Amish keep it simple
ARTHUR | Just a few hours from Chicago, you can see a community where modern conveniences are shunned
"I always get in the last word," says Ben Graber as he grins at his wife, Betty, standing next to him in their comfortable farmhouse. "I say, ‘Yes, dear.' "
Ben and Betty, like many couples who've spent years together, finish each other's sentences and chuckle over inside jokes. But the Grabers' way of life is quite different from that of the visitors crowding into their living room. Ben and Betty belong to the largest Amish community in Illinois. They shun modern conveniences, such as automobiles and electricity, but they don't shun those who don't share their faith. In fact, the Grabers and many of their Amish neighbors welcome them, frequently opening their homes and businesses to tourists.
(Courtesy of Katherine Rodeghier)
For a closer look at Amish life, sign up for a tour at the Amish Interpretive Center in nearby Arcola, Ill. You can arrange for a midday meal in an Amish home, tour a dairy farm or a woodworking shop, take a wagon ride through an orchard and past an Amish cemetery, or visit an Amish home.
During the Grabers' home tour, Betty shows off the airpowered Singer sewing machine she uses to make the family's coats, dresses, bonnets and Sunday bests using simple patterns that date back centuries. Ben demonstrates their home's gas lights and explains how he uses a diesel engine to run his greenhouse business next door.
Visitors are free to wander around their five-bedroom home with its gleaming wooden floors (carpeting is not the Amish way) and examine the friendship quilt that covers their bed. Amish friends embroider their names and dates of birth on pieces of cloth; then the women gather to piece them together. In the basement, Ben proudly shows off Betty's supply of homecanned goods: peaches, pork sausage, red beets and green beans.
The spacious basement also doubles as a church when it's the Grabers' turn to host services. The Central Illinois Amish community is divided into 28 church districts, each made up of 30 to 35 families. They don't worship in churches, but in each other's homes, seated on 14-foot-long wooden benches carried in from church wagons that make the rounds within each district. Weddings also are held in homes, as are funerals. When a member of the community dies, the body of the de- 225 cottage businesses operate in area
ceased is laid out in a bedroom. In Amish homes, bedrooms usually have an exterior door that's used during the wake as members of the community file past to pay their respects.
All religious rituals are conducted in a German dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch. Betty and one of her daughters sing a hymn about Christian love, teaching visitors the refrain. "That's what binds us together, love," says Ben, referring to both Amish and "English," the Amish term for those who don't speak their language or share their religion.
The Amish faith dates back to 1525 when a group of Protestants began rebaptizing each other, believing that baptism should be reserved for adults. These Anabaptists were tortured and murdered for their beliefs and began separating themselves from what the scriptures call the "evil world."
Mennonites, Anabaptist followers of Menno Simons, and Amish, followers of Jakob Ammann, spread across Europe as they fled religious persecution. They migrated to Pennsylvania in the 1700s. In 1865, three Amish families moved to Central Illinois to take advantage of its rich farmland. As the Amish population grew and available farmland shrank, the Illinois Amish created cottage industries and began interacting with customers from outside their world. Tourism became an important source of business.
The Amish still shun modern technology. If a telephone becomes necessary for business, it's kept in a booth or building outside the home. They take the passage from Exodus forbidding "any graven image" literally and do not pose for photographs. Visitors are asked to respect their belief by not photographing their faces. In an Amish home, meals always begin with a group prayer.
Carolyn Miller opens her house to midday meals for tourists, who are invited to join the prayer or simply observe a moment of silence. Heaping platters of food are passed family style around a long table set up on the Millers' sun porch. Carolyn and her helpers keep the food coming: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, a second meat dish, dressing, vegetables, salad and homemade bread. Just when you think you've had enough, the platters come 'round again for second helpings. And then there are homemade pies for dessert.
Though you'll probably be ready for an afternoon nap at this point, you might prefer to walk off your meal with some shopping or stop by an auction if one happens to be in progress at the Arthur Auction Center. Look for the buggies tied up outside.
More than 225 Amish cottage businesses operate in the area, including Miller's Dry Goods, Melrose Quilts & Sisters Country Shoppe and Shady Crest Orchard with produce, fruit butters and a deli stocking more than 20 kinds of cheese. Several woodworking shops produce furniture and custom-made cabinets, a big business in Illinois Amish country. Food stores and bakeries sell homemade pies, bread, cured meats, jams, jellies and fudge.
Be sure to plan your visit on a Saturday or during the week. All Amish businesses honor "the Lord's Day" and are never open on Sundays.
Katherine Rodeghier is a Chicago area free-lance writer.
