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CHAPTER 14

We talked to Allen and Rachel Smith, and they gave us a seventy-nine Lincoln to drive, telling us if we wanted to keep it we could pay them at a later date.
"What do you want to do for a living?" Allen asked me.

"Become a truck driver," I said.

"No problem, I was a truck driver all my life I'll teach you how to become a professional truck driver." Allen and I talked it over. Since Fran and I were no longer with the Amish, Allen and I thought it would be better if we moved away from where we were living, and put our place up for sale. We were living right next to my brother Pete, and since we were no longer Amish it was causing Pete a lot of problems. I didn't want to cause Pete any trouble, so Allen helped us find a place to live in Heuvelton, New York.

By February of 1992 we had our place sold to an English party out of Odgensburg. We took that money and paid Allen and Rachel for the Lincoln. We bought a tractor and trailer with the rest of it. Around the fifteenth of February my brother Pete came to our house in Heuvelton one evening. I invited Pete in and turned the television off.

Pete pulled out his checkbook and wrote me a check for a thousand dollars. "What's this for?" I asked Pete.

"The preachers ordered me to pay you back the money you paid me for the land. When you paid me you were still excommunicated, and as you know, I can't take money from an excommunicated Amish man."

It didn't make any sense to me. I bought the land from Pete, put buildings on the land, and I sold the land. Now, Pete was out the land and the money, but he was ordered to make sure I got the thousand dollars back. To keep Pete from getting in trouble I took the check. However, it was up to me what I did with the thousand dollars. So, while Pete was sitting talking with me, I burned the check right in front of him. Pete just smiled.

A couple weeks later Pete sent me another check for a thousand dollars. I kept this one. They might be able to make Pete pay me back, but they couldn't make me cash the check. And I never have. Under what Bible scripture did the Bishop Jacob Miller come up with his excuse? He stated earlier it wasn't against the biblical scripture to accept money from an excommunicated man as long as the pay off isn't done directly by my brother Pete and I. He was the one who Okayed the pay off in the first place. Could it have been just because I was now, wearing a different set of clothes? He knew I still cared very much for my brother Pete, and this was just one more way to get at me.

Now we've put all this behind us, and I'm out hauling all different kinds of freight. Sometimes I would take a load of fertilizer to Holden, Maine and bring a load of potatoes back to New York State. I stayed busy doing this. However, I also learned what its' like to have a break down out in the middle of nowhere. But, I was managing and learning, and things were going okay.

The winter was almost over, and I was looking forward to spring. Just when things started looking brighter for us, we received a phone call from brother Pete's neighbor telling us my mother had died that weekend. We were in shock. My mother had appeared very healthy for her age. At only sixty-five years old, she'd had a fatal stroke. I asked Pete's neighbor if he could please ask brother Pete if we were allowed to come and pay our respects to my mother. Pete's answer was, "I have to talk to the Preachers first".

Bishop Jacob was quick to reply that the answer was "no". The Bishop's reason was that they didn't allow vehicles in their funerals. However, this wasn't true at all. There were all kinds of English vehicles parked there the day of the funeral. All I wanted to do was to see my mother. We would gladly have parked our car by brother Pete's neighbor's home. But the Bishop said none of us was allowed to see Mom.

Pete clearly stated that the Amish didn't want to see us at his home during this time. He said he would have no other choice but to lock the doors and not let us in, since we were no longer Amish. It hurt me very much to think that someone could hate me so much he would make my children suffer. Pete's neighbor couldn't believe what he was seeing or hearing. He invited us to stay at his house during that time so at least we'd be close by.

The day of the funeral we stood out by the road and watched Mom go by in her coffin. Our two daughters were crying. My Dad died thirty-three days later. Pete's neighbor called and gave us the message. Before the funeral we were back at Pete's neighbor's home. However, this Amish buggy stopped in at Pete's neighbor's home, and this time I got to talk to Amish man. I explained very frankly what I thought the situation.

Then I said, "My children are innocent. They had nothing to do with this. Please let them see their Grandpa for the last time." The Amish man took this information back down to my brother Pete and Pete took it up with the Preachers.

The answer was yes; we could come and see Dad but only for fifteen minutes. When I got the news I almost cried, at least our children got to pay their respects to their Grandpa. We weren't allowed to attend the funeral. But fifteen minutes was better than nothing.

The day of the funeral we stood by the road also and watch the coffin go by. After all this was over with I tried to stay busy and stay clear of the Amish. I kept my truck rolling all over the U.S.A. I parked my truck and decided to become a company driver, which has a lot fewer headaches. In 1994 Fran decided she wanted to learn how to become a truck driver. I paid for the truck driving school, and she proved that a little Amish lady could drive a big rig.

After Fran graduated from the driving school I took her on the road and taught her what it was all about. She loves every minute of it. And the money is good. In 1995, we were living in Jasper, Alabama. In the spring, we got a message about my sister Emma and her husband Andy. Andy was always very abusive.

However, this fit was another explosion, this man was an animal with his wife and kids. My sister Emma was no angel, either. I had worked for Andy and sister Emma when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. It was only for a couple of weeks Andy was in a tight spot, and needed help to catch up with his farm work. We both had a team of horses and were out in the field getting the ground ready to sow the winter wheat. Around five o'clock that evening we unhitched our teams, and headed toward the barn. Andy was ahead of me by five minutes.

When he got to the barn his two oldest children Robert and Mary, four years old and three years old respectively, were upstairs in the barn playing in a fresh batch of cow feed. Andy got so furious that he didn't even take time to unhitch his team of horses. Instead, he took a strap off one of his horses' harnesses, and ran up to where the children were. The strap he had in his hand had a big, heavy buckle on it. He used this strap on his children, busting their skin wide open. I only saw the end of it.

At the time I said to Andy, "What's going on?"

He said, "Got to get them while they're young, break their spirit." I was terribly upset, and was relieved to go back home and work for the higher classed Amish.

Another time, I had just gone to bed when I heard an awful noise. It sounded like a wild voice coming from the bedroom downstairs. I decided to get up and see what was going on. When I reached the top of the stairs, I heard the door rattle downstairs. I slowly made it down stairs until I could see into the bedroom. There was Andy half bent over. He had a hold on each end of the baby bed and he was shaking it with every ounce of strength he had in his body.

Sister Emma was sitting at the edge of the bed. I could tell by the look on her face that she was terrified. I didn't know what to say or do. But I had to do something, I was afraid he was going to kill his little boy, who wasn't even six months old. That poor baby was flying all over that little crib.

I said, "Andy, what are you doing?"

He quickly replied, "The Devil got a hold of my child. I have to break that spirit."

Thankfully, my arrival was enough to stop Andy. I later learned the baby had a stomachache and had been crying.

In the year of 1994 the Amish had another split in their church. This time the split was caused by a young boy in Wayne County, Ohio. There was a very strict Preacher who lived near West Lebanon, Ohio, and some Amish boys decided to teach him a lesson. One Sunday, he had church at his place. The young folks had a singing at his house in the evening. Four boys put a bag over their heads and they went in his house during the singing. They overpowered him, and gave this Preacher a short hair cut.

Needless to say, the Preacher was out for blood. Later, one of the boys confessed his part in this. However, the Preacher insisted the boy wasn't one of them who had a part in it. This caused a major split through the Swartzentruber Amish. The Bishops and the preachers had a major disagreement concerning this issue. It also affected New York State in the spring of 1995.

The Bishop from the Heuvelton, New York settlement was putting pressure on his members to make sure their boys and girls would join his church, instead of the other church. This put brother-in-law Andy over the top. He was determined to make sure that his son James and daughter Michelle joined the church. Living in that house was a nightmare for well over a year, and still is today.

I checked up on my nieces and nephews, in the fall of 1996, on Thanksgiving Day. They said, "Uncle David, when do we start to count?"

"Right now," I said. I went on 20/20 on ABC, which aired on February 21st, 1997 at ten P.M. and spoke out about child abuse. Fran, also, has a sister who is married and lives in Knox County, Ohio close to Martinsburg . Both her sister and her husband are very abusive to all their children.

Not all the Amish abuse their children, nor do they have sex with their daughters. Not all Preachers or Bishops are power hungry. There are a few good and decent Preachers and Bishops in the Amish. But I knew it was time to take a stand against child abuse in the Amish Community. I've always been very concerned about the Miller children's well being. My brother-in-law Andy has always been very abusive toward his children and his wife. They already have two children in the graveyard due to negligence.

In the fall of 1991, my wife and I were visiting my parents, who only lived a couple miles up the road from Emma. We had a rather nice evening, but I could tell that something was laying heavy on my parents' minds. This made me uneasy, I kept wondering all evening if I had done something to offend them. I thought perhaps our daughters' clothes weren't acceptable. As my mind wandered I even thought maybe it had something to do with my fast horse there'd been a time or two that I showed off.

Later that evening, both my parents went into great detail how my sister Emma had been abused. Both said the Miller family wasn't the ideal family. But I knew something was wrong. I was closer to my parents then than I ever was as I was growing up. I didn't want to lose that. I really never knew what it felt like.

They apologized for all the things they'd ever done wrong to me in the past and asked for forgiveness. They talked about when I was 19 years old how they handed me to the preachers before I was a member of the church all because they were afraid of getting excommunicated.

Dad said, "I should've been more concerned about my son, than about what the Bishops and the Preachers could do to us."

I said to both of my parents, "I didn't blame you. I understood the power of the Preachers and Bishops. They are not going to give up until they have broken your spirit."

Looking at my parents, I said, "Mom and Dad I forgive you both." I said, "I too have failed. There were times that I teased the preachers and tried to get even with them."

When it was time to go home, Dad and I walked out to the barn he said, "It is lovely to have my son back in the Amish clothes again. I never wanted to lose you, David." As we hitched up Smokey to our buggy, my Mom and my wife walked out to the buggy.

Before we left Mom said, "Before you go, there's something we must tell you, son."
Dad said, "Mom, there are some things best left unsaid. Just leave it alone."

Mom said, "No, we've denied him long enough. He's one of our children and he has the right to know."

He appeared to be very nervous and started kicking in the dirt and said, "Mom, must you tell our son David?"

Mom said, "Yes," and looked at me with tears in her eyes as I was sitting in the buggy with my wife.

Mom said, "Do you remember Emma's two daughters, Brenda and Christine who died?"

"Yes. Every time I try to ask anyone about this I get a cold shoulder."

Tears were running down my Mother's cheek and said, "No wonder." Mom said, "Son, I believe Emma is guilty of murder." It felt like all the blood drained from body. Mom said, "Christine was born Sept. 15, 1984, and died on Sept. 17, 1984.

I said, "Mom, how did she die, if she didn't die of natural causes?"

Mom said, "I believe our Emma intentionally suffocated Christine in the middle of the night." Mom kept on talking about Brenda who was born on May 19, 1983 and died on June 18, 1986.

Mom said, "Andy and Emma denied Brenda medical attention when she was having some kind of spinal problems. Brenda was only given medical attention after the Amish couldn't stand it any longer, and put enough pressure on Andy and Emma that they finally took Brenda to Hepburn Hospital in Ogdensburg. But it was too late."

Mom said, "Son, Emma is guilty of denying Brenda medical attention, and she's guilty of suffocating Christine."

I said, "Mom do you realize what you are saying?"

She said, "Yes, son, I do."

Mom continued. In late fall of 1986 and beginning of 1987 Emma had a nervous breakdown. During that time she tried on different occasions to suffocate her daughter Clara. The situation was so serious that Pete had to take Clara in, in order to save her life. Emma had also tried to stick Clara in boiling hot water.

I said, "Mom, how do you know all this?"

Mom said, "Emma is our daughter, we were there when statements were made. I've already said more than I should have, but I'll say one more thing, Bishop Jacob Miller also knows the truth as we do."

At that time I looked at both of my parents and said, "We must go to the law."

Then my Dad spoke for the first time.

He said, "No son, we can't go to the law."

Mom agreed, saying, “Just think what the local public would think or do.” This could very well open the door for the local public to get involved in our culture and we can't have that."

Both of my parents shocked me with the following statement they made: "What is one or two innocent children compared to losing all our children to the American public? At least Christine and Brenda are in Heaven now. That's better than if they were in the English clothes and died and burned in hell."

I was filled with mixed emotions. Mom agreeing, Dad said, "We shouldn't have told you this. If anyone finds out that we spoke about it we'll be excommunicated. This was a ruling that Bishop Jacob Miller had made. I promised I would keep their secret for the time being.

Then I learned about the beatings Michelle and James took in 1995 simply because they refused to join the Miller church. The beatings were so severe that James was lucky to be able to walk. On one occasion, James was beaten with a draft harness tuck, which had a chain on the end of it.

James was also beaten with a v-belt, straps and even with a broomstick. He has taken numerous beatings and has numerous scars from those beatings. Michelle's beatings were also very severe. My sister Emma was beating Michelle in the face with her fists, while Andy was beating Michelle furiously with the v-belt. Michelle would be bleeding from her nose and her mouth. The skin of her body was broken open. Blood ran down her arms.

The Miller children tried to get the Amish to help them. Some in the Amish tried, but were soon told by the Bishop and preachers to drop it. I knew that sooner or later that I would have to take drastic action to save these children.

I knew if I went to the local legal system, they would simply laugh in my face and say the Amish were non violent. The only way I could help these children was, if they were finally able to take the first step by calling the local law enforcement agency and pressing charges against their parents. I knew the children wouldn't get very far with the local system without my help. I'd have to be prepared for all hell to break loose.

The week of Thanksgiving of 1996, we decided to make a trip to St. Lawrence County, New York to see if there is anything we could do to try to help the Miller children because all the rumors surrounding them were so severe. When we arrived in the Amish community in St. Lawrence County, New York one of the Amish church members told us that Andy was excommunicated for having his pants open and masturbating in his living room, while Michelle was sitting at the sewing machine with her back turned towards her dad.

When Emma walked in and caught him in the act and took her complaint to the preachers, her husband was punished in church, which meant excommunicated for a couple weeks. These allegations can be verified. I was furious when I learned about the sexual allegations. I decided to go visit to the Miller family and see if I could get an opportunity to speak to the children.

When we arrived at the their residence, Andy and Emma were not at home. There was an Amish funeral going on in the community at the time. My nieces and nephews could not speak fast enough.

What touched my heart the most was when my niece Rachel said, "Uncle David when do we start to matter? Don't we count?”

I said, "Rachel, as of right now, I am here to help any way I can." I offered my help but the children were afraid and uncertain. I said, "Okay, I understand, but when ever you need my help just get a hold of me." We must have sat there and visited for a couple hours.

Suddenly, I heard a squeak in the door. I realized we were so busy talking and paid no attention that Andy and Emma came home. When Emma walked in the house she stopped for a second then she laid her eyes on me. She looked down at the floor and back up at me and said, "Oh, it's you."

"Yes, Emma it is," I said.

She asked, "Have you been here long?"

"Oh," I said, "For a little while." About that time Andy walked in and was real nervous, but I decided not make a scene unless Andy was going to get irrational while I was in his house. Andy surprised me and offered us a cup of coffee and tried his best to carry on a conversation. The Miller children also appeared very nervous and were no longer talking like they were a few m minutes earlier. We stayed for forty-five minutes after the parents arrived, then we left.

That night my family and I stayed in a motel room in Ogdensburg, New York. The next morning we headed back home to Ohio. There has never been a case where an Amish victim of child abuse has been able to receive outside help. The American Public was often blinded by its own ignorance. All they focused on was how peaceful the Amish Culture appeared to be. But the Amish Culture is really no different than the rest of society. The Amish are capable of murder and suicide. They are no better or worse than the rest of society.