This 1954 thesis, although never published, contains a wealth of information that greatly contributed to the study of Amish history with interviews of persons born in the 19th century. Chapters on European beginnings of the Swiss Brethren and the Amish division, social and economic developments in the 17th and 18th centuries, migrations to America, planting of the first communities in Pa., and the influences of farm and family on these early settlers as they passed their faith on to future generations. (52pp. illus. index. Masthof Press, 2002.)