John Andrew Hostetler, most widely known for his studies on the Amish (Amish Society, 1963) and the Hutterites (Hutterite Society, 1974), died August 28, 2001. He was 82. He was professor of sociology and anthropology at Temple University for 34 years. He served as chair of the Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church.
John was born near Belleville, in the Kishacoquillas Valley of central Pennsylvania. He was the son of Joseph and Nancy (Hostetler) Hostetler, an Old Order Amish family. The "Cold Water Farm" by the old cold water station of the Kishacoquillas Valley Railroad was his home for the first eleven years. When his entrepreneurial father was excommunicated from the church in 1929, the family "sold out" and moved to Kalona, Iowa. There John was known as "Pennsylvania Joe's" son.
John's education, begun in the Ore Bank School in Pennsylvania, was continued until the eighth grade at Snake Hollow School, near Kalona. At home he read, in addition to the Bible, farm magazines, Daniel Kauffman's Bible Doctrines, and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. His yearning for formal education led him off the farm, and eventually to Goshen College and to Penn State University.
Though he chose to leave his native Amish culture, and to pursue higher education, John made the Amish the subject of his university study. The most comprehensive publication on the Amish is Amish Society (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963), now in its fourth edition.
John was often called upon to serve as an expert witness in various court cases involving the Amish. In the landmark Wisconsin v. Yoder case on education before the Supreme Court, John demonstrated his profound understanding of the gap which separates the Amish from the rest of American society. John was on the witness stand, and Attorney John William Calhoun of Wisconsin was cross-examining him. In a sharp and cynical tone, the attorney asked, "Now, Professor, don't you think that a person needs to have an education to get ahead in the world?" In typical fashion, John pondered the question, and then replied, "It all depends on which world."
--jes