Let me set the scene for today’s post. Fifteen years ago, when my wife and I were about to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we arranged to get together with our friends, the Chases from Minnesota, who had recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. This year, we decided to repeat that event for our 35th and 55th anniversaries respectively. When we looked for a place to meet somewhere between Missouri and Minnesota, we made the decision to stay at an Airbnb in the Amana Colonies in Iowa. My wife and I had visited this area several years ago and enjoyed ourselves. At that time, I learned a bit about the Amana Colonies’ history. In this post I aim to point out some of the similarities between the history of the Amana religious community and the history of our own religious community in East Perry County.
In the early 1700’s, a religious movement began in Germany that would result in the establishment of the Amana Colonies in Iowa, but a lot happened between the 1700’s and 1855 when the first settlers arrived in Iowa. A few men, one of whom was a former Lutheran pastor named Eberhard Ludwig Gruber, who had strong Pietistic beliefs, became disenchanted with the organized church. Along with others with similar beliefs, they decided to invigorate their religious experience by returning to a simpler style of living and worshiping. They rid themselves of church heirarchy, liturgical worship, fancy church buildings, etc. It was called the Community of True Inspiration. I found this caption at the Amana Heritage Museum that describes Gruber.
The above caption accompanied this photo of the Gruber home in Germany.
So, one of the first similarities between these two religious groups was that one of the early leaders was a man named Gruber. Rev. Carl Gruber was one of the leaders in the early immigration to Perry County.
The interior of a standard church looked nothing like those found in East Perry County. They consisted of wooden benches facing a table where the leader would speak.
Men would sit on one side, with women on the other. In addition, the children would sit in front, and as you proceed to the back pews the age of the people would increase. In the early years of our German Lutheran culture, a similar separation of the sexes was part of our woship.
The Community of True Inspiration grew over the years, but it also experienced difficulties in Germany. In the early part of the 1800’s, they began to be harassed by government officials. In those days, the leader of this group was a man by the name of Christian Metz. He felt that God was telling him to relocate this religious group in America, and in 1844, he and a few others made the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to this country. They purchased some land near Buffalo, New York, and others from Germany followed their leader to this settlement in the United States. In New York, this group became known as the Ebenezer Society. It was here that Metz decided to establish a form of communal living among this religious community. They pooled their resources, worked together, and shared the products of their labors. Four villages were established, Upper, Lower, Middle, and New Ebenezer, along with two other villages in Canada.
The Ebenezer Society flourished for a while in New York, but eventually some problems developed. Some of the problems were internal, with some inside the community feeling a lack of incentive to work very hard. Some of the problems were from outside the community. Government leaders felt those in the community were not meeting their fair tax burden. Eventually, Christian Metz told the members of this community that they should move to a new location in the West.
It was in 1855 that 26,000 acres of land were purchased where the Amana Colonies are now located near Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Members of this religious community began moving to this newly-purchased land. It was then called Amana, a Biblical name meaning to “remain true”.
Eventually, 7 villages were established on the perimeter of the Amana land, each about 2 miles away from each other. They were named Amana, East Amana, Homestead, South Amana, West Amana, High Amana, and Middle Amana. They are shown on the map below. Please note that the Iowa River flows through the Amana land. Also, a railroad ran across the southern portion of this land through Homestead and South Amana.
The establishment of 7 villages corresponds to the 7 settlement in Perry County, Missouri. The ones around here were named Wittenberg, Seelitz, Dresden, Altenburg, Johannesberg, Frohna, and Paitzdorf. In our case, only 3 towns survived, Altenburg, Frohna, and Paitzdorf (now called Uniontown).
Many people confuse the Amana Colonies with the Amish, probably because of their similar names. However, these two are not like one another. The folks in the Amana Colonies were quite receptive to new developments and did not reject new technologies like the Amish. After all, one of the industries that became established in the Amana Colonies was the Amana Appliance business. Perhaps some of our readers remember refrigerators, stoves, and other appliances that carried the Amana name. It was more recently bought out by Whirlpool. Below is a photo of the rather popular microwave called the Amana Radarange.
One of the characteristics of the Amana communal lifestyle was their gatherings for meals. They had what are called communal kitchens. One kitchen would typically be used to feed 10 families. Since the Amana colonists usually had just 2 children, that means the a communal kitchen would feed 40 people. They would gather at the communal kitchen 5 times a day…breakfast, morning lunch, dinner, afternoon lunch, and supper. All of the communal kitchens would follow a prescribed common menu put forth by their governing body. Each kitchen would have a large garden, which usually older women would tend. Other items such as meat, dairy products, and ice would be delivered to the kitchens as needed. Women and older girls would work in the kitchens which were led by a kitchen boss. Below is a photo of the family of one of those kitchen bosses. It also illustrates a typical family of 4.
Here is a photo I took from the inside of a communal kitchen looking out upon the dining room.
The governing body of the Amana community was made up of 13 men. Six of them were elected to at-large positions, and one man represented each of the 7 colonies, thus making the total of 13. The church and the business community were operated together. The elders (as they were called) would make decisions not only about church matters but how the communal lifestyle was going to be operated.
The communal lifestyle managed to survive until about the time of the Great Depression. Several factors contributed to this community making a fairly drastic change in 1932. A reorganization took place in which the business aspect of the community became what may be called a joint stock complany. The church was still a vital part of the community, but there became a sort of separation of church and state.
I cannot pinpoint exactly when it happened, but there came a time when other folks became interested in this unique community that also seemed quite successful at what they did, and tourism developed. Now, one of the big contributers to the Amana economy is tourism. After all, that is how I got here to spend the last few days. This area now provides all kinds of opportunities to shop, eat, learn the history, and tour factories where quality products are made. Very skilled craftsmanship is on display at places like their Woolen Mills and their Furniture and Clock Shop. I find it a very interesting place to spend a few days.
One of the similarities between the Amana community and our German Lutheran community is the fact that both have wonderful museums. In Amana, there is the Amana Heritage Museum, and of course, in Altenburg we have the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum. Here is a photo of the Amana Heritage Museum.
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the museum in Amana and talking with the people operating it. I will not show too many photos, but I did find it interesting that many of the exhibits were quite similar to ours. Below are photos of an old wooden washing machine and a weasel that assists in making balls of yarn. We have had these two items on display in our museum in years gone by.
A major part of their museum is housed in an old schoolhouse. The so-called Big School gallery in our museum could also be called an old schoolhouse.
I must say that there are also plenty of differences between the Iowa religious community and ours. I showed a photo earlier of a typical early Amana family of four. Compare that to a fairly typical early family from Perry County shown in this photo.
The theology of the two communities is also quite different. When I was asking about how the Amana museum was involved in family research, I was told that that they kept plenty of records, but when I asked about baptism records, I was told that they did not have water baptism. Whereas our German Lutheran denomination stresses the importance of Word and Sacrament, the Amana church just highlights the Word. I will point out that I was told that Martin Luther’s German Bible was once the one used by the Amana church.
Another major difference that I noted concerns how religious leaders are chosen. The Amana church believes that a person becomes inspired (spoken to by God) and announces to the congregation that they have received God’s call to become the next leader. These religious leaders were called Werkzeug, which means “tools” in German. That is in stark contrast to our Lutheran faith. Right away in 1839, our original immigrants began the Log Cabin College which became a seminary to train pastors for ministry. We have always stressed the importance of our pastors being properly trained to become ministers in our churches.
There is so much more I could write, but I think if you really want to get a feel for this place, you are just going to have to visit. The same thing could be said about learning about the East Perry County German Lutheran community. You just have to visit to get that feel.
I want to put a plug out there for the place where we stayed while we were visiting. We located an Airbnb in South Amana, and made the decision to stay there. I did not know that this Airbnb known as Nadine’s was actually one of the original communal kitchens which has now been repurposed as a place for visitors to stay. We found it to be a wonderful site operated by a delightful woman named Hannah who was so helpful and friendly. I would give it my highest recommendation. If you are interested in this place, you can click on the link below.
Here is a photo of the exterior of Nadine’s.
In closing let me show you a quotation attributed to Christian Metz who wrote it in 1846.
I think this quotationn could easily be called a mission statement for both of the museums in Amana and Altenbug.