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All names have been changed to protect the innocent. Copyright (C) 1997. By David E. Yoder
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CHAPTER 5Within sixty days after I had returned, Mom and Dad had located another farm, in Tuscarawas County, close to Peoli, Ohio. They bought this farm, paying cash for it. We moved to Tuscarawas County that fall, with horse and wagons. It was about a sixty-five-mile drive, and took us about eighteen hours to drive it with horses. Now there were only my two sisters and I at home. The others were all married. The farm Dad bought was really hilly, but it was home. I liked it down there. There was only one small Amish church with a total of fourteen families in the community.
However, the boys in that settlement were a lot different from in Wayne County. Their Sunday clothes were on the sloppy side. Their haircuts were more like the married man's haircuts. Some of the boys even had their hair a little bit longer up front than in the back, which signifies true obedience to their parents. They were all very serene. I'll never forget that first Sunday in church. Everyone's eyes were on me. That Sunday I was wearing some of Joe's clothes. I was a little bit bigger than Joe had been, and I filled his clothes perfectly. The clothes were a lot snugger fit than they were used to in that settlement. My hair still hadn't grown back from the time I had left the Amish, so half my ears weren't covered. This wasn't the Peoli style. Their settlement had been invaded by a wild man. They didn't like the way I looked, the way I walked or the way I talked.
The parents warned their children about me. Most of the young folks didn't pay any attention at first. Some of the older boys and girls approved of my style.
The first Sunday some of the boys were trying hard to get me to date some of the girls in their community, but I refused. However, I had noticed this very cute girl in church. She was about five-foot tall and around one hundred pounds. We had a singing after church services that evening. She was in the singing, which meant she had to be over the age of sixteen, and therefore old enough to date. I refused to have a date with anyone that night though, believing it would be a lot wiser to use the watch, wait, and see attitude.
The Amish boys had me fooled at first. They had a pocket radio amongst them. This was all very much routine for the next four months. I wasn't grounded any longer from having run off. There was a wedding and I was chosen to be the best man, which was quite a surprise. Sam Miller and Susan Swartzentruber could get married that day. Susan was a Preacher's daughter.
Sam and Susan got engaged to be married a week and a half earlier. The Preachers were made aware that I was going to be best man. Sam Miller's sister had chosen me to be her partner. My ears still weren't completely covered with my hair, a strict violation of the Amish rule.
For the wedding, I tried my best to make sure my ears were covered. Finally, I was told to wear a scarf over my hair in order to force it down and make it stay straight. However, the bottom of my ear lobe peeked out. All that effort wasn't good enough for the Preachers. When they made a ruling, they expected it to be followed, even if common sense contradicted them.
The morning of the wedding the Preachers were the first ones to arrive. As soon as they got there they congregated in a group and had a major discussion about David Yoder and his ear lobe. They couldn't agree on whether to have me removed from the wedding, or completely bringing the wedding to a halt for that day. The Preachers said they had never seen or heard of anyone being a best man at a wedding that didn't have his ear lobe completely covered. However, after a couple of hours of discussion they decided to let the wedding continue.
Susan Swartzentruber a nice girl, but one woman, no matter how nice, wasn't enough for Sam Miller. The evening of his wedding, two couples that played a part of the wedding and the newlyweds were upstairs in Susan's bedroom as was the custom, Susan had two beds in her room for that day. We were lying on the bed taking a break from the wedding. It was right around eight thirty, and supper had already been served.
The girls that were waiting tables now had some free time, after having been busy all day long. They were looking forward to sitting down and talking with the newlyweds.
My sister Amanda was one of the first ones to make it to our room upstairs. Sam was quick to ask Amanda if she would please step into the walk in the closet in the room, that he had something important to ask her. Sam's new wife Susan didn't say anything but looked at him curiously.
When Sam stepped through those curtains in the closet with my sister, Amanda, talking was the last thing on Sam's mind. My sister was caught completely off guard when Sam reached up under her dress. "Sam, what are you doing, you're married!" Amanda said.
"I need to sow a little more wild oats before I have to settle down and raise a family," Sam answered.
"What about your wife?"
"Don't worry. She doesn't suspect a thing," Sam said. While this was going on, table waiter Cevilla Gingerich came into the room. A few minutes later, Amanda came out of the closet, her hair in disarray and her face red. Then Cevilla Gingerich went into the closet.
Sam also reached under Cevilla's dress, and played around. By now I was starting to pay more attention. I noticed sister Amanda wasn't right, she had a guilty look on her face. Five to ten minutes later Cevilla stepped out of the closet and so did Sam. My sister whispered in my ear and told me what took place.
Angry, I said, "I'll stop the no good s.o.b." Amanda said, "No David, no one got hurt. Just let it go."
Later that evening, I had an opportunity to talk to my sister and Cevilla at the same time. The subject, of course was Sam Miller. Cevilla backed up sister Amanda's story word for word, but neither of the two girls wanted me to say anything to Sam. They didn't want to ruin his wife's wedding day more than they already had. To me this was unacceptable.
I might have been considered the wild man; I did drink a beer every once in a while, or watched my neighbor's TV or listened to my pocket radio. I was free spirit and open minded, but I had principles. Stooping to this level on one's wedding night was simply disgusting, I thought.
Within thirty days after that wedding, I started dating Susan's younger sister Fran. I was nineteen at the time and Fran was sixteen. We fell in love on our first date. I had never felt this way about a girl before. There was never a dull moment in bed with Fran. We always had something to talk about and laugh about, and soon we were going steady.
On our first date we kissed and hugged but there was no sex. The temptation for two people who are in love is even greater if your culture believes in bed courtship, and no other dating is acceptable. Even though the girl you're dating has a nightdress on, and you have on a shirt and pants, you're in a bedroom by yourselves lying next to each other.
On our second date, Fran and I started playing around with each other, seeing who was the most ticklish. Before I realized it my hand was under Fran's skirt and was slowly making its way up to her knees. Fran didn't try to stop me, and I made it all the way up to her hips. Swartzentruber Amish panties are homemade. They have a six-inch open slit on either side of the hip, with a button. The front of their panties are completely closed off, but by the flip of two buttons the back section of the panties open up.
Suddenly, I decided to insert my hand through that six inch long opening on the side of her panties. When my hand touched her bare buttocks, Fran began to quiver. She said, "I've never been touched this way. It feels so good." I wasn't complaining either. At the same time Fran had reached through my side pockets on my Amish pants to explore my private parts. The night went by rather quickly.
The next two weeks all I could think about was Fran how I'd felt the heat of her buttocks and how smooth it was. The next Sunday in church I couldn't take my eyes off of Fran. As luck would have it, we were allowed to have a young folks singing after church. After the singing I gave Fran a buggy ride home.
We let our horse walk home most of the time as we hugged and kissed and talked about what had happened a week earlier. My horse wasn't used to this type of trip there was no drag racing that night. It was close to midnight when we arrived at Fran's parents' place. We found it very hard to separate. It was nearly 1:00 a.m. before Fran finally stepped off the buggy and went in the house. "Good bye," I called after her. "See you in seven days." The next seven days crawled by. We only lived about three and half miles from each other. I couldn't wait till the next Saturday evening. I was also frightened of getting caught, especially since Fran was the Preacher's daughter.
On our third date our relationship intensified. I arrived at her place at 9:00 on a Saturday evening. Her parents weren't in bed yet. They had a dog tied up at their shop and washhouse, which was between the house and barn. Anytime anybody showed up after dark that dog barked I decided to use this to my advantage. The more I teased the dog the louder he barked. Fran's parents were aware that there was somebody there, wanting to date their daughter.
One by one the kerosene lamps were blown out. Finally by 9:30 p.m. the home was dark and quiet. It was time for me to enter the Swartzentruber home and make my way to my girlfriend's bedroom. It didn't take me long to take my hat, my shoes and my vest off once I entered her bedroom. If Amish boys decide to go and tomcat a young couple it is usually done between 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight.
To tomcat a young dating couple is an Amish custom among Amish boys as a form of entertainment. On weekends when Amish boys are dateless they harass the couples that are dating. Because of this it is good to be prepared for unexpected visitors. But after midnight you can feel pretty comfortable doing whatever your heart desires. No matter how hard we tried to block the temptation we had for each other, it was no use.
Shortly after 12:30 a.m. I unbuttoned Fran's panties and gently removed them. Fran quickly opened my Amish pants and removed them. Even though I had sex with my prior girlfriend in the past, Fran never had sex before, and told me she'd never had any desire to until that night.
Now she just couldn't wait. It was as if I couldn't move fast enough for Fran. I pulled her nightdress up over her buttocks and began to unpin the top part of her dress to expose her breasts. I was naked from my navel down, wearing only my shirt. As we lay their hugging and kissing, it was as if nothing else mattered. We were in our own little world and enjoying each other to the fullest. As I slowly began to crawl on top of Fran, she grabbed me with force and wrapped her hot, sexy body closer to mine.
I said, "Fran if you never had sex before that it might hurt at first, you better be careful." She agreed, but once we started there was no stopping us until the next morning. We were so in love, all we wanted was each other. We had no desire to look at anyone else. But our lives soon would be shattered, when Fran's twisted brother-in-law forced Fran to have sex with him.
Fran was only sixteen at the time and Sam was twenty-one and married. Fran tried to tell Sam no, but it didn't matter. Sam told Fran he would tell the preachers it was her fault if she told anybody. Fran was completely devastated by this. She was being raped in her own home.
Sam was considered a respectable member of the Amish community. Fran agonized over how she could bring this nightmare to an end. What if she told her Mom and her Mom told her Dad, she wondered. Would she receive a beating? All Fran could think about was watching her older sister get tied to a plow years earlier and get severely beaten. This was not what Fran wanted. She only wanted to have sex with her boyfriend, not get raped by her brother-in-law.
Fran became completely withdrawn at this time. She was even too ashamed to talk to me about her current situation. This forced us to break up.
At that time, I was no longer working at home. I was working for an Englishman about five miles down the road from home. I usually stayed at their home Monday through Thursday. On Friday evenings I went home, and on Saturdays in the fall of the year I went squirrel hunting. I usually took my little radio with me, and listened to a station from Wheeling, West Virginia. I was gone most of the day. I made sure I brought two or three squirrels home, so Mom and Dad wouldn't know I was listening to my radio, or doing something I wasn't supposed to do.
One Saturday, I went hunting again. I was gone for about an hour or so, when I decided to sit down at the edge of the woods and take a rest. I had my little pocket radio with me, and turned it on all the way. All of a sudden I heard a noise in the leaves behind me. I turned and saw my sister Amanda standing there staring at me in disbelief. Before Amanda could say a word, I told her to just listen for second. One of my favorite songs was playing on the radio, "Burgers and Fries and Cherry Pies."
At first she was in shock, but after she thought about it for a second, she liked the sound of the music.
"But," Amanda said, "I have no option but to tell our parents. This is strictly against our religion."
I was finally able to convince Amanda that she'd probably get punished herself for listening to the radio, even for such a short while. Amanda and I finally reached an agreement: she could borrow the radio at her convenience, since I had a spare, and she wouldn't say anything to Mom and Dad.
Although, this was a small settlement, the younger generation appeared to be a tight organization. I thought they were all looking up to me, because I had left the Amish before. However, I was unaware that my "friend" John Miller was setting a trap for me. A couple weeks later John told me that his younger brothers and sisters were having it rough in school. The teacher was going out of the way to pick on them, even took it as far as whipping them with a rubber hose. John knew I wouldn't stand for anybody to pick on innocent children. The teacher was a woman in her late twenties, and very strict, we didn't consider her cool at all.
John said, "David, you owe me a favor."
I replied, "Okay, I'll do you a favor and throw a scare into the teacher."
Since this was only a one-room schoolhouse, and was out in the country, it was easy to break into. John decided it was better if a couple of other boys and I broke into the schoolhouse on a weekend. I was supposed to be the leader of the break in. Dennis Gingrich and I decided to break in the schoolhouse one Saturday night.
We broke in, upset the teacher's desk, threw all her belongings out of her desk, and wrote on the blackboard, "Please be more careful with your rubber hose." There was a big wood furnace in the middle of the schoolhouse, and a couple boxes of corncobs beside the furnace, to start a fire in the morning. We took the corncobs and strung them all over the schoolhouse floor. We didn't really do any damage to the schoolhouse, but we sure left it in a mess!
By now the Preachers were starting to get suspicious of me because of the break in. They began to check out my background. It wasn't too good for an Amish boy. I had been caught listening to a radio and drinking beer. The Preachers ran their own little investigation on me. Not long after, the preachers and the school board set up a meeting, I was the first young man on their list. There were four other boys considered suspects.
The day of the meeting, the preachers thoroughly questioned the four of us boys, for four hours, one at a time. They considered me the toughest cookie of the bunch. However, at the end of the day, they found me innocent, because I had a couple of funky alibis.
While the Preachers were questioning me, they had two of the members of the church check out my alibis. I told the preachers I had a date the night somebody broke in the schoolhouse, so it couldn't possibly have been me. Besides, I added I was at my Uncle Jacob's for breakfast the next morning. Too, there were also a lot of other buggies out that same Saturday night.
The night in question, one of the Amish boys had seen my horse and buggy close by the schoolhouse. This put a doubt in the Preachers' minds. However, they dismissed the meeting around six o'clock that evening, and said I was free to go, that I was found innocent at the present time. I started home, driving slowly thinking about all I had been through, hoping I'd never have to go through anything like that again.
Suddenly, I heard a noise. A horse and buggy were coming up from behind, traveling really fast. Here were two preachers, and they motioned me to pull over. I could almost see blood in their eyes!
I pulled over, and said, "What can I do for you?"
"We have more information," one of them said. "You're now our number one suspect in the schoolhouse break in. We also know you're involved in some things you shouldn't be involved in.
They set up another meeting, seven days from then. I was grounded until I was either convicted or found innocent. The Preachers were going to talk to my Dad, to make sure he enforced my restrictions. Mom and Dad were very upset, and didn't know whether to believe the Preachers or me.
A couple of weeks later, the Preachers thought they had enough evidence to seriously discipline me, and John Miller was to testify against me. By the morning of the meeting, I had it all figured out. John had set a trap for my friend Dennis and me, who been my accomplice on the break in at the schoolhouse. With us boys being punished, we'd have to stay at home in the evenings.
That meant no more dating for the ones who were convicted, and that could last for six months or more. I had a chance to talk to John that morning, before the meeting started.
I looked John right in the eyes, and said, "John, I know what you are trying to do, and if you testify against me, so help me God, I'll kick your ass like it has never been kicked before. You little bastard! You set me up, and you better change your story in front of the Preachers today. This whole thing was your idea to begin with, not mine."
"How can I convince the Preachers?" John said.
"That's your problem. Just remember what'll happen to you if you don't convince them." He gladly changed his story.
Now the Preachers were all confused. I'd slipped through their fingers one more time. A couple of weeks later the Preachers set up another meeting of all the young folks that were involved or knew anything about my adventures like driving a tractor, using a power saw, driving cars, watching television and owning a couple of radios. We were all grounded. There were six of us boys, and four girls.
So, John's plan didn't work. John was also grounded. I couldn't see why John had to go through all that trouble, just so he could have a better chance to date the Amish girls. This was the only reason John set me up. The rest of the boys and girls were grounded anywhere from two to six weeks. However, when the Bishop and Preachers found me guilty, they sure had a look of satisfaction in their eyes.
They grounded me for four to six months, or until they thought I confessed enough for the sins I had committed, that I understood what I had done was not right, and until I took full responsibility for what I did. However, that teacher taking that rubber hose and beating those children was also not right.
Child abuse among the Amish is not that uncommon, and the Amish generally have very large families. Usually one or two children are singled out for abuse. They might be somewhat more advanced than the rest of them, or quicker on their feet and able to think for themselves, or just the opposite. Both of those categories are vulnerable to serious abuse.
When I was eleven years old in Medina County, I was the child who tried to reach out the best I knew how. I asked our English milkman for his help one day around eleven o'clock in the morning. Mom and Dad had gone to a little town called West Salem, Ohio. I thought this was my only opportunity. The milkman thought I was playing around, and he went along with me.
I said, "I need a ride."
"No problem," he replied. I climbed up in the truck on the passenger side and we started up the road. We went about four tenths of a mile, when the truck came to a halt.
"Get out of the truck, the joke is over," he said.
"I seriously need your help," I said.
Looking bewildered, he yelled, "Get out now, you got a problem, son, stay away from me." At the same time I was being grounded for breaking in the schoolhouse, Eli Gingerich was being punished for having sex with his daughter, Cevilla.
Between Eli and me the Preachers were very busy. Eli's punishment was being excommunicated for ninety days. Eli had a huge family, his wife had given birth to seventeen children. It seemed to me that breaking in a school house, having a pocket radio, or drinking a little beer and watching your neighbor's television set was less criminal than having sex with one's own daughter. I began to think the Amish weren't religious, but were like a cult.
What frustrated me, Tony Miller and Dennis Gingerich had earlier been stealing their neighbor’s tractors on Saturday and Sunday nights and taking it for a ride. Tony and Dennis had asked me to take part in it. I do what I do and stealing isn't one of them. Later, Tony and Dennis stole the car that belonged to Joe George, Dennis’s neighbor. They had to break in the garage to get the car.
Joe George was a good neighbor of Dennis's parents; they were back and forth a lot. Dennis knew where Joe kept his key. Dennis and Tony didn't get very far that Saturday evening when they snatched the car, before they demolished it.
They were traveling east on state road 258 between Peoli and West Chester, Ohio where 258 makes a sharp turn right in front of Dennis's Grandparents' home where they wrecked. Tony and Dennis were somewhat bruised but were able to run away from the scene of the accident. Luckily, Joe George had full coverage insurance on the car, which the insurance paid off the car.
The Amish had desperately tried to pin the incident on me. Dennis's Grandfather John went to the home of Joe George and told Joe that the Amish believe David Yoder who recently moved down from Wayne County, Ohio stole Joe George’s car. That none of the other Amish boys in Guernsey County would do anything like that, and David is just plain no good. The actual time that Tony and Dennis wrecked the vehicle was at eleven o'clock on a Saturday evening. Lucky for me I was grounded that weekend, which was common for me. Dennis's brother John was dating my sister that night. At the time the crime, I was teasing my sister and her date. This was one the Amish community couldn't pin on me no matter how bad they wanted to. Dennis and Tony had not even been questioned about the incident.
There hadn't been any contact between Fran and I during this time. I had desperately tried to contact Fran through the mail, but somehow or another Sam, who was still raping her, always intercepted my letters. Sam desperately tried to degrade me in any way he could. He threatened to read letters out loud to the young folks after church. But Sam was respected within the Amish Community he did whatever preachers wanted him to do. I was the opposite.
I knew if I tried to tell the preachers to get help for Fran, Sam would just deny everything. Besides the preachers would think I was lying. Still, they called it "religion". I realized that what I had done by breaking in the schoolhouse was wrong, but it was also wrong for Sam to rape my girlfriend. I felt I had no choice but to run off. I knew Fran couldn't take any more of it either. We had decided to run off on the same Sunday.
Two weeks later, Uncle Jacob had church at his house. I had been grounded for a couple of weeks. My sister and Fran were also grounded. However, Sunday came and it was time to go to church, and we all went. Everybody in church was just watching, like I was a no good person. After church my sister and I went home.
On the way home, my sister whispered to me, "Me and Fran, are going to run off. We've had all we can take. "That's funny," I said, excited. "I was going to run off, too with Tony." We decided we'd all run off together.
That evening we went to bed at the usual time, eight thirty. At nine o'clock, I got back up, lit my kerosene lamp, and started cutting my hair shorter. I didn't cut it too short, just a little above the ears. After that, I got dressed in my best clothes, which was a nice pair of pants, a blue shirt, vest and my new felt hat. Then I scratched on my bedroom wall, to give my sister Amanda the signal that I was ready to go. I headed downstairs and went out the door.
Mom came to the door screaming at me, saying, "Where are you going, David?"
"Uh...I forgot to water my horse," I said.
Sister Amanda went out the back door at the same time. Mom yelled, "Amanda, where are you going?"
"The outhouse!" she called. Amanda and I took off running to my girlfriend's house, which was three miles down the road from us. As soon as we got there, I put a stepladder outside of Fran's bedroom, and knocked on her window. Fran opened the window, stepped on my shoulders, and I took her down the ladder.
As the three of us made our way down the road, thinking we had it almost licked, we heard a noise. I turned to see my Dad, who began chasing after us. I took my sister by one hand, and Fran by the other, and we ran up a hill. Dad almost caught us when we took off through the weeds. We couldn't make any noise, or show any light, so it was hard to see where we were going. Dad went to the Bishop's house, which was just a couple minutes away. The Bishop was Fran's father.
We could hear my Dad saying, "Dan, Dan, get up and open your door! Two of my kids and one of yours are running off! We must stop them!" This all took place in March of 1976. We had to dodge the buggies, and walk twelve miles that night. Ralph was well known and like in the Amish community. He was a neighbor to John Miller.
We went to Ralph's house. As we knocked on the front door, Ralph came around the back of the house with a shotgun. "What are you guys doing here?" he cried. "We need a place to stay for the night." After we explained that we were from a different settlement, and just needed a place to stay, he invited us in the house.
Ralph said, "You can sleep on the sofa or on the living room floor. Sister Amanda took the sofa, and Fran and I took the floor. It was so nice to be with Fran again.
Fran said, "David, I'm so glad we're back together."
Fran went into great detail about her brother-in-law Sam, how glad she was it was now all over with, and how dirty she felt because of Sam. She also felt sorry for her sister Susan.
I gave Fran a slight kiss on her forehead, held her tight and said, "Don't worry. "It's all over now. You're safe." I knew that even if we were to go back Amish I would put the word out among the young folks that if Sam laid a hand on Fran, I'd beat the hell out of him. The night went by quickly. Once Fran got started talking, it was as if she couldn't stop.
The next morning Ralph took us to the bus stop in Newcomerstown, Ohio. We told Ralph that we didn't have enough money for a taxi, and asked if we could borrow fifty dollars from him.
"Sure," Ralph said kindly. "Just send it back to me when you guys get home."
This gave us a total of seventy-five dollars. We got a taxi to take us to Fredericksburg, Ohio, though we didn't know where we were going. When we got to Fredericksburg, we paid the taxi driver forty-five dollars. We walked about ten miles and finally came to a nice looking house. We decided to stop in; it looked like older people lived there. I knocked on the door, and a man answered. He told us his name was Ted, and after we talked for a while I asked him if we could stay in the little camper behind the house for a couple weeks, that we were looking for jobs.
"Sure," Ted said. "By the way, how old are you?"
"I'm nineteen," I said, "My sister Amanda is eighteen, and my girlfriend Fran is seventeen. We're from Peoli, Ohio, which is about sixty-five or seventy miles from here." That evening after supper, Ted left and didn't tell anyone where he was going. Fran, Amanda and I went in the camper, turned the lights on, sat down and began talking. We thought we had a whole future ahead of us. It was so nice, that I was able to spend some time with my girlfriend.
Late that evening, Ted's wife, Pam, showed up. We introduced ourselves, and so did Pam. Pam said, "We used to be Amish too, at one time." Later on that evening sister Amanda had second thoughts about leaving the Amish.
I asked Pam if she could take Amanda to the closest Amish home, a mile up the road. "Sure," Pam said. Fran and I knew we had to change our plans and location, because we knew Amanda would tell our parents where we were. The next morning Ted and Pam took Fran and I to work with them. They worked at a nursing home. Fran and I both applied for a job there.
At three o'clock in the afternoon Ted and Pam got off work. Fran and I went home with Ted and Pam, and ate supper with them. An hour later Ted gave us the bad news!
He said, “I talked with both your parents last night. Fran definitely has to go home for she is too young and to leave and it's against the law." Fran decided to go home, which upset me terribly. I had just bought Fran a couple pairs of pantyhose and perfume, and I only had about five dollars left. I began walking, not really knowing where I was going. Fran got in the car with Ted and Pam.
Once everyone was in the car, Ted took off after me. When he caught up with me, he insisted that I go home too. "No way," I told Ted. I kept on walking, and slept in some farmer's barn that night. I got up the next morning, hungry. I started walking again. I knew I had a cousin who wasn't Amish anymore, and who lived somewhere close to Wooster, Ohio. I didn't know his exact location, but I headed that way, hoping I could find him.
After much searching, I located my cousin Emery's house the next evening. Emery's wife Ruth cooked me a nice big meal, and let me take a shower. After that, Emery and his wife took me shopping and bought me a couple sets of nice clothes, and got my hair cut. I gave them the five dollars I had left. Emery let me stay at his house for about a month. Ruth and Emery introduced me to one of their friends, Joe, who was in the timber cutting business. Joe gave me a job, the first real job I ever had. I thought it was wonderful. I made one hundred and sixty dollars a week. I stayed on this job till the end of May.
Joe Miller, who'd given me the job, was a former Amish himself, and I felt comfortable with him. Still, I constantly wondered what was going on with Fran. What about Sam? Would he dare to continue to force Fran to have sex with him? Or was Sam afraid that Fran would tell her parents why she really ran off?
One weekend I spoke to Joe. I asked, "Joe, can I take your 1973 Monte Carlo and make a trip to Peoli Amish settlement in Ohio?"
"Why?" Joe questioned. "Why is it so important to you?"
I said, "Fran's brother-in-law Sam was forcing her to have sex with him." That was all I had to tell him. We arrived that Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m. in Peoli Ohio. We pulled in an old gas well near Fran's parents' farm. Her parents' home was in a very secluded area. A small township road went between their house and barn. If Joe and I would have been patient for a couple more minutes, her parents were getting ready to leave. But I never did have much patience.
"May I drive," I asked. "Sure, why not," Joe answered. I couldn't resist, when I got even with the Bishop's home I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the gravel flew, which sent that Monte Carlo fish tailing down the road. Fran's parents decided to stay home. We passed their house a couple times before lunchtime. The last time we drove past their home we did it quickly and parked our car past their home.
While laughing Fran's father Dan replied, "Well I bet they ditched their car." Dan, too, was young at one time. He too had run off and left the Amish.
This was sometime in the early 40's. Dan knew all about being grounded. He was well aware how hard it was. Dan also had a checkered past. Dan had a girlfriend, Barbara, and the Amish grounded him because he had gotten in some mischief. Dan thought he would out smart his father Pete. He would wait till his parents were asleep, then on a Saturday evening; he'd sneak out and go see his girlfriend. Dan and his girlfriend had communicated through mail. Dan wasn't a very big man. His girlfriend Barbara wasn't very big either, but she was a strong farm girl and determined to see her boyfriend.
When Dan arrived at his girlfriend's place, he'd make a noise on the old weatherboard below her window. Barbara would carefully open her bedroom window. Prepared for the occasion, she had two bed sheets knotted together. The second signal was that Dan was to jerk on the bed sheet twice, and Barbara would pull him up. This took place on a few different occasions on weekends, but Barbara's parents soon caught on.
The next Saturday evening Barbara's Dad was a couple minutes ahead of Dan's arrival. Barbara's Dad made the noise below the window, Barbara dropped the bed sheet, and her Dad jerked on the sheet. Barbara began to pull, but soon discovered that whoever she was pulling weighed a lot more than her boyfriend.
As she was leaning back and pulling with all her might finally the head of the man she was pulling cleared the windowsill. Barbara screamed with terror and said, "Oh my God, Dad!" That put an end to Barbara and her boyfriend beating the system.
The Amish were able to now successfully ground Barbara and Dan, who are Fran's parents. Today was a day that both of Fran's parents had to think back when that had happened to them. Running off and leaving the Amish culture is nothing that new, but in most cases, runaways return. When Dan's Dad was a teenager in the early 1920's he too had run off. The report is that Dan's Dad, Pete, had a motorcycle accident and lost one of his testicles. Pete had also returned back to the Amish Culture, got married and later became a preacher.
I had a lot of respect for Dan. He would almost always outsmart me. The reason Joe and I walked past his house was that we were hoping to convince Dan we had ditched the car. As soon as we were far enough away from his house we made a sharp right hand turn behind and around a curve, so we had the cover of trees. Fran's parents' home was very secluded and surrounded with trees and brush. We had good coverage within a couple hundred feet of their house . Dan had laughed earlier as we walked past his home , and I heard him tell his children they ditched their car. This was exactly what I was hoping Dan would think so he wouldn't be prepared for my next move.
It was now just past their lunchtime. Joe and I were no longer hiding under the cover of the brush. We made it to an opening in the pasture, and we were hiding behind a large pile of uncut firewood. My intention, of course, was to get my girlfriend and run off. I'd bought a brand new pair of cowboy boots just for this occasion. We weren't waiting long when Fran's two youngest sisters, Sarah and Ester, went to the outhouse.
I stepped out from behind the woodpile and waved at them. This woodpile was 200 feet from the house, and at least 500 feet from the road. Sarah and Ester waved back and continued to the outhouse, but once they were inside they both waved again trying to get my attention to move back. But I was too stupid to realize it. There was also a small chicken house between the woodpile and the washhouse.
I turned to Joe and said, "Joe, look at those girls." But Joe wasn't there.
Suddenly, I spotted Dan right on the other side of the woodpile. He was being careful, trying not to make any noise. I took off, running so fast that I broke both of my brand new shoe soles in front of the heels. Joe was within twenty feet of the fence by the road when I passed him. That fence didn't slow me down one bit. I used the same technique that you do when you slide into first base.
I barely cleared the first strand of barbwire. When Dan cleared the woodpile he looked around for me. But by now Joe and I were hiding in a ditch on the other side of the fence. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the look on Dan's face, confusion and disbelief. I knew he was thinking there was no way we could have made it down to the road. Once again I'd out maneuvered Dan with only seconds to spare. This made one thing perfectly clear. The only way I was going to be able to see my girlfriend was to go back the Amish culture.
In April of 1976, I went back home just in time to start joining church. Fran's brother-in-law Sam and his wife were no longer living in Peoli Ohio Amish settlement. They had moved to Wayne County, Ohio. Still, there was no way Fran's parents were going to let their daughter start seeing me again. They made arrangements with their Sam for Fran to move to Wayne County, Ohio and work for them during that summer. That did it.
I had to stop this from taking place. I told Fran to start joining church and urged her to confess to having sex. At seventeen, Fran was a little young to join church, but there was no way I was going to allow Sam to lay hands on her again. Fran agreed she'd rather join church than go live with Susan and Sam.
That Sunday there were three boys and four girls, my sister Amanda and my girlfriend Fran, all seven of us began to join church that summer. In the fall of 1976, the Preachers in the church sprinkle baptized Tony and Dennis, and all four girls. At this time Tony and Dennis still hadn't confessed of stealing John George's car. But the Bishop and Preachers said I had to be punished a little more for all the sins I had committed.
The Amish weren't really talking to me anymore, even though I wasn't being shunned. I was staying at home at night and working for the public during the day. Dad wasn't doing too much farming anymore.
In the spring of 1977, the church finally decided that I'd repented enough for my sins. The Bishop and Preachers baptized me. After I was baptized, I wrote Fran a letter and asked her if she would marry me. The answer was yes. I was so tired of being grounded. Fran and I had been grounded for about a year, which meant we had no freedom at all, as long as we were single.
The first Sunday in June of 1977, we decided to announce the engagement, to be married the sixteenth of that month. Our wedding started at seven o'clock in the morning, and lasted until ten o'clock that night. We got married that day around twelve o'clock. Our services were held in the top part of Fran's parents' barn. In Fran's parent's house, they set up tables to feed everyone. They fed around one hundred and fifty people for dinner, and around one hundred for supper. In order to set up all these tables, they had to move most of their furniture out of the house. Fran's parents had a small house. It was also a small wedding, compared to the rest of the "Amish."
Fran had been so devastated by what Sam had done to her when she was only sixteen years old. She wanted to confront her parents before we were married, but her father was the Bishop. Also Sam had threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone. Fran and I talked about this before our wedding. She decided it would be best to wait until right after our wedding, because now no matter what happened she would have me to lean on. Shortly after the wedding, Fran confronted the preachers with the Sam's action.
The preachers said, "We would ask Sam, but that it had happened a couple years ago."
She said, "That didn't matter, he forced me to have sex, I'm a member and I want something done about it."
The preachers replied, "Okay we will check into the matter." Since Sam was no longer living in Peoli, Ohio it took the preachers a couple of weeks to confront Sam. Sam denied it at first.
The preachers came back and said, "Fran, Sam denied it." the preachers replied. "Do you just want to drop the issue?"
Fran replied, "No Sam has done this against my will, he has ruined my life. Sam must confess to his sins. The second time the preachers confronted Sam, he admitted to having sex, but said that Fran was a willing participant and, in fact it, was her fault. When the preachers again confronted Fran, and told her what Sam had said she stood there in silence for a couple seconds. Tears began running down her cheeks as she began to speak.
"Sam raped me time and time again. I always tried to stop him. He threatened me, saying that if I ever told anyone he'd completely deny it or say it was all my fault. This is why my husband and I ran off earlier, we didn't know how to deal with it."
The preachers asked, "Okay would you be willing to confront Sam face to face?"
Fran replied, "Yes, if that is what it takes."
The preachers confronted Sam concerning Fran. At first Sam denied it, but when the preachers made Sam aware that Fran was willing to confront him face to face, Sam stood silently looking down at the ground. When he finally did look up he had tears in his eyes as he began to speak.
He said, "Everything Fran said is true." He was excommunicated for two and a half months for the lying and the rape of my girlfriend.
A couple of days after Fran and I got married, we moved in our new little house, which I built before we got married. Dad let me use three acres of his land to build a house and a small barn, but Dad kept the deed to the place. We lived there for a couple of months, and I worked on my brother-in-law's sawmill.
My sister Mary had got married about six months before we did. Mary and her husband were living at home in the main house. Once more Dad built a little retirement house, close by the main house on the farm. My brother-in-law John, had moved a sawmill on to the farm, and I was working for him at the time.
In the meanwhile, John was trying to farm, and run the sawmill. John and Dad didn't see eye to eye on the farming. Dad asked John, if he wanted to trade places with me for John and sister Mary to move in the little house that I built, and Fran and I to move in the main house. That was fine, so we moved in the main house, and John and Mary moved in our little house.
Then Fran and I took over farming. In the fall of 1977, my brother Pete was still living in Wayne County on the homestead farm, but Pete and his family wanted to move to New York. Pete sold the farm to sister Rachel and her husband. Sister Emma was already living in New York, and because of Pete and Emma going to New York, that made Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband decide to move to New York, too. In order to move to New York, Dad had to sell the farm, cattle and farm machinery that he owned in Peoli, Ohio.
I asked Dad, "What am I going to do with the cattle and farm machinery, I invested in the farm, after I took over farming?"
"You married the Bishop's daughter," he said. "Let him help you."
“How about letting Fran and I buy the farm and the machinery on time? Would you help us the way you helped the rest of the children?” I asked.
Dad shook his head. "That's just it. You've never been like the rest of the children." Right then we started feuding. My wife and I stuck up for what we thought was right, and so did Mom and Dad. But they had us out numbered, because sister Mary and her husband stuck their noses in it, too, though it was really none of their concern. I was always kind of pigheaded and I always believed in speaking my peace no matter what. Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband, John, got us condemned from the church for a little while. We had to move immediately.
We started to look for a place to live, and found one in Wayne County, Ohio. A higher classed Amish couple had an extra little house. We rented the house and paid one hundred and ten dollars a month rent Fran helped them milk cows in the morning and evening. Soon, we had enough money saved up to buy our own sawmill, so, I bought one close to Wilmont, Ohio. I leased the building from some Englishmen, and I had my own business. We had been excommunicated from the Amish church now for a couple of months.
Finally, by the early summer of 1978, the church decided that we had confessed enough to become members of their church once again. However, if they only knew what all we had on the sawmill , that would have made a difference as it was against their religion. They would have never taken us back in their church. Nevertheless, it took them only a couple of months to figure out that we were crowding the lines of their religion. We had a top-cleaning saw, which ran on electricity, a log turner, a propane power unit and electric lights in the building. On the side I was training horses for the racetrack. These things were all strictly against their beliefs.
The church excommunicated me again for having these things, and they so excommunicated Fran for knowing about it and not telling. The church made us sell the sawmill and quit training buggy horses. When they condemn you from their church, none of the members are allowed to associate with you, eat at the same table you do, help you work on the same piece of equipment at the same time, not even drink or eat your food.
This is not only the Bishop's decision, but also the whole church's decision. By this time Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband were living in New York. Sister Amanda was the only one who wasn't married. She was working for an "Amish" couple in Wayne County. I was now picking apples for a living, which sure wasn't what I wanted to do. So, Fran and I talked it over, and decided to get out of the Amish once and for all. We traded our buggy and two horses for our first car.
We got a pretty bad deal, we didn't think too much about it, because we wanted to get out of the Amish so badly. We had to buy all new clothes, because all the clothes we had were Amish clothes. Everything we were taught at home, as far as working and making a living, was no longer of any use to us, because almost everything we did, was done by hand. We didn't have any electricity in our homes. We decided to leave the Amish and modernize. Perhaps if I hadn't bought that sawmill with the propane engine and edger in it we wouldn't have been excommunicated. However, I'm convinced that the Amish Bishop and Preacher had one thing in mind: to break my spirit. I was convinced if I weren’t excommunicated for the sawmill, there would have been something else later on. By this time, I'd had all the Amish Preacher company I could stand.
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