Amana looks at 170 years of history

AMANA — In 2025, Amana will celebrate its 170th anniversary as a community.

Roughly 80% of the seven villages were constructed in a 15-year period between 1855 and 1870.

That meant that they built seven churches, 55 kitchen houses, hundreds of large homes, seven school houses, seven general stores, two woolen mills with water power and warehouses, a calico printing operation, three sawmills, a brickyard, limekiln, multiple breweries, seven ice houses, seven bakeries, seven smokehouses and many craft shops, two large flour mills, plus the granaries, dairy barns, stables and hay barns.

They built a 6 1/2-mile canal complete with dams, sluices, bridges and wheel houses.

The location and construction of every single home, every outbuilding, every craft shop and factory building was planned by the Grossebruderat (the great council of Elders) with details determined by each village council of Elders, the head village carpenter and head stonemason.

In the seven Amanas, they gave their community ethos their fullest, most complete, most colorful expression.

The seven villages of Amana are, in fact, a creation of the Inspirationists’ devotion to a faith — focused, Godly life in unity, community and peace.

The largest buildings were the churches. Homes looked alike for the most part, as resources were shared.

There were neither mansions nor hovels.

In May of 1855, while still in Ebenezer, C. Metz was inspired to state, “The Lord speaks saying — My community is to be built by continually placing one stone upon the one already set.

“Then, those who follow shall build upon that as it was in the past, so it shall be in the continuation of time, until in the last times, when the great abundance of Grace shall, like a flowing stream, be poured out upon all who believed …

“The community of Grace which I, your Lord, intend to erect is to be a continued blessing for your children’s children and all who follow … Therefore take God’s fearful and productive work seriously.” (Testimony: C. Metz, May 28, 1855, Nieder Ebenezer, NY.)

They arrived in Iowa only after looking at land in Kansas. The Kansas land was fertile and could be purchased in large tracts, but it was dry and timber was scarce.

Most disconcerting was the fact that Kansas was embroiled in bitter and violent civil strife over slavery. “Free states” fought slave holders.

In 1854, it looked likely that Kansas would become a slave-holding state, and the Inspirationists were appalled at the prospect.

Iowa, in contrast, was a “free” state and appeared to be every bit as fertile, with more rainfall, free flowing rivers and stands of good timber. Having become a state in 1846, Iowa sold land from offices in Iowa City, Des Moines and Davenport.

County courts, government offices and offices of law were being established in these towns, and there seemed, unlike Kansas, to be a civil order in place.

Yet, Iowa was remote enough to appeal to the Inspirationists. It had few roads and the railway lines did not extend across the Mississippi.

To get from Ebenezer, New York to Iowa, it would take you at least two weeks in the 1850s. Longer if the weather was poor.

First you walked or took a wagon to Buffalo, New York. Then you got on a steam ship to cross Lake Erie.

From Detroit you might take a stagecoach or a train to Sarnia on Lake Huron and then another steamer up across Lake Huron and down Lake Michigan to Chicago.

In Chicago you boarded a train for Iowa, getting off at the Mississippi across the river from Clinton, or to Rock Island.

To save miles, many took a river vessel down to Muscatine. Then you could walk or ride a stage coach or wagon to Iowa City and on to Amana.

There was no bridge on the Iowa River then, so crossing it meant waiting for the water to be low enough to cross on foot or in a wagon, or traveling downstream till you found a working ferry.

Eventually a river ferry was established, and then a bridge was built closer to Amana, but that after the first settlers arrived.

(Reprinted by permission from the Aug. 16, 2024 issue of the Amana Society Bulletin.)