Leader and Wife in
Eastern Pennsylvania
The wedding portrait of Cideon and Susannu Mast Stoltzfus, taken shortht before 1860, shows the Amish costume of the mid-nineteenth eenturi~. Cideon Stoltzfus wu•Sordained minister in 1868 and bishop in 1888. From that date till his death in 1913 he served the Conestaga and Millwood congregations in eastern Pennsi~lvania. Both were deeendants of the first Amish in America.
factor may well have been the defection of Samuel Lantz, a minister ordained in 1878 to assist Cideon Stoltzfus. Lantz was an able and alert minister who preached in English, even in "outside" churches, and favored a rate of change that was faster than his associates could accept. Besides his willingness to associate with other denominations Lantz also received support from the Illinois Amish who under Joseph Stuckey had become rather "liberal." Lantz later joined a progressive group of Mennonites in Philadelphia and severed completely his connections with the Millwood Church. In the context of these two forces that pulled in opposite directions, both Mast and Stoltzfus, and in particular the latter, took a cautious direction that, while allowing for change and innovations, did not admit new patterns faster than they could be assimilated harmoniously by the congregations.'-'
Besides Conestoga and Millwood congregations there were other small churches which were af$üated with the emerging new order of Amish churches in Ohio. One of these was located at Allensville, Pennsylvania, and dates from the 1790's."- This settlement likewise became divided between the Old Order and those who prefered newer ways. The division occurred mainly, however, on the question of whether baptism should be administered in homes or in a stream. In either case pouring was the method. The group divided and the Allensville congregation was organized in 1861 with a meetinghouse built in 1869. In 1871 Sunday school was started and in 1880 or thereabouts the use of German began to decline. The other innovations of young people's meetings (1893)
