Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/61



After the first permanent colonies had been established by Mennonites at Germantown, Skippach, Lancaster, and other points in Pennsylvania, as referred to in previous chapters, there came the strong inclination, in the hope of obtaining the choicest lands and freedom from molestation from neighbors of different nationality, for our people to penetrate farther into the interior of the country. William Penn's treaty with the Indians had the effect for Quakers and Mennonites to feel entirely immune from attack and readily choose to neighbor with the Indian and share with him a common hunting ground.

This venturesome spirit took many of our Mennonite people far beyond the border of regular settlements, and in fact some groups of families often located in the deeper recesses of the wilderness. In this way Mennonites found their way at very early periods into sections of the Cumberland valley of Pennsylvania and Maryland and the Shenandoah valley of Virginia, and where, for a whole generation, not a drop of Quaker or Mennonite blood was ever shed at the hands of the Indians.

At such times and with the really primitive conditions by which they were surrounded, each Mennonite home could worship the God of heaven, and earth under its own vine and forest tree.