed subvert the ex isting network of intense interrelationships and force an excha nge which, in the long
run, may destroy the East Penn Valley community's
way of life.'·
LAND PRESSURE
A most significant and pressing problem that must
be increasingly dealt with by the community is the
"See Chapter I, p. 20.
..
.
.
,eFor a discussion of the mInonty group vis-a-vIs the I!1ass
society see Calvin R edekop:S Th.e Old. Col?ny M ennonttes:
Dilemmas of Ethnic Minorzty LIfe, whlc~ IS a study of.a
branch of the M en nonite persuasion with settlements In
Canada, Mexico, and British Honduras.
problem of la nd pressure. In earlier M ennonite communities la rge fa rms were often divided into smaller
units for the surviving sons. Tod ay what appear to
be clusters of small fa rms (in long established Mennonite communities, such as in the Lancaster County
area) were at one time a single large fa rm wh~ch
had been divided and subdivided with each succeeding
generation. Thus it is not uncommon to find fa ther
and sons living close to each other on adjoining farm
properties. Such a patrilocal practice serves to strengthen famil y solidarity and kinship ties, a nd so knit the
community into a functioning whole.
The co ntemporary situation in the East Penn Valley
is somewha t different. The original settlers in 1949
had to purchase already existing farms, none of which
was very la rge, the original fa rms purchased averaging
a bout 150 acres. Tod ay the average farm size within
the community is 74 acres making it impractical to
divid e the farms among the sons as the divided acreage
would be too small to support the families.
The solution has been to continu e to purchase existing fa rms a nd therein lies a mounting problem with
several facets : avail ability of la nd, cost of land and
the enla rgement of the a rea of the community.
Fa rml and in the immedia te a rea of the community
is consta ntl y being encroached upon by housing, light
industry a nd highway construction. In Berks County
alone loss of fa rml a nd to nonagricultural use totals 700
acres m onthly. The statewide average loss of farmland
is 3,450 acres a month."
D ecreased supply a nd greater demand has forced the
la nd prices to previously undreamed of heights. Land
which sold at $150 a n acre twenty years ago'· is now
bringing up to $2,000 a n acre. F arm income does not
warrant the expenditure of this much for land. Farmers
in this a rea must p ay less tha n $1,000 a n acre to expect
a reasonabl e return on their investment. A parcel of
63 acres from a large non-Mennonite holding in the
immediate a rea covered by the community was recently
sold to a local light industry for $3,000 a n acre. Undoubtedl y some of this la nd will be held for speculative
purposes, awaiting development, while p a rt will be
used for the industry's expansion prog ram. The total
effect is that this once productive farmland has been
taken forever from agricultural use, further diminishing
la nd available for the m aintenance of the M ennonite
way of life. My informa nts una nimously point to this
problem as one of the most serious they a re facing.
As la nd within the immedia te area of the community
becomes less and less available and higher and higher
in price, fa rms on the periphery of the community are
sought after. The community has already expanded to
"Source: Agricultural Extension Service of the Pennsylvania
State University.
18A typical price per acre paid by the original settlers.
31
an a rea covering approximately 72 squa re mil es running roughly 11 road miles from northern to southern
extreme a nd 15 road miles from east to west. Most
recently, for example, B. A., father of eight boys a nd
two girls, has purchased a farm some six mil es away
from his present fa rm . For the near fu ture this new
farm will provide for the eldest son when he m arries.
But how fa r away will he be forced to go for the next
farm? By horse and wagon or bicycle even six miles
becomes a test, and a rather seve re one in winter's ice
and snow.
The gradua lly increasing size of the community, if
projected for a nother twenty years, will resul t in such
a large geogra phical a rea that the horse a nd buggy
mode of tra nsporta tion will make the kinds of interaction
now practiced within the community impossible. How
long will the yo ung p eople be able to travel by bicycle
to a n injured or ill member of the community for a
"singing?" Will the automobile become a necessity ?
And we know the automobile is a powerful agent for
social ch.ange !
Only a limited number of solutions are possible in
dealing with this problem.
The high birth rate creating the population pressure
could be redu ced through a policy of birth control.
But this seems impossible in light of a major value
which would consider this as interference with the
will of God and therefore unacceptable.
Another possibility would involve the farming tradition. There is a seeming contradiction in bringing up
young people to desire and to expect to be farm ers
and farmers' wives without land being available to fulfill this goal. Even with a shift off the farm a rural
tradition could be maintained. That is, there could be
continued residence in open farm country with people
finding work as carpenters, contractors, p ainters, shopkeepers, and in similar occupations. There is now in
the community a very slight trend in this direction
against the grain of a continued resistance to life off
the farm. As even the wife in one of the families
engaged in full time nonfarm work remarked to m e
during a brief conversation, " . . . . the farth er one gets
away from farming the farther one gets away from the
church. ,,,.
Another possibl e solution to the problem is migration
and the establishment of new settlements. Although
this solution has the disadvantage of disrupting the
solidarity of the family it seems to be the option most
acceptable in the life history of the whole group. It.
was this option tha t brought the original settlers to
the East Penn Valley in 1949. Settlements have more
recently been planted in Missouri and Indiana and
Virginia as well as in some of the more sparsely pop"Informant PA.
32
ula ted counties of Pennsylvania where la nd pressures
are not as great. Canada continues to offer opportunity for settlement to originally La ncaster-based families.'·
As of this d a te five families once members of the
local community have engaged in this solution, all five
joining the community in Union County, Pennsylva nia .
In a ll , since its beginnings 22 years ago, the community has lost only 14 families via migra tion, a pointed
m a nifestation of residential nonmobility hence a n indicator of community stability. The remaining nine
households have all returned to La ncaster County. Six
of these nine were yo ung families taking over farms
or portions of farms made ava ilabl e through the death
or retirement of parents. Two cases were those of
older couples moving back into closer proximity to
ma rried children left behind when they decided to
pa rticipate in the Eas t Penn V all ey experiment. The
fin al case was th a t of a nonfarmer, a tailor specializing
in the custom made men's suits required by tradition .
Business was not good enough in the new community
so he returned to Lancaster County where the demand
for his specialty was greater.
It a ppears at this time tha t the land push / pull that
sparked the original migra tion from Lancaster County
tc the Kutztown a rea is beginning to, a nd will more
rapidl y in the future, influence the East Penn Valley
community. Several of my informants have indicated
the in evitability of this course of action.
3. ECONOMICS
The Scriptural injunction to "bear one another's
burdens"" strongly influences the community's economic
interactions. The idea of sharing one's ea rthly possessions with fellow m embers of the faith also has precedent in the teachings of M enno Simons. As members
of th e body of Christ, believers a re bound to each other
in a community of mercy and love where each serves
his neighbor with money and goods.
All those who are born of God, who are gifted
with the Spirit of the Lord , who are, acco rding
to the Scriptures, called into one body and love
in Christ J esus, are prepared by such love to serve
their neighbors, not only with money a nd goods,
but also after the example of their Lord and Head ,
J esus Christ, in an evangelical manner, with life
and blood. They show mercy and love, as much
as they can. No one among them is allowed to
beg. They take to heart the needs of the saints.
They entertain those in distress. They take the
stranger into their houses. They comfort the afflicted ; assist the needy; clothe the n aked; feed
the hungry; do not turn their face from the poor;
do not despise their own fl esh.
Behold , such a community we teach. Christ says,
"Be ye therefore merciful , as your Fa ther also is
'·See Appendix B.
"Galatians 6: 2.
merciful. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy." Again , this mercy, love and com munity we teach a nd practice."
The M ennonites of the East Penn Valley through
their econom ic behavior prove the effectiveness of both
Scripture and M enno Simons in enhanci ng the cohesiveness of the group a nd protecting it from the outside
world.
BORROWING AND L ENDING
Borrowing and lending of money within the fellowship, often without interest charges, decreases dependence on commercial bank ing institutions although it is
com mon for members of th e commun ity to have checking accounts to faci li tate payment of bills to outsiders.
Credit buying a nd charge accounts are, to the writer's
knowledge, not u ti lized by any members of the community.
In vesting for interest is not proscribed by the religious
fa ith of the community but little of this kind of economic activity is engaged in because of the demand within
the community for wha tever excess cash is avai lable.
There are many yo ung ma rried cou ples getting estab li shed who look to their immed iate famili es and the
community a t large for fin a ncial ass istance. In this
context it is common for the young girl, about to be
married, to receive from her family cash enough (to
add to whatever earnings she m ay have accumul a ted
for herself ) to cover the initial cost of home furnishings,
li nen, cooki ng utensils and the like, in addition to the
usual noncash gifts of a cow, some chickens a nd perhaps
a pig or two. The young ma n at the point of establishing hi s own household receives aid in the form of
land a nd no interest or very low interest loans. It is
usually not necessary for the young married cou pIe to
go deeply into debt to the outside world . T o do so
would viola te th e norm which requires maximum separation from the world surrounding the closed community. Borrowing and lending within the community is
important to its cohesiveness a nd acts as a barrier to
outside influences which might precipi tate change. N ot
too much money is ever available and therefore individuals are prevented from acquiring the frill s which ma rk
a materialistic society.
S UPPORT OF CHURCH AND SCHOOL
Excess money is also plowed back into the community
in the form of church a nd school su pport. Church
expenses for coal, jan itor services a nd material for
minor repairs .a re met by an offering deposited in a
receptacle at th e door following the preparatory services cond ucted prior to the twice yearly communions.
The expenses are always m et, indeed exceeded, by this
completely freewill m ethod. The excess is applied to
the general ch urch treasury for the aid of members of
''The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, p. 558.
the community in need, for example to help pay for
the long-term residence of a member in a mental
hospital. There a re no charity patients in outside
institutions from within this community. The M ennonite way of life rejects this kind of dependence on
the outside world.
The erection of the church house in 1970 illustrates
this kind of economic activity. The cost of ma teri al
was shared by several members without interest charge
until an offering was solicited among the members of
the local g roup a nd the other W enger M ennonite
communities. The lenders were then paid back a nd
the excess offering placed in the genera l church treasury
to be a pplied as the nex t need arose. L abor for the
erection of the building and the construction of benches,
singing table and preaching table was entirely donated .
The schools a re supported in much the same way.
Labor for construction a nd repairs is donated. Cost
of ma terial is covered by noninterest bearing shares
of $100 bought by members of the commu nity. Theoretically the shares can be converted to cash on demand
but it seems that no one who buys a share ever demands
its conversion. A case was reported to me of a member
leav ing the local community who wanted to " cash in"
on his sha res. Another member of the community
bought them from him. The origi nal donation thereby
remain ed intact.
Runni ng expenses for the schools (salaries for teachers, supplies, material for p ainting and minor repairs)
a re met by freewill offerings collected twice during the
school year. There is a suggested minimum contribution
for fam ilies with children in school as discussed earlier
in this chapter. All four school buildings a nd the two
church houses serving the community stand on land
either donated by members of the community or sold
by them to the community at a fraction of the m a rket
value. The reader will recall that the original school
building .and the land on which it is situated (the building now u sed as a hardware store) was purchased at
publi c auction with community fund s, therefore no
donation of la nd was involved in that transaction.
INSURANCE
Attitudes toward insurance and Social Security reflect
the community's use of economic factors to maintain its
closed character.
No m ember of the community owns fire or life or
health insurance. "The Lord will provide" is sufficient
a nswer to the question, "What happens when tragedy
strikes ?" And for these people the Lord does provide,
through the concept and practice of mutual aid as
illustrated further on in this study. A slight erosion in
the strong no-insurance sentiment may be evidenced by
the fact tha t a few farmers along the main highway have
purchased liability insurance not (strongly emphasized
33
importa nt by my informa nt ) for possible p ersonal gain
but to "protect the other fell ow in case some cattle
get loose and cause an accident on the road.''''
All the self-emp loyed farm ers have filed waiver
papers with the local Social Security office exempting
them from paying into this federally operated system
and, of cou rse, thereby elimina ting any benefits to
them from the system.
For those working at the Fleetwood applejuice factory
no such exemption is possible. The federal law requires
a deduction from employee wages as well as requ iring
the employer to make contributions to the wage earner's Social Security account. Those members of the
community involved in such wage earning situations,
although required by law to have deductions taken
from their w.ages for Social Security purposes, h ave
not claimed a nd assu re me that they will not claim
any benefits due them under Social Security.
This steadfast avoida nce of dependence on the outsi de economic system by refusing benefits legally available to the individual through his enforced participation in the Social Security payment procedure is
a n example par excellence of rejection of external entanglements a nd continued reliance on the community
to care for its own. And so the norm of nonconformity
to the world a nd separation from it is m aintained. Some
possibly deleterious effects on community solidarity by
off the farm employment a re thus negated.
MUTUAL
AID
A discussion of the East Penn Valley community's
economic interactions must include a n understanding
of mutual aid. As indicated earlier in the historical
portion of this study the concept of mutual aid is a
primary characteristic of the M ennonite way of life.
How this concept is put into practice in the local
community is illustrated in the following series of
vignettes in which the author seeks to capture, on
pa per, the underlying concern which members of the
community feel for each other.
AN
ACCIDENT
They a re returning from a family outing to the Philadelphia Zoo. Two brothers and their wives along with
twelve of their nineteen children in a van-type vehicle
rented from and driven by a Horning Mennonite. Just
a quarter of a mile from home a grinding collision with
a small truck. Two dead: the driver of the van and a
six-year-old girl. A teenage girl and one of the mothers
are among the most seriously injured. (The girl lay in
a coma for three weeks. The mother was hospitalized
for three months.) Immediately following the accident
the community springs into action. At the home of
"Informant H.
34
the dead girl preparations are made for the funeral
including housecl eaning and the prepa ration and serving of a meal the day of the fun eral for the convenience
of relatives and friends travelling from distant places.
R cgula r visits a re made to the hospital to braid and pin
the hair of the gi rls while they are recuperating. (Custom requires this hair style for the girls and the nurses
are not able to do the braiding because of the press of
other duties a nd their inexperience with this hair style. )
One of the families operates a roadside stand from
which it gains a substa ntial portion of its income. With
so many injured who will do the work? M embers of
the commu nity do the housework, tend the stand, h arvest the crops, weed the vegetable patch. The pea crop
is ripe and in one day a group of teenagers pick, shell
a nd prepare for freezing the whole crop. N o great
financial assistance is need ed in this case as the driver
of the van carried appropriate insurance. Would there
have been bills to be paid which the family could not
have met the community would have fulfill ed the obligation.
A HO USE FIRE
Smoke! Fumes ! Fire ! Run to the nearest telephone.
By the time the firemen extinguish the blaze the interior
oi the house is badly burned out. Ea rl y next day help
pours in. The women of the community sort out clothing and other salvageable dry goods. Usable items are
washed a nd repaired. M en a nd older boys begin cleaning out the house. By early afternoon more than 40
workers have a rrived a nd the interior of the house is
stripped . The owner of the house has decided on
interior alterations. Some walls a re to be relocated a nd
rooms enlarged. Over the next month work progresses
rapidly. Money is borrowed a t no interest for the
immediate payment of material needed . Each day some
crew of volunteers put aside their own farm work to
help this brother in need. The deacon appoints three
men to draw up an estimate of da mages and cost of
repair a nd /or replacem ent. Each m a n lists his estimate.
The three lists are added together. The sum total is
divided by three. The resulting figure is made known
in the immediate community and in other W enger
settl ements. Collections are conducted. Payment is
mad e. In little over a month from the date of the
fire this family of twelve (father, mother and ten children ) all of whom have been cared for by kin and
neighbors, move back into the house. Cost of the fire
in dollars to family? Zero!
A BROKEN LEG
W elcome opportunity for added income to the young
farm family by way of a few hours work at a cookie
factory in a nearby town. A chain snaps and whips
across the loading platform. Broken leg and long period
of hospitalization and convalescence. Harvest time.
Fortunately the silage has been cut and the tobacco
is in the ba rn but the corn must still be picked a nd the
fi elds plowed and the barley planted. The children a re
too young to do this work. The community to the
rescue. All work required is completed : picking, plowing, p lanting. The men know that this yo ung farmer
had p lanned to enlarge his barn by erecting a cattle
shed. T hey wou ld have all come together anyway to
do the fina l raising bu t now some of them even do
the preparatory work; the gathering of materials and
clearing of the construction site. And a n especially large
"party (barn raising) is p la nned because he can't d o
any of the work himself.""
A
B AR
FIRE
The ligh tning bolt strikes late one Sunday afternoon
a nd within a few h ou rs the neighbors build m akeshift
pens fo r the pigs. F ortunately the cattle a nd horses
have been out in pasture a nd only one calf is lost in
the fi re . Bu t the equi pmen t is a total loss as are the
entire contents of the barn a nd the barn itself.
The next morning 50 men converge on the scene.
Still smouldering hay is removed, charred timbers
thrown aside, debris carted away a nd by tha t very
evening digging has begun for the new found a tion.
By the end of the next day, T uesday, the entire founda tion has been laid a nd on Wednesday work begins on
the superstructure. These first days, when many m en
and boys a re on the scene, numerous wives a nd older
girls came along to prep a re the meals served the hungry
workers, especially tha t strength-giving fa vorite, chicken
com soup!
It is Spring pl a nting time so members of the com muni ty do the victim's plowing and tobacco planting
a nd earl y hay gathering so tha t he is freed to. supervise
the rebuilding of his ba rn.
For seventeen d ays m en add to their own fa rm
chores a t this especially busy time of year by volunteering their services a nd in this incredibly short time
the new bam is ready for its roof.
On the eighteen th d ay a fter the fire over 100 gather,
including a bus load from the sister community in
Lancaster Coun ty, to raise the roof a nd to engage in
the fellowship at the long tabl es set under the trees
laden with refreshments for the occasion. All the labor
has been dona ted, a ll m a teria l p aid for by the community, some new hay, fresh from a neighbor's fa rm,
is already in the ba rn .
T wo days after the raising of the roof added dram a.
Several men a re still a t the scene putting on some
fi nishing touches. An emergency call. H ot hay in the
barn of a m ember eight miles away. Get it out before
a nother ba m goes up in fl ames. One of the m en
helping to fi nish up is a member of the H orning group
"'Infonnant L.
who came in an automobile. Pile into the car. Ga ther
up as many men along the way as can fit into it. Ivan,
Ammon Weaver drop everything as the car approaches
their fi elds a nd they hear the shouts for help. In time
some 25 men converge on the scene and successfully
remove 4700 bales of hay. "Bear ye one another's
burdens."
SUMMARY
M u tual aid is an established, expected and accepted
ingredient of the commun ity's way of life. I ndeed, it
is essential to the simple, natural, separatBd from t he
world existence of these people. As the bishop's wife
related to me duri ng an interview, " Our church is
based on a b rotherly love and these things a re just
tokens of love."
A few pa ren thetic observations conclude this ch apter.
M utu al aid on a small, individual scale is often afforded
secretly; a n a nonymously placed basket of fruit, a p ackage of clothing, by those who may note a n eighbor
in need .
There seem to be no very rich or very poor in the
community. There are few external m easures of wealth.
R egardless of economic resources all members d~ess
alike and ride in look-alike carriages a nd buggies.
Theirs is no "use it once a nd throw it away" society.
Frugality is the norm. The frequent auction sales in
the a rea provide m any opportunities to purchase household furni shings and fa rm equipment at bargain prices.
Because something is new does not m ake it especially
a tttractive or desirable. The typical home in the community contains very little that is new.
Individuals do not seem to be much interested in
the fin ancial situ a tion of other individuals except in
time of need . As one informant expressed it, " I don't
know of a ny m illionaires or paupers, but if you wa nt
the facts you would ha ve to go down the line a nd ask
each individual. We don' t know who is really rich and
who is really poor unless we live close neighbors.' ''''
M oney a nd the things tha t money can buy a re of
littl e concern to the residents of the East Penn V alley
community. One quoted to me the well known Paulism
,,'.
tha t " the love of money is t h e root 0 f a II eVI'1 .It is quite clear to this researcher tha t economic
m a tters are not usually the subj ect ma tter of conversation among the m embers of the community ; by this
I m ean economic m atters of a personal n ature, as
increasing taxes a nd the high cost of land are certainly
topics frequently discussed . In this connection an informa nt told me, "There are much more important
things to talk about than how much I h ave. It can
go so quick. Something can happen and you wouldn't
ha ve it after all . . .. so why feel big about it?"
" Infonnant H.
261 Timothy 6: 10.
" Informant HA.
35
Pennsylvania German Architecture:
B ibliography in European Bacligrounds
By WILUAM WOYS WEAVER
As a result of the vast destru ction of the last war,
th e Eu ropeans h ave come to a pp recia te the p ressing
need fo r recording their a rchitectu ral heri tage. This
interest has not onl y con fi ned itself to the great works
of academic a rchitecture, bu t has spilled over into
purely ethnic studies as well , studies which have
great value to the Ameri can schola r of PennsylvaniaGerman folk a rchitecture.
But the Germans-the Swiss a nd Au stria ns tooh ave .always been in terested in their folk fo rms . Indeed this in terest acquired special signi fica nce und er
the label of V olkskultur, a term indicating a kind of
social force, the creative power of the folk milieu on
society as a whole. V olkskultur p rovided the Germam
in particul a r with a n outlet for activities in a rchi tectural
history which far su rpass our p rodu ctions in scope a nd
quali ty. Therefore, we should not feel relucta nt in
looking to Germ an-language sources for our models.
Some of the first schola rl y works dealing with fo lk
a rchitecture were published during the 1800's. M ention
should be made of J ohann Friedrich W agner's A nsichten sam tlicher Burgen, S chlosser und R uinen der
S chweiz (Bern, 1840 ff.) which touches on vernacula r
sources; or even a n earlier work in the same genre :
G . La nd au's Die hessische R itterburgen und ihre Besitzer (Cassel, 1836 ) in three volumes. Other la ter
works, such as C a rl Fraas' Geschichte der L andbau-u nd Forst wirtsc haft seit dem 16. Jahrhundert bis zu r
Gegenwart (Munich, 1865 ) .a nd Georg Ludwig M auerer's Gesc hichte der Fron hofe, der Bauernhofe and d er
H ofverfassung in D eutschland (Erl a ngen, 1862-1863 ),
provid e fairl y technical treatments wi th historical emphasis. With G. G. K allenbach 's Ch ro nologie der
deutsch-mittelalterlichen Baukunst (Munich, ca. 1850 ),
we see the development of works with evolu tiona ry perspective a nd a growing emphasis on the importa nce of
historiography. Of co urse, before this time, there were
innumera ble carpenter's handbooks, m ost of which a re
now valua ble .a nd much sought after prima ry sources.
D a vid Gilly's Handbu ch der Land-Bau-K unst (Braunschweig, 1818 ), perhaps one of the best, ra n through
m any editions in its da y.
Though much less scientific or m ethodical tha n
modern a rchitectural studies, the works of th e preunification p eriod provid ed a n impetus for considera ble
36
ac tivity In research from the 1870's un til the First
World W a r. T he Bismarck ian Age witnessed the a rrival of archi tectural history and its related folk studies
as res pectable sciences, some thing which has develop ed
in this cou n try on ly since World W a r II. One ou tstand ing a nd ever useful source from this period is
August M eitzen's D as deutsc he H aus in seinen volkstiimlichen FOl·men which was published as a n off-print
from the D eutschen Geogmphen-Tages (Berlin, 1882 ) .
T h is work h as already bee n mentioned several times
in past issues of Pennsylvania Folklife.
During the in ter- war period ( 19 18-1939), some of
the basic texts for the study of folk-architecture ap-
Schlesische
Holzbauten
Loewe's book, richly illustrated with line drawings, is one
of many valuable sources for studying the Silesian origins
of Moravian and Schwenkfelder architecture in this country.
SchilU's "Das Schwarzwaldhaus" covers many Alemannic
features also found on rural Pennsylvania-German buildings.
peared. One can attribute part of the activity to rising
Germa n na tionalism, which fostered many folk studies,
but the state of scholarship a t this time was such tha t
specializa tion had become inevita ble. Thus one sees
the appearance of numerous regional studies, such as
Vom Bauernhaus in Wiirtt emb erg und angrenzenden
Cebieten by M ax Lohss (H eidelberg, 1932 ); and E.
Wolfrom's Das Bauernhaus im M ·agdeburger Land
( Magdeburg, 1937 ) . R egionalisms, of course, introduce
one to structural variants a nd different building techniques. So na tura ll y, there was a flowering of .interest
in such specialized areas as construction, roofing, interior decoration, heating systems a nd general fa rmstead patterns, H erma nn Phleps' H olzbaukunst: der
Blockbau (Karl sruhe, 1942 ) is one of the most thorough
treatments of Germa nic log constru ction to come out
of this period. Other writers, such as Rudolf Hoferer
and Bruno Schweizer, issued first-rate articles touching
upon thatch, cast-iron stoves, a nd specialized outbuildings.
Tod ay, the apprecia tion of how much was lost
during the last war, a nd the surrender of ma ny G erman
cultural areas to other nations a nd other causes, have
given the Germans new energy in recording and preserving their cultura l rema ins. The Swiss and Austrians
a re not far behind. All of this has herald ed a veritable
renaissance of publishing activity in the field of ethnic
architecture, which is opening up new areas for comparative research in this country. One need only mention the huge contributions of H ermann Phl eps a nd
H ermann Schilli, both of G erm a ny, or Richard Weiss
of Switzerl a nd , whose works ought to be sta ndard source
books for Pennsylvania-Germa n studi es. But these are
onl y three of ma ny respected schol ars who have worked
in thi s fi eld.
In selecting the books for this bibliography, I have
attempted to choose works most representative of nearly a century and a half of schola rl y development in
Germa n-l a nguage a rchi tectura l studies. H owever, I
have placed primary importance on utility, on the
published materials most relevant to PennsylvaniaGerman architecture. Although pruned from a roster
of well over a thousand titles, the list provides a certain
degree of variety in subject ma tter. Most aspects of
rural Germanic a rchitecture a re covered: houses, barns,
interiors, out-buildings, carpentry, construction, planning, a nd such technical aspects as load, structure and
systems of heating.
Although this bibliography will be most useful to
bi-lingu al schola rs, in many cases the drawings and
illustrations tell much of the story. The reader unfamili ar with Germ an should not despair, for I have
rend ered each entry into English bibliographic form
for easier reference, and have provided an English
transla tion of each title. Many of the books and collections of articles a re available in larger university
libraries. The University of Pennsylva nia has acquired
a n extensive coll ection on this subj ect, and many of
the books are readily available through inter-library
loan.
Unfortuna tely, books of this kind are printed in
small numbers and go out-of-print very quickly. This
should not deter the collector or librarian from seeking
them out, for it is important that we establish our
research on a foundation of the best sources available.
Without this, we shall lack ground rules for approaching one of the most interesting branches of American
ethnic architecture; we will surely fail to understand
how our Volkskultur fulfill ed its role in promulgating
such ethnic forms as the log cabin, the "bank" barn,
the corn crib, and a host of other features familiar to
the American scene.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bauer-Heinh old, Marga rete. D eutsc he Bauernstuben. (Farmhouse Interiors of German y) . Die bl auen Bucher, 1961.
Bauernhau s. Das Bauernhaus in der Schweiz. (T he Farmhouse in Switzerland ). Schweizer Ingenieu r- und Architektenverein. Dresden, 1901.
Bauernhaus. Das Bauernhaus im Deutsche n Reich und in
seinen Grenzgebieten. (The Farmhouse in the German Empire
and its Borderlands ) . Verband d er deutschen Architcktenund Ingenieurvereine. Dresden, 1901.
Baumgarten, K arl. Zim mermannswerk in Mecklenburg:
Die S cheune. (Carpentry in Mecklenburg: The Barn ). Berlin, 1961.
Behl en, H . "Das nassauische Bauernhaus" (The Farmhou se in
assau ) . In: Annalen des Vereins fur nassauische
Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung, XXXIV (1906),
237 ff.
Behn, Friedri ch . Die Entstehung des deutschen Bauernhauses. (The Development of the German Farmhouse).
Berlin , 1957.
37
Bickell , L. H essisc h e H olzbauten . ( H ess ian Buildings in
Wood ). M a rburg, 1906.
Bierm a nn , C ha rl es. L a m aiso n paysann e va udo ise. (Th e
Fa rmh ouse in C a nton V ;:: ud ). Lausa nn e, 1946 .
Brockm a nn , H . S ch weize r Bau ernh aus. (Th e Swiss Farmhouse) . Bern , 1933.
Brues, Eva. Kunstde nkmaler d es Rheinland es:
Krefeld.
( Art M onum ents o f th e Rhin ela nd : Crefeld ) . Dusseldorf,
1967. XII a nd XIII in seri es.
Dienhard , M. D ie Tr ag fah igkeit histo risc h er H olzbaukonstruktio nen . (L oad in Hi stori c Wood Construct ion ). K a rl sruh e, 196 3.
Dolling, Hildega rd . Hau s und H of in W es tgermanischen
V olksrechten . ( H ouse and Fa rm stead in Wes t Germanic
a ti ona l L aw. ) Munster, 1958.
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Of Huguenot origin, David Gilly was an important architect
for the Prussian monarchy when he wrote this rare classic
on rural German architecture. Compiled as a how-to-do-it
encyclopaedia, the "Handbook" provides valuable information on everything from barns and brickmaking to the
proper way for thatching a house. This copy, originally in
the Erbach-Schonberg Collection, was recently purchased
in Berlin by the author.
38
Ei tzen, Gerh a rd . D as Bau ernhaus im Kreise Euskirche n .
(Th e F a rmhouse in EusLirchen Co unty ). Siegburg, 1960.
Eitze n, Gerhard. " Zu r Geschi chte d es sudwestd eutschen
H a usbaus im 15. und 16 . Jahrh u nd ert. " (On th e History
o f Sou thwes t Germ a n House C onstru cti on in th e 15th and
16th C enturi es). In: Z eitsc hrift fur V olkskunde ( 196 3).
Erdm ann sd orfer , K a rl. " D as Flachd ach im d eutsc hen AIpenra um einst und j etzt. T echni sche und wirtschaftli che Rundscha u." (Th e Fla t Roof in th e Germ a n Alpin e Area Then
and Now. A T echni ca l a nd Eco nomi c R ev iew ) . In: Der
Baumeister ( Mun chen ), IX:6 ( 19 39 ), 33 -40.
Febl er, J. K . Luzern er Sp eich er. (The Lu cern e "Speicher"). Bern , 1951. N umber 40 in th e seri es: Schweiz er
H eimatbuch er.
Fiedl er, Wilh elm.
"Das F a"hwerkh a us m D eutschland ,
Fra nkre ich und England ." (Th e Half-Timbered H ouse in
Germ a ny, France a nd En gla nd ). In: Beitrage zur B auw issensch aft ( Berlin ), I ( 1902).
Gill y, David.
H andbu ch d er Land-Bau-Kunst .
(Handbook of C o untry Architecture). Braunschweig, 1818. Three
vo lumes.
Glad ba ch, E. G. Die H olzarchitek tur d er S ch weiz. (The
Wood Architect ure o f Switzerl and ). Z u ri ch, 1876. Second
edition, 1885.
Gra dmann , E. "Schwabi sche Baue rnh austypen." (Swabian
Fa rmh ouse T ypes). In : K orres pon denzblat t d es C esamtve reins de r d eutsc h en Cesc hic ht s- und Altertumsverein e (Berlin ),
LVI: 4 ( 1908 ), 14 1-1 46.
Gruber, O t to. Bau ernhause r am B ode nsee. ( F a rmhouses
on L a ke C onsta nce). K onsta nz/ Lind a u, 196 1.
Gru be r, O tto. " Vo m neuen Ba uernwerk : Ha us und H of
d eu tsc her Baue rn und vom al emannischen Ba uernh a us ." ( N ew
Cou n try W orkma nship: Th e H o use and Farm o f Germ a n
Farme rs, a nd th e Al ema nni c F a rmh o use). In : M ein H eim atlond (Freiburg-i m- Breisga u ), XXIX : 1 ( 1942), 39-56.
Gsc hwend , M ax. S chwyzer Bauernh auser. ( Fa r m houses of
Can ton Schw yz). Bern , 1957. Number 81 in th e se ri es :
Sc hweizer H eim atbuch er.
Gsc hwend , M a x. " Beitrage zur K en n tni s d er fruh en al ema nni sche n Bes iedlun g d er N ord ostschweiz." (Contributions to
th e Und ersta nding o f th e Earl y Al emanni c Se ttl ement of
North east Switze rl a nd ) . In: Alem annisc h es Jahrbuch ( L ahrim-Schwarzwa ld ), 1956.
" Schweizeri sche B a u e rn h a u st y pen."
Gschwend , M ax.
(T ypes of Swiss Farmhouses ). I n: C eographische Rundsc hau
( n.p. ), II ( 1950 ) , 81 fT.
Gschwe nd , M ax. "Der gegenwa rtige Stand d er Bauernh a usforschun g in d er Schweiz." (The Prese nt State of R esearch on the F a rmhouse in Switze rl a nd ) . In : Ceographica
H elve tica (Bern ), IV ( 194 9 ), 19 3-198.
Gu yan , W a lter Ulri ch. Das S chwe izer D orl. (The Swiss
Vi ll age) . Bern , 1948 . Number 26 in the seri es: S chweizer
H eim atbuch er.
H a nftm a nn , B.
H essische H olzbauten ; B eitrage zur Ceschichte d es westd eutschen H auses und H olzbaus .
( Wood
Buildings in H ess ia; Contributions to the Hi story of the
W est German H ouse a nd W ood Co nstru cti on ) . M a rburg ,
1907.
Heckmanns, F . "Herd-, Kamin- und Of en platten." ( H ear th ,
Firepl ace a nd Stove Plates. I n: D ie H eimat (Crefeld ) , IV
( 1925 ), 110 fT.
H elm, Rudolf. Das Bau ernh aus in Frank en. (Th e Farmhouse in Franco ni a) . Erlangen, 193 7.
H ennin g, Ri cha rd . " D as d eutsche H a llS in se in er hi storischen Entwi cklung." (Th e Germ a n H o use in its Historic
D evelopment ). In: Quell en und Forsc hungen z ur S prachund Kulturgesch ic ht e d er germanisc h en V olker ( Strassburg ),
XLVII ( 1882),3 9 fT.
H ennin g, Ri cha rd. "Die d eutschen Haustypen .
ach tragliche Beme rkun ge n." ( G erman Hou se-Types. Additional Obse rvati ons). In: Qu ellen und Forsc hunge n z ur Sprach- und
K ulturgeschichte d er germanisc h en V olke r ( Strassburg) , LV: 2
( 1886 ), 44 .
H e uter, P. Die landlich e Bauw eise d es 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts.
( Rural Building M eth od s in the 15th and 16th
C enturi es). Siegburg, 1961.
Him1 y, F . J. Atlas d es villes m ed ieval es d'Alsace . (Atlas
of th e M edieva l Towns of Alsace). N a ncy, 1970.
H oferer, Rudolf. " D achd eckun g d es Bauernh a uses in Bayern um 1800." ( Roof-Coverin g of th e Farmhouse in Bavaria
abollt 1800 ). In:
Bayerisc her H eimatschutz ( Mun chen ),
XXXI ( 1935 ), 36-43.
Anyone studying early Mennonite architecture in Pennsylvania will find "Hauser und Landschaften der Schweiz" a
helpful reference for Swiss building-types. Nachtigall's
monograph (right) discusses methods for identifying masterbuilders according to timbering designs.
Baumgarten's survey (right) is a useful study of actual construction techniques employed by rural carpenters for building barns and similar outbuildings.
H unziker, J akob. Das Schweizerhaus nach seinen landschaftlichen Form en und seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung dar·
gestellt. (The Swiss H ouse R epresented in Its Provin cial
Forms and its Historical D evelopme nt ). Aarau , 1900-1 914
( 8 vols.).
Il g, Karl. "Ein Beitrag zur Ges chichte des Ofens und der
Stube." (A Contribution to the History of th e Oven an d the
Sitting R oom ). In: V olk und H eimat, Festsc hrift fur Viktor
von Geramb. Graz/ Salzbu rg/ Wi en , 1949.
Kulk e, E. Vom deut sc hen Bauernhof. (On the German
Farmstead). Mun chen, 1939.
K untzel, C. Scheunen , Speicher, Schuppen. (Barns, Storehouses, Sheds). Berlin , 1942.
Lachn er, Carl. Geschichte der H olzbaukunst in D eutschland. (H istory of Wood Arch itectu re in Germany). Leipzig,
1887.
Laed rach, W . D er bernische Speicher . (The Bern ese
"Speicher" ). Bern , 1954. Number 57/ 58 in the series Berner
H eimatbuc her.
Laedrach, W. Das Emmentaler Bauernhaus. (The Farmhouse in the Emmental ). Bern, 1941.
umber 1 in the series
Berner H eimatbucher.
Liebold , B. D ie mittelalterliche H olzarchitektur . (M edieval
Wood Architectu re). Halle, 1875.
Lindner, W . D as niedersachsische Bauernhaus in D eutsc hland und H olland. (The Lower Saxo n Farmhouse in Germ any
and H o ll a ~:I). H annover, 1912 .
L ippert, Hans. "Das nordschwabische Bauernhaus." (The
North-Swabian Farmhouse ) . In: Schwabenland (A ugsburg ),
I : 2 ( 19 34), 48-56.
Lohss, M ax. Von Bauern haus in Wurttemberg und angrenzen den Gebieten. (On the Farmhouse in Wurttemberg and
Teighbo ring Areas). H eidelberg, 1932.
Loewe, Ludwig. Schlesische H olzbauten. (Si lesian Wood
Buildings). Dusseld orf, 1969.
Loewe, Ludwig. Niederschlesische H olzbauwerke, lhr Entstehen, Aufbau und V orkommen . ( Lower Silesian Bui ldings in
Wood, Their Origin , Structure and Appea rance). .p ., 1959.
Mad er. Georg. "Bauernhaus und Bauernbrauch in Schwaben." (Fa rmhouse and R ura l Custom in Swabia ) . In: Bayerland (Munchen ), XXXI:9 ( 1919/ 1920), 139- 154.
M eitzen, A. "Das deutsche H aus in seinen volkstumli chen
Formen." (The German H ouse in Its Popular Forms ). Offprint: Des D eutschen Geographen-Tages ( Berlin, 1882 ).
M eyer-Heisig, Erich. Die deutsche Bauernstube. Art und
Entwicklung der Stube im deutschen Bauernhaus n ebst einem
Anhang mit Beispielen heutiger St ub engestaltungen.
(The
German Sitting Room . Type and D evelopment of the Sitting
Room in the Germ an Farmhouse, including a supplement
with Examples of M odern Sitting-Room Forms). Nurnberg,
1952.
Nacht igall, H elmut. Schmuck an Fachwerkholzern im Kreis
Giessen. (O rn ame ntation on Wood-Timbering in the County
of Gi esse n ) . Giessen, 1969.
I ettelhors t, Leopold.
D er deutsche Bauernhof mit den im
Elsass und in der Schweiz ve rtretene n Arten. (T he German
Farmstead with Representative T ypes in Alsace and Switzerland). Halle, 1939.
Ostendorf, Friedrich. D ie Gesch ichte des Dachwerks. (The
H istory of Roofing). Leipzig and Berlin, 1908.
P!1leps, H ermann. H olzbaukunst: D er Blockbau . ( Wood
Architecture: Log Building ). K arl sruhe, 1942.
Phleps, H erman n. D eutsche Fachwerkbauten.
( German
H a!f-Timbered Buildings ). K onigste in , 1951 .
Phleps, H ermann. Alemannische H olzbaukunst. (A lemannic Wood Architecture ). Wiesbaden, 196 7.
Phleps, H erma nn. "Der Speicher, der vorn ehmste Bau d es
germani schen H ofes." (The Storehouse, the Noblest Building
of the Early Germanic Farmstead ). In: D eutsche Volkskunde
(Berlin ), I ( 1939).
Phleps, H erm ann. Ost- und Westgermanischen BaukultuT.
( East and West Germa nic Building Cult ures). Berlin , 1934.
R ebensbu rg, H ei nrich . Das deutsche D OTf: Suddeutschlan d. (T he German Village: South Germany). Munchen,
1914.
R einerth , Hans. H aus und H of der Germanen in VO T- und
fruhgeschichtlicher Z eit. (H ouse and Farmstead of the Early
Germans in Prehistoric and Ancient Times ). Leipzig, 193 7.
Richter, Helmut. " D as Bauernh aus im Gau Schwaben ."
(T he Farmhouse in the District of Swabia ). In: Schwabenland (Augsburg ), VIII: 4/ 6 ( 194 1),62-63.
Romberg, G. "Uber Bauern-Hof und Haus. " (O n the
Farmstead and Farmhouse ). In: Me cklen burg, XXI ( 1926),
115-117.
Ru dolph-Greiffenberg, Martin . Das Burggrafler H aus: Entwicklun g und Erneuerung alp enlandischer Baukultu r an d er
Etsch. (The Burggraf H ouse: Evolution and R evival of Alpine Architecture in th e Etsch Valley). Innsbr uck, 1960.
Schafer, Karl. Die H olzarchitektur D eutsc hlands vom 14.
bis l B. Jahrhundert. ( Wood Architecture of Germany from
the 14th to 18 th Centuries). Berlin, 1889.
Schafer, Karl. Deutsche Holzbaukun st . (German Wood
Architecture). Dresden , 1942.
Scheid l, Josep h. " D as Dachauer Baue rnhaus. Eine bauund kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchung." (The D ach au Farmhouse. An Architectural and Cultural Investigation ) . In :
Beitrage zur Volkstumsforschung. (Munchen ), 1952.
39
Schepers, J. D as Bauernhaus in Nordwestdeutschland. (Th e
Fa rmhouse in Northwest Germany ). M u nster, [943.
Schilli , H ermann. " L andli che H aus- und H offo rmen im
alemann ischen Gebiet Badens." ( R ura[ H ouse and Farmstead
F orms in the Alemannic Area of Baden ).
I n: B adisch e
H eimat, M e'in H eimatland ( Freib urg-im-Breisga u ), XXXI: 3/4
( 195 1 ), 168-188.
Schilli, H ermann .
D as Schwarzwald haus.
(Th e Black
Forest H ouse). Stuttgart, 195 3. An other editi on, 1964.
Schm idt, Au glls t. D as Burgerh aus in d er S chw eiz. (Th e
Townhouse in Switzerl a nd ). Zurich, 19 18. Corrected editi on,
1946 .
Scholten, J ohann es. "Herd und H erdpl atten; d ie Bauernku che einst und jetzt." ( H earth a nd H earth-Plates : Th e
F a rm-Kitchen Th en a nd Now ). In :
Niederrh einischer
H eimatka lende r (R ees), 19 26.
Sei fert, Alwin . " W ese n und H erkunft d es oberbayerische n
Bauernhauses." (Substa nce and O ri gin o f the Upper Bava ria n Fa rmhou se). In: S ch onere H eimat , 1 ( 1966 ) .
Schwab, H a ns. Die Dachforme n d es B au ernh auses in
D eutschland und in der Schweiz, ihre Entst ehung und Entwicklu ng. ( Roof Forms o f Farmhouses in Germany a nd Switzerl a nd , their Ri se a nd D evelop men t ). Dissertation, T echni sche
H ochsch ule, Berlin , 1914.
Schwab, H . Das Schweizerhaus , sein Ursprung und seine
konstruktive Entwicklung. (Th e Swiss H ouse, its R oo ts a nd
its Structural D evelopment ). Aa rau, 19 18.
Schwab, Hans. "Volkskund e und H a usforschung." ( Folk
Arts a nd R esea rch on the Rural H ouse). In: S chweizerisches
Archiv fur V olkskunde (Basel ), IIXXX:2 ( 19 20/ 1921 ), 57 ff .
Schweizer, Bruno. "Bauernhausforschung: Das Strohd ach ."
(R esea rch on th e Farmhouse: Th e Th a tch R oof). In : LechIsarland ( Wei lheim) , XI:6!7 ( 19 35), 101-102 .
Seid el, Friedrich. "Mittei lungen uber das a ltere Bauernhaus
in Oberd std orf im All gau. " ( Informat ion on the O ld er F a rmhou ses at Oberdstdorf in the All ga u ). In: D eutsc h e Bauzeitun g ( Berlin ), XXVII : 25 ( 1893), 15 9- 160.
Steeger, A. " D as niederrhein ische B a u e rn h a u s."
(The
L ower Rh ineland Farmhouse). In : Die H eimat (Crefeld ),
XIV ( 1935),29 7 ff.
Steffen, K . " H erd und H erdfeuer im ni ed errh einischen
Bauernhaus. " ( H earth a nd H ea rth-Fire in th e L ower Rhinela nd Farmhouse) .
In:
Ni eder rh einischer H eimatfreund
(Rh eydt ), V ( 1929), 42 ff.
Thi ele, Ernst-Otto. Haus und H of d er Ge rmane n in geschichtlicher Zeit . (H ouse and Farmstead of the E:uly Germans
in An cient Times ). L eipzig, 193 7.
Trier, J os t, a nd Grundmann , H erbert . " Etymologien zum
Fachwerk." ( Etymology of H a lf-Timbering). In: M unstersche
Forsc hunge n ( Marburg ), III ( 1951 ) .
Tri er, J os t. "Das Gefuge d es baue rli chen H a uses im
d eutschen Nordwesten. " (Framing in the Rural H ouse of th e
Germ a n Northwes t ). In: W estfalische F orsc h ungen, I ( 1938 ),
36-50 .
Vogts, H . "Das rhe inische Bauernh aus in seinen H a ustypen." (Th e Rhenish F a rmhouse in its T ypes). In : Rheinisch es Land, Z eitschrift fur landliche W ohlfahrt un d H eimatpflege in d en Rheinlanden. (Bonn ), XII ( 19 32), 1 ff .
Walbe, H einri ch. D as h essisch-frankisch e Fachw erk. ( H essian-Franconian H a lf-Timbering ). Gi essen , 1954, Originall y
published in Schriften d e r V o l ks - und H eimatforschung
(D a rm stadt ), 1942.
W a lser , H . " D orfer und Einzelhofe zwischen Jura und
Alpen im K a nton Bern ." ( Vill ages and Single Farms b etwee n
the Juras a nd Alps in Ca nton Bern ) . In : Neujahrsblatter
der L iterarisc hen G esellschaft B ern auf da s ] ahr 190 1 (Bern ),
1900.
W alter, Michael. " Das schwabische H a us." ( The Swabi a n
H ouse) . In: Oberdeutsche Zeitsch rift fur V olkskund e (Buhl) ,
II :2 ( 192 8 ), 83-90 .
Weidhaas, H . "Aufgaben und erke nnba rer gegenwa rtige r
Stand d er Forschung uber im Holz und Stein komb ini erte
Baukonstruktionen im Altertum ." ( Problems a nd Apparent
State o f R esea rch on Combined W ood an d Stone C onstru ctio n
in Antiquity ) . In: Wisse nsc haftlich e Z eitsch rift de r H oc h~
sc hule fur Architektur und Bauw ese n ( We im a r ). IV ( 1956 /
1957 ), 149- 166,235-247,3 17-328.
W eiss, Ri chard . Ha user und L andschaften d er Schw eiz.
( H ouses a nd R eg ions o f Switzerl a nd ). Erl enbach-Z urich, 1959.
We iss, Richa rd. Volkskunde der Schw eiz. ( F olk Culture
o f Switzerl and ). Erlenbach-Zurich, 1946.
W eiss, Ri cha rd . D as Alpenwesen Graubundens . (The Alpin e Culture o f Graubund en ). Erl enbach-Z urich , 194 1.
40
Wil deman, Th . "Gehoft- und Bauern hausfo rmen in d er
Eifel." ( Farmstead a nd Farmhouse Forms in th e Eifel ). In :
Rh einische H eimatp fl ege, V II ( 19 35 ) , 202 ff.
W ink ler , E. " D as D orf a ls Gestaltungse lement schweizerischer Kulturl a nd schaft." (Th e Vi ll age as a Formative Eleme nt o f Swiss Cultural Areas). In : D as Schweizer D or f,
Fes tsc hrift fur H . f. Wehrli ( Zuri ch ), 194 1.
Win ter , H einr ich. D as Burgerhaus zwische n Rhein, Main
und Necka r. (The Burgher H ouse between the Rh ine, M a in,
a nd th e Neckar ). Tubingen, 1961.
Wolfrom, E . Das Bauern haus im M agdebu rge r L and . (The
Fa rmhou se in the Province of M agdeb urg) . Magd eb urg, [ 93 7.
Wopfn e r, H erm a nn . Das T iroler Bauernh aus. (Th e Tyrol
Fa r mhouse ). Innsbru ck, 1923. R eprint from Ein Bu ch fur
das T irole r H aus, edi ted by J osef Steger .
Wop fn er, H erm a nn.
"Uber Bez iehun gen von H aus form
und Volkstum . Untersuch t an F orm en ba ue rli chen Hausb a ues
im westli chen Tirol." (On the R ela tion s of H ouse Form a nd
I a t iona l C haracteristi cs.
An J nquiry on th e Forms of Rura l
Buildin g in the W es tern T yrol ). In : V eroff entlichungen des
M useums Ferdi nandeum ( Innsbru ck ), VIII ( [ 928), 287-334.
Wopfn er, H erm a nn . " Zur Geschichte d es vo lkstumlichen
H auses in Tirol." (O n the History of th e Vern ac ul a r H ouse
in the T yrol ) . In : Tirol ( Innsb ru ck ), II :3 ( 1929 ),3 7-52 .
Zippelius, Ad elh a rt. "Die R ekonstruktion und bau geschi chtli che Stell ung d er H o[zbauten au f d em 'Husterknupp.''' (R eco nstru ction a nd Historica l Posit ion o f W ooden Buildings in
th e " H usterknupp"). In: H errnb rodt, A. D er Hu sterknupp.
K oln wId Graz, 195 8 .
Zi ppelius, Ad elh a rt. D as B auern haus am unteren d eutschen
Niederrh ein. (The Fa rmhouse in the Lower Rhin eland ). W uppertal , 1957 .
JOSEPH SCHEIDL
~ttG
~RdJRltet· ~Rltettt{Jtt1t~
VE!{UG GEO HG O.\\ .C ALL\\ E) .
~t('
.", C II E :'.
Scheidl provides solid research material on Bavarian housetypes, many of which have counterparts in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania German Astronomy and
Astrology X: Christoph Saur's Almanacs
By LOUIS WINKLER
P UB LICATIO N
DATA
In spite of the leading position of Christoph Saur
( 1694-1 758 ) as a printer the on ly article devoted exclusively to his alm a nacs is by CasseL' R eichmann's
an notated bibliography' has a number of noteworthy
comments regarding all of Saur's publications.
'Abraham H. Cassel, "The German Alm anacs of Christopher
Sauer," Pennsylvania M agazine of H istory and Biogra ph y,"
V I ( 1882 ), 58-68.
' Felix Reichmann, Christopher Sower, Sr., 1694-1758 ( Philadelphia:
Carl Sch urz M em orial Fou nd at ion, 1943 ).
Figure 1. Title page from Saur's first Almanac.
Saur published the H och Deutsch Americanische
Calender (see Figures 1 and 2 ) for the years 17391759 in Germantown, while others published various
issues in Philadelphia, La ncaster, and " N euyorck" . It
was the first sustained, German-style almanac to be
published in America. Only the T eutsche Pilgrim,
which was published in Phil adelph ia by Andreas Bradford , preceded it for the years 17 31-1733.
Drake' lists three English language almanacs with
the na me Sauer appearing on them during the life
span of Christoph Sauro These a re the American Almanack for 1747, the Pennsylvania T own and CountryMan's Alman·ack for 1754-1759, a nd the South Car olina
Almanack for 1755-1758. All three alma nacs were published in Germa ntown, with the Pennsylvania T own and
Count ry-Man's Almanack also being published in Philadelphia a nd the S outh Carolina Almanack also being
published in Cha rleston . While the publisher of the
Pennsylvania T own and Country-Man's Almanack is
listed as C. Sower, jr., the publisher of the American
Almanack and South Carolina Almanack is Christopher
Sower. Since the names Saur and Sauer only appear
on the squ a re or German-style almanacs, H och D eutsch
Americanische Calender, and Sower or Sower, jr. only
a ppea r on pocket-size or English-style almanacs, it is
presumed tha t the English la nguage almanacs were
published by the son. These English almanacs will be discussed in addition to the H och D eutsch Americanisch e
Calender since they were undoubtedly influenced by the
fa ther a nd there were some indirect connections with
the fa ther.
The appearance of the South Carolina Almanack in
tha t unlikely southern state results from the residence
there of two important German-Swiss cultural leaders.
One of them was the Reformed clergyman, John
J oachim Zubly, for whom the fath er published two
religious works.' Both works were written by Zubly,
the first in German in 1751 and the second in English
in 1756. The other person was a noteworthy almanaccalcul a tor, John Tobler. Tobler is the calculator for
the mentioned issues of the Pennsylvania To wn and
Country-Man's Alamanack and the South Carolina
Alamanack.
' M. Drake, Almanacs of the United States (New York:
Sca rec row Press, 1962).
'Entries number 133 and 178 of R eichmann .
41
A measure of the great popularity of Saur's Ho ch
Deutsch Americanische Calender is the great number
of copies still extant even though they are about two
and a half centu ries old. Their popularity appeared
to be still on the rise at the time of Saur's death in
1758. Not only had his almanacs increased from 24
pages to 48 pages, but Saur's last almanac was published
in Germantown, Philadelphia, Lancaster and "Neuyorck". Much of the popularity was due to the varied
and interesting, lengthy narratives found in the back
of the almanac, but also the instru ction presented on
how to write German script from 1753 on. R eichmann'
estimates that the annual circulation of his almanac
was about 10,000 and also indicates that it was read
as far north as " upstate New York" and as far south
as "Georgia" . It is interesting to note that Saur's outstanding almanac and newspaper, the H och D eutsch
Pennsylvanischer Geschichtschreib er first appeared In
1739 and included H och Deutsch in the title.
ASTRONOMICAL CONTENT
While the computer is not listed for the H och D eutsch
Americanische Calender he is for all the English language almanacs. J ohn Tobler made all the computa tions for the South Carolina Almanack and Pennsylvania T own and Country-Man's Almanack, and J ohn
J erman for the American Almanack. Since Tobler
indicates· a capability in both the English and German
languages it may be that he is the calculator for the
H och D eutsch Americanische Calender.
Tobler makes remarkable statements in the S outh
Carolina Almanack for 1755 regarding himself as an
almanack calculator. H e stated that, "I was in my
native country (Switzerland ) the first Calculator of
Almanacs, a nd for what I know the first also in this
Country, and certainly the first also, who has calculated
so many for two parts of the World, and sent them
from Amc:;rica into Switzer-Land." His being the first
calculator in America is certainly not true as Drake
lists dozens of calculators before T obler started making
calculations. Another interesting statement made by
Tobler was that he had made almanac calculations,
as much as thirty years in advance. This is considerably
longer than the one to three years indicated by other
almanac calculators mentioned in this series of articles.
One of the rare bits of informa tion found in any
common almanac are specifications regarding accuracy
of the astronomical entries. In spite of the fact that
Saur never demonstrated any astronomical competenc!,!
or had any credentials outside of his almanacs, he was
willing to discuss the accuracy of some entries. In the
1746 issue of the Ho ch D eutsch Americanische Calender
he indicates that the maximum error in the rising and
' Op cit.
·S outh CaTolina Almanack for 1755.
42
Figure 2. A cover page from the 1758 issue of Hoch
Deutsch Americanische Calender.
setting times for the sun was a minute or so. The
maximum error for the rising and setting of the moon
was a quarter of an hour while the phases were accurate to within several minutes. The gre.ater accuracy
regarding the sun is due to the fact that the orbit of
ea rth a bout the sun was mu ch better known in the
middle of the 18th Century than was the orbit of
the moon about the earth.
The appearance of a monthly page (see Figure 3)
of computa tions from the H och D eutsch Americanische
Calender is .a somewhat simplified German style. Principal missing material includes high tide occurrences,
the equation of time, and an abundance of astronomical data in the miscell any column. Although information concerning the weather was found under the Hundertjiihrigen Calender in the developed German-style
almanac, Saur's almanacs included short statements
concerning the weather in the miscellany column.
One of the important changes in the German-style
almanacs is found in the issues of the H och Deutsch
Americ.anische Calender from 1752 on. This is the simultaneous inclusion of the Gregorian and Julian Calendars (see Figure 4). Since England only adopted
the Gregorian calendar in 1752 and Protestant G ermany
in 1777, the leadership position of Saur is once again
demonstrated. The simultaneous inclusion of the two
6el'tem6er
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Figure 3. Page
from the 1753
issue of Hoch
Deutsch Amencan isch e Calender.
1\
~tl5 neue S2td)t I~ Den 26 ~l:n 8 ubr '2lbmO. ~a~
calendars from 1752 and on is also found in the only
other German language almanac, the Neu-Eingerichteter Americanischer Geschichts Kalender, which was
published by Benjamin Franklin.
Astronomical data could be found in many parts of
the almanac. One of the fresh ideas of Saur's was to
intersperse poetry, weather prognostications and lunar
data as shown in the Hoch Deutsch Americanische Calender for 1748 (see Figure 5 ). The idea of including
astronomical poetry in almanacs was discussed in Article
VII of this series in connection with C. F. Egelmann.
Although the three English language almanac titles
by Saur's son are pocket-size rather than square, the
astronomical content of the two types does not differ
m
lcf2te '-nil'W ift ben 2.0 fl'l!~ \l)?orqene
markedly. It is this similarity in astronomical content
which leads this writer to suspect that that same calculator (Tobler ) was used for the almanacs of the
father and son. Just from economic expediency the
two of them would be expected to hire the same
calculator.
ASTROLOGICAL
CONTENT
Some astrological beliefs of Saur were discussed in
Article VI of this series in connection with Conrad
Beissel and Christopher Witt. Saur's astrological interests are .also quite well exhibited in his almanacs.
Not only did Saur's Hoch Deutsch Americanische
Calender contain the information regarding the Almanac Man, blood-letting, cupping and wood-cutting
43
found in later German style alm anacs, but his monthly
entries con tain special symbols indicating preferred
times for the activities of blood -letting, cupping and
wood-cu tting. The symbols for blood-letting and cupp ing, respectively, are fou nd in Figu re 3 for the September 30 entry in the miscell any column. The symbol
for wood-cutting was a hatchet.
Thc old European practice of including selected
astronomical or astrological entries in red ink with
the other entries in the usual black ink is found in a
number of Saur's alm anacs. , ,yhich entries were chosen
and for what specific reason is not certain to this
writer. It may be that the red entries, especially planetary alignments, were considered fortunate. Cassel
sugges ts tha t almanacs with red ink appeared from
1748 to 1754. However, not all of the issues for each
year had red ink. Since they were printed in Germantown a nd Philadelphia it is suggestive that only Saur's
printing shop in Germantown had the red ink. Cassel
indicates tha t Saur ceased using the red ink almanacs
as an economy measure to compete with other almanac
publishers. Issues up to 1754 cost 1 shilling 1 p ence
per dozen and only 1 shilling per dozen thereafter.
One of the unique astrological articles found in
almanacs examined by this writer is found in Saur's
1755 issue of the H och D eutsch Americanische Cal-
9)lon~5 ~
QJ ltttl'l, mit if)rm
:illI r! mlll9cn.
:V:r mOHmO!lll cr3ei9ct fld) ben
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fpl'id)t 6i~Ill[i\,~ f':lIJe~ :illmtt'.
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7.
Figure 4. Page from the 1752 issue of Hoch Deutsch
Americanische Calender.
44
UI)1' 20.
Figure 5. Page from
the 1748 issue of Hoch
Deutsch Americanische
Calender.
ender (Figure 6 ) . H ere Saur rela tes some of his
astrol ogical philosophy via a fi ctitious dialogue. While
it is mostly conventional in character these sorts of
beliefs are seldom explicit, especial1y in almanacs.
Although it is probably impossibl e to determine the
principal early influences on Saur in the fi eld of astrology some clues a re found here a nd there. Strangely
enough he may be influenced by the world-famous
English astrologer William Lil1y ( 1602-1681 ) . Saur's
astrol ogical style as indicated in the 1755 issue of the
H och D eutsch Americanische Calendar is not too different from LiI1y's, a nd Saur mentions Lilly by name in
the 1740 issue of the same almanac (see Figure 7 ) .
Further, in the 1750 issue of his German almanac he
includes a special table of planetary alignments wh ich
is the foundation of horoscopy which is the type of
astrology wielded so adeptly by Lilly (see Figure 8 ).
English influence in German astrology is also evident
in the American Almanack for 1747. H ere, J erman
offers a defense for astrology with Sir Christopher
H eydon's "Judicial Astrology".
MISCELLANEOUS ASTRONOMICAL I VOLVEMENTS
Althou gh most of Saur's publications were religious
In na ture two of them concern astronomical subj ects.
A broadside appeared In 1746 which was entitl ed
"Vom Cometen". An advertisement regarding the sale
of the broadside appeared in Saur's H och D eutsch
Pennsylvanisch er Gesc hichtsschreiber. According to a
ha ndwritten entry in Saur's bibliography the broadside
was sold for 3 pence. Since no extant copies of the
broadside a re known one can onl y specul ate as to its
na ture. It is possible that the broadside reflected some
of the interest in the P ennsylvania G erman community
a t that time in the comet of 1743. Article III of
this series briefly discussed the involvements of this
comet with Saur's friend and fell ow Pietist, Christopher
Witt, and the Ephrata publication of 1745. Although
Ephra ta might seem far from Germantown it is to be
noted that Saur's wife left him for the austere religious
life at Ephrata offered by Beissel.
'This is based on this writer's exa mination of th e American
Almanack for 1747, th e Pen nsylvania Town and C ountry-Man's
Almanack for 1756 and 1759, and th e South Carolina Almanack for 1755 and 1758.
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Itn DPrrt<::rrs oblr rittfroarlS qlbm ; 1I 1l~ ilb.r~
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III ocr (s)(I\IIr1~,'lJl!uUI< 111~m ; unO Ibtll ~tr
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milll .lIIC ')); llIUII II, :<11. 11>1' nit a'l~(I"(, fo IlIlIi"
btl earall; bit IIw'{aqiril'1 Iln.;!wtbw btr.
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3WIUWql lit Clnr, JJ)IIlUII obrr p!o~lltt oui '10;
anOtr Jur 'll.'11i f~ml:tru, 10 leow lit tillouner f~
g((I(\). ~n9 mou laumIInlS vor bn" annlen <rIm,
IItIl fon. 101111 a~tr tint; nur tlue elUllbcDOlt
ffilr!tIl1UIlf\, fCl flUI' etll.!( ?)I'illil tcn nat. bm: all';
tlrn au Ms .toqil:$r. [0 u'irt. ba~ ICRtl ('If!
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.~tt" ItIl 111011),' toC!) til: I,tlIlINIII~ 'Dtrlt(lr OoaGO
boNn; !onn leb wutll ~nP to m!c lIil~littl lUa'l.
)fl!1l\'vbncr. ::<;tJ !!,(utlt IIl1t lIIt(I; bit afl.",
gtl"luqtlc ~)Iun l 0011111 ma(I)(II, roan nubl tIlllO'
1V1!1)/[9~60"(Ulllt' mr~rjlliJ 14g(, 1l)(!~I' srof.
The other publica tion of Saur's dealing with an
astronomical subject is another example of Saur's leadership position. This was a publication written by Theophil us Grew concerning trigonometry which a ppeared
in 1753.' According to K arpinski', this was the first
trigonometric treatise published In the N ew World.
Grew was a professor of mathematics at the Academy
in Philadelphia and made almanac computations tor
the Virginia Almanack for many years. Since Saur
had this important association with Grew it also was
possible that Saur employed Grew for his G erman
language alman ac calcu lations. Not only were Grew
a nd Saur sufficiently prominent to attract one another,
but Grew is known to have made computations for the
1735 issue of Benjamin Fra nklin's Almanack.
It appears that Saur's position in the area of G erman
almanac publications influenced Franklin in the same
'''The d esc ription and use of globes, celes tial and terrestrial:
with va ri ety of examples for the learner' s exercise . . . chiefly
des igned for the instruction o f th e young gentlem en a t the
Acad emy in Philadelphia . . . added rul es for working all
th e cases in plain and sph eri cal tri a ngles without a sch eme."
' Louis Cha rl es Karpin ski, "Bibliography of Mathemattcal
Books Print ed in A merica Through 1850 ( Ann Arbor, 1940 ).
fIn al u~I" b06m tan ; bMum min i~ bir ciaml,
nig ollb fo olt l blr norbi9 ill, (49cn ; lI>ill hu Oirl
/ 11 m j ~ea lII 'I~ln, [0 rbuc (~ ; 11>0 IIi¢l, io bob,
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d}cr illlcof<lnn .
n .. ,fonullcr : !lllirq'OI rSDttn 1U! ba'tift
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oblc in \&I~dallll !c . nHUI1l Mn.lI>oll aOe1ll.ic in
Di<frr iDlinluc un .!rlnO in nurnberg ober in
Bert",/ ob" in P911.ll>clpl,!l. glbobcln 1lliro,
roo! Oolfelblgc oor tIIlt iJ/,.wr II nb (ljl~'111 hal
unb bef omt. o~ 16 ' in runO (llelil!)l, Obit IO U91$
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DIm ~ud), ",II Ol(f( ill? I111111 Oil I: blm llfd) I 3'1>
eb<n ober J),iu,,, ne~t!l. unb roo bl' ; 'll"Hltltn
finb; lI>el1\)I ~aooll u~(r nIl' (l'rOt 111om. unb 1llel,
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vnb n:1,dl' {(nllrgtOln :c. WIC nun oit t~q1atr~'s
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f(I!I(II.Rlci~ml bit'It!. brilun, grim, pur,nr unO
arm lni.lrb. Itr hal Glm fUIT(~, uno ",4$ ~tll,cl
fl(JllI e(fl. lIn~ nrmr.
(!j,lhl lli.tl"u auf, ill Nr(lJlbutl& !lon~l, nn~
Il'lrb lion Gllbcrl1 ~i,"C1cn III¢r (rnDlr!rt1) pcr,
blllbm. fo fI)({'O Drr IJIw jdJ Ili~lglr 1Il1b IrO"e,
1111' ~ll1l u r. Ullb alro aud) ani Pllminh, If '11
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fell
fa!).,
. Figure 6, Page from the 1755 issue of Hoch Deutsch Americanische Calender.
45
a rea. F rom the years 1739-1746 Saur's Germ a n alma nac
was the only one being p rin ted in America. By 1747
Fra nklin became sufficiently in terested in Germa nAmericans th a t he published a Germa n version of his
" Pl a in Truth" a nd the N eu -Eingerichteter Americanischer Cesc hichts-Kalender. Gotth ard Armbruster, who
was a journ eyma n for Saur, helped Fra nklin in the two
mentioned Germa n publications. This writer wonders
if Saur' s death ca used Franklin to cease his Germ an
alma nac publication because the year of Saur's death
is the same as the last issue of the N eu-Eingerichteter
Americanischer Cesc hichts-Kalender.
G ERM AN STYLE ORIGIN
Figure 7. Page from the 1740 issue of Hach Deutsch
Americanische OIlender.
One of the interesting qu estions which a rises rega rding the H oc h D eutsch Americanische Calender is,
which of its interesting features th a t ap pea r in la ter
Germa n-style alm a nacs were origin a ted by Saur? As
was m entioned previously the onl y known Germa n
la nguage a lma nac printed in Ameri ca before Sa ur's is
the .Teutsche Pilgrim for 17 31-17 33 (see Figure 9 ) .
This writer was a bl e to examine th e onl y known exta nt
copies of this a lma nac a t the Long I sla nd Histori cal
Society. The 17 31 issue included a red a nd bl ack ink
title page as well as red a nd bl ack entries (see Figu re
10 ) . The 17 32 issue included only a red a nd black
titl e p age whil e the 17 33 issu e was all bl ack. The
bas ic squ a re sha pe, monthly form a t, a nd eclip e inform a tion used by Sa ur was simil a r to th a t of the
T eutsche Pilgrim . Whil e Sa ur does not include sepa ra te inform a tion on the weather alone, the T eutsche
Pilgrim includ es a section like this whi ch appears to
be a forerunner of the quota ti ons from "Centennial
Alm a nacs" rega rding the weather which becomes a
sta nd a rd entry in Germ a n-style Alm a nacs. Whil e the
T eutsc he Pilgrim does have advice regarding blood letting a nd cupping in its monthl y entries as do Sa ur' s
alm a nacs, the T eutsche Pilgrim does not h ave the astrological advice regarding wood-cutting or even the alm a nac ma n which a ppears in Sa ur's alma nacs a nd
becomes a sta nda rd entry in Ge rma n-style almanacs.
Both the T eutsche Pilgrim a nd Saur's alma nacs had
sepa ra te sections associa ting the moon a nd weather
whi ch was included in som e la te r a lm a nacs read by
the Pennsylva ni a German community.
CONCL U SIONS
Figure 8. Page from the 1750 issue of Hach Deutsch
Americanische OIlender.
46
Although th e periods during which C. F. Egelma nn
a nd Sa uer fl ourished were sepa ra ted by a lmost a century, a n interesting simil a rity is found in the cha racter
of their stimul a tion. It was shown in Articl e VII of
this series th a t the quantity a nd qu ality of Egelmann's
astronomically rel a ted work showed a distinct peak
a round the second predicted a ppa ritions of Hall ey' s
com et. For Sa uer the qua ntity a nd qua lity of his
astronomicall y rela ted work occurs when he introduces
the Gregorian calenda r in his 1752 alma nac.
The year 1752 not only occurs during the red-black
alma nac period ( 1748-1754 ) but just precedes both his
major astronomica l publi cation, Grew's treatise, and
the first appearance of G erman script. The year 1753
also ma rks the appearance of his son's first sustained
English language almanac.
While the H och D eutsch Americanische Calender
was not the first G erman la ngu age almanac in America
it was a leader. The almanac set standards for subequent German style calendars including the simultaneous a ppeara nce of Julia n and Gregori a n calendars,
a nd the richness of the content, especially th e astronomical and astrological data which characterizes the
Germa n-styl e alm anac.
One of the interesting characteristics of the H och
Deutsch Americanisc he Calender is that it was continua lly changing in some aspects. Changes included
number of pages, inclusion of new items, exclusion
of old items, appearance and disappearance of red
ink, and rearra ngements of materials. These continu al
cha nges indicate a vitality and result from the fact
that there was a whole year between issues to reflect
on their contents.
IOFigu re credits a re du e to th e co urtesy o f the foll ow in g
g roups: Figures 2-6 and 8, the R a re Book Room o f th e Pennsy lvan ia Sta te Uni ve rsity; Fig ures 9 and 10, the Long I sla nd
Histo ri cal Soc iety; Figures I an d 7, th e Juni ata College Library.
Title page from the 1731 issue of Teutsche
Figure 9.
Pilgrim.
J
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Figure 10. Two pages from the 1731 issue of Teutsche Pilgrim.
47
Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 38
READING MATTER IN
THE PENNSYLVANIA HOME
In a culture that is (or was) print-oriented, books, newspapers, and periodicals have had wide influence on all of
us, especially in those childhood years when we are discovering the world around us. This questionnaire is designed to
elicit materials on the reading matter that was available to
you, particularly in your childhood home, so that we can
compare its range with the range of materials available in
the average (TV-oriented) American home of today.
1. Almanacs. Every Pennsylvania home in the past
had its almanac. What almanac did your family receive?
Where was the current one kept in the house? How and for
what purposes was it consulted? Were the old ones thrown
out or kept? If the latter, where and why were they kept?
2. Newspapers. Most Pennsylvanians subscribed to one
or more newspapers in the past as well as the present. What
newspapers were read in your childhood home, in the homes
of your relatives? Were they dailies or weeklies? English,
German, or other languages? What departments of these
earlier newspapers of your childhood days do you most
remember?
3. Periodicals. What periodicals were read in your
childhood home, in the homes of your relatives? Was their
orientation religious or secular? Were there in the past
special children's periodicals as today?
4. Religious Books. Every home had a Bible, usually
the monumental family Bible. Where was it kept? Was it
honored by being read aloud? If so, when, and where?
What hymnbooks, prayerbooks, religious story books, and
other publications of a religious nature did your household
have? What do you best remember about them?
5. Secular Books. What non-religious books were
available in your childhood home? Schoolbooks? Formu- '
laries for letters and legal documents? Medical works?
Story books? Novels? Scientific books? Books of travel
and description? Historical works, in particular books on
county and local history? Did you read any of the latter
when you were growing up? What did they mean to you at
the time?
48
6. Children's Books. Were there special children's
books in your childhood home? Did you have personal
volumes given you as gifts? When were gift volumes usually
given, and by whom? Which of your children's books do
you remember best now? Why do you remember them?
Were any books forbidden to children, dime novels, penny
dreadfuls, etc.?
7. Books in the House. Where were books kept in the
house? In special bookcases, in desks, in cupboards, in the
attic?
8. Atmosphere for Reading. Was reading encouraged
in your childhood home; or was much of it considered an
idle pastime? When did you fmd time to read? Where was
reading done? Was Sunday an allowable reading day, for
religious or secular items?
9. Influential Books. As you look back over your
early years, which books had the most influence in your
development? Why? Would you recommend them to
children today?
10. Books in Past and Present. (a) Looking back into
the past beyond your childhood home, can you describe
the differences, as you remember them, between the range
of reading matter in your home from that available in your
grandparents' homes? (b) Coming back to the present,
what types of reading matter are available at the present
time that are different than those available to you in your
childhood home? Is there gain as well as loss involved? Is
there actually less reading now because of the domination
of the TV in the living room?
Send your replies to:
Dr. Don Yoder
Logan Hall Box 13
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19174
Contributors to this Issue
DR. PAUL H. DOUGLAS, Baltimore, Maryland, is a
member of the English Department at Towson State College
in Baltimore. He received his doctorate from the George
Washington University in 1973, with a dissertation on "The
Material Culture of the Communities of the Hannony Society". His article in this issue is an introduction to this
subject for our readers.
VERNON H. NELSON, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is
Archivist of the Moravian Church in North America. His
article in this issue describes the German script course
offered by the Archive in Bethlehem to students interested
in achieving proficiency in reading Gennan scripts of the
18th and 19th Century.
CAROL WOJTOWICZ, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a
student in the American Civilization Department at the
University of Pennsylvania. A native Philadelphian and a
product of its schools, her paper describes her fieldwork
done with representatives of three different generations of
school students, on the subject of playground games at the
public schools. The article is one of a series on games in
Pennsylvania contexts that we have been publishing, the
latest of which was the Symposium on Games, Pennsyl.
vania Folklife, XXIlI:4 (Summer 1974), 2-30.
DR. THEODORE W. JENTSCH, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, is professor of sociology at Kutztown State College.
His contribution to this issue is Chapter IV of his doctoral
dissertation, "Mennonite Americans: A Study of a Religious
Subculture from a Sociological Standpoint". The section
on family life from the dissertation appeared in Pennsylvania Folklife, XXIV :1 (Fall 1974), 18-27.
WILLIAM WOYS WEAVER, West Chester, Pennsylvania,
holds a master's degree in architectural history from the
University of Virginia. A native of Chester County, he has
published articles on Pennsylvania German history and
genealogy . His bibliography on European backgrounds of
Pennsylvania German architecture will, we trust, prove helpful to those Pennsylvania scholars working on restorations
of house and farmstead architecture in this country.
DR. LOUIS WINKLER, State College, Pennsylvania,
teaches astronomy at the Pennsylvania State University.
His article on the almanacs of the colonial printer Christoph
Saur is the tenth in his series on Pennsylvania German
Astronomy and Astrology.
June 28, 29, 30
July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1975
For The Folk Festival Brochure Write To:
PENNSYLVANIA FOLKLIFE SOCIETY
College Blvd. and Vine, Kutz.town, Pennsylvania
19530
The Festival and its Sponsorship
The Kutztown Folk Festival is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society, a
nonprofit educational corporation affiliated with URSINUS COLLEGE, Collegeville, Pennsylvania . The Society's purposes are threefold: First, the demonstrating
and displaying of the lore and folkways of the Pennsylvania Dutch through the
annual Kutztown Folk Festival; second, the collecting, studying, archiving and
publishing the lore of the Dutch Country and Pennsylvania through the publication of PENNSYLVANIA FOLKLIFE Magazine; and third, using the proceeds
for scholarships and general educational purposes at URSINUS COLLEGE.