Transplanted German farmer

"Here is a splendid, firsthand account of nineteenth-century Amish Mennonite immigration--not an uprooting, but a transplanting from one context to another. Christian Iutzi's journals and log book paint a rich picture of life on both sides of the Atlantic, offering insights into the farm management, commercial concerns, and civic interests of this father, entrepreneur, and one-time minister. We sense Iutzi's struggle to order the elements of life beyond his control as he persistently records the vagaries of weather and prices. And we feel his joy and satisfaction in his reports of marriages and bumper crops. The footnotes, annotated genealogy and list of names in the journal are wonderful research aids." (Steven M. Nolt, Goshen College, Indiana, and author, "A history of the Amish"). "No people were more important in shaping the landscape of Ohio and the region west to Missouri and north to Wisconsin than nineteenth-century German immigrants. But their voices are rarely heard in Midwestern history, mainly because they did not write in English. Neil Ann Stuckey Levine and all those who shepherded Transplanted German Farmer into print have helped to rectify that situation by giving us a well-documented translation of the journals and log book of Christian Iutzi (1788-1857). An Amish Mennonite from Hesse who moved his family to Butler County in 1832, Iutzi was not given to extensive reflection. His straightforward record of the details of weather, prices, family and work, however, add up to a fascinating portrait of daily life on farms in both Europe and America." (Andrew Cayton, Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University, and author, "Ohio: the history of a people"). "Christian Iutzi's journal provides a gentle blend of Anabaptist agrarian history and church life, first in Europe and then in America. With a broad combination of material, Iutzi's writing is a practical summary of farm life in Butler County, Ohio from 1832 to 1856. It is fascinating to observe Iutzi's life as it revolves around seedtime and harvest, drouth and flood, weddings, births, the loss of loved ones, and church." (David Kline, farmer and author, "Great possessions: an Amish farmer's journal," and "Scratching the woodchuck: nature on an Amish farm").