Small Town, Big Deal - "Amana Colonies'

Here's another segment for my Amana collection. (Click on Amana in the labels to see my other posts.) This informative and interesting video has me wanting to go there more than ever. Very worthwhile to watch and it's just a bit more than twenty minutes. Thank you Susan, for pointing this video out to me! Susan Sevig, lives in Florida and is a great granddaughter of Michael Hofer. I especially enjoyed this video because there are people in it, who I've been in contact with via email: Lanny Haldy and Peter Hoehnle.

My favourite part of the video is blanket weaving. They're absolutely gorgeous and it only takes a few mintues to make one! Amazing, when you see all those spools of wool waiting to be woven into blankets - like Rodney Miller jokingly said in video - "Looks like a disaster waiting to happen." I wonder if they are as soft and cozy as they look.

My bucket list has two Amana things on it now: 1.) visit Amana, 2.) get a woolen blanket (can't decide between the brown plaid one or the red one on the loom - both are beautiful!)...providing I'll be able to afford it.

 

 

What did you like best?

Some More Amana Tidbits

As you're aware, a few months ago I did a few posts on the Amana Colonies and their relations to the Hutterites. In case you want to see these, or maybe even missed them, here are the links to them:

• Amana - Hutterite Connections
• Michael Hofer - Amana Bound
• Amana - The Woman at the Well
• Reflections of Hutterites who Visited Amana

Since then I've been given a few more related pictures to add to my Amana collection. I'm always excited to hear when some of my posts prompt special memories for readers, and they share these with me. The pictures I'm sharing today are from my good friends, Norman and Darlene Hofer, from Freeman South Dakota. They are known as Prairie People, and are a group of people who share the same history as the Hutterites. When the Hutterites first came to North America, this group chose to settle on individual farms as opposed to living communally. (Perhaps I'll write a longer post about that at some point. Norman, maybe you can help me. Would be great to have you as a guest on my blog!)

In any case, Norman and Darlene Hofer visited the Amana Colonies some years ago and shared some of their photos.

The house Michael Hofer lived in at Main Amana.

Norman Hofer at Michael Hofer's grave. Note that all graves are exactly alike.

Darlene Hofer with Mariette Moerschal a relative of Michael Hofer who they met at Amana.

The machine shop Michael Hofer worked in.

Apparently Michael was quite a handyman. This is a dollhouse he built for his daughters. It is now displayed at the Amana Museum.

 

Another example of his handiwork.

Thanks so much, Norman for sharing these pictures with me!

Reflections of Hutterites who Visited Amana (guest bloggers)

Was happy to hear that quite a few people enjoyed the Amana posts! Thanks for the feedback! Today, I'm happy to welcome fellow Hutterites, Jesse Hofer and Kenny Wollmann as guest bloggers. They visited Amana a few years ago and kindly agreed to share their reflections.

Hutterites Visit Amana - August 19-20, 2010

The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren relates that Hutterites and the people of Amana share a warm connection. In the early years of the Hutterites’ North American experience, the kindness of the Amana residents enabled the financially challenged Hutterites to purchase land and get established in a foreign land. The Chronicle concludes by commenting that, since then, “Hutterites visit the Amana people at every opportunity.”

When the opportunity presented itself in August of 2009, a group of Hutterite educators—including most of the members of the Hutterian Brethren Education Committee—visited the Amana villages in southern Iowa. The group attended a planning meeting in Minnesota before making the trip south to tour the villages.

Conscious of their own history and experience as a communal society, Hutterites are very interested in what they can learn from the Amana story. Our group was particularly interested in learning more about why Amana abandoned the practice of community of goods.



Michael Hofer, working in metal shop

When we arrived at Amana, Peter Hoehnle and his infant son, Jonathan, greeted us in front of the General Store. Listening to Peter relate the colourful characters and stories that shaped Amana, we quickly recognized the strong similarities to our own experiences, obviously due to our common Germanic heritage and communal life-style.

Part of the group of 22 was Rev. Arnold Hofer from Acadia Community, Carberry, Manitoba. Arnold is great nephew to Michael Hofer, a former Hutterite from Bon Homme, South Dakota. Michael became a resident of Amana after visiting to receive treatment for an eye condition. He stayed, worked in the blacksmith shop and eventually married one of the locals, Anna Marie Stuck. It was a touching experience to visit the metal shop where Michael served the community as a blacksmith.

The visit provided another generation of Hutterites the occasion to honour the Amana people for their generous assistance in the past. We were reminded of the richness that communal life can have—a fact we can easily lose sight of when we are too busy living life. Like the Amana of old, we are encouraged to “Bleib treu!”


Thank you, Jesse and Kenny! It's obvious you had a wonderful time soaking up Amana hospitality. Hopefully one day I will have the opportunity to visit there as well. Until then, I dream!

Amana - The Woman at the Well

(continued from Michael Hofer - Amana Bound)

Maria Stuck (right) with a cousin

Michael Hofer lived in Main Amana and some years after joining the Inspirationists, while drawing water at a well, he met Maria Stuck, a girl from his own village. When I first read this, a song we usually sing at weddings, came to mind: Es wollt ein Mägdlein Wasser gut, schöpfen bei einen Brunnen, based on the Bible story about Isaac and Rebecca. Of course Isaac himself didn’t meet his future wife at the well, but a servant of the family. Still, the stories have some similarities.

Just like in the Bible story, this encounter at the well ultimately led to marriage. When Michael and Maria made their intentions of marriage known, they had to live in separate villages because of the customary yearlong separation, required to test their commitment to marriage. Thus, Maria went to Middle Amana and worked in the communal kitchen, while Michael remained in Main Amana, working in the machine shop and woolen mill.  I’m not sure if visits between engaged couples were allowed, however, Michael did visit Maria, sometimes trudgeing across the frozen pond during winter to do so. They were married October 4, 1888 and were assigned a home in Main Amana. They were blessed with two daughters, Susanna and Katharina.

A ‘Michael Hofer, Amana’ Google search led me to an article by Tim Smith, a Brandon, Manitoba photographer, where a Susan Sevig mentioned Michael Hofer in a comment. Imagine my excitement when I learned that she’s the great granddaughter of Michael and Maria Hofer. Susanna Hofer Kippenhan is her Grandmother. I contacted Susan, who shared my excitement when I told her that I was a Hutterite, because she always had an interest in her great grandfather’s people. Therefore, she kindly answered all my questions and provided me with pictures and other documents. Susan grew up in Amana, but now lives in Florida. She maintains an interesting blog, Schnitzel and the Trout, where she occasionally writes about her Amana-Hutterite heritage.

Michael lived in Amana for the rest of his life, but stayed in contact with his Hutterite family. At age 65 Michael became very ill and was taken to a Cedar Rapids hospital where he had an appendectomy, complicated by pneumonia. He seemed to be doing fine, but then suddenly got worse and died that same evening on February 24, 1924. He was laid to rest in his home village, Main Amana. Part of his obituary reads: Mr. Hofer held the responsible position of head millwright and rendered exceptionally good service during the last several months in rebuilding and installing the machinery in the new woolen mill plant at this place. Though his bodily strength had declined for some time, he still stood up and did his utmost, being invaluable with his advice gathered out of a rich store of many years experience.

After her husband’s death, Maria moved to Homestead, another Amana village where her daughters, Susanna Hofer Kippenhan and Katharina Hofer Moershel lived with their families. She passed away in 1948. The daughters kept up contact with their Hutterite relatives till 1987 when Katharina died. At that point it was one hundred and ten years since Michael took a train to Amana, which led to his new communal life among the Inspirationists.

           

Katharina Hofer Moershal (middle) with daughter Henrietta
 Ruff (right) and daughter-in-law Marietta Moershal(left)

As mentioned previously, Michael has relatives here at my colony. His niece, Maria Hofer corresponded via mail with Katharina Moershal for some time. Included in one of these letters was this picture. I have no idea when and where it was taken. Fortunately, one of Maria's granddaughters,  kept the picture for many years, since the death of Maria Hofer. (Thank you, Kathryn!)Would be interesting to read the letters, but I haven't been able to find them yet.

My sincere thanks to Lanny Haldy, at the Amana Heritage Society for putting me in contact with Peter Hoehnle, a historian who’s studied the Amana Society extensively. Mr. Hoehnle kindly sent me an interesting article he wrote on Michael Hofer, which had been published in the journal, Communal Societies in 2002. This article helped shed a lot of light on the life of Michael Hofer.

  

           

Michael Hofer - Amana Bound

            It’s time to write about the other Amana – Hutterite connection. (If you missed my first Amana post, click here.)  This one is not only fascinating, but very unique as well. To add to this fascination, I’ve come in contact with some interesting people, who have helped me piece together this story, which few Hutterites know about. But more on that later

            As stated in my previous Amana post, when the Hutterites struggled financially in their early years in America, they asked Amana for help, which they kindly agreed to. Bon Homme Colony in South Dakota, in particular had a lot of contact with the Inspirationists.

Michael Hofer
- photo courtesy of Susan Sevig

Upon arrival to America from Russia between 1874 and 1879 the Hutterites settled in South Dakota. Among them was Michael Hofer, about 20 years old at the time. He was the son of Johann ‘Jana’ and his second wife, Susanna Hofer of the Bon Homme Colony. Shortly after settling in their new home, Michael’s eyes were severely damaged during a dust storm. Since they found no one in South Dakota who could help heal his eyes, the community opted to send him to Amana, where they had their own doctors. This found him on a train, bound for Amana, where he would work in the community to pay for his eye treatment. Under the excellent care of the doctors, his eyes were soon restored to good health. However, interestingly enough, he did not return home. In 1880 he chose to stay and made Amana his home, thus leaving one Christian community for another one.

Through our ‘Hutterites Record Book’, I learned that Michael Hofer had a niece, Maria Hofer here at my Hutterite colony where three of her sons, Zack, Rueben and Ike still live. This fact fueled my interest in Amana even more. Therefore I kept searching till I found a few more pieces of this fascinating story.

 

(The rest of this story will be posted at a later date. Of course, if you have anything to add to it, I'd love to hear from you!)

The Amana - Hutterite Connection

Amana women at work
 (photo courtesy of the Amana Heritage Society.)

The Amana Colonies in America were founded in 1843-44, when a group of about 1,200 Inspirationists, led by Christian Metz fled Germany because of persecution and an economic depression. They first settled in Buffalo, New York. However, when more farmland was needed in 1855,  they moved to Iowa, farming and living in community of goods along the Iowa River. At that point they were known as Ebenezer Society. Later, they renamed their village 'Bleib Treu', a name derived from Song of Solomon 4:8 - Amana, which means 'remain true'. On 26,000 acres of land, six villages were established in close proximity to each other; only a mile or two apart: Amana, East Amana, West Amana, South Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana and Homestead. They gave up community of goods during the Great Depression in 1932.

Today, according to their website: 'the seven villages of the Amana Colonies represent an American dream come true; a thriving community founded by religious faith and community spirit. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, the Amana Colonies attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, all of whom come to see and enjoy a place where the past is cherished and where hospitality is a way of life.
Evocative of another age, the streets of the Amana Colonies with their historic brick, stone and clapboard homes, their flower and vegetable gardens, their lanterns and walkways recall Amana yesterday. But a vibrant community, celebrating both its past and its future, is here today for you to experience.'

I'm not even sure when I first became interested in this group, but recently was inspired to take a closer look at the Amana - Hutterite connection, after reading an historical fiction book, A Hidden Truth by Judith Miller. My interest also stems from the fact that there are quite a few similarities between Amana and the Hutterites, including a German background, having to flee to America because of persecution and the fact that they too lived 'all things common' for many years. While Hutterites still live in Christian community and are largely farmers, Amana now contributes more to the tourism industry in Iowa.



Hutterite women at work
(Photo: The Golden Years of the Hutterites - Leonard Gross)

Besides all that, having been well established in America, by the time the Hutterites arrived from Russia between 1874-79, the Inspirationists of Amana, kindly helped the Hutterites, who had settled in the Bonne Homme County, South Dakota. Along with supporting them financially, Amana gave them supplies from their stores. On one occasion they provided the Hutterites with bolts of black and white polka dot fabric, which was used for Tiechlen (headcoverings) for the women, like that of the one woman in the picture. Thus, a Hutterite tradition was born, which in some colonies is still alive today. Prior to that, plain black was used, which interestingly enough, many Hutterites have gone back to.

It's quite possible that the use of sunbonnets while working in the garden in earlier years was something the Hutterites learned from Amana Colonies as well, since this type of headcovering is what Amana women traditionally wore.

I've never visited the Amana Colonies, but it's on my bucket list. Have you been to this Historic Site? Or maybe you have ancestors who grew up there. Have you written about them? No matter what your connection is, I'd love to hear about it!

(There's a further Amana - Hutterite connection, which I will post at a later date. This one I find even more fascinating.)