I've asked my father-in-law to share stories about our family history. I am hoping to make his stories a regular feature in my blog. I will type as he speaks.
I believe that one of the main blessings that shaped our family was Tennessee John's desire to live according to the Bible rather than Amish Ordnung.(order) This is my understanding of Tennessee John. Many people have said many things, but this is my understanding of his heart's desire. More directly, touching our lives, was Grandpa Levi Hertzler's desire to find a good farm near an Amish church where God was working.
The Amish church at Long Green, Maryland, experienced some kind of disruption and many of the church members left. Levi was visiting Amish communities and came upon a place near Topeka, Indiana, called the Hawpatch where the soil was black and deep. He decided this was where he wanted to live. But, he evidently had some wanderlust left and went to visit the Amish community of Concord, TN. There he met Katie Stoltzfus, Tennessee John's grandaughter. They got married and he wanted to move to the Hawpatch, but, their group was small, and they insisited that he stay there.
Grandpa Levi was a congenial man and he complied with their wishes.
There was not alot of paying jobs available in those days. He tried running a sawmill, which was accepted by the community and they brought their logs to him. But they paid him by leaving a percentage of the sawed lumber for which he didn't have sale. He raised produce and sold it in the community, but this was not a twelve month job. When the Rural Free Delivery was inacted by Congress, he had the opportunity to become a mail carrier. Each man had to stake out his own route, and having had the produce business, he knew the community and he was able to do that, and was accepted for the job.
Mail carriers were required to wear a coat and tie which his generation of Amish had not done, but, he said, "The Lord would understand."
He liked the people, and they liked him, and he would stop and talk. He drove a horse and buggy through the summertime. Tennessee winter's were cold and wet and the mud in the road sometimes got deep, and he would ride a horse instead of driving his horse and buggy. Sometimes, when he wasn't feeling so well, his son, Melvin, took the route. But the people said that they didn't like that young fellow. He didn't stop and talk.
One of the pillars in the Amish community was John Summer Stoltzfus, Katie's father. Uncle Milford said of him, "He told those Ridger's what he thought and they liked him." He was a merry man. Aunt Ida idolized him as a girl. Aunt Lizzie, one time, was staying with Levi and Katie's family in the winter, and I would say that Aunt Lizzie was not careful to do everything that other's wanted her to do, and to the best of my understanding, she over-fired the stove one night, and set the house on fire. The family escaped with not a whole lot. I remember Grandma saying that she had a jar of pennies, which of course, was not destroyed. It might be interesting to add that a fire insurance salesman had approached Grandpa Levi some time before and Levi was not impressed and to act cute, he said to the man, "Well, what do you do if you don't have a fire?" As far as I know, they didn't have insurance.
Levi's father-in-law, John Summer Stoltzfus, was an enterprising man. He was put under the ban in Lancaster County and I never heard what for. (They practiced a pretty severe ban where the individual under the ban was not to live with their spouse. ) He helped elect Abraham Lincoln and he helped with the Underground Railroad. This may have been to his discredit in the eyes of the Amish leadership.
Tennessee John and his extended family left Lancaster County without him because he was under the ban. But, he found other railroad connections and was waiting for them on the platform when they got there. Apparently, they forgot about the ban and didn't practice it in Tennessee. I think this is one of the reasons Tennessee John went to Tennessee; to get rid of the binding Ordnung. There have been many opinions about this. I can't remember what Aunt Mae said, but Daddy said that Tennessee John wanted to get his boys out of the beer joints.
When Levi and Katie's house burned down, they were welcomed into the home of Katie's parent's.
Aunt Ida, Levi and Katie's second daughter, idolized her grandfather, John S. Stoltzfus. She told how she got some little chicks and spread her skirt over them like a hen. But, when she got up, the chicks were dead. Her grandfather said to her mother, "Don't you punish her."
One time when a PA. bishop was with the church for the communion service, Tennessee John's son, Gideon, I think, was preaching according to the Amish practice; one hour on types and shadows of Jesus and His ministry from the Old Testament and I don't recall what the other two hours were to contain, but halfway through, John Summers got his cane and said," If he wants to stay here that long, that's alright with me, but I'm going home," and he walked out. Aunt Mae, the oldest daughter, was ashamed, but Aunt Ida was proud. (She later named her first son, John Stoltzfus Powell. John was not proud of the name Stoltzfus until later in life.)
John Summers Stoltzus was married to Tennessee John's daughter, Betsy. Their children were Levi, Christ, Katie, Mary, and Elizabeth, called Lizzie. Christ was a very enterprising man. His father left a thousand dollars to each of his children when he died. Christ seemed to assume responsibility for Katie's money. He invested it in a farm in Michigan. We have a picture of Levi and Katie with Mary and Lizzie in Goshen, Indiana, when Levi and Katie were traveling to Michigan to see this farm.( Mary was matron at the girl's dorm at Goshen College and Lizzie worked in a printing house as a proof reader. ) But, Christ saw another opportunity, and said that it was too cold in Michigan, and sold the farm, and invested the money in property in what is now Wichita, Kansas. But, before they got there, he changed his mind and invested it in a property called Richneck, now part of Newport News, Virginia. There were no buildings on this property so the family lived in the Denbigh Hotel nearby. We have a picture of Levi's son, Melvin, my father, leaning against a pile of wood eating his lunch, which his father, Levi, had brought to him where he was clearing land. They lived in the Denbigh Mennonite Community for two years.
As the Amish do, they visited their cousins in Morgantown, Pa. They would have traveled by train to Elverson. Levi's cousin, Henry Hertzler, was married to Katie's cousin, Lefina Mast. She was a sister to Phil's mom's grandpa, David Mast. They were grandchildren of Tennessee John through his daughter, Rebecca, who was married to
John M. Mast, a good pillar in the Conestoga Amish Church.
I suppose Henry asked Levi where he was living and what it was like and I suppose when he said that they have this property to clear that has no buildings that Christ had bought for them, Henry said to Levi, "There are farms for sale up here. Come up and buy one. I'll loan you the money." I suspect that he was feeling generous because of a blessing that had come his way when a man named Jake Zook had willed him a sizable piece of property. Henry's father's family had given Jake Zook a home when he was old. He willed a third of his property to Henry and I suppose the rest to Henry's father.
Evidently, his relationship with his sisters lacked enthusiasm because he willed them each a dollar, but they had to come to Morgantown to get it. It has not been recorded where he got his money but rumor has it he was a pirate. That's what Elmer Hertzler told me. Truth is stranger than fiction.
There were three farms for sale in the area and Levi told Melvin to choose one. He chose Summit Level Farm; he said, "I want a big place."
There were fence rows to clear and he liked work. They bought the farm in 1920.
In Newport News, the Calvary sold some of their horses, and Levi bought a black horse, which they called, "Mike." He was a kindly horse and I rode him to hook off hay. He was hooked to a rope and on the other end was a hay fork, which was thrust into a load of loose hay, and lifted up to the track overhead and dropped in the haymow.
Melvin took three horses from Denbigh; I suppose it was Mike, Monk, and Major. Monk was short for "Monkey," a Palomino draft horse of the Belgium breed. I never saw another Palomino draft horse. He took them from Denbigh to Old Point Comfort, and got on the ferry to Baltimore, which traveled overnight. Traveling the next day, he got near to Oxford, where they put his horses in a stable, and gave him a place to sleep overnight. (Once when we were traveling, he pointed that farm out to me.) The next day, I assume he got to Elverson.
Summit Level Farm was a nice place and the buildings were in good shape. We have a picture of some of the family standing in front of the house. Grandpa is there with his arms folded with a look of satisfaction on his face. It must have been gratifying to him to have found the farm he was looking for where God was working at a church nearby. This was what he had set out to do when he left Long Green. This was his contribution to his family. And I think it must have been a satisfaction to have done it without any help from his energetic brother-in-law, Christ. I never sensed any hint from anybody that Grandpa Levi was irked at the way his brother-in-law moved them around. Christ later moved to the Elverson area, and bought a farm where he and his brother, Levi, and Levi's family and Macy(Mary) and Lizzie lived. I think Levi's wife had died before this move. Macy and Lizzie looked out for his children. Levi was married to a Detweiler. I think she was the daughter of the Mennonite preacher who came to shepherd the flock after Tennessee John was gone.
Aunt Mae said, "He (Detweiler) tried to make Mennonites out of us and everybody left." They were Old Order Amish but they didn't dress like it. They didn't have a dress code. Apparently, they all absorbed varying degrees of the southern culture. Uncle Truman and Uncle Gene used the term 'n-----', but my father never allowed us to use it. I never sensed any race prejudice in my father. Aunt Mae went to Goshen College and met Tobias K. Hershey there. He came to Tennessee and one time he was walking on the road with Uncle Truman. They met a black man and Uncle T.K. said to him, "Good-morning." The black man just about fell over and as soon as they got out of earshot, Uncle Truman said to him emphatically, " Tobias! Don't do that!" (White people were not supposed to greet the blacks.)
To Be Continued...
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