Guest Writer

Today's post is a copied and pasted from my daughter's blog. I will take the liberty of splitting hairs on two things.
1. The longest it took me to write a book was 7 years.
2. Pecking away at my typewriter was not always for the pleasure of honing my craft but because I had a deadline hanging over my head. I had to produce regardless of other things that needed to be done.
The rest tells it like it is.

 7 Things That Might Surprise You About Growing Up With An Author

   1. It’s not glamorous. We are very normal people. If you meet my mom and exude hero worship because “this is a real, live author!” [flutter, flutter], I will roll my eyes. Do you know why? Guess who got to do mundane, real-life things like cooking, laundry and cleaning so mom could peck away at a typewriter, honing her craft? Who made it possible for her to write? Yup, yours truly. Know what else? It’s a thankless job. No one thanks the writer’s assistant aka kid. (Well, ok, I do have a book dedicated to me. That’s something.)   

   2.  I hated being asked “So is your mom working on any new books right now?” I [still] hate this question because there is a high probability that A. she is, B. I know what it is, and C. I’m not allowed to say. Why can’t I say? Primarily because the general public has no idea how long it takes to write a book. If mom says she is writing one, people expect to see it on the shelf in roughly 6 months. Not gonna happen. News flash, folks, it can take up to 10 years to write a [well-written] book. No one wants to be pestered while they work. So it’s our family’s policy to not say what the latest project is until it is almost ready to be sent to the printer. So do me a favor and don’t ask. Even if you are my BFF, I’m probably not going to tell you. Seriously, it’s not my news to tell.  

*And while we’re on the subject of how long it takes to write a book… you know those bestselling authors that crank out a book every year? I hate to break it to you but either they have a ghost writer doing some of their writing for them, or the quality of their work goes down in direct proportion to their increasing production. I could start naming names but I won’t. Trust me, it’s just not humanly possible to manufacture that volume of pages in that short amount of time. Authors are not robots, and publishers shouldn’t treat their success like a cash cow.  

   3. Just because I am the offspring of an author does not make me genetically predisposed to be an author, too. Thanks for asking, but I don’t have any plans of writing a novel. Ever. Some of my siblings & I have been told we inherited mom’s way with words, but frankly, I’m happier about inheriting my dad’s metabolism.    

   4. You were subjected to startling announcements at the dinner table at times. Your totally nonresistant Mennonite mom might randomly announce “I killed someone today.” True story. A character in the latest fiction project was no longer relevant to the story, so he gets tragically killed in an accident. Problem solved. (Bonus points for you if you know which book this is.)

   5. Writing books does not make an author rich. Fact is, if you tally up the time invested and divide it by the profit that trickles down to the author, he/she is “working for peanuts”. (Yes, if they self-publish they keep more of the profit, but then they also have to pay for their own advertising and marketing. They have cases & cases of books stashed in the basement they are responsible to either sell or lose money on.) Either way, they do it because they love working with words, not for the money. So we didn’t grow up with any luxuries because mom was a writer.  

  6. I don’t memorize the titles of all my mom’s books, so don’t ask me to name them off.  I’ve read every single one, but I don’t like to be put on the spot naming them. Just google it. (Refer back to #1) 

    7.  No one ever reads you your Miranda rights, but anything you say or do can be used against you. Not in a court of law, but in a story. About that… You know the PKs that cringe about being used for sermon illustrations? They don’t have anything on AKs! The published word reaches a much, much wider audience than a single congregation. Just saying.   

Family Matters

I was asked to proofread an appendix of genealogy for a book that is being reprinted. I ignorantly said I would do it, not realizing what I was getting in for. 

Q:How do you proofread genealogy? 

A: By looking up every name and date to be sure it is correct. 

It is slow tedious work and has consumed the last six weeks of my life. I am currently in the Weavers so there is a faint light at the end of the tunnel. I have made some interesting observations in the process. 

1. There was a high rate of infant mortality in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Very few families did not have at least one infant death and often more than one. There were also many deaths of children under the age of ten. Because of the advance in medical science, infants and children that once would have had no chance are now able to survive. 

2. The practice of using the mother's maiden name for a middle name makes tracking people easier. If a man had children with two wives, the middle initial helps confirm which children belonged to which wife. That practice has not totally disappeared but began to fade out with my generation as children were given two names. 

3. What a blessing the belief in the permanence of marriage has been to our families! I have come across one or two divorces so far. Otherwise, a second marriage was always after the death of the first partner. Tracing genealogy is much easier when there is only one father and mother per family, even if they had fifteen children. 

In the mixed up society around us today, I wonder how people will begin to trace their genealogy a hundred years from now. There are families with children who all have different fathers, and worse still are children who were born to same sex couples by unnatural methods. Their father was a sperm donor and they will never know who he was or where they came from.

God designed marriage to provide order in society. When we violate His rule of marriage being one man and one woman for life, we create chaos that worsens with every generation. How did  we get to the place where LGBT voices are even being heard? How did things which were once shameful and hidden become open and even considered normal? I believe it began with divorce and remarriage being accepted as normal. Jesus said point blank that remarriage after divorce is adultery. When churches disregarded that and allowed divorced members to remarry, the breakdown of society spiraled down rapidly. 

God's plan for marriage and families is for our good and blessing. It gives security to children and structure to society. I was blessed to be born into a family and church that follows God's standards in family matters. May we never compromise those standards!

Lyrica Sacra

The musical traditions of the conservative Anabaptist Christian churches are focused on four-part, acappella singing. Children are taught hymns early and master four-part harmony in their teens. For this community, musical instruments might be played in the home, if at all. 

“More assimilated Anabaptists, some Mennonites and Brethren, have used music instruments in Sunday worship for some time,” says Steven Nolt of Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies,

Yuri Kravets, a conservative Christian who immigrated from the Ukraine, has brought together a chorus with string, woodwind, and brass orchestra instruments. The group is called Lyrica Sacra and is giving conservative Anabaptist musicians an outlet to use their talent in a God-honoring way.

Although Kravets would like to expand Lyrica Sacra’s outreach, the logistics make it difficult. The group now includes 110 members, with 80 in the chorus and 30 musicians, and there are few stages in Lancaster County that can accommodate the full group. Also, some members live two hours or more away from rehearsals and concerts, and others come from out of state. If Lyrica performs at retirement communities or other venues, they do so with a smaller group.

Lyrica Sacra’s 2017 performances drew more than 2,000 spectators. This year, Lyrica Sacra’s free concert was held April 14 and 15 at 7 p.m at the Lancaster Mennonite School, 2176 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster. We were privileged to attend Sunday evening and the music was excellent. It was the first time I saw a woman wearing a head covering playing the drums.

The program was live streamed and can be seen here. The music begins at 18 minutes.

https://livestream.com/lancastermennonite/BeforeJehovahGod-Saturday/videos/173373197?t=1523882832410

If that doesn't work, here is a selection from last year's program.

Florida Vacation

Well, we've had our vacation for this year and are back from the trip. It was 44 years since we were in Sarasota, Florida, for a wedding and we finally made it back. 

We had originally planned to go in January and share a house with our daughter and her family. But when Cheryl found out her first grandchild would be born at that time we changed the date. By that time the only week still available at that house was March 24-31. As it turned out, when that week in January came it was cold in Florida and we were glad we weren't there. The weather the last week of March was sunny and warm and a much better deal. On the downside, after the house was reserved I realized Easter is early this year and our annual Burkholder dinner would be on March 31. So we cut our week short by one day and came home one day early, on March 30.

We flew from Philadelphia to Tampa on March 24. Cheryl and Richard drove down from Louisville and their timing was perfect. They picked us up about five minutes after we claimed our luggage. Two of their children flew from Ohio to Sarasota and again the timing was perfect. We got there just as their plane was landing. We and our luggage were all jammed in the van for the last stretch of the journey to the house we rented.

The house on Ingram street in Pinecraft was very nice and fully furnished. The only thing we wanted that we couldn't find was a clip for the chip bag. There was three bedrooms, two baths, nice kitchen, living room, screened-in porch, and back yard patio. Even the garage was equipped with a washer and dryer, lawn chairs, bikes, and everything we needed.

We went to the Tourist church Sunday morning. The snowbird season was winding down and people were heading north every day so attendance was only 190. At the peak of the season they will have 600 people. In the summer, attendance is only about 30.

Some people spend their winters fishing and playing shuffleboard. We observed those activities but did not participate.

Instead, we had a list of friends we wanted to visit. Some are there for the winter and some live there all year. We enjoyed visiting and seeing their homes. We didn't do a lot of sightseeing but we did go to Sarasota Jungle Gardens one day.

On the last day we went to watch a training session at the Royal Lipizzaner Ranch operated by the Herrmann family. The Lipizzans were bred in the 16th Century by the Hapsburg royal family of Austria. A Herrmann ancestor, a knight, was given a Lipizzan stallion as a gift 300 years ago. Ever since, Lipizzans have remained in the family. Some were among those saved by Herrmann’s father and grandfather alongside General George Patton’s operation to protect and smuggle horses behind enemy lines during World War II. Some of them were brought to the United States where they are maintained and shown.

The horses are a dark color when they are born but turn completely white by the time they are seven years old, as shown by this three-month-old colt and his mother.

No trip to Florida is complete without going to the beach so we did that one day too for a couple hours. I sat under an umbrella most of the time and still got some sunburn. Other than that, we just took life at a slow pace, resting, having cookouts, going for morning walks, and just enjoying each other's company in the summer weather. 

We had a direct flight home from Tampa to Philadelphia on Good Friday, March 30. We enjoyed the week of warm weather but are glad to be home again. Just no place like home! Perhaps we'll go again someday but we can't wait 44 years. By then, I expect to be in a place that is a lot better than Florida.

A Life and Death Matter

While I take a break from sewing dozens of kit bags for CAM, I'll share with you excerpts from an article I clipped from Saturday's newspaper that impressed me.  It was written by Susan Shelly and I quote:

Nearly two decades ago, John Shelby Spong, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, wrote and released a book that attracted a lot of attention in religious circles.

The book, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, addressed the decline of mainline Protestant churches and argued that in order to reverse the decline, congregations should abandon a literal interpretation of the Bible and be willing to change with the times.

Almost 20 years later, mainline churches are still in decline. A 2015 report by the Pew Research Center revealed that these congregations are losing about 1 million members each year, while membership at many evangelical and fundamentalist churches is on the rise.

Marlene Druckenmiller, a retired deacon of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, (which, despite its name, is a mainline church) addressed this issue recently in a talk called "Does Your Church Need Hospice?". . . 

Within the Northeastern Synod, Druckenmiller said, churches are closing and buildings being abandoned or sold to another congregation or other group. Congregations are shrinking, with a particular decline in younger members.

Churches are no longer able to pay clergy and staff members, and positions are cut. Church buildings may fall into disrepair because the congregation cannot afford to fix problems.

As all these things occur, and members recognize that their churches are in decline, many experience a sense of loss and grief, similar to what is experienced with a loved one dies.

The article goes on to give advice for coping with a dying church. The number of churches that are closing or merging is increasing and the newspaper prints articles about them at regular intervals. This not only happens in mainline Protestant churches but in Mennonite churches as well. Our Mid-Atlantic Conference has purchased several buildings from other Mennonite churches that were forced to close due to dwindling membership.

The first two paragraphs of the article above identifies the cause of death of these churches. If we abandon the literal interpretation of the Bible and make it subjective rather than absolute, we destroy the foundation on which our faith is built and it cannot endure. If the Bible does not mean what it says, what's the point? Why bother reading the Bible or going to church if it's only a farce? 

The article says that while mainline congregations are losing members, "evangelical and fundamentalist churches" are growing. Only by standing on the solid foundation of the Word of God can a church grow in faith and numbers. 

Does the Bible say what it means and mean what it says? Absolutely! It's a life and death matter.

The Bottom Line

Through many years of sewing for the family, I saved the scraps with intentions of piecing comfort tops for the needy when I'm an old lady. Years passed, the pile grew, and nothing happened. I was busy with other things I enjoyed more than piecing comfort tops and I wasn't getting old. Eventually I decided I will never get all those scraps used up and gave them to an old lady who needed something to do and was glad to have them.

Of course, I kept sewing clothes, curtains, and other things. The pile of scraps started growing again. I was still happily doing other things and not getting old enough to piece tops for pastime. Instead of spending most of my time with the sewing machine when I was an empty nester, it turned out to be my computer instead. Writing stories is more fun than sewing.

A couple years ago when my scrap bin was full to the top, I decided it is time to do something about it. I got as far as cutting all the reds and blues into blocks and piecing one top. But after that was done I decided I had enough sewing. I cut up the rest of the scraps and gave them to someone else to sew.

I was intending to give the red and blue top to the sewing circle for comfort knotting, but after it was finished I thought it was nice enough to quilt. So I added a border and put it away until I had time to quilt it.

Two years later, it was on my to-do list for this winter. I put it on the end of the list and if I didn't have time by March it would wait for another year. The other things on my list went faster than I expected and I did have time after all in February. On February 22 a group of Burkholder cousins came to help me quilt.

I marked it with all straight lines, so it was easy quilting. They got a lot done and I was able to finish the rest myself the next day. I did the binding today and here is the finished product.

It will be put back on the shelf now for a couple more years until the next granddaughter graduates from high school. This is the only quilt I have ever pieced from small blocks and there may never be another one. 

The bottom line of this story is that I have finished everything I had on my list for this winter and I still have two weeks of winter left to do some extra things. Don't worry. I haven't run out of ideas!

My Good Ancestor

My great-grandmother was a Powl. Her father, Josiah/Josias, was as far back and I could trace that line. I was not the only one who had tried to find Josiah's father without success. Then one day the truth came to light. His father was not a Powl but Abraham Good. His parents were not married and their children used their mother's surname but changed the spelling from Powell to Powl. That puzzle was solved but a new one took its place. Who was this Abraham? 

We had a family Bible record that confirmed Abraham was the son of Henry and Magdalena (Myer) Good. Who was Henry's father? Another brick wall. Steve Garver, who is also a descendant of Henry and Magdalena wanted to know, too. We started working together. We had a published genealogy that said Henry was the son of a Jacob Good but that was only a guess and there was absolutely nothing to support it.

After digging through lots of wills, deeds, and other documents, the evidence pointed to an earlier Henry Good who immigrated in 1730 with the German form of the name, Hendrich Gutt/Guth. He bought a tract of land in what is now West Cocalico Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1742 he sold this land and presumably moved to Ephrata at that time as he and his family were members of the Ephrata Cloister. 

Henry's 1754 will identified him as "an inhabitant of Ephrata." He named only his wife, Catherine, and "eldest daughter Anna Maria," but indicated he had other children. How many children Henry and Catherine had is not known, but from the evidence they appear to have had at least three sons—Daniel, Henry, and Christian. Salome and Rosina Good were single sisters at the Cloister in 1770 and may also have been Henry’s daughters.

Daniel Good

On June 17, 1766, Daniel Good accepted the warrant for a seventy-acre tract of land in Cocalico (now Ephrata) Township that had originally been warranted to Jacob Groff. It is southeast of the Mohler Church of the Brethren and just west of the East Cocalico Township line. Daniel died intestate on November 13, 1771. His oldest son, Henry, petitioned the court on December 7, 1786, to receive Daniel's land. The petition states that Daniel left a widow and five children, two of whom were still minors in 1786.

The name of the widow and some of the children were unknown until an unrecorded deed was discovered in May 2015 in which Daniel Good Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth, sold some of this land in 1793. In reciting the history of the property, the deed states that Daniel Good Sr. died intestate leaving a widow, Christina, and five children: Henry, Sarah, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Christian. The records of the Cloister show that both Daniel Sr. and Jr. and their wives were householder members of the Cloister. (Householders worshiped at the Cloister but lived off the Cloister grounds on their own properties and were not required to be celibate like those who lived inside the Cloister.)

This is the original deed which I bought on Ebay and donated to the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley for safe keeping.

Henry Good Jr.

In the family record Henry wrote in his Bible, he stated that his birth year was 1738. He also recorded the names and birth dates of his wife, Barbara Myer, and their children. The Bible appears to have been passed on to Henry’s oldest son, Jacob, whose children’s names are also written in it.

Born in 1739, Barbara Myer was the daughter of John Myer Jr. (d. 1787) and Anna of West Earl Township. The Myers were originally Mennonite but joined the Conestoga Brethren congregation at Leola, which was established in 1724 and divided in 1728, when Conrad Beissel withdrew and founded the Cloister. There is no indication that Henry and Barbara were ever associated with the Cloister but rather stayed with the Myer family at the Brethren church.

Henry and Barbara lived in Earl Township, probably near her parents in the part of Earl that is now West Earl Township. Because no deeds were recorded for him, he may have always rented. They had six children: Jacob, Michael, Anna, Abraham, Magdalena, and Henry.

Henry died intestate sometime in 1791 as Marcus Grove, Christian Myer, and Michael Good were appointed as guardians for his three youngest children who were minors. Barbara died before January 26, 1792, and her children received her share of her father’s estate.

Part of the family record in Henry's Bible, written in German.
Henrich Guth, ca. 1705-1754; wp. June 17, 1757; Sept. 15, 1730, immigrant
m. Feb. 7, 1730, Hassloch Reformed, Germany, Maria
Catharina Kauffman, dau. of the late Conradt Kauffman

Henry Good, 1738-1791
m. 1766 Barbara Myer, May 1, 1739-d. bef. Jan. 26, 1792
Abraham Good, Feb. 26, 1773-Sept. 9,1854; bu. Zeltenreich Cem.
m. May 28, 1793, Magdalena Meyer, ca. 1775-aft.1821
had at least 5 children with Margaret Powell
Josias Good Powl, July 15, 1816-June 2, 1878
m. Barbara Gerber, Oct. 15, 1816-Apr. 20, 1888; bu. Zeltenreich Cem.

Christian Good

Christian Good was born in 1744 and was a minor when his father died in 1754. He married Christina Becker, daughter of Peter Becker and granddaughter of immigrant Valentine Becker. 

In January 1788, Christian bought four tracts of land in Cocalico Township (now West Cocalico) from the heirs of Michael Miller, who was also a member of the Cloister. Later in the year, Christian and Christina sold some of this land. The deed for this sale identifies him as a millstone maker. In 1800, he and Christina sold more of the land and bought 221 acres from Emanuel Carpenter in what is now West Earl Township. This land was in the Brownstown/Talmage area and bordered the Conestoga Creek.

Christian and Christina were householder members of the Ephrata Cloister. He died in 1808 at the age of sixty-four and was buried in the Cloister cemetery. His will names his wife and five children: David, Samuel, Mary, Susanna and Christina. Three of them, David, Samuel, and Christina, remained in the Brownstown/Talmage area. They and many of their descendants are buried in the cemetery at Carpenters Church. Christian’s wife, Christina, died in November 1820 and was also buried in the Cloister cemetery, as was her daughter Susanna.

Steve Garver and I worked together to produce an article on Henry Good which appears in the January 2018 issue of the Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage magazine published by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. This blog is only a summary of the article which includes many footnotes identifying the sources of the information. 

Last summer Steve and I toured the Cloister with Gary Good who is another descendant of Henry. I grew up near the Cloister and was always fascinated with the place. I've been there many times but it was different this time knowing I was a descendant of immigrant Henry and his wife who were members of the Cloister.

While reading more about the Cloister, their beliefs, and what went on inside those walls, I was reminded those people were not as saintly as it appeared. They sang beautifully and wore white robes but they were not angels. They were infected with the same sinful human nature as the rest of us and secluding themselves did not change that. A lot of power struggles went on and other sins were committed within those walls. 

As James E. Ernst says in his book, Ephrata, A History, "Cloisters, away from the world, contain much unholiness and meanness. Selfishness, ambition and weakness of the flesh exist within the convent as without . . . The world is in man's heart!"