History and Origins:
            
            
             The Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther sparked the formation of
             a
            
             radical "Anabaptists" branch of Christianity in the sixteenth century, many
             of whom
            
             eventually fled religious pressures and persecution in their countries of
             origin. Some
            
             resettled in the Americas, while others found relative safety in Russia.
             Ultimately,
            
             many of the Russian Anabaptists sought refuge in the United States by the
             end of
            
             World War I, too.(1)
            
            
             Many of the later Anabaptist immigrants to America came from
             Switzerland
            
             and Germany, and they retained most of their cultures of origin, such as
             their German
            
             dialects and cuisine. Many more communities or sects developed within the
            
             Mennonite Anabaptists, totaling more than one million, in the Americas,
             Africa, Asia,
            
             and in Europe, their land of origin.
            
            
             Mennonites took their name from a converted Dutch priest by the name
             of
            
             Menno Simons (1496-1561) who provided Anabaptism with his leadership in
             16th
            
             Century Holland. The appellation "Anabaptist" refers to their practice of
             rebaptizing
            
             adult believers.(2) Subsequent philosophical differences led to the
             splintering off of
            
             stricter, more orthodox Mennonites living in Switzerland and Alsace into
             the
            
             "Amish", named for Jakob Ammann (1644-1725), in 1693.(3)
            
            
            
             1. About Mennonites (2001) Mennonite.net: Accessed at:
             http://history.mennonite.net/
            
             2. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions Bower, J.(1997) Oxford
             University Press.
            
             3. ibid
            
            
            
            
             The first groups of Amish migrating from Switzerland settled in
             Pennsylvania
            
             in the early 18th Century, and subsequently spread primarily to Ohio and
             Indiana,
            
             while also establishing a presence in twenty other states by the end of the
             20th
            
             Century. The United States is home to more than two hundred distinct
             groups of
            
             Mennonites, comprising approximately 150,000 peop...