Published: May 17, 2009 12:17 am      

Swartzentruber sect among most conservative, expert says

NICKTOWN — When two Cambria County sheriff’s deputies – eviction and padlocking orders in hand – entered the Barr Township property of Joely and Mary Swartzentruber last week, they were taking actions that could have ended in disaster.

As the sheriff’s car rounded the corner of the house, more than a dozen Amish men stepped in unison out of the wide door of the recently constructed barn.

They had looks of determination, but were not bearing arms – not a pitchfork or a shovel handle.

Not even a voice was raised.

While the Amish expressed concern and repeatedly questioned the eviction, the men moved out of the deputies’ path. They watched as 14 locks were placed on the barn, outbuildings and the house where the Swartzentrubers and their three young daughters have lived since September.

The padlocking included the outhouse – which is in violation of Cambria County’s on-lot sewage laws, and at the crux of this controversy.

The events are no surprise to Don Kraybill, director of the Center for Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County.

“(The Amish) basically feel it is wrong to retaliate or resist in any way,” said Kraybill, who served as a go-between for the Amish and the public in the aftermath of the 2006 massacre of five Amish schoolgirls at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County.

“They are willing to take whatever comes their way,” Kraybill said. “They will sit in prison, pay fines. And if it gets too severe, they will simply move to another state.”

Andy Swartzentruber, 53, of Barr Township, is the owner of property housing an Amish school also in violation of county sewage laws. He is serving a three-month sentence in the Cambria County Prison after he was found in contempt of court.

Swartzentruber’s release date is June 14. He also has paid $2,600 in fines in district and county courts for violations at the school outhouse.

Kraybill said he found “fascinating” the attitude shown by Susan Miller on Monday when deputies padlocked the Blacklick Township home she shared with her husband, John, and young son.

As deputies installed the locks, Miller walked out of the back door with a bag of homemade oatmeal cookies in hand.

She offered them to each of the two dozen or so people outside the house.

The offer was extended to sheriff’s deputies Jake Kehn and John Packer – even as they locked the Millers out of their home.

“That is exactly what I would have expected,” Kraybill said.

Samuel Yoder, Mary Swartzentruber’s father, agreed with Kraybill’s description of the sect.

But Yoder said the 20 Amish families living in the Barr and Blacklick townships have no plans to move.

As for Susan Miller’s actions, they made sense to Yoder.

“It was lunchtime. The Amish were hungry and some of the English were hungry,” he said.

Resistance to the deputies or anyone else is never an option, Yoder said.

“We have guns, but they are for use on animals – to hunt or when we slaughter a cow or a pig – not on human beings,” Yoder said in an interview outside his Barr Township home.

Some official records listed the sect and family name as being spelled with a “v” – Swartzentruver.

Yoder said: “Some spell it with a ‘v,’ some with a ‘b.’ But here, we spell it with a ‘b.’ ”

The Swartzentruber Amish are one of about two dozen Amish sects in North America, Kraybill said. The sect was formed in Ohio in the early 1900s, and members since have spread to New York, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

“They are one of the most conservative – if not the most conservative Amish – in North America,” Kraybill said.

Some moved from Ohio to northern Cambria County and elsewhere in the state about a decade ago. They represent less than 1 percent of the Amish in Pennsylvania, Kraybill said.

“They formed because they felt other Amish were being more liberal and using technology,” he said.

The Swartzentruber members resist all new trends and strive to use as little technology as possible on their farms and in their businesses and homes, he said.

Their homes have no electricity, running water or bathrooms. Dress is plain – always dark colors, with no belts or zippers.

Transportation is by horse-drawn buggy with no lights.

Use of an “Amish taxi” – paying someone for vehicle transport – is very limited.

“The foundation of their faith is in keeping with their old traditions,” Kraybill said.