Evening star., 1939-11-30
Amish Immigrants Work Hard
On New St. Mory's Homes
Lancaster County Pennsy|vonions Hope
To Expand on New Frontier

Mrs. Fisher and her 15-year-old
daughter Mary scour the tWo-story
frame house from floors to ceilings.
Unoccupied for years. the house
normally would present a problem.
But not to these industrious Amish
women, noted for their hard work.
Mary and her mother are dressed
almost exactly alike. They wear
spotless white caps and foor-length
dresses of dark blue. Their clothes
are typical of those worn by Amish
women, and have not changed in
style for years. The whims of fash
ion designers probably are not even
known to them.
Amishmen Friendly.
For the Amish are truly the plain
people" Soft-spoken and friendly
their only desire is to live in peace
with their neighbors. Short skirts,
rouge and lipstick, movies and auto
mobiles hold no attractions for
them.
To get from Lancaster to the
farms near Charlotte Hall in ST.
Marys County, they rode in hired
automobiles; but for ordinary trans
portation the horse and buggy still
fills the bill. The Fishers voiced the
feelings of most Amish when they
said they disliked publicity, and they
would not readily pose for a
photograph.
The Fishers are but one of the
families which will build new homes
in st. Marys County. Even they
don't plan to move there to stay
until February Meanwhile, they
will work during the week and re-
turn on Sundays to their Pennsyl-
vania homes to worship
The family of Benjamin Stoltz-
fuss, however, already has moved
permanently. A portion of his 500
acre farm adjoins that of John
Fisher, and Mr. StoltZfuss has begun
work on an addition to his house.
Altogether nearly 1000 acres of
farm land has been bought by the
Amisnmen. Benjamin Stoltzfuss'
father, Steven, has bought three
tracts, totaling nearly 500 acres. and
the heads of other families have
made similar purchases. Most of
them, however. will not come to
Maryland until April the moving
season for them.
Benjamin StoltZfuSs already has
planted number of acres of wheat,
as has John Fisher. They also
plan to grow tobacco and ratse live
stock, as they did in PENNSYLVANIA.
Two Classifications.
The Amish came originally from
Germany and Switzerland, as the
followers of Jacob Amen. A reli-
gious division of the Amish has re-
suited in the classification of the
people as House Amish" and
Church Amish"
The new Marylanders are House
AmiSh" and are the conservative
branch of the belief. Sunday wor-
ship is held in the house of one or
other of the group. The Church
Amish," on the other hand, attend
Sunday services in the church, and
hold more liberal views, even ap-
proving Amish ownership of auto
mobiles.
Young Amishmen are clean
shaven and remain so until they
are married. Then they may let
their boards grow, shaving only the
upper lip. Weddings, although fes-
tive affairs, are secondary in i'm
portance to farm activities Con-
sequently all marriages take place
only after the harvest, and then
generally on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
Parents of marriageable daughters
are said to paint the gateposts to
their homes blue to show the pres
ence of potential bride.
Boys and girls are dressed alike
until they are years old. Then
the boys get a fiat hat like their
fathers, and clothes just like his.
The little girls get the hoor-length
dress and miniature poke" bon
nets.
The fact that under Maryland
laws children may leave school after
the seventh grade helped clinch the
purchase of the new farms by the
Amish, j. L. Davis of Charlotte Hall
said. Compulsory education for the
youngsters beyond those grades in
Pennsylvania did not meet with
Amish approval.
Running Water Contrivance.
The old st. Mary's residents al
ready have a friendly feeling for
their new neighbors. They speak Of
Amish ingenuity and novel schemes
for practical ends.
One such concerns the furnishing
of running water for house and barn.
A nearby stream is partially damned
and wire stretched from the stream
to the pump at the house. At the
dam a bucket is rigged to the wire
so that the lip of the bucket dips
under the water at the dams edge.
The weight of the water forces the
bucket down, pulling the wire to the
pump handle. At the end of the