From VOICES: Upstate by Varick A. Chittenden

Volume 34
Fall-Winter
2008

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While their entrepreneurship is widely admired, and their friendship is valued by neighbors who have come to know them, these Old Order Amish—said by scholars to be among the most conservative anywhere— are seen as both exotic and confusing.

Photo: Martha Cooper

Varick A. Chittenden is professor emeritus of English at the State University of New York in Canton and Heritage Center project director for Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY). Photo: Martha Cooper

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If you believed some of the talking heads on cable television or talk radio the last couple of years, it’s been the “immigration problem” that is leading to the downfall of our American way of life, and something has to be done about it! Lou Dobbs and FOXNews rail against “the government” for ignoring the loss of American jobs to illegals, the threats of bilingual education, or the porous borders that allow terrorists freedom of movement into our heartland. The issues and any solutions are too complex for me to understand very well. I live in the North Country, where new immigrants are few and far between.

Yes, Jamaicans come to the orchards of the Champlain Valley to pick apples in the fall; Mexicans work on Saint Lawrence Valley dairy farms, and young Eastern Europeans wait tables and clean rooms in Adirondack resorts. Some are here legally, some are not. But they willingly work for low pay at seasonal jobs that Americans—including locals—seem unwilling to do.

Making the North Country home for new immigrants from anywhere in the world is another question entirely. What was once one of the fastest growing parts of the state is no more—and hasn’t been for a long time. During the first waves of settlement in the early nineteenth century, for example, Saint Lawrence County’s total population was among the highest of rural counties in the state. In the 1850 census, a half century after New England farmers began the first wave of white immigration to establish small farms and villages, 68,617 people were counted. That was 10,000 more than Westchester County, over twice as many as Broome (with Binghamton), and four times as many as Rockland (a relatively short distance from the city of New York).

By 1890, Saint Lawrence County had a population of 89,083; in 1950, 98,897; and in 2000, 111,284. This slow but steady growth was attributed at first to new immigrants from foreign lands: French Canadians who came to work in the Adirondack lumber woods, Irish to be tenant farmers or domestic workers, Italians and Armenians to meet the sudden needs of industries like Alcoa in Massena or Watertown, Polish and Slavs in iron mines of the Champlain Valley, and Jews as pack peddlers, selling essential goods to far-flung country homes.

But the changes in American life—the growth of cities, the increasing mechanization of physical labor, greater mobility as transportation became easier, and more people becoming formally educated, for example— caught up with places like northern New York as time went on. The Golden Age of the North Country was slipping away. Young people left for better employment opportunities, military service and travel introduced many to other places they might like to live, and small farms—the bulwark of local life—were disappearing, giving way to agribusiness, corporate-style.

In the early 1970s, however, that all began to change, as new immigrants started arriving, one family at a time, with their black buggies and horse-drawn farm wagons. These were the Old Order Amish, coming in from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan. Land here is cheap by others’ standards. Abandoned farm buildings on rural roads make Saint Lawrence County an ideal relocation site for the Amish. And in the years since, they have continued to move here in significant numbers. Despite the long, cold winters and short growing seasons, they find this place works for them. By now, there are at least four Amish communities scattered through the county, with a population of over one thousand.

It’s become common for the rest of us to see Amish families at the local feed store, loading up grain or other supplies. But we also see them at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, buying snack food or school supplies. There are some country roads where you can find baked goods or, in season, strawberries or cabbages at roadside stands about every other house. There are nearly a dozen sawmills, a buggy maker and harness maker or two, and, I’m told, as many as forty or fifty men making furniture for a store that features Amish crafts. Amish women and girls have been supplementing family incomes since they first arrived here by making and selling baskets and quilts in their traditional dark colors or, on commission by one of us “English,” in bright colors of our choosing.

While their entrepreneurship is widely admired, and their friendship is valued by neighbors who have come to know them, these Old Order Amish—said by scholars to be among the most conservative anywhere— are seen as both exotic and confusing. Their refusal to put red warning triangles on their buggies because it violated their rule against displaying bright colors seemed foolish to many North Country drivers. Ignoring local building codes that require smoke detectors in houses or distant placement of outhouses seems unsafe or unhealthy to others. And the objection of one family to routine surgery to repair the defective heart of a one-year-old child as contrary to their religious views was controversial to others, to say the least. In their words, “that’s just our way,” but it’s hard for us to understand.

By and large, these new arrivals to the North Country are welcome and, in their own way, really fitting in. Unlike the generations of earlier immigrants who over time assimilated into the general culture of local life, these Amish will likely not do that. They will not become like us; we will not become like them. But these “people apart” provide a great opportunity for us to experience “the other” in amiable, nurturing ways that should be good for all. Would that new immigrants could have that kind of experience everywhere in America!

Varick Chittenden’s Upstate column was published in Voices Vol. 34, Fall-Winter 2008. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now.