Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-03-13
AN ODD SECT.
SETTLEMENT OF THE 6ENNoN
TIES IN KANSAS.
People Who Preserve nredievaI Hab-
its and Customs
While Many Others Suf.
fer Fro IN Want.

Among the many diverse classes which
make up the composite population Of
Kansas none is more interesting or ne.
culiar than tho Mennonites found il
settlements in the western central portions
OF the State. From the founding of this
i peculiar sect by Samuel Menuo in Ger
many in the fifteenth century to the
present time, the members have kent
apart and separate from the remainder OF
mankind. Finding the rules and laws Of
Germany and Russia too harsh for their
i comfort they have como to Western
America where they can enjoy freedom
OF action and conscience in undisturbed
quiet and peace. Kansas is not alone in
having themi there are also settlements
In Nebraska and tho Dakotas, besides
scattering ones in the other northwest
ern States. But nowhere have the lead
ers OF the sect entered upon so me.hodi-
cal and permanent location of its deyo
tees as in the Sunfower State.
Their settlements transport one back
to the middle ages. Low stone houses
and barns, half underground, form their
buildings. In the houses are found the
families huddled more thickly than the
tenement houses of the largo cities, ex-
cept in the dwellings, of the richer
members. Their churches are rude
stone structures and their preachers
work side by side with the members in
the field. They believe only in the New
Testament as rule of life. They do not
believe in original sin or infant baptism.
and aver that Christians should not take
au oath, hold Office or use physical
force. As result they are harmless
aud clannish, plodding along screnely
secure OF their own salvation aud regard !.
less of the world around.
They are good farmers, and men and
women alike toll in the fields. Every
fall, no matter what the season, wheat is
brought to tho towns by the Mennonitcs.
Their settlements are far back from the
railroads as general thing, Sd they
come in with long wagon trains, all the
farmers coming at one time. Day after
day through the fall and winter the
Mennonites come in with wheat. The
native Kansan stands on the corner and
grumbles about hard times, but the
Mennonite comes in with wheat. The
Farmers Alliance holds its noiseless ses-
sions in secret, but the silence is broken
by the ''chuck" of the Mcnnonite's
wheat laden wagon. The Kansas Alex
ander who left his State with sky-scrap
ing ideas comes back chop fallen from
the Pacific, from Colorado, from Calves
ton aud Oklahoma and finds the Mennon-
ties rs he left them-selllng wheat.
They are not progressive. They use
antiquated farm machinery and methods.
They believe in little things, and will
walk ten miles to got cent more dozen
Tor the eggs produced on their farms.
The most extensive dealer in lumber in
Central Kansas says that the bulk of
lumber sold in this market is bought by
this peculiar people, who are apparently
not aware that hard times have been ex
perionced in the State.
In person the Alennonites are dark and
swarthy of complexion, short and heavy
set, with black eyes and hair. Their
features are essentially Russian, and they
talk the language of the Cars among
themselves. Their families are large and
their living simple. Boys and girls
alike till the fields, and the farms are all
small but thoroughly cultivated. With
an instinct inherited perhaps from the
feudal customs of their ancestors. their
houses arc built IN clusters, while the
farms lie outside and frequently without
buildings. They have no mortgages, no
debts. When brother fails from ILL
ness or misfortune to keep up in the life
struggle the remainder of the settlement
takes hold and helps him out, giving him
of their substance as commanded in the
book they reverence. They neither vote
nor read newspapers, as do the Ameri
cans around them, their reading being
confined to church periodicals and the
Bible. Their schools arc conducted by
Mennonite teachers when possible to OBJ
tain them, and their marriage and burial
services are performed in the Russian
language and after Russian methods.
They are now learning to use some
modern appliances, and purchase lumber
for their dwellings instead of using stone
entirely.
The history of the Mennonites in
Kansas shows what is possible even in
the much discussed "Western Third"
In Russell County there is small branch
settlement, and although the American
settlers have been starved out and are
leaving the country in long strings of
white-topped prairie schoonefs the Men
nonites remain and prosper. They do
not think of leaving, but build their
substantial homes and places as if for all
all time. Their success is lesson in the
possibilities of the prairies. Like the
Morse in the Dakotas and Minnesota,
they preserve their natural economy,
and hence prosper. Unlike the Morse,
they and their children keep aloof from
the busy, throbbing American life around
them and keep their foreign ways and
customs intact in spite of the tendency
toward greater freedom and more radical
habits. Additional colonies are received
every few months, and the strange set
element is spreading constantly. With
out interest in our ways, politics or
civilization, they present remarkable
picture in the midst of the restless life
Il Of tha hueu Wesf - nb,.or@ Ua,orJ