John A. Hostetler papers

John A. Hostetler was born on October 29, 1918 in Belleville, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. He was raised Old Order Amish in the Peachey Church in Kishacoquillas 'Big' Valley, PA. In 1930, Hostetler's father was excommunicated from the Peachey Church and the family moved to Iowa. Before his instruction for baptism, Hostetler left the Amish church and joined the Mennonite church. Although he attempted both correspondence courses for high school credit and Goshen College for Bible studies, he eventually attended Hesston Junior College in Kansas in 1941. He worked in the logging industry in Oregon to pay for tuition, but was drafted to military service in 1942. As a conscientious objector, he was sent to work in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, and later to participate in an experiment at Pinehurst, North Carolina. Later, he transferred to Goshen College in Indiana and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1949. He enrolled in graduate studies at The Pennsylvania State University and married Hazel Schrock, who died in childbirth in 1951. He received both master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Penn State. In 1953, Hostetler married Beulah Stauffer and they had three children. Hostetler began teaching sociology and anthropology at the University of Alberta and later taught at Penn State Abington and Temple University. In 1972, Hostetler testified in the Supreme Court case Wisconsin v. Yoder, which led to the decision that the Amish, as well as other legitimate religious sects, could attend their own schools.

Hostetler's publications include many journal articles on Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite culture and society, sociology, anthropology, and genetics, as well as several booklets: Amish Life (1983), Mennonite Life (1983), Hutterite Life (1983) and books: Amish Society (1963), Amish Roots (1992) and Hutterite Society (1974). He also advised two films: The Amish: A People of Preservation and The Hutterites: To Care and Not To Care. He collaborated extensively with Gertrude Enders Huntington, and they co-authored The Hutterites in North America (1967, 1980, 1996, 2002, 2010), Amish Children : Education in the Family, School, and Community (1992, 2001), Cultural Transmission and Instrumental Adaptation to Social Change : Lancaster Mennonite High School in Transition (1974, with Donald Kraybill), Children in Amish society : Socialization and Community Education (1971) He died on August 28, 2001.