Talk:Amana Colonies

Explanation needed
It would be interesting if the passage because they were refused an extension of their land charter because of their harsh treatment of a married couple who had violated their marriage edicts, they moved west could be expanded upon in the section on the history of the group's move from New York to Iowa. --Haruo 01:20, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Hi
hey this is michelle and i am making a book about iowa and my letter A is the Amana Colonies. i hope this is website will help me out alot. thnks for making this website. BYE! ~michelle!!

Incorrect information
Much of the information on this page is incorrect. The information that is correct was directly coppied (stolen) from www.cp.nps.gov. Not only is most of this information incorrect, the article actually contradicts itself, and at one point is actually somewhat offensive. LCB —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.35.137.152 (talk) 19:30, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Written material from nps.gov is almost certainly a work of the United States government, and therefore in the public domain. It cannot be stolen.  However, it should be properly credited. Cullen328 (talk) 23:56, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

I am going to check on some of this in a history book about Amana and other groups. But I don't think the explanation about the incorporation vote is correct. The explanation I remember from Holloway is that, as in many other such groups, some young people sued in the courts. And in such cases, the response of the courts has been, that if the communal property group does not have an equitable method of assessing fair value to be paid to such children, that all of the property held in common is put into a corporation and shares are allocated according to some formula. I suspect, from reading this article, that the real story has been whitewashed by the Amana community to prevent outsiders from thinking there was dissension.

I am also very sure that the idealistic presentation of Amana as being economically self-sufficient is quite wrong, but again I need to verify that. Amana, as I remember it, was quite an employer of outsiders around and about the area. By the second generation, they had developed to the point that their machine shops required staffing from outside in order to meet demand for products. The Amanites became a class of fairly wealthy managers and foremen to a great degree. 69.108.3.197 (talk) 01:08, 18 November 2010 (UTC)Prof
 * Please provide a reliable source for your statements. Cullen328 (talk) 23:56, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 20:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Organization
This quotation: ''Two men, Gruber and Rock, started this religious group. They traveled to Germany and to Switzerland preaching about Jesus Christ and his teachings, they disagreed with the Catholic faith's method sermonizing. They didn’t believe that the Catholic Church taught the exact word of the bible, so they thought themselves to be a reformed movement of true faith. They believed that God used certain people as his tool so that they could teach his word to others; the name of these individuals was Werkzeug (instrument). This derived from the time of the biblical prophets like Joseph and his brothers. Today church still gathers on Sunday mornings in both German and English. Visitors are welcome to join in on services if desired. During church services, they sing songs that were written by their church founders.[6'' Is very out of place, given that it is within the "beliefs" section, when it belongs in the "origins" section.Pressondude (talk) 22:19, 30 October 2008 (UTC)Pressondude

Amana today
I see that we have a section on Amana today, but it's made up of smaller towns now. Shouldn't they have town pages, like for Oxford, Iowa, that have census data and all that?

There are 7 (or 8 counting "Upper South Amana) East Amana, Amana, Middle, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana, and Homestead (a town the society purchased, for the railroad stop)

It is difficult to have "individual town" information, as none are incorporated, or are they together incorporated. They are "part of" Iowa County, Iowa. Only a specific Historic Preservation Land Use District exists. It was enacted in ~1986. See Iowa code 404.3. When adopting this district, the residents of West Amana, voted/petitioned not to be a part of the district, and are still not today!

Because of lack of incorporation, the villages are included in county census data, as any other rural part of Iowa County, Iowa. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldhaus (talk • contribs) 21:24, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Error in first paragraph
I wish someone who knows how to edit this story would remove the sentence at the end of the opening paragraph that (more-or-less, I didn't copy it) says "For this reason they are often mistaken for the Amish." The lead-in to that conclusion was communalism.

Removal is the best option. One could amend and expand it, but that would be another paragraph in itself!! My objection is that, the reason they are often confused with the Amish is simply the ignorance of people. All things different from our current norm get lumped to-gether by the average Joe. But communalism is NOT why they get lumped in. The Amish, Mennonites, Bretheren.... all of the anabaptists.... are not and have never been 'communal.' The only link between the Amanas and Amish is that both find roots in the early Protestant movement...... but, then, so do Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and all other Protestant groups! No, it is simply the "oddity" of their lives and the lack of interest in learning about them that causes confusion in the minds of most people.

SO either expand it, or remove it, but someone PLEASE make it say something other than that communalism is the reason they are mistaken for each other.

THANKS -

66.82.9.59 (talk) 17:16, 21 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Wow, indignant about ignorance while loudly demonstrating same!


 * The Amish, Mennonites, Bretheren.... all of the anabaptists.... are not and have never been 'communal.'


 * Except, of course, for the Anabaptist Hutterites. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.228.162.7 (talk) 11:12, 20 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I hope I am replying to this correctly... I am not sure I would remove the comment, but expand on it. You are correct in saying the Amish, Mennonites and Brethren are not communal, but you are forgetting the Hutterites.  They broke off early from the Anabaptists for this very thing.  Other than this, they line up with the other Anabaptists in core doctrine.

As to why people confuse the Amish and those in the Amana colonies, I do not know exactly when they discontinued, but the people of the Amanas used to wear distinctive dress; women in headcoverings and modest dress. I cannot remember off hand the men's attire. Also, their past self sufficiency is also similar to the Amish. Raising and preparing their own foods for example. Even the separate seating of men and women during worship are common to both groups. Being the two groups are close to each other physically, the confusion is bound to happen.

If I felt confident in my editing here I would do this myself, as I do have the book written by one who grew up during the incorporation of the Amana Colonies. This is where I have gleaned some of their history. The book is titled, A Change and A Parting by Barbara Yambura. Just Kim (talk) 18:17, 5 March 2010 (UTC)