Caroline Trumpold: Transcript

Amana quilter and cook
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I’m Caroline Trumpold from Middle Amana. I’ve lived there all my life. We are a religious based community, were total religious based until 1932. Living here has given us such deep roots, that I think there’s no way we would ever be comfortable in any other part of the country, living there permanently. It’s a very comfortable, close community to live in.

Our church is very important to us personally. I can’t say that it’s important to everyone who is here. But we have always been members of this church. And my husband and I still go to the German service, which is the first service every Sunday. And then there’s an English service that follows. The name of the church is the Amana Church Society now. It began as the Community of True Inspiration in Germany in 1714. And when the community reorganized in 1932, separating the business part from the church part, that’s when the church name changed to—the business part was called the Amana Society and the other was the Amana Church Society.

The change happened for various reasons. There were some economic set backs, such as in 1922, an explosion and fire in the Amana woolen mill that burned it to the ground. And it had to be rebuilt. But, they had no insurance. There is a Cedar Rapids Gazette in the museum that has this headline, “Fire in Amana, No Insurance,” something to that effect. So that was a terrific hardship. Also in the 20s, a lot of young men were leaving the community to find jobs because, before 1932, everyone worked for the community and really had no money in pocket. And the young men started to want to buy things, cars being at the top of the list, I think. That hasn’t changed much over the years, has it?

The young men were leaving, they were the work force that the elders depended on to take over the jobs. So, they had to hire hired hands; that was another financial drain on the community. And then came the stock market crash. And I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And so it was necessary financially to make this change. It had nothing to do with the church making the change, but it was a financial decision. The people voted on it. And I guess the village that I’m from, Middle Amana, voted against it. And think we were the only village to have a vote against this change. So, I was not a part of that because I was born in 1932, so what I’m telling you is what I’ve learned and what my parents told. And those are the stories of how it evolved.

We spoke German all our lives. I always can remember when I was in high school, which was from ’46 to ’49, we spoke German between classes and English in the classes. And by the time my brother went to high school, and he was eight years younger than I, they spoke English between classes. So, over that period from ’49 to ’56 was the—and that’s the advent of TV in the community. So, that was really the influence that made the difference.