The Mennonites of Tinicum, Bedminster & Plumstead: Peaceful Resistance in a Time of War

Fretz Coverlet, Mennonite Heritage Center

By the time of the American Revolution, it was speculated that there were 44 adult Mennonite men in Bedminster and 11 in Plumsted. But it was also at this time when lines began to be drawn between neighbors. Some joined the Patriot Cause (Associators). Some joined the British Cause (Loyalists) and still another group who, for religious reasons, chose to be neutral (Non-Associators).

Choosing Allegiance

For the Bucks County Mennonites, Quakers, Amish and Moravians the American War for Independence was more than a conflict against the British or of the necessity of choosing allegiance to one nation or another, but instead it was a conflict between their allegiance to God over any earthly sovereign.

For the leaders of the American Revolution, "military service" was the proof of Patriotism. Members of the Bucks County "Peace Churches", who were at their core, pacifists, refused to serve. And though they supported the American cause in other ways, went from being seen as faithful subjects and good citizens to being suspect.

Early in the conflict in September of 1774, the Mennonites supported the efforts of the first Continental Congress to impose a boycott on British Goods but were concerned when discussions turned toward the potential of more militant methods.

In January of 1775 the Pennsylvania Mennonites met with the Quakers. They created and disseminated their counsel of non violence out of concern that the Continental Congress might adopt militia law.

Despite their petitions, in May of 1775 the Bucks County Committee of Observation asked all of its citizens to associate and form militias.

Bucks County Mennonites and Quakers offered a voluntary tax in compensation for not fighting, but wanted the proceeds to be used for domestic, rather than military, expenses.

However, those who Associated, protested, demanding harsher measures of the Peace Churches to ensure that:

Such Denominations of people, in this County, whose religious Scruples forbid them to associate or bear Arms, that they contribute towards the necessary and unavoidable Expenses of the Public, in such Proportion as may leave no Room, with any, to suspect that they would ungenerously avail themselves of the Indulgence granted them..."

Broadside published on July 11, 1775, by the Committee of Correspondence and Observation for the County of Lancaster on behalf of the Continental Congress, Lititz Moravian Archives and Museum, Lancaster, PA

November 1775, the Mennonites wrote their "Short and Sincere Declaration" to the Pennsylvania Assembly stating that they were willing to pay taxes but they were:

" not at liberty in conscience to take up arms to conquer our enemies, but rather to pray to God for us and them"

In response, on November 24, 1775, the Pennsylvania Assembly laid a special tax of 2 pound 10 pence on Non-Associators age 16-60. (Never satisfied that these pacifists were not secretly supporting the British, the tax was increased time and again throughout the war). The Bucks County Committee proposed increased taxes in February of 1776, saying:

"That an additional Tax be laid upon the estates of the Non-Associators proportionate to the expenses of the Associators necessarily incurred for the General Defence of Property"

As the colonies moved closer to a Declaration of War with England, distrust of the Non-Associated grew exponentially. On March 14, 1776 Congress voted to disarm all Non-Associators, whose guns would be used to arm the Continental troops, ordering:

"Immediately to cause all persons to be disarmed within their respective colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the cause of America, or who have not associated and refuse to defend by arms the United States."

One week later, The Bucks County Committee of Observation issued an order to authorize Jared Irvine, Matthew Bennet and Gerrit Dungan to purchase muskets from the Non-Associators in the County. However, not all Non-Associators were willing to relinquish their guns, and they were forced to enforce this order resolving:

"that when any person or persons within any township of this county shall refuse to deliver his or their fire-arms to the Collectors of the Arms...the said collectors... [should] apply to the Colonel...who shall thereupon give orders to such officer, and such number of men, as he shall apprehend proper and sufficient to enforce the said Resolve of Assembly."

The Mennonite and other Peace Churches were willing to do their share by providing blankets, clothes, food and wagons for the war effort. However, as conscientious objectors, they had moral scruples about providing weaponry for the Militia.

An incident is recorded in, "A Brief History of John and Christian Fretz, by Reverend A.J. Fretz, about soldiers who came to the house of John Fretz, Jr. in Bedminster to collect his rifle. On coming to his house they asked for his gun. He took the weapon from its accustomed place and replied to the soldiers:

“Disarming the Romichs” by Daniel O. McClellan

The Mennonites and Quakers successfully used their political influence to lobby for language to be included in the new Pennsylvania Constitution which was enacted on September 28, 1776. While it guaranteed the right of conscientious objection, it included language that indicated that they must pay for a substitute to fight in their place. This was equally objectionable to the men of the peace churches. Their only options were to pay exorbitant fines, or have their property seized in compensation.

"Nor can any man who is conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, be justly compelled thereto, if he will pay such equivalent."

Because the Mennonites were Non-Associated, they walked a fine line. Should they deny Continental Soldiers or County Militia Men, they could be fined, punished, or even imprisoned. A Fretz Family anecdote passed down through the generations, tells of one such occasion.

Fraktur from Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center

The officer saw the horse, and in conversation with the soldiers, commented on its fineness. He boasted that he would try and buy it, but if he could not buy it, he would have it anyway. Christian Fretz's daughter overheard the conversation and ran to tell her brother.

The officer however saw him as he dashed away with the horse, and followed some distance until he lost track of him. He rode the horse up through the wilderness country, a part of the time fording up the streams to cover his tracks and hid the horse at the place now known as Shellenberger's mill.

A few days later the officer came again to Christian Fretz's place, and told him that he would have that horse. The next day, however, Christian Fretz went to the encampment at Newton, and laid the matter before the General in Command. The General gave him a writ of protection, and told him that if the officer should come around again, to hand him that paper.

On September 26, 1777, the British invaded and took control of the city of Philadelphia. By December of 1777, George Washington had made Valley Forge his Headquarters and both armies occupied the region surrounding Bucks County until June of 1778.

The burden this put on residents of Bucks County were double. They were forbidden to take their crops to sell at their usual venues in Philadelphia, because they were now British controlled. In addition the Continental army needed supplies and though they paid, their needs soon surpassed the stores of nearby farms and sent them foraging as far as 70 miles away.

The Quarter Master ordered, "The People of this part of Bucks County to bring their grain and hay, which they have to spare...and that they shall be paid...per bushel...that persons will be appointed to view what every man possesseth, and that if the owner shall not bring in sufficient to satisfy such inspector, that the remainder will be forcibly taken away."

Poulsons American Daily Advertiser, 10/151778, page 2

Still farmers from Bucks County, including the Mennonites, ignored the warnings intent on bringing their produce to their customers in Philadelphia. This was seen as a direct aid to the British Cause and George Washington stationed guards on the main roads to arrest anyone crossing enemy lines.

According to Mennonite records, Matthias Tyson of Bedminster and a member of the Deep Run Mennonite congregation, was stopped by a Colonel Piper of the Militia and arrested for carrying butter and eggs to Philadelphia.

The Colonel had him "tied to a tree and let the soldiers pelt him with his own eggs and sent him home with a warning"

Fraktur Drawing of a Man and His Horse, 1810

Testing the Patience of the Mennonites

The Test Acts of 1777 passed in Pennsylvania on June 13, 1777, put further burden on the members of the Peace Churches.

They were intended to smoke out loyalists and were meant to offer suspected Tories an opportunity to take a loyalty oath with penalties of banishment or seizure of all properties if they refused.

"Every person refusing or neglecting to take and subscribe, the said oath of affirmation, shall during the time of such neglect or refusal be incapable of holding any office or place of trust in the state serving on juries suing for any debts, electing or being elected, buying, selling or transferring any lands...and shall be disarmed by the lieutenant or sublieutenants of the city or counties respectively..."

The Pennsylvania Evening Post, June 28, 1777

Throughout 1777 and 1778 the debate over the Test Laws continued. Local patriots of Northampton County abused the act, offering the test oath to every Mennonite in the county and when they refused, all their property was seized and sold at auction, and then their men banished. After much protest the Pennsylvania Assembly overturned the Northampton County actions, but held the law in place, declaring:

"it cannot be conceived that any person can bear true allegiance to the United States of America and at the same time, refuse to renounce his allegiance to that power who, without any just pretense, is now carrying on an offensive and cruel war against us. Laying waste, burning, plundering, and destroying our country by his fleets and armies and committing every outrage that refinement on savage barbarity can invent."

The Peace Churches responded by sending a petition to the assembly expressing their sufferings in regards to the Test Act.

"The immediate occasion of our now applying to you is that we have received accounts from different places. The number of our friends have been and are imprisoned. Some for refusing to pay the fines imposed in lieu of personal services in the present war. And others, for refusing to take the test prescribed by some laws lately made."

The Pennsylvania Evening Post, 8/13/1778

Finally in December of 1778, they repealed the harsher punishments of the Test Act but added provision to have Non-Associators be excluded from voting, holding office, serving on juries and be double taxed. In 1779 the Pennsylvania Assembly passed a new Test Act, which required citizens to take the oath before the end of the year or to be forever banned from political participation in the state.

This deprived the Mennonites and other Peace church members of their civil rights. This law remained in effect in Pennsylvania until 1789, leaving many questioning the concept of American Liberty.

Perhaps it is not surprising that these restrictive and punishing acts brought some local Mennonites to the brink of violence, forsaking their peaceful ways, in a desire for justice.

In April of 1780, accounts show that two Deep Run Mennonites, by the names of Clymer and Beidler, attacked a Tax Collector employed to collect military fines. The offenders were charged an exorbitant fine of 2,000 pound each, the equivalent of a half million dollars today.

Understandably, after having lost their civil rights, land and property during the American War of Independence, many Mennonites and other Peace Church members chose to relocate after the war to Canada or places westward. Some, like the Amish, stayed in place but secluded themselves from the mainstream society. Others however, remained and their families became an integral part of the local Bucks County communities.

Fretz Family Reunion, Mennonite Heritage Center

Their art, culture, and music have been preserved by organizations like Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, Pennsylvania