THE NEBRASKA PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COLONY AS A RELIGIOUS LEGACY: AN AUTOCRITOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT THOMAS W. MARTIN |
THE NEBRASKA PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COLONY AS A RELIGIOUS LEGACY: AN AUTOCRITOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT THOMAS W. MARTIN The Nebraska Pennsvlvania Dutch Colonv as a Religious Legacy ![]() An Autocritographic Account ![]() This paper is an effort to understand how the spiritual life of the Nebraska Pennsylvania Dutch Colony, my mother’s family, w•as affected by’ the experience of the Great Plains. Also, it is about my own religious life in that I am a product of the ‘”Nebraska Colony.- It derives from a process of self-exploration enabled and made credible by the development of autobiographics as a theoretical perspective, Using phenomenological categories I will explore ways in which my own experiences derive from and help to elucidate the ongoing religious impact of this 2Toup or German Plains settlers The dominant motif is the way in which mvthofouies and social constructions of space have been modified by the Plains experience. But in the process of writing it has emerged that this is verv much a storv about the contrast of personalities between rnv Yd great-crandfather Gotlieb and rn_v great-grandmother Margaret and the in which thcsc personality types also stand as spatial metaphors. Gottlieb was stem and opposed to laughter: he represents a closed and restrictive construction of space. IVIargaret was accepting, playful and full of laugh_ter. she represents an open and explorin2 construction of spacc (Indeed, a slylc of spirituality more indicative of the Plains ) Margaret and Gottlieb S s story begins in Wurttemberu Germanv when t-vv’0 of their relatives, brothers John and Gottlieb Heim, spent 1 803 in prison For refusin2 on religious grounds, conscription into Napoleon’s amies. Accounts name them, their rclaEives and friends as “Reformed’* Lutherans and they appear in the records of German Lutheran ( Jivangelische) Churches.” We Inust take the notation “reforrncd” to indicate not the influence of Calvinism, but Anabaptists and the German popuiar movements loosely ![]() he was connected with the family-s church in Moehringen_ But do know that [aller was exiled for his Pietism. The two brothers were released in 1 804 on the understanding that they too w-ould leave Germany Their names appear, toeether with a few other Moehringen families, on the ship’s register of the iVfargare1 arriving in Philadelphia ![]() ![]() ![]() Susquehanna River, settling in what they named Blooming Grave (north and east of Williamsport) in central Pennsylvania.’ 1806 two more families joined the colon} ![]() Emigration was curtailed after 1806. But in 1817 John returned to Germanv “bringinc out’ – twelve more families. Thev all settled in Blooming Grove. My ancestors. Gottlieb and Margaret (Staiger) Heim, were members of this 7 migration. Earlv settlement was both arduous and dangerous. Even so, the narratives ![]() Pennsylvania mountains. In Blooming Grove they believed they had found their goal. -a place to form a community where they could have their own association and religion. segregated from the outside world and worldliness.’ ![]() But in 1 874, driven by the growing scarcity of land in PA, Jacob G. , one of Maruaret and Gottlieb’s seven children, and his Regina Heim (my great-great grandparents) sold their farm on Loyalsock Creek and left the Blooming Grove community in Pennsylvania to pioneer in Nebraska. They bought land in the southeast corner of the new state, just north of what was then called Dawson’s &lill. From 1879 to i 886 some thirteen additional Families came from the Blooming Grove colony and from relatives in Bucyrus, Ohio All were related. To insiders the group is “[he Pennsylvania Colony of Nebraska or, colloquiallv, the Nebraska Pennsylvania Dutch Colonv. In Dawson folklore they were knov€n as ‘ •the German Colanv ![]() Articulating the religious leeacy’ of these devout people is no easy task. Their religious history encompasses two continents, t’vvo distinct migrations and over two centuries of change and development. It is a story that grows out of the ![]() of the health of Plains religious institutions to the subsequent flourishing and decline of the Midland’s Jeff&rsopuan experience of small town life and economics. And finally. it is a story’ which raises questions about an adequate definition of what constitutes a religious legacy, or identilv, and just how a legacv can be measured ![]() Colooy stories agree that carly generations exceptionally devout In dailv personal prayer, bible reading and regular worship attendance. These patterns were consistent at least throuuh the first Plains generation. However, data does not exist for the church affiliation and attendance, or the personal piety, of these people’s descendants. Moreover, based on my personal knowledge. would suspect that the ![]() Neither can the continuance of a specific denominational affiliation or doctnne be used to measure these people’s lasting spiritual mark, “I”he Dunkard Church of Blooming Grove had no officially organized structure or denominational affiliation, – sent no representatives to conferences and did not seek to reproduce itself elsewhere. The adoption of the Bethel Evangelical’ > Church in Dawson as the new – -mother church” was as much a marnage of convenience and happenstance as it was the affirmation of a the01011ically compatible organization. ‘I’hc Colony displays great fluidity in relation to theology (see below). ‘ •so as the old Dunker fathers gradually passed awav. and not havnng provided the means for keeping the young people the followers e now joined other conoregauons, mostlv the Baptists and Evangelicals. “l”his statement, if true ig 942. is even more so today. And the list of adopted denominations has erosvn to includc sozne that ysere anathema to our early ancestors since some have become Catholics. Theological doctrine will not work as a measure of their religious legacv ![]() 4 numbers. Yet, because the Dunkard Church had (beyond Dr. Haller) no formally trained or ordained clev=ö’ there is a way in which this clergy legacy is almost a denial of their Vision of a non-hierarchical spiritual life oriented for and led by common folk ![]() Since many of the traditional means of talking about religious traditions do no€ work well in this instance, I will instead together several postmodernist interpretive frames. The 20al is to try to find this hard to define religious legacv In the ![]() ![]() ![]() 1 9 ![]() ![]() The rhetorical structure of a story bccomes the raw and plastic material from which succeeding oenerations draw to shape and mold various truths about their inherited legacy and identity. The very style of reminiscence comes close to forcing us to find the significance of these tales not in theirfåctua/ data,-L but in their assumed structures or meaningfulness. George Lindbeck calls this structure the • •grammar” of the story and it is as important in revealing underlying meaning_ in narratives as the content– (one of my uncles closes the introduction to his autobiography with these very postmodem words ![]() ![]() and happenings as I remember them and choose to relate them. Any reader is free to disagree with anv of the dates, happenings, etc. that are contained herein as they wish even though it won’t change my ideas. opinions and beliefs. ![]() The stories of this colony rarely contain any hint of a critical historical awareness about constructing plausibility for what may have really happened. Exceptions are so rare that when they do occur they leap out of the text.” together with Lindbeck 3 s narrative theory I also will use a free appropriation of various feminist theoretical insights, most notablv the feminist constn_lct of embodic’d spiritualitv_– MV own theoretical frame of reference as a scholar of religion IS nothing if not eclectic. or poly’-theoretical. as the previous statements indicate. Autobiographies,’ ![]() autecntography is, at least in part, noted as a perspective w’hich seeks to build • ‘bridges” ![]() this theoretical perspective allows me as a to acknowledge that / am an embodiment of the Iwacv of this colonv. Its story IS one of several that contribute various matcriais to my ever ![]() relationship to the past embodied in these ancestors. A point of view for tny identity is contained in my experience of these people through their stories. But current theorv ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Space to Play Gottlieb Heim (my 3rd great-grandfather) was a very stem man who left a strong mark on succeeding oenerations. He held enough respect in the Bioomin{2 Grove community to be chosen to succeed Dr. Haller as spiritual leader:’ And the stories akso portray him as very much aware of space. was the first to realize that familv growth required expansion beyond the immediate confines oi Blooming Grove. There was at one timc a Grandfäthcr ‘s Path leading to a headland above Lovalsock Creek from -ø•-hich he surveyed the world and communed with his Creator_ was also ‘ •a verv strict and very religious” person. find it curious that ‘-strict” and -religious” together in this account. In my experience the avo words rarely combined. Religion, “church.” vvas about play and fun. great-grandfather Gottl ieh saw things differentlv. He believed that jokes, laughter, and frivoiity were out of bounds for anv one senous about God His character in this regard is caught in this vignette. On a verv cold winter’s dav ![]() ![]() ‘outside.” Religion required “confinement,” rigidly maintained boundary markers. Margaret was of a completely different disposition and could laugh until tears ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Oral histories, conveyed bv both my mother and uncle, indicate that the view of ![]() Margarel view- of life has finally won out ![]() One of the curious peces to the telling of any stones are the stones that ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 9 floor parlor for these young men to meditate on while waiting for her to come down. Decades later when I served a former EUB church in the Nebraska Panhandle, ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() For myself there was always a seamless flow from church to play that took place most Sundays, at church dinners and picnics (and sometimes during church services ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [0 vastness geography surrounding me. I looked up to an endless Plains sky and ![]() ![]() ![]() enclosed, rather than unbounded ![]() I believe that am most strongly marked by the legacv of Margaret. I first expenenced this legacv in the plavful ness and mischievousness of my unc les. tvly teaching of rchgion is marked by playfulness of word and concept. the belief that God laughs and enjoys laughing even during the most serious of discussions, Th.is sense of God is most ardently imprinted on me in a storv about mv grandfather, Melvin Heim_ At eight or nine years old, almost every day that the weather allowed made the trek, sorne two cr three hundrcd yards, from my house to my grandparents’ where rnv grandmother always had homemade cookies. (A skill my mother, at that point in life- had mystenously failed to acquire.) On this particular day I was ensconced at the kitchen table, glass of milk and cookie in hand. My grandfather, fresh from some fouling task in the barnyard. came in the back door, went into the basement and took off all of his clothes, except for his socks. He then proceeded to scamper from the back porch through the kitchen and up the stairs. My grandmother, horrified at the impact of his nudity on such an innocent young child. first cried out, “Melvin! We have company’ ‘ MV grandfather, obviously skilled at moral equivocation, ![]() ![]() Determined to score her point my grandmother continued, • •But what if it had been Mary ![]() ‘LizbetW (A neighbor.) With vivid detail [ can recall my grandfather’s white cheeks disappearing up the stairs, his voice crackling with laughter, his eyes sparkling with glee, as he looked back over his shoulder and cal]cd out “Why I’d take off my socks for Marv ‘Lizbeth.i ” At that point my grandmother, who had clearly lost the exchange, attempted to make such ribald humor disappear by pretending it hadn’t happened ![]() What has this to do with GocP This is a man who, as far as I know, never missed church a day in his lifi± except for illness, who taught Sunday school most of his adult years and who carried on the traditions of daily bible reading and personal prayer. This is a man who writes in his autobiography of being guided by God”s voice and of prayers for ![]() Constructinu Religious Space on the Plains The purposes and values we attach to our geography, from lav„ns,• – groves and fields to nations and continents, are socially constructed The land itself is not a neutral ![]() ![]() Our understanding of, and meaningful movement within, the spaces of our physical lives are, in part, built from and for our identities and legacies. One of the Inost notable aspects of my grandfather’s famiFy history is its mythol(kv of space. This social/ideological construction of geography is first evident in the title: Wes•iward Bound. This ideology provides the overall valorization of structure ![]() ![]() ![]() The experience, and even the anticipation. of the Great Plains changes the ![]() 12 ![]() in the earliest phases at least, by a grammar of simplicity and separatism. The arduous povertv of thc 1 804-17 sctt)cment is seen, not as an unfortunate interim, but as of spiritual value in itself. The prosperity of later generations was viewed by the oaginai colonists as breeding a, ‘ worldliness that grieved the older people so much that they often gathered and read the lamentations of Scripture and wept over the dangers that threatened them. If successive generations in Pennsylvania were already slowly changing these original values, the “Nebraska fever quickened it. The plains produced an anticipation of newness, and an expansiveness of experience and expectations that must be understood not only economically, but as a rewriting of the ![]() ![]() ![]() I grew• up believing that my family had Iono held a deep rejection of all things Cathohc I came to believe that although Catholics vyere good people they were somehow “other The constructed spaces of Dawson seemed to me to emphasize that ![]() ![]() Mao’s, was on the south side of the Bethel Church – was on the north side of town ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Reliæiously defined space, a boundary of separatism between “us” and “Catholics:- was shifted on family “maps” by both the pioneering experience, and subsequent generations ![]() ![]() experienced intermarnage and “conversions” to Catholicism, and hopefully an end to prejudices against such border crossings and changes of citizenship. The Pennsylvania mountains provided a landscape conducive to separatism and a ‘world’ limited to one’s ![]() ![]() boundaries in new wavs. A story that scrvcs as a metaphor for the direct connection of the geozraphic expansiveness of the Great Plains with an experiential expansiveness is that of Marv O’Donnell From 1875-77 (?) there was a large expanse of open range north of Dawson. A common cattle herd was kept there with various farmers providing cowhands. My ![]() ![]() ![]() Part of the grammar of space in my grandfather’s story is also evident in the wav in which the land itself comes to carry more expectations. The means of God’s ‘ •fulfillment:- the achievement of this generation’s utopia, has become farms for all tämilv members [his is perhaps most clearly seen as a subtext to the story of my grandfather’s brother, Richard, and his decision to enter the ministry. Their father, Sam, only reluctantly ag_reed to Richard’s entering ministry after demonstrating great disappointment that he would not fulfill his envisioned destiny to take over the western land holdings. God: s blessing is seen in the achievement of the status OF zentlcman fanner and It is a blessing untten in the ample availability of acres and sections of the newly plowed prairies, The spiritual subtext is evident in the pervasive manner in which Church and God frame all farming activities and even the call to ministry is valued less than God’ s provision of farms. There are numerous means of understanding this. Sociologically immigrant groups characteristically seek a more mainstream economic and social status in successive generations. This clearly happens in my family’s stow _ Alternatively, the geography of the Plains IS simply not easily made 10 serve segregation benveen groups. One must work very hard not to notice what the neighbors are up to and this inevitably leads to “the other” influencing how one thinks about oneseff as well as “the other.” In contrast, in Pennsyl vania the Colony had experienced itself cutoff from “the English”‘ by ![]() perspectives. These people’s symbolic universe is constructed around an ideoi0EY of simple family-fam life God’s best intent for humanity, a life embedded in the soil. In their experience the open eastern Nebraska prairies and the deep black soil beneath the grasses became the te.ü carrying the spiritual values of this dream. The spaces of the Great Plains provided ample Lebensraum for hopes and dreams all of which were uitimately supported by the spiritual geography of God’s role as Creator of such space ![]() Geography as physical space has not continued to work for the generation ] have arbitrarily called the “Diaspora.” As a part of this generation I have been forced to reconfigure the meaning of acres and sections. The geography of the Great Plains has become for me a metaphor because, even if at some points in my I have toyed with the idea, the traditional small family farm is no longer a viable alternative. What a physical reality for my grandfather, has become a nostalgic idyll for me. My expenence of Plains geography is best seen in a contrast with my grandfather. For him ‘”west ![]() ![]() 16 For me “west” is a figure most vividly portrayed in sunsets. My spiritual construction of geographic space begins with experiences as a boy sitting atop a fence post on the top of our hill watching sunsets. The colors enthralled me, pure joy filled me and I often would sit there singing to God at the top of my lungs. My desire was to “go’ ![]() ![]() instead those sunsets became a • ‘western” doorway into the creative life ot- the mind and ![]() Plains as a geography’ of opportunity and that the Heims have always gone where 1 7 opportunity provided livelihoods for their families. He then applies this construct to the life of the Church. Writing in 1965, he stales: Let not the Dawson Church be discouraged today. The econormc conditions of the Dawson town . . are such that the young people ![]() ![]() ![]() Here he analogicallv adapts a Plains pioneenng ideology from westward expansiveness to a spiritual legacy. Religion as Community Space I nearly a teen before I knew a “Pennsylvania Colony”‘ organization and annual picnic existed To me it was just the “family” picnic. In fact my earliest memories narnc it the “watermelon” picnic from the large horse tank filled with watermelons and ice-cold water. When we had watermelon at home, the German frugality of my mother required eating down to the rind Here, glory of glories, I could get by all day eating only the healt of each piece with no adults cognizant ofmv Sins. ![]() •cousins,” reveled in bacchanalian debauchery trying to out do one another in bouts of drinking prowess. O – cousin Joe Heim, I bekieve, still holds the record: some nineteen 18 ![]() My early assumptions were that church was also a communal expression of the e,xlended familv. I beheved anyone new to church must be a long lost relative who had ![]() ![]() and the soup suppers. Life, I thought, was to be one endless stream of large numbers of people gathering to eat and play. Bible School was ajovous affair of games, snacks, pack lunches, play and cool projects – but made so because the social relationships were all pre-existing and comfortable. Oh, yes, there were long hours stuck in a pew during worship services, with largely arcane and unintelii2ible stuff going om while I nibbled Cheerios, read the Sunday School papers, or sometimes tried to escape. But bits and pieces of church soaked in. After listening to adults repeat the I,ord’s Prayer so many ![]() times, you simply remember it yourself. Phrases seeped into my symbolic universe such as “Father, Son and Holv Ghost,” or “Holy. Holy, Holy, Lord God Ah-nighty ![]() Eventually, peer pressure led me to want to be a candle lighter and later an usher. M v mother said that I would only be asked to light candles when Bernice Georgi, the woman in charge, could see that sat quietly through the whole service. (God should reward me for my efforts, often failed, to impress her wfth my sitting skills’) God resided over all of my experiences of the formal spiritual community. For me he was perceived as physically part of the community as well. given that I saw his fäce looking over us from the northwcst comer of the church ceiling each Sunday. Only years later did I come to leam this was a water spot. I believe that my early childhood experiences of th_is close knit, vibrant and essentially prosperous small town community are similar to those embodied in the stories of the 1804-17 and 1874-86 generations. That this was a type of community that received its ultimate validation from God goes without saying (at least In the stories themselves). How arc we to understand and evaluate it as a “legacv*”? First, such ![]() ![]() 20 As a theologian I am struck by the absence of theological discourse in the records while church activities receive broad exposure. My grandfather has a single chapter devoted to the church. It is dominated bv the story of the 192] fire. It has no explications of any beliefs or doctrines.67 I have t7nund an expiicit theology reiated to only two issues. First, the community held a theological pacifism from 1803 through the Civil War. But bv WW I, although my grandfather’s account shows relief that he was classified as a necessan,’ farm laborer. the underlying script has changed. There is, between the lines ofthc account, just a tinge of regret tor not joining others (some colony members) in this great struggle And many coionv members were in the armed services in WW Il, Korea and Vietnam.’ ‘ Theological pacifism has not been a lasting legacv_ Second, the theological debates of the 1804 group were about accepting the practice of celibacy when practicable. 71 Thank God, that didn •t out’ Other stories demonstrate the importance of theology, but fail to explicate it. Two unnamed Pennsylvanians came to fisticutfs in the heat of theoloszical debate, but the issue remains unstated The theology of the saintly “Christly” Heim is largely reported as exhortation to lived holiness, particulars left vague. Even the histoncal reviews of the Bethel Church ( t 950 & 72) have no theology. In contrast, denominational histories for the Plains period are theologically explicit. How are we to understand this silence about theoloev? Feminist theory has helped us 10 see that important aspects of spiritual identity are not always expressed verbaliy. Sometimes such “spiritual” things are fijunci in the physical textures of life. Often for svomen, and others sidelined by powerful males’ dominance of official speech, theology has been embodied. I am here applying this idea to the networks, the physical texturesh of relationships embodied in lived communities of peopie_ A feminist look at my family history allows us to see not only the strong women who provided leadership against the harsh realities of Plains poneenng, but the guts of a religious legacy, a legacy of embodied community. Embodiment, in feminist thought, is an alternative epistemology It is a ![]() ![]() I have been a member of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the United Methodist Church, the Church of England, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. was ordained in the UMC and for six years served in adult education in an ELCA church. I have taught in an ELCA college. In my twenties, I to u-reater ![]() Southern Baptist, Episcopalian, and several non-denominational bodies. I am denominational-identity challenged. I have spent much of my adult life operating with the assumption that my family had demonstrated a consistent and deeply held commitment to a particular denomination. So I thought, what was wrong ‘Bith me? As a theologian, I find it ludicrous that a lone denominational tradition could accurately ![]() chuch staff member was one of frustration ‘vv-ith the turf protection church bodies fall into. I wanted to be a Christian of the world, of al] bodies, learning from all theologies I wanted to cross outside the boundaries marked on the maps of church identities. I desperately wanted to color outside the lines. It has been refreshing in this exploration of the Pennsylvania Colony to find that I’m not so weird after all Non-conformity runs deep in these people, even if] need to jump back a couple of generations to find it consciously enacted. N’ly ancestors in Germany were clearly non-conformist, taking counter-cultural stances on senous social Issues a basis of personal belief,” The religious experience of these German Pietists, according to 1Mc.V1inn, contextualized by Anabaptism and Bruder movements_ Historically, that is, these groups embody the quintessential definition of non-conformitv. But in Pennsylvania, non-conformity is even ratcheted up a notch! The Dunkard Church ![]() is non-conforming to non-conformity in its independent stance a vis the organized German Baptist Conferences. And the move to the Plains displays a willingness to abandon conformity to the Pennsylvania traditions in order to join a formal church structurc in Dawson. Yet the locally embodied knowledge of spiritual life in the Bethel Church displays a curious non-conformity with denominational issucs. rl”his church hosted nine Annual Conferences from 1887 to 1940, 7 indicating it was a major player in denominational work. Yet, as we have seen, denominational issues and the010Lrv are nearly left out of family accounts of the church. This is true even though denominational mergers rcceive mention and one family member, Rev_ Richard Heim, had risen to the rank of District Superintendent ofthe EUB and was an important fraurc in working toward merger with the Methodists. ![]() An explanation lies ready to hand in the feminist interpretation I have suggested for the Colony’s embodied life and norms. And to the extent that feminist thouuht is a type of non-conförm sty itself, playing aoainst established hierarchical and dorninant ![]() modes of saying what is or is not important, what should or should not be 2ivcn space in writing, it works in explaining why we find such a distancing from the issues found in denominational theologies and histories and Conference politics. Conversations with my father, Rev, Wm. E. Martin, I believe, display the way in which this Iypc of nooconfÖrrnit-y has played out in at least the last twenty-five years. 8 1 He entered Methodist ministry later in lite as a second career. Rather than play into the standard career track for clergy, he chose to serve churches within driving distance of the family farm, This was a choice to serve churches that could not pay singly, or in tandem, clergy salaries mandated by the Conference for full-time ministry. Serving nearly full-time, he “worked” only 24 part-time. We often talked of the way in which Conference politics and theology. the district superintendents and the bishops were bypassing the spiritual life of small rural ![]() ![]() Non-conformity, when thought of in geographic terms, is an unwillingness to abide by socially inscribed boundanes. The Colony stories make much of ear Iv eHbrts to “Tite boundanes on the opcn prunes of Nebraska by using hedges and later formalizing roads. Yet there is a wav in which on the Plains such boundaries are selt:evmdentlv arbitrarv_ Thev beg to be crossed, ignored and looked bevond. Vision and thought range freely beyond property lines and open the mind to see that mental boundaries arc most likelv similarly arbitrary. The Plains seem to nurture non-conformity by their verv• expansiveness. ![]() ![]() ![]() 25 ![]() legacy of the Pennsylvania Colony bequeaths to us is the realization that such resistance can also take place in SIT,all. embodied communities. Such non-conformity is a portion of” their legacy I see in myself and I hopc to see in others. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() /„ycoming Couruy•. Pennsylvania, 1805. Togelher with the origin ()ffhe German Bap,rist Church in America, (Williamsport, PA. Scholl Bros 190 1) [reprinted 1997 by the Blooming (Grove I-listoricat Society], 1 2 ![]() ![]() cornpilers, The Sweet Spring Still (Dawson, NE: 1992), 134-5 ![]() ![]() *Erva Wuster Stalder, compiler, Hem. ![]() 26 ![]() It may be iilustrative of a latent anti-clericalism at this time (see below) that outside of the McMinn account I have never found him referred to as Rev., but always Dr. A characteristic Pennsylvania Dutch mix Of English and German, Blumengrofe, see McMinn. 29-30 ![]() Elma Heim Larimore, compiler & ed., Helm Family History and Record of Descent 1736-1940. (Dawson. NE- Dawson Herald, 1942), I ![]() Melvin Heim and Mary Heirn Bilsing, Westward Bound (1965), I, l, emphasis added ![]() Useful summaries are provided in: Elma Heim Larimore. Folklore of a Pennsylvania (Iolony in ![]() ![]() ![]() 10 See Elma Griffith, ‘s History’ for the Bicenlennial 1976, (Dawson, NE: The Dawson Cornrnurlltv Bicentennial/NCLP Organization, 1976), to distinguish them from the Irish Catholic • ‘Connecticut Colony’ ![]() 1 1 And a third, if the dispersion of Colony members around the country since the 1950’s is considered ![]() ![]() ![]() Colony members were well represented in the list of charter members, seven of ten, Keith M _ Heiln_ ‘L A. Look Back”, l”he Colony Penn 1 3, (2002), 3 See Heim & Biising, 11_1, 55; for their high visibiiity in church offices across the years. Thus, on the Plains they were initially, “Evanuelical”‘, then through successive mergers of denominational bodies. United Evangelical, Evangelical Gnited Brethren, dild since 1968, Cnited Methodist. See ‘i Church Life Sustained’ in Larimore, \ 955 ![]() ![]() ![]() Heim & i, i ![]() ![]() Ephraim Shafer, “Christly Heim” (Christl$s grandson). in Larimore, 195 S. This account terxns him the ![]() •last” minister of the church. McMinn, 20-21 , lists several more who attempted to continue tninistry. I S There have been rnore since 27 ![]() Martha Minow, NOE Only For Myself, (New Press, 1997). See Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth andiVferhod, (New York: Seabury. ![]() ![]() ![]() Nature of Doctrine.’ Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age, (Philadelphiæ Westminster, 1984). ‘l _My uncle suuaests that many stories may have been significantly •c ernbeflished”, thinking that if he similarly created such stories his grandchildren might remember thetn too Kenneth Earl Heim. Autobiograp@ of Kennezh Earl Heim, (2000), 62-63 ![]() Lindbeckr go. Kenneth Heim, 7 ![]() One example is the story OF my great-grandfather Sam as a teen coming home late one flight shooting a hole in the wall with his revolver, Arthur W _ Heim. “Miscellaneous Stories”, in Larimore, Even though the recounting of two versions leads the reader to the appraisal that one rings more true than the other (one sounding like the kind of excuses a teen might dream up to mitigate repercussions) the final stance of the author toward divergent accounts is, “You can take your choice as to how it happened. ![]() ![]() ![]() Cf. Thomas A Tweed. “On Movinu Across •rranslocative Reli2ion and the Interpreter’s Positi0d’ . .JGurnai Oflhe Amepjcan Academy of 70/2 256-7 ![]() Tweed, 262, an apt metaphor given this colony “s connections to Methodist movements Tweed, 257-, somewhat like elusive and glimpses of Bio Foot. _I a_m not so postmodern as to eschew objectivity altogether- 31 Heim & ![]() This sketch cf Gottlieb is drawn from, Elma Heim Larirnore, “Gottlieb Heim, Grandfather at the Loyaisock”, in Larimore, 19.53 ![]() Larimore. “Grandfather on the I.ayalsock”, l_.arimore, ![]() Bushnell UNIC- 1986-89 ![]() See Kenneth Heim. 65, the repercussions of acting up in church – even from my jolly Grandfatherl 28 A community band, an opera house for regular lectures and programs, an agenda of picnics and community clubs, and, of course, games of checkers. See esp. Ethel Barlow Heim. ‘”Amusements and Social Activities” in Larimore, 1955; further, Heim & Bilsing and Elma Griffith, passim. 37 See Mander, In the Absence ofthe Sacred, (San Francisco: Sierra Club, i 99 1), 75-160: and hour Arguments for {he Elimination of Television, (New York’ QuilL ]977)_ ![]() The accounts of play un Loyalsock Creek. On “the island” and its mysterious cave, sound Fun indeed» see Melvin J _ Heim, “Stories o? Pioneer Days” in Larimore, 1955 ![]() My uncle’s account of his childhood is an excellent example Kenneth Heim ![]() ![]() I cannot reveal their names for fear that the scatue of limitations may not have run out on their federal crimes, but see Kenneth Heim„ 54-55. for the pranks they played on the rural mail carrier ![]() ![]() ![]() 42 See Robert Feagan and Michael Riprneester. “Reading Private Green Space: Competing Geographic Identities at the Level of the Lawn.” Philosophy and (-;eography 1/4 (2001). 79-96 ![]() ![]() Jonathan Z _ Smith, iVfcrp {s No’ Ferrir.r»y_ (Leiden: E J Brill. k 978) (and in other worksj has developed Slircea Eliade’s insi ght that religion can be understood as a tnapping of metaphorical territories For the similar mapping of ideological power and it relationship to symbolic representations in real space see Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, “Geophilosophie” in Qu ‘esr-ce que la philosophle? (Paris. Les F.dåions de Minuil, 1991), 82-108: for an application in religious studies see Marianne Sawicki, (_’rossing Galilee: Archneclures of Contact in the Occupied Land of Jesus. (Harrisburg. Trinity Press„ 2000). 1-12 ![]() 44 Heim and Biising Introduction. ![]() It must be noted that this understanding of Abraham’s journeys (and St Paul’s) is technically correct itone shnply charis their movements on a map, but is rorcigr\ to the values and understanding of space and movement in the biblical texts. ![]() Cf more recent scholarly attempt to do something similar, but a postcolonial valuing of Manifk:st Destiny _ Jeffrey L Staley, Reading wilh a Passion: Rhetoric, Autohwgraphy. and Ihg ![]() 29 ![]() the Gospel of./ohn, (New York: Continuum, i 995)_ Further, they lived in simplicity and separated from {he world McMinn. 37 ![]() ![]() 8 William F. Stoltz “The Stoltz Story” in Larimore, 1955 ![]() Jessie Heim Deweese, “Tales of Childhood” in Larimore, 1 955. The dress of the early Pennsylvania settlers was similar to present day Amish and given similar spiritual valorization, 50 It is significant that the first tUnera1, Iacob and Regina 3 s ten year old, Solomon, in 1874 a Dunkard preacher was found. Edna Ulmer 7 “Pennsylvania Colony in Nebraska” in Larimore. k 955. But by the time ![]() ![]() ![]() 53 Edna Ulmer, “Pennsylvania Colony in Nebraska” in Larimore3 1955 ![]() ![]() ![]() Keith Heim indicates. rhey were in some sense purely utilitarian (there being German Protestant families to turn to) and rhe second plains eeneration returned to more staunch anti-Papal sentiments ![]() ![]() 56 Heim & Bilsing, e g_ 29-3 1 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() E_o_ Kenneth Heim, 5-7 _ E. o _ Elma Heim Larimore, ‘”Clhurch Life Sustained” in Larimore, 1 955 ![]() Heim and Bilsirrg, ]JÆ, 23 62 A constitutional freedom into which I was initiated by my older and more libertarian cousins. Cf. Robert Heim. ‘Of Bumblybees and Soda Pop” in Williamson, 9 i ![]() 64 Numerous accounts catalo” the range of businesses and organizations supported by this small town and its ruraE population, see multiple entries in both Larimore, 1955 and Griffith These stories are recounted to draw attention to uhat “hzd been”‘ of the vibrancy of this community, specifically to provide a memory of lost community. See esp. Kenneth Heirn, 50-1. He neatly describes both the original vibrancy and subsequent decline of my Jeffersonian Dawson ending by “Even most of the old business buildings are gone. Sad though it is, I guess it is progress,” wonder _ It has, unf0itunately. heen repaired The acceptance of a “water-stain” theology was only after an intervening pericd of growing theo}ogical sophistication during which i hypothesized it might have been an angel rather than God Himself ![]() (1989), Univ. of Chicago Press. Heim & Bilsing, ILL 22-23 ![]() ![]() ![]() [ts theological roots are in an “imitation” of Jesus’ pacifism. Beyond the accounts OF John and Gottlieb is the PA community’s response to the Civil War which was. when drafted, to pay others to go in their stead. Heirn & Bilsing, 111, 5, Mc-Minn_, 22-23, tells the story of a nameless community member who went mad as a result of the moral dilemma of rejecting- both answering the draft summons and the subterfuge of paying some one to go kill tor him. But eve” among the oriuina! colonists this does not seem to have been a universal belief One family, Gross. is noted For skill with guns (For hunting) because their men had been members of the Kaiser’s Guard, Susan Heim Little, “Joseph Gross, My Pioneer Ancestor” in Larimore 1955 ![]() ![]() ![]() McMinn, 13-14 – 19 73 Ephraim Shafer, “Christly Heim” in Larimore, 1955 ![]() See Don W. Holter, Flames on the Plains: A Hi.sloty ofthe (_/nüed &fethodism in Nebraska. (Nashville. Parthenon, 1983) ![]() ![]() ![]() Regina faced the issues squarely and held the Family to its course, Heim & Bilsing, Ill, p. 1 0_ ![]() Geertzian “local knowledge”. Cf. Kenneth Heim, 5 for the organic passing on of such knowledge. ![]() 78 although the church doctrine did not include pacifism, it was entirely possible for a member DfEhe church to hold thc belief privately — ‘a marter of the heart’ P’, Keith M. Heim. letter of E 5 October 1960, in Williamson, 1 35 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 82 Heim & Bilsing. 111. 15 ![]() 83 Melvin J _ Heim • ‘Early Day Stories” in Larimore. [955 ![]() Morris Berman, The Twilight ofAmerican Culture, (New York: Norton. 2000)_ |