Amish: Remain or Leave?

Variations in Ordnung

13

"Ordnung" refers to the body of church rules and discipline, both
spoken and informal. Since the beginning of the Elkhart-LaGrange
settlement there have been variations in the patterns of Ordnung from
one portion of the community to another. These differences are directly
related to differences in Ordnung among the different immigrant groups
who settled in Indiana. The two largest such groups included families
from Holmes County, Ohio, and others from Somerset County,
Pennsylvania. The Holmes County group settled in what became known
as the Clinton area, directly east of Goshen in Elkhart County. The
Somerset County families settled near the western edge of the
LaGrange County line, southeast of the town of Middlebury in what

became known as the Forks area.²⁹

Over time, other clusters of congregations emerged with their own
understandings of how to be Amish. Among the most progressive groups
have been the Clinton congregations, descended from the Holmes
County immigrants. For many years distinctives have set them apart
from other churches: e.g., an added layer of rubber covering the steel
rims of their buggy wheels. An informant described them as "people
who used to dress a little better than the rest of us and who trimmed
their beards a little closer."The Shipshewana congregations are the
other Amish who have made rapid changes in recent decades: e.g.,
bicycles and the use of refrigerated tanks (some of them quite up-to-
date) to cool milk and sell it in bulk. They were the first churches to
follow the lead of the Clinton congregations in adding a layer of rubber
to their buggy wheels.

At the other end of the spectrum are churches who have most
resisted any concessions to modernity. These include the LaGrange
congregations which to this day do not permit innovations that have
been accepted in other parts of the settlement for many years, e.g.,
bicycles, corn pickers, and baling with a baler pulled behind a team of
horses. LaGrange churches still require that hay or straw be brought to
a stationary baler and that corn be picked by hand.

Table 9 was constructed in consultation with an Amish minister who
knows the settlement very well. With his assistance congregations
were ranked according to two factors: acceptance of somewhat more
modern farming technology and ability to discipline members.



29_{. For a description of the early history of this settlement see Amish and Mennonites in}
Eastern Elkhart and LaGrange Counties, Indiana 1841-1991(Goshen, Ind.: G.E.T. Printing,
1991).