On Feb. 20, Jeff Bach, director of the Young Center and associate professor in the department of religious studies, welcomed Vi Dutcher to the Young Center as a guest lecturer with the simple statement, “Tonight’s lecture will warm your hearts.” Dutcher’s main focus of the night was the cultural impact and meaning behind a method of communication known as circle letters within the Amish community, particularly that of the Oak Glen Old Order in Ohio. Before diving into the matter, however, Dutcher gave a small overview concerning the practices and processes these letters entailed.
Dutcher explained that circle letters play an important part in Amish communities and help to achieve an overall sense of community within each town or county. Circle letters are typically written between women and are distinguished from other types of letters by the method in which they travel. A circle letter starts with one person who writes the first letter and encloses a list of women who wish to be included in the circle. The names are numbered so that a formal structure is followed as each letter moves from one woman to the next, starting with the first woman, then the second and third, etc. The letters follow this circular pattern until they make a “full circle” and arrive back to the first woman on the list. The letters are then discarded and a new circle letter is begun, sometimes with one or two women either being added or taken off the list.
Circle letters are taken very seriously within the Amish community. If a woman neglects her circle letter duties, she may be forcefully removed from the circle letter altogether. Amish women take pride in not letting a letter “sit long” and, as Dutcher stated, “neglecting a letter is neglecting a friendship.” Although circle letters are taken quite seriously, there are a few exceptions in which a woman may neglect her letter duties. Understandable reasons for not responding to a letter promptly are illness within a family or an abundance of garden work.
Although there are many strict rules and procedures involving circle letters, they are not a private practice within the Amish community. The letters composed within a circle are written with the intention that they can be read by all who wish. Some women even will leave their recently-received letters somewhere in their home where friends and family may read them without asking permission. Letter topics include those related to personal health, weather and daily life events in a diary-like structure. These letters are written among aunts, nieces, sisters and friends, making them more of a social presentation than a formal one. “Communal rules for letter writing are constructed within the context of relational dynamics,” Dutcher said.
Letter-writing is an important part of the Amish community and is needed to keep strong communal bonds dictated by the church. While writing is valued by both men and women, women are chosen to write by the church. Their duty includes sending out personalized letters to those in the community suffering from illness or simply needing a small piece of encouragement thrown their way as issued by the church. The Amish women do this enthusiastically and genuinely, spending entire days creating personalized cards and messages to send to such members of the community.
Along with letter writing, many Amish women partake in other forms of writing. These include poetry and news writing as the most common practices found within Amish communities. As Dutcher stated at the end of her lecture, “the writing practices are communal means to communal ends.”
Dutcher is a professor of rhetoric and comprehension at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), where she teaches writing courses as the director of the university’s writing program. Before teaching at EMU, she taught writing courses on women’s studies at Kent State University and other courses at The University of Akron and Cuyahoga Community College. At EMU, Dutcher continues her research of community literacy practices with particular focus on Amish and Mennonite communities.
