MENNONITES
IN
MISSOURI
IN THE EYES OF
AN IMPRESSED ADMIRER
Volume One
By Ray Speckman
INTRODUCTION
There is a certain mystique I felt about the Amish and Mennonites when I first encountered them as a young man. I saw people dressing strange, traveling place to place in horse-drawn buggies, gathering together-distant they seemed, a seemingly closed grouping of a strange people to a young man’s eyes.
There was a fascination about this cluster of people. Adults talked about the possibility of this out of the ordinary culture buying another nearby farm. There was apprehension of the unknown. As I grew there was more and more of ‘those people’ who moved into the area between Vandalia and Bowling Green in Northeast Missouri. They became less of a novelty but no-one ever attempted to explain the ‘why’ of these people. Nor did I inquire.
Fast forward three decades.
Living on the Osage River in the little village of Bagnell, I was doing television and heard about this quaint farm-house restaurant, Lehman’s, in the countryside somewhere between Barnett and Fortuna. Together with friends and crew we visited; were impressed with the manicured yards and roadways, with simple well-kept farm houses along the way and, of course, the food and service.
Now add 15 years and today, living in Tipton, a shop in Versailles. I live amongst those people previously thought odd.
Quickly I became acquainted with them, personally and professionally. Despite all the preconceived notions and unknowns of the past, I rapidly found myself getting to know this interesting people and their culture. They were quick to befriend me, talk with me openly and candidly about their heritage, customs and life. I became more and more fascinated as each week passed.
A few weeks ago I visited with my son and daughter-in-law, newspaper publishers in northwest Missouri. We began talking about the Mennonites with whom I had associated. “Who are they,” my son asked?
The response came spontaneously. “They live a simple lifestyle but are certainly not simple people,” I said.
Thus the continued quest to know more; there were tough, very personal questions I had that were answered succinctly and readily.
BACK TO THE ROOTS
There is specialness about our Mennonite Community in Morgan and Moniteau Counties.
Their buggies, shops, attire, and lifestyle, living in their own society merge well with the modernization of today.
For the most part that group of near two thousand, residing mostly north of Versailles, immigrated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania beginning over a half-century ago.
As a writer, historian and nosey person I have been enthralled with the people and their customs and beliefs since producing and hosting a television program that focused on the Lehman Restaurant almost twenty years ago.
Now I find myself living in their midst.
I have asked questions of my newly-found Mennonite friends about customs; steel tires, rubber tires, spiked tires, automobiles, trucks, computers, telephones, electricity, businesses and a myriad of other subjects.
They have been answered candidly and without reserve.
The simplicity of the subtle beliefs has not been spiced with biblical references, nor have religious beliefs been fostered upon me in any conversations I have had. The answers to questions I thought complicated have been reduced to simplicity.
The basic tenet, not often expressed, but a common thread throughout, in explaining the beliefs is ‘is it necessary?”
My son, who with his wife is the publisher of a weekly newspaper in northwest Missouri, asked me recently after I had lived amongst the Mennonites for more than six months: “What are they?”
The response came easily.
“They live a simple life but they are not simple people,” I responded.
So now, I am lured to know more.
Joyce Mitchell, ‘Emme’ of Emme’s Attic in Versailles, gifted me with an ultimate birthday present: A visit to the confluence of the Alleghany and the Monongahela Rivers that form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. There sits PNC Park where I will see the Pittsburg Pirates host my lifetime team, professional or amateur, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Thereafter we spent a glorious week east of Pittsburgh in Lancaster County visiting the roots of our local Mennonite Community, where surnames like Martin, Zimmerman and Shirk remain.
We visited places. We talked with the people. We will see the sites. We absorbed. We wanted to learn more.
We want to learn more of our neighbors, our customers and our friends.
While thorough, it is certainly not the definitive treatise on the local Mennonite families. It was a challenge readily accepted. It is a pleasure to share what was discovered about these most interesting people who live and work among we English.
The Quest Continues
The past months have truly been a labor of love amongst the Mennonites.
I have talked with tens of people, visited some of the most unique homes, churches, schools, businesses and medical facilities. The people were candid, open and related their stories and beliefs without fanfare or any attempt of solicitation.
It is a virtual impossibility to relate on the pages here the stories of all that I visited. To those people whose stories did not make these writings, I should say that your stories are no less important than those people who are directly mentioned. In one way or another all of you brought substance to these pieces of paper.
There are literally hundreds of people to whom I did not talk. Each of them of whatever gender or age, have stories that reflect the most interesting of Mennonite life customs.
As has been mentioned, I owe a lot to the writings and even advice from Dr. Donald B. Kraybill who took time from his busy schedule of teaching, finishing a new book and advising the Public Broadcasting System on a special that will be telecast soon.
The people from the Versailles Leader Statesman have helped every step along the way in so many ways.
My children and grandchildren are a source of motivation to leave a legacy of understanding. My mother, a high-school graduate and my father, who did not complete his high-school education gave me a basis, making me understand, albeit tardily, the value of family life, education and principles of character. Basic agrarians, they sacrificed much to allow their only child, who attended a one-room country school, a quality education.
And to Joyce Mitchell; it was Joyce who had lived and worked among the Mennonites and introduced me to many of her Mennonite friends. It was Joyce who encouraged me to proceed with this project and tolerated phone calls, late night attempts to write and re-write, discussing ideas attempts to make cogent, and logical suggestions along the way.
It has been a pleasure and it is hoped that if nothing else it gives others outside the Mennonite community an idea of this most unique and enviable culture.
To the several Mennonites who said, “Ray, we are going to make a Mennonite out of you” I say: Thanks but I know of no church who would accept me and if one did, the pastor visits would occur, one after the other, until there were no more accepting, even in this most accepting of societies.
IN THE ‘ENGLISH’ SOCIETY
Mennonites integrate into the non-Mennonite communities they adjoin with interesting variances and methods.
They pay real estate taxes and federal and state income taxes but seldom, if ever, participate in the election process. Part of their real estate taxes goes to local public schools yet the Mennonites have their own schools.
Mennonites pay social security taxes but yet do not participate in Social Security retirement proceeds, nor do they accept Medicare or Medicaid.
They abhor entering into the legal arena and for example:
Riding in a horse-drawn buggy a family was headed down a black-top road near Versailles, Missouri. A car driven by a non-Mennonite crashed into the back of the buggy and severely an 18 year old that was driving with his girl-friend. The young man is paralyzed for life.
It is commonplace with over 2,000 Mennonites in the area for vehicles to come upon Mennonite driven horse and buggies or riding bicycles. There are alerting road signs dotting the roadways warning of buggies.
Of course the driver of the vehicle and his passenger wife were heart-broken.
It was a clear case of negligence that would most certainly have resulted in a huge settlement had the parents of the young Mennonite man pursued in court.
They did not.
The car driver and his wife, grief-stricken, honorably went to see the paralyzed young man and his parents offering their sincere apologies. They were welcomed with open arms and told their apologies were not needed for it was “God’s Will” that their son was severely paralyzed for life.
Other Mennonite families, hearing of the couples proffering of their apologies and knowing of their tremendous feeling of guilt, wrote notes of condolences to them.
It is the Mennonite way.
No, that’s one of the Mennonite ways. Variances of what we English define as forgiveness, such as church and family excommunication and shunning are other stories for other chapters.
Interacting as the Mennonites are wont to do with the outside world, it is done with necessity seen as acceptable.
More and more Mennonites immigrate, mostly from Pennsylvania, escaping escalating land prices (farm land reaching $20,000 per acre is common). Then Mennonites are expected to bear children, many of them. The growing population causes the Mennonites, agrarian by nature, to seek employment outside the Mennonite community for sustenance.
That brings social interaction.
One Mennonite family was befriended by a very affluent business-person who owned a luxury home at the nearby Lake of the Ozarks and the accompanying sumptuousness boat.
He invited them to visit his home and they accepted. A rather large family that included the parents, children and grandchildren they hired a driver to transport them to the lake home.
The host invited them to take a boat ride and eventually docked at a lake-side restaurant.
“You should have seen the people on the dock and in the restaurant look,” the Mennonite matriarch said, “here we were in our long dresses, caps on our head and the men and boys in suspenders, black hats.” She laughed and continued, “It didn’t bother us one bit!”
Then there is the story of the Mennonite couple who attended a rather elegant wine tasting with a local businesswoman.
They had assisted her in setting up her boutique and wine shop, the husband doing carpenter work, building shelves, hanging mirrors and generally assisting in ‘honey-do’ items. His wife helped set up displays, placing jewelry and decorating.
As a partial reward she invited them to attend a wine-tasting where the president of an Austrian company that manufactured elegant leaded crystal was going to be present. Maxmillian Riedel was a typical elegant, European aristocratic.
“You should have seen the other entire guests look when we walked in,” said the business proprietor. “You could almost imagine them whispering to one another ‘what are they doing here’ and ‘do those people drink?’”
Oh yes, they drink. Future stories will detail the wine consumption at weddings and the Mennonite homemade wines where the alcoholic content will literally “put hair on your chest.”
There are Mennonites who are allowed to have electricity and telephones but not computers. Some of the females, however, work in businesses where they not only use computers but become very proficient.
Mennonites who do not drive cars or trucks for transportation have created ‘cottage-type’ industry for enterprising the surrounding English.
“Hauling Mennonites” in vans, cars and trucks is a business for many. Mennonites pay, and pay well, for rides; having usually a choice of many but each has favored drivers to take them places in the area and also on extended trips out of state.
Indeed it is coffee-shop talk that wonders how much of this totally cash business is ever reported.
“I understand that a person can pay for a vehicle in two years hauling Mennonites,” opinioned a young Mennonite businessman who has his own business at his home in the country and works as a construction laborer to supplement his business income.
Mennonites mix in organizations such as quilting and gardening clubs.
Some Mennonite women work as house cleaners. One lady comes from an ultra-conservative family that have no electricity, no phones and of course no motorized vehicle. She ‘hires’ a driver to deliver her to area homes but once there is highly proficient in television operation, computer use and operation of house cleaning devices.