Sam was considered a respectable member of the Amish community. Fran agonized over how she could bring this nightmare to an end. What if she told her Mom and her Mom told her Dad, she wondered. Would she receive a beating? All Fran could think about was watching her older sister get tied to a plow years earlier and get severely beaten. This was not what Fran wanted. She only wanted to have sex with her boyfriend, not get raped by her brother-in-law. Fran became completely withdrawn at this time. She was even too ashamed to talk to me about her current situation. This forced us to break up. At that time, I was no longer working at home. I was working for an Englishman about five miles down the road from home. I usually stayed at their home Monday through Thursday. On Friday evenings I went home, and on Saturdays in the fall of the year I went squirrel hunting. I usually took my little radio with me, and listened to a station from Wheeling, West Virginia. I was gone most of the day. I made sure I brought two or three squirrels home, so Mom and Dad wouldn't know I was listening to my radio, or doing something I wasn't supposed to do.
One Saturday, I went hunting again. I was gone for about an hour or so, when I decided to sit down at the edge of the woods and take a rest. I had my little pocket radio with me, and turned it on all the way. All of a sudden I heard a noise in the leaves behind me. I turned and saw my sister Amanda standing there staring at me in disbelief. Before Amanda could say a word, I told her to just listen for second. One of my favorite songs was playing on the radio, "Burgers and Fries and Cherry Pies." At first she was in shock, but after she thought about it for a second, she liked the sound of the music. "But," Amanda said, "I have no option but to tell our parents. This is strictly against our religion." I was finally able to convince Amanda that she'd probably get punished herself for listening to the radio, even for such a short while. Amanda and I finally reached an agreement: she could borrow the radio at her convenience, since I had a spare, and she wouldn't say anything to Mom and Dad.
Although, this was a small settlement, the younger generation appeared to be a tight organization. I thought they were all looking up to me, because I had left the Amish before. However, I was unaware that my "friend" John Miller was setting a trap for me. A couple weeks later John told me that his younger brothers and sisters were having it rough in school. The teacher was going out of the way to pick on them, even took it as far as whipping them with a rubber hose. John knew I wouldn't stand for anybody to pick on innocent children. The teacher was a woman in her late twenties, and very strict, we didn't consider her cool at all. John said, "David, you owe me a favor." I replied, "Okay, I'll do you a favor and throw a scare into the teacher." Since this was only a one-room schoolhouse, and was out in the country, it was easy to break into. John decided it was better if a couple of other boys and I broke into the schoolhouse on a weekend. I was supposed to be the leader of the break in. Dennis Gingrich and I decided to break in the schoolhouse one Saturday night. We broke in, upset the teacher's desk, threw all her belongings out of her desk, and wrote on the blackboard, "Please be more careful with your rubber hose." There was a big wood furnace in the middle of the schoolhouse, and a couple boxes of corncobs beside the furnace, to start a fire in the morning. We took the corncobs and strung them all over the schoolhouse floor. We didn't really do any damage to the schoolhouse, but we sure left it in a mess!
By now the Preachers were starting to get suspicious of me because of the break in. They began to check out my background. It wasn't too good for an Amish boy. I had been caught listening to a radio and drinking beer. The Preachers ran their own little investigation on me. Not long after, the preachers and the school board set up a meeting, I was the first young man on their list. There were four other boys considered suspects. The day of the meeting, the preachers thoroughly questioned the four of us boys, for four hours, one at a time. They considered me the toughest cookie of the bunch. However, at the end of the day, they found me innocent, because I had a couple of funky alibis.
While the Preachers were questioning me, they had two of the members of the church check out my alibis. I told the preachers I had a date the night somebody broke in the schoolhouse, so it couldn't possibly have been me. Besides, I added I was at my Uncle Jacob's for breakfast the next morning. Too, there were also a lot of other buggies out that same Saturday night. The night in question, one of the Amish boys had seen my horse and buggy close by the schoolhouse. This put a doubt in the Preachers' minds. However, they dismissed the meeting around six o'clock that evening, and said I was free to go, that I was found innocent at the present time. I started home, driving slowly thinking about all I had been through, hoping I'd never have to go through anything like that again. Suddenly, I heard a noise. A horse and buggy were coming up from behind, traveling really fast. Here were two preachers, and they motioned me to pull over. I could almost see blood in their eyes! I pulled over, and said, "What can I do for you?" "We have more information," one of them said. "You're now our number one suspect in the schoolhouse break in. We also know you're involved in some things you shouldn't be involved in.
They set up another meeting, seven days from then. I was grounded until I was either convicted or found innocent. The Preachers were going to talk to my Dad, to make sure he enforced my restrictions. Mom and Dad were very upset, and didn't know whether to believe the Preachers or me. A couple of weeks later, the Preachers thought they had enough evidence to seriously discipline me, and John Miller was to testify against me. By the morning of the meeting, I had it all figured out. John had set a trap for my friend Dennis and me, who been my accomplice on the break in at the schoolhouse. With us boys being punished, we'd have to stay at home in the evenings. That meant no more dating for the ones who were convicted, and that could last for six months or more. I had a chance to talk to John that morning, before the meeting started. I looked John right in the eyes, and said, "John, I know what you are trying to do, and if you testify against me, so help me God, I'll kick your ass like it has never been kicked before. You little bastard! You set me up, and you better change your story in front of the Preachers today. This whole thing was your idea to begin with, not mine." "How can I convince the Preachers?" John said. "That's your problem. Just remember what'll happen to you if you don't convince them." He gladly changed his story.
Now the Preachers were all confused. I'd slipped through their fingers one more time. A couple of weeks later the Preachers set up another meeting of all the young folks that were involved or knew anything about my adventures like driving a tractor, using a power saw, driving cars, watching television and owning a couple of radios. We were all grounded. There were six of us boys, and four girls. So, John's plan didn't work. John was also grounded. I couldn't see why John had to go through all that trouble, just so he could have a better chance to date the Amish girls. This was the only reason John set me up. The rest of the boys and girls were grounded anywhere from two to six weeks. However, when the Bishop and Preachers found me guilty, they sure had a look of satisfaction in their eyes. They grounded me for four to six months, or until they thought I confessed enough for the sins I had committed, that I understood what I had done was not right, and until I took full responsibility for what I did. However, that teacher taking that rubber hose and beating those children was also not right.
Child abuse among the Amish is not that uncommon, and the Amish generally have very large families. Usually one or two children are singled out for abuse. They might be somewhat more advanced than the rest of them, or quicker on their feet and able to think for themselves, or just the opposite. Both of those categories are vulnerable to serious abuse. When I was eleven years old in Medina County, I was the child who tried to reach out the best I knew how. I asked our English milkman for his help one day around eleven o'clock in the morning. Mom and Dad had gone to a little town called West Salem, Ohio. I thought this was my only opportunity. The milkman thought I was playing around, and he went along with me. I said, "I need a ride." "No problem," he replied. I climbed up in the truck on the passenger side and we started up the road. We went about four tenths of a mile, when the truck came to a halt. "Get out of the truck, the joke is over," he said. "I seriously need your help," I said. Looking bewildered, he yelled, "Get out now, you got a problem, son, stay away from me." At the same time I was being grounded for breaking in the schoolhouse, Eli Gingerich was being punished for having sex with his daughter, Cevilla.
Between Eli and me the Preachers were very busy. Eli's punishment was being excommunicated for ninety days. Eli had a huge family, his wife had given birth to seventeen children. It seemed to me that breaking in a school house, having a pocket radio, or drinking a little beer and watching your neighbor's television set was less criminal than having sex with one's own daughter. I began to think the Amish weren't religious, but were like a cult.
What frustrated me, Tony Miller and Dennis Gingerich had earlier been stealing their neighbor’s tractors on Saturday and Sunday nights and taking it for a ride. Tony and Dennis had asked me to take part in it. I do what I do and stealing isn't one of them. Later, Tony and Dennis stole the car that belonged to Joe George, Dennis’s neighbor. They had to break in the garage to get the car. Joe George was a good neighbor of Dennis's parents; they were back and forth a lot. Dennis knew where Joe kept his key. Dennis and Tony didn't get very far that Saturday evening when they snatched the car, before they demolished it. They were traveling east on state road 258 between Peoli and West Chester, Ohio where 258 makes a sharp turn right in front of Dennis's Grandparents' home where they wrecked. Tony and Dennis were somewhat bruised but were able to run away from the scene of the accident. Luckily, Joe George had full coverage insurance on the car, which the insurance paid off the car.
The Amish had desperately tried to pin the incident on me. Dennis's Grandfather John went to the home of Joe George and told Joe that the Amish believe David Yoder who recently moved down from Wayne County, Ohio stole your car that none of the other Amish boys in Guernsey County would do anything like that, and David is just plain no good. The actual time that Tony and Dennis wrecked the vehicle was at eleven o'clock on a Saturday evening. Lucky for me I was grounded that weekend, which was common for me. Dennis's brother John was dating my sister that night. At the time the crime, I was teasing my sister and her date. This was one the Amish community couldn't pin on me no matter how bad they wanted to. Dennis and Tony had not even been questioned about the incident.
There hadn't been any contact between Fran and I during this time. I had desperately tried to contact Fran through the mail, but somehow or another Sam, who was still raping her, always intercepted my letters. Sam desperately tried to degrade me in any way he could. He threatened to read letters out loud to the young folks after church. But Sam was respected within the Amish Community he did whatever preachers wanted him to do. I was the opposite. I knew if I tried to tell the preachers to get help for Fran, Sam would just deny everything. Besides the preachers would think I was lying. Still, they called it "religion". I realized that what I had done by breaking in the schoolhouse was wrong, but it was also wrong for Sam to rape my girlfriend. I felt I had no choice but to run off. I knew Fran couldn't take any more of it either. We had decided to run off on the same Sunday.
Two weeks later, Uncle Jacob had church at his house. I had been grounded for a couple of weeks. My sister and Fran were also grounded. However, Sunday came and it was time to go to church, and we all went. Everybody in church was just watching, like I was a no good person. After church my sister and I went home. On the way home, my sister whispered to me, "Me and Fran, are going to run off. We've had all we can take. "That's funny," I said, excited. "I was going to run off, too with Tony." We decided we'd all run off together.
That evening we went to bed at the usual time, eight thirty. At nine o'clock, I got back up, lit my kerosene lamp, and started cutting my hair shorter. I didn't cut it too short, just a little above the ears. After that, I got dressed in my best clothes, which was a nice pair of pants, a blue shirt, vest and my new felt hat. Then I scratched on my bedroom wall, to give my sister Amanda the signal that I was ready to go. I headed downstairs and went out the door. Mom came to the door screaming at me, saying, "Where are you going, David?" "Uh...I forgot to water my horse," I said. Sister Amanda went out the back door at the same time. Mom yelled, "Amanda, where are you going?" "The outhouse!" she called. Amanda and I took off running to my girlfriend's house, which was three miles down the road from us. As soon as we got there, I put a stepladder outside of Fran's bedroom, and knocked on her window. Fran opened the window, stepped on my shoulders, and I took her down the ladder. As the three of us made our way down the road, thinking we had it almost licked, we heard a noise. I turned to see my Dad, who began chasing after us. I took my sister by one hand, and Fran by the other, and we ran up a hill. Dad almost caught us when we took off through the weeds. We couldn't make any noise, or show any light, so it was hard to see where we were going. Dad went to the Bishop's house, which was just a couple minutes away.
The Bishop was Fran's father. We could hear my Dad saying, "Dan, Dan, get up and open your door! Two of my kids and one of yours are running off! We must stop them!" This all took place in March of 1976. We had to dodge the buggies, and walk twelve miles that night. Ralph was well known and like in the Amish community. He was a neighbor to John Miller. We went to Ralph's house. As we knocked on the front door, Ralph came around the back of the house with a shotgun. "What are you guys doing here?" he cried. "We need a place to stay for the night." After we explained that we were from a different settlement, and just needed a place to stay, he invited us in the house. Ralph said, "You can sleep on the sofa or on the living room floor. Sister Amanda took the sofa, and Fran and I took the floor. It was so nice to be with Fran again. Fran said, "David, I'm so glad we're back together."
Fran went into great detail about her brother-in-law Sam, how glad she was it was now all over with, and how dirty she felt because of Sam. She also felt sorry for her sister Susan. I gave Fran a slight kiss on her forehead, held her tight and said, "Don't worry. "It's all over now. You're safe." I knew that even if we were to go back Amish I would put the word out among the young folks that if Sam laid a hand on Fran, I'd beat the hell out of him. The night went by quickly. Once Fran got started talking, it was as if she couldn't stop.
The next morning Ralph took us to the bus stop in Newcomerstown, Ohio. We told Ralph that we didn't have enough money for a taxi, and asked if we could borrow fifty dollars from him. "Sure," Ralph said kindly. "Just send it back to me when you guys get home." This gave us a total of seventy-five dollars. We got a taxi to take us to Fredericksburg, Ohio, though we didn't know where we were going. When we got to Fredericksburg, we paid the taxi driver forty-five dollars. We walked about ten miles and finally came to a nice looking house. We decided to stop in; it looked like older people lived there. I knocked on the door, and a man answered. He told us his name was Ted, and after we talked for a while I asked him if we could stay in the little camper behind the house for a couple weeks, that we were looking for jobs. "Sure," Ted said. "By the way, how old are you?" "I'm nineteen," I said, "My sister Amanda is eighteen, and my girlfriend Fran is seventeen. We're from Peoli, Ohio, which is about sixty-five or seventy miles from here." That evening after supper, Ted left and didn't tell anyone where he was going. Fran, Amanda and I went in the camper, turned the lights on, sat down and began talking. We thought we had a whole future ahead of us. It was so nice, that I was able to spend some time with my girlfriend.
Late that evening, Ted's wife, Pam, showed up. We introduced ourselves, and so did Pam. Pam said, "We used to be Amish too, at one time." Later on that evening sister Amanda had second thoughts about leaving the Amish. I asked Pam if she could take Amanda to the closest Amish home, a mile up the road. "Sure," Pam said. Fran and I knew we had to change our plans and location, because we knew Amanda would tell our parents where we were. The next morning Ted and Pam took Fran and I to work with them. They worked at a nursing home. Fran and I both applied for a job there. At three o'clock in the afternoon Ted and Pam got off work. Fran and I went home with Ted and Pam, and ate supper with them. An hour later Ted gave us the bad news! He said, “I talked with both your parents last night. Fran definitely has to go home for she is too young and to leave and it's against the law." Fran decided to go home, which upset me terribly. I had just bought Fran a couple pairs of pantyhose and perfume, and I only had about five dollars left. I began walking, not really knowing where I was going. Fran got in the car with Ted and Pam. Once everyone was in the car, Ted took off after me. When he caught up with me, he insisted that I go home too. "No way," I told Ted. I kept on walking, and slept in some farmer's barn that night. I got up the next morning, hungry. I started walking again. I knew I had a cousin who wasn't Amish anymore, and who lived somewhere close to Wooster, Ohio. I didn't know his exact location, but I headed that way, hoping I could find him.
After much searching, I located my cousin Emery's house the next evening. Emery's wife Ruth cooked me a nice big meal, and let me take a shower. After that, Emery and his wife took me shopping and bought me a couple sets of nice clothes, and got my hair cut. I gave them the five dollars I had left. Emery let me stay at his house for about a month. Ruth and Emery introduced me to one of their friends, Joe, who was in the timber cutting business. Joe gave me a job, the first real job I ever had. I thought it was wonderful. I made one hundred and sixty dollars a week. I stayed on this job till the end of May. Joe Miller, who'd given me the job, was a former Amish himself, and I felt comfortable with him. Still, I constantly wondered what was going on with Fran. What about Sam? Would he dare to continue to force Fran to have sex with him? Or was Sam afraid that Fran would tell her parents why she really ran off?
One weekend I spoke to Joe. I asked, "Joe, can I take your 1973 Monte Carlo and make a trip to Peoli Amish settlement in Ohio?" "Why?" Joe questioned. "Why is it so important to you?" I said, "Fran's brother-in-law Sam was forcing her to have sex with him." That was all I had to tell him. We arrived that Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m. in Peoli Ohio. We pulled in an old gas well near Fran's parents' farm. Her parents' home was in a very secluded area. A small township road went between their house and barn. If Joe and I would have been patient for a couple more minutes, her parents were getting ready to leave. But I never did have much patience. "May I drive," I asked. "Sure, why not," Joe answered. I couldn't resist, when I got even with the Bishop's home I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the gravel flew, which sent that Monte Carlo fish tailing down the road. Fran's parents decided to stay home. We passed their house a couple times before lunchtime. The last time we drove past their home we did it quickly and parked our car past their home. While laughing Fran's father Dan replied, "Well I bet they ditched their car." Dan, too, was young at one time. He too had run off and left the Amish.
| Previous | Continue | |
| Home |