"A boy had to ride sometimes, or he would burst in pieces! Twelve-year-old Dirk, a son of the plain people, dearly loved his family and would not have traded shoes with any city boy. But, still, the ways of his people were so -this way exactly and no other way! It was hard to want to ride a horse so badly he 'could taste it,' and to have to forego the pleasure because 'a horse is to work.'" [book jacket]
xii, 219 pages : illustrations, portrait, map ; 24 cm.
Series
Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite history ; no. 8
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-205) and index.
Contents
Bernese Anabaptists in the sixteenth century -- Debates and early persecution -- Bernese Anabaptism in the seventeenth century -- Bernese Anabaptism in the eighteenth century -- Bernese Anabaptism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- Migration of Bernese Anabaptists to America in the nineteenth century -- Bernese Anabaptist settlements in America -- Bernese Anabaptism in America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Summary
"This book holds a wealth of information discovered in archives and libraries in Europe. Early history of the beginnings of Anabaptism in the Bernese area of Switzerland is given, followed by emigration stories as people fled to the Alsace and the Palatinate in the 17th century. Genealogy and history is combined, with examples of family names, stating where they lived in Switzerland before emigrating to other parts of Europe and later to America. The appendix lists Anabaptists who fled from Bern to the Palatinate in the 1670s; Bernese Anabaptists found in Basel in the early part of the 18th century; Anabaptists in Commune Florimont, France, in 1791; Anabaptists in Canton Bern in 1823; and Bernese Anabaptist-Mennonite congregations in America." [from the publisher]
