by P. L. Gaus
Most of all, I am grateful for and indebted to my beloved wife Madonna, who is my most inciteful critic, my most effective muse, and my most cherished friend and companion.
Dedication
Dedicated to the patient fans of my Amish-Country Mysteries.
Thank you for waiting. I know from your many letters that it has been difficult,
and I can say only that I very much appreciate your patience.
Author’s Note
Many difficult and puzzling questions arise when the various Amish societies in America are examined and compared. This is made especially obvious when all the numerous and different sects are brought fully into view. To the casual tourist, it may appear that the Amish people of America are rather homogeneous and unified. But to those of us who have made a study of it from the outside, the most astonishing discovery is the great number of different sects that exist within these diverse Anabaptist colonies. The division is often so complete that even a single congregation can sometimes be said to constitute a discrete sect unto itself. Across the spectrum from New Order Mennonite to Old Order Schwartzentrubers, the differences appear to be vast. Yet when one bishop’s congregation is compared with another’s, the differences can be minute. Even so, these small differences can become such critical issues that they will govern the decisions of bishops on whether or not to commune with neighboring congregations. For instance, the bishop of one congregation might permit gasoline hay baling equipment to be used, so long as it is pulled through a field by a team of horses, whereas a neighboring bishop might rule against gasoline hay balers altogether, whether pulled by horses or not. Over differences such as these, the one group might decide not to have fellowship with the other.
The consequences for Old Order congregants can be very great. Where one bishop permits the use of riding lawn mowers, another will not. A more liberal bishop might rule that riding lawn mowers may be driven into towns and villages, whereas a more conservative bishop will rule that travel over the roads must be done with horse and buggy exclusively.
This story is about the most conservative of all the Old Order sects – the Schwartzentrubers. I admire the fortitude and dedication of these people, and I am amazed by the steadfastness that is required to live according to their religious convictions. These are the people who refuse to make any reconciliation with the modern world. They hold religiously to the lifestyles and traditions of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European peasants, and they will surely be the last of the Amish peoples to make compromises with the lifestyles and attitudes of those English out there. This ultra-conservative sect is just as solidly fixed in their old-world traditions as the past is fixed in the history books. Their farms are purposefully little different from the German farms that their ancestors had been driven from in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They speak their own dialect at home and speak and read only High German in their bi-monthly Sunday services. These German services are always conducted by the congregation’s sole autocratic bishop, with help from the preachers and deacons, to relentlessly emphasize not just the Gospel of Christ, but also the struggles, persecutions and martyrdom of the German first families, who fled the Fatherland to seek religious freedom in the Americas. And it is this religious freedom, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that now in the twenty-first century grants these backward-looking Schwartzentrubers the right as Americans, and the insulation from English society that is necessary, to live as mere peasants according to the oldest strictures on dress, behavior and lifestyle, in a world gone as modern as moon shots, cell phones and the internet.
It is necessary that I be honest with myself and my readers when writing about the Schwartzentrubers. With this novel, I hope to provide the opposing points of view that are necessary to allow my readers to form their own opinions about the culture and traditions of the Old Order Schwartzentruber Amish. I have endeavored to depict the conditions on a Schwartzentruber farm as I have many times observed them to be. Readers might be surprised at the primitive nature of these farms, but I have not written about anything that I have not seen firsthand in these communities. Regardless of one’s opinion on these matters, it is essential to remember that the lifestyle that Schwartzentrubers have chosen is one that arises from deep and fervent religious convictions.
The Cover Image
The cover photo (Copyright © 2019 Paul L. Gaus, all rights reserved) is of two Schwartzentruber children walking along a road in the countryside near the setting for this story. The thin, parallel lines on the pavement at their feet are the noon shadows of electric lines that ran overhead. The image testifies to the span of five centuries that separates the Schwartzentrubers from the English who live among them.
The Previous Amish-Country Mysteries in Reverse Order of Publication:
9. Whiskers of the Lion – Plume at Penguin Group, 2015
8. The Names of Our Tears – Plume at Penguin Group, 2013
7. Harmless as Doves – 2011, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2012
6. Separate from the World – 2008, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2011
5. A Prayer for the Night – 2006, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2011
4. Cast a Blue Shadow – 2003, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2011
3. Clouds Without Rain – 2001, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2010
2. Broken English – 2000, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2010
1. Blood of the Prodigal – 1999, Ohio University Press, and Plume at Penguin Group, 2010
Resources for Readers
1. Author’s Email Address: [email protected]
2. Author’s Website and Blog: https://plgaus.com
3. Facebook’s Community Page for The Amish-Country Mysteries: https://www.facebook.com/Amish.Country.Mysteries/
4. Comprehensive Reference Work: Unser Leit, The Story of the Amish, in two volumes, by Leroy Beachy, Copyright © 2011 Goodly Heritage Books, 4324 St. Route 39, Millersburg, Ohio 44654-9681, (330) 893-2883
5. The Best Single Book on the Amish: Our Amish Neighbors, by Professor William I. Schreiber, Copyright © 1992 William I. Schreiber, a rare book that is sometimes still available at the Florence Wilson Bookstore, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Alternately, it can also be purchased at many specialty bookstores, and at numerous online at retailers.
6. The musings of an Old Order Amish man, with comments and observations on hundreds of important issues: Bedenklich Happenings and More, Volumes I and II, by Levi L. Fisher, Copyright © 2013 and 2016 Levi L. Fisher, Masthof Press, 219 Mill Road, Morgantown, PA.
