Pennsylv~ni~ lltennonite Volume XVIII, Number 1 January 1995 ·-·F .,·. <fl. ~ ~ ··,. ! ·. -1 '· ·. ..:., ' - ~ .• Contributors to This Issue Neil Ann Stuckey Levine S. Michael Wilcox J. Samuel Thomas Noah G. Good Neil Ann Stuckey Levine is a historian specializing may be contacted at Institute of Religion, 1800 South in Amish Mennonite immigration to North America Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112. from Europe in the early nineteenth century. A native of J. Samuel Thomas, presently pastor of Landisville Butler County, Ohio, she is a descendant of Joseph Mennonite Church, Landisville, Pennsylvania, was born Stuckey, Amish bishop of McLean County, Illinois. She and raised in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He grad­ received a B.A. degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, uated from Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg, New York, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia Virginia, with a major in Bible and Psychology. Further University, New York City. She has taught classical lan­ education includes a Certificate of Theology from guages at Hunter College in New York City, and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Elkhart, American University and George Washington Indiana. He was Director of Voluntary Service and University in Washington D.C. From 1980 to 1994 she Discipleship Ministries at Eastern Mennonite Board of served on the staff of the Institute for Advanced Study Missions and Charities in Salunga, Pennsylvania, from (School of Historical Studies) in Princeton, New Jersey. 1976 to 1986. From 1986 to 1988 he taught in the Bible An editorial committee, of which she is a member, is Department at Lancaster Mennonite High School, preparing an English translation of Amish Mennonites in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He and his wife live at 1316 Germany by Hermann Guth for publication in 1995. She Nissley Road, Landisville, PA 17538. has begun to work on a book-length study of the Amish Noah G. Good was ordained to the ministry of the Mennonite community in Butler County based on origi­ Lancaster Mennonite Conference in 193 7 and later nal documents. She and her husband, who have two served at the mission in Reading, Pennsylvania, and also grown sons, live at 108 Parkside Drive, Princeton, NJ congregations in Lancaster and Ephrata, Pennsylvania. 08540; (609) 921-1632. He taught and served as dean and principal at Lancaster S. Michael Wilcox is currently on the faculty of the Mennonite High School from 1942 to 1977. As an avoca­ Institute of Religion adjacent to the University of Utah in tion he translates and transcribes German script and Salt Lake City, Utah. He teaches in the Church teaches courses on Pennsylvania German dialect. He did Education System of the Church of Jesus Christ of the his undergraduate studies at Eastern Mennonite College Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). He received a B.A. degree in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Elizabethtown College in in English and French from Brigham Young University, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and Franklin and Marshall Salt Lake City, a M.A. degree in Media Technology from College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and received a ~· Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. degree from the Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. University of Colorado in Educational Philosophy. Most He created the character Henner for Pennsylvania of his genealogical activities have involved records from Mennonite Heritage. He and his wife live at 2180 Germany, France, Denmark, and Colonial America. He Millstream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (ISSN 0148-4036) is the quarterly and titles, every name, and errata-addenda: 1978-1982 at $14.95 ppd. magazine of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, 2215 1983-1987 at $18.95 ppd. and 1988-1992 at $18.95 ppd. Address Millstream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602. It focuses on the historical changes, including old and new addresses, should be forwarded to background, religious thought and expression, culture, and genealogy Lancaster at least six weeks in advance. of the Mennonite-related groups originating in Pennsylvania. Articles Direct editorial mail to 2215 Millstream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602. appearing in this magazine are annotated and indexed in Historical The editor will be pleased to consider unsolicited manuscripts and Abstracts, America: History and Life and Genealogical Periodical Annual photographs sent for publication but accepts no responsibility for man­ Index. Second class postage paid at Lancaster, P A. uscripts not accompanied by return postage. Phone (717) 393-9745. Single copies, $8.00 each ppd., $6.00 at Society. Regular, annual Copyright 1995 by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, 2215 membership $25.00. Five-year cumulative indexes of authors-subjects Millstream Road, Lancaster, P A 17602. 'J)ennsyl"~n1a ittennonite STAFF Editor David J. Rempel Smucker Editorial Assistant Lola M. Lehman e1'itage Copy Editor Volume XVIII, Number 1 January 1995 Alice W. Lapp Language Consultant NoahG.Good IN THIS ISSUE Circulation Catherine (Miller) Verly's Lament 2 Judith A. Stahly by Neil Ann Stuckey Levine Editorial Council Landis Families of Canton Zurich, Switzerland 13 Ervin Beck by S. Michael Wilcox Eugene K. Engle The Anabaptist Vision and Congregational Life 19 Galen R. Horst-Martz by J. Samuel Thomas S. Duane Kauffman Kent E. Richard Die Silwer Barrig Rebelle 23 Lorraine Roth The Silver Hill Rebels . E. Morris Sider by Noah G. Good John E. Sharp Queries 24 MaryS. Sprunger Tips 27 Book Reviews 28 Piety and Tolerance: Pennsylvania German Religion, 1700-1850, by Stephen L. Longenecker by Charles H. Glatfelter Henry and Susanna Rudisill Hursh: Their Ancestors and Descendants, by Ruth P. Hursh and Sally L. Hursh by Kent E. Richard The Fortunate Years, by AaronS. Glick by John E. Sharp THE COVER This letter was written by Catherine (Miller) Verly in France to her cousin Christian Dienner in Pennsylvania on October 18, 1846. The first article of this issue includes a translation of the let­ ter, in which the writer pleads for news about her birth family in North America, whom she never knew. Her moving words are supported by detailed information about her extended family abroad. The letter was mailed from Catherine's home, Lafrimbolle, in the department of Moselle, and received by her cousin in Lancaster County on December 1, 1846. Written on a single sheet of paper measuring 15 3j4 x 12 inches, the letter is now held by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Illustration credits: author, pp. 2, 4; Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, p. 5; Clarke E. Hess, p. 13; David J. Rempel Smucker, p. 18; Archives of the (Old) Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana, p. 19. Abandoned at birth in France, a 29-year-old Anabaptist housewife writes of the continuing pain caused by her parents' decision to immigrate to North America in 1818 without her. Catherine (Miller) Verly's Lament by Neil Ann Stuckey Levine atherine (Miller) Verly, a 29-year-old Anabaptist farm wife and mother in rural Lorraine in northeastern France, wrote a C poignant letter to her cousin Christian Dienner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1846. She put pen to paper eight years after Christian Dienner and his eight orphaned siblings immigrated to Pennsylvania. Originally the letter-writer had been included in the Dienners' plans as a tenth traveller. Instead she stayed behind and married a local farmer, a property-owner. She writes with anguish and bewilder­ ment of being abandoned by her parents "almost at birth" and of toiling for those who raised her and ruining her health in the process. Although now satisfied with her marriage, she still longs for information about her real family. And, in an emotional outburst, she regrets not having left France with her cousins when she had the chance. But let Catherine (Miller) Verly speak for herself. The mayor's office (mairie) of Lafrimbolle, Moselle, France, holds the original 1838 civil marriage record of Catherine Translated Letter of 1846 Miller and Jean Verly. From that rural village in the foothills Lafrimbolle [Moselle] of the Vosges Mountains, Catherine in 1846 wrote the letter October 18, 1846 to her cousin Christian Dienner in Pennsylvania on which My dear cousin, this article is based. I take pen in hand to let you know that I have received your letter. My dear cousin, I want to tell you am at ease in my household and hard-working. But what that I am in good health, and so are my husband and my saddens me greatly is that my husband's relatives are children. Now, my dear cousin, I'm going to tell you a rich, and I'm afraid they look at my husband askance bit about my life. You know, of course, that my parents because he married a poor woman. abandoned me at such a young age, almost at birth. But Finally, dear cousin, I'll tell you that, as far back as I God took pity on me, and He has always been my can remember, no one has ever given me any news of my Protector. They left me believing that I would be happy, parents. Although I have tried to find out about them, I but actually the opposite happened. I will tell you that I have never learned anything. Just think, my dear cousin, have suffered a lot and endured hardships from the how it hurts me to have no one, to be abandoned by my rough work. After having worked hard for the parents close relatives. And those who brought me up pay me no who brought me up and having ruined my health, I have heed, now that the father is dead. I pray you, as a favor, been poorly rewarded. Because avarice and greed moti­ to find out about my father and mother and to inform vated them so much, after I helped them to pay their them about me.