Nov 4, 2011

Amish - Marathon, NY - History of Anabaptists

Shown above is an etching from Martyr's Mirror done by Jan Luyken.
It depicts Hendrik Pruyt being readied to be burned for his faith as an Anabaptist
in A.D. 1574 in the city of Workum, Province of Friesland, The Netherlands.  
He is being fitted with a tongue screw.
This was done so the martyrs would be unable to witness their faith to onlookers.

On the right side you will some straw sticking out from the burn platform.

However, he was not burned on the platform but set out to sea in a burning boat.

Tens of thousands of Anabaptists men, women (mothers) were burned, tortured, hacked apart, mutilated, put on galleys, etc.
Children were taken to be raised as non-anabaptists.

Many Anabaptists emigrated to the USA and the Amish in Cortland County are descended from them.

There are no Amish left in Europe. The last European Amish merged with the Mennonites in 1937.

The Martyr's Mirror is a book of some 1200 pages which was first written in
A.D. 1660 by a Dutch Minister Tieleman van Braght, Dordtrecht, The Netherlands.

In A.D. 1745-1746 it was translated into German in Elizabethtown, PA for
the Mennonite Communities in the U.S.A..
In A.D. 1784 a second edition was published.

In A.D. 1886 it was translated into English.

Amish families read from this book to strenghten their faith.
It is second to the Bible in Amish households.

The Amish in the vicinity of Marathon, NY hail from the Smicksburg-Punxsutawney area in PA.
Since 1961 approximately 800 Amish families from Holmes County, Ohio
settled in the Smicksburg, PA area.
A lack of an adequate market for milk is one of the reasons
the Amish are currently migrating to Cortland County.

Two new families are currently arriving and our total number is now in excess of thirty families.

George VanderWoude

Links:
Martyr's Mirror Online
Martyr's Mirron Images


at