In this November 2023 file photo, beds with Santeen quilts, such as those used by early Amana settlers, are seen in Gordon Kellenberge’s High Amana home. The Amana Colonies will be 170 years old in 2025. (File photo)
AMANA – On July 9, 1855, the first group of 33 settlers left the Ebenezer villages in New York State and headed for Iowa.
Their destination was the Iowa River valley a few miles upstream of Iowa City in the eastern half of Iowa, where they planned to establish a community they called “Bleibtreu,” which means “remain faithful.”
As the first group set about rebuilding an abandoned hut and moving another to the site where they planned to build their village, they wondered if the German word would be too difficult for their new neighbors to pronounce.
In their reply to Ebenezer, they suggested using a biblical place name, and they came up with a name—Amana, after the mountain and river of the same name mentioned in Song of Solomon 4:8.
“Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Come down from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir, the top of Hermon, from the dens of lions and the huts of leopards.”
Amana is the ancient name of a mountain now known as Jabal az-Zabadany, located northwest of Damascus. The river of the same name, Amana, sometimes called Abama, was believed in biblical times to have pure and life-giving waters.
Also in the Book of Jubilees (in the Torah) it is mentioned that the mountains Sanir and Amana Shem were inherited.
According to theologian and teacher Watchman Nee, the word Amana means “affirming truth” or “truth” and comes from a word related to “amen.”
It is often translated by Bible scholars as “faithfulness” or “remain faithful.”
When it came time to confirm the name, the first village was named Amana and after that five villages bore the name Amana.
The land for Homestead, the seventh Amana village, was purchased in 1861 and planned as Homestead. Since the name was on the maps and the word fit the idea of a new home here in the Iowa wilderness, the Inspirationists did not rename it.
By the end of 1862, they had made dozens of land purchases (historians can trace over 100 individual purchases) to patch together their new community. They bought land from pioneers who wanted to cash in and move, from speculators who had bought the land cheaply in the 1840s and were looking to make a profit.
And some acres were purchased by the federal government.
In total, the Inspirationists would come into possession of about 26,000 acres.
They had a plan for their villages. They wanted to create a peaceful place where people could walk to work, to church, and to community kitchens to eat their meals.
Each village was located in the middle of the land that the villagers cultivated.
(They) strove for stylistic conformity. The houses were built to look very similar, if not the same.
The houses were built of local sandstone and lumber. Bricks were purchased from brickyards in Iowa City and … in Iowa County.
They built their own brickyard at South Amana using clay from the Iowa River bed. They had lime kilns, sawmills, and shipped lumber, mostly white pine, from their mills at Ebenezer. They shipped door locks, windows, window frames, and carpentry.
The details were important. Even garden benches, vines, fences, bridges and signs had the same basic design.
It was felt that what worked well for one family would work well for all families, and that in this way no one house would stand out as looking richer or poorer or standing out from the others.
Flower gardens and gardens in general were well maintained. Orchards, vineyards and pine groves were planted. People took pride in their gardens and kept them in good condition.
Ultimately, the seven villages shared a common vision, a common plan and a common goal.
(Reprinted with permission from the August 8, 2024, issue of the Amana Society Bulletin.)
