I’m delighted to join the Heroes, Heroines, and History Blog this month, and I hope to contribute some interesting posts. My main project for the past several years has been a sprawling historical fiction series on the American Revolution,
The American Patriot Series. In 2014, however, a distant cousin, multi-published author
Bob Hostetler, and I released
Northkill, Book 1 of our
Northkill Amish Series, closely based on the inspiring true story of our Hochstetler ancestors. Book 2,
The Return, which releases in November 2016, completes their story.
Amish romances have been popular for years, but
Northkill recounts a different kind of Amish story, one very well known among the Amish and Mennonites. Jacob Hochstetler and his family arrived in Philadelphia on November 9, 1738, aboard the ship
Charming Nancy at the beginning of a tidal wave of German immigration that stretched over the following century. With other members of their church, they sought sanctuary from religious persecution in Europe and the freedom to live and worship according to their
Anabaptist beliefs, including the doctrine of
nonresistance. They settled on the Pennsylvania frontier between the white settlements and Indian country and built a home along the Northkill Creek, for which their community was named.
Our story begins in 1752, when rumors of the building conflict between the French and the British over control of the continent reach the Northkill community. Over the next few years, this conflict boils over into war. Then early on the morning of September 20, 1757, the Hochstetlers’ peaceful way of life is brutally shattered when their farm is attacked by a party of Delaware and Shawnee warriors allied with the French. Their home is set ablaze, and when they fight their way out of the cellar where they took shelter, the Indians kill the mother and two children and carry Jacob and two sons away into captivity. After several months Jacob makes a harrowing escape, but it will be years later, after the war’s end, before he finally succeeds in bringing his boys home.
Many shorter works along and another fictional series have been based on this story over the years. Bob and I wanted to write an in-depth, detailed depiction of our ancestors’ lives on the Pennsylvania frontier, centered on the deeply rooted faith of the
Northkill Amish community, which is generally thought to be the first Amish church established in America. Amazingly a great many facts about this attack are documented in contemporary publications and records preserved in the Pennsylvania State Archives and in private collections. And in the late 1800s family researchers began to collect oral accounts passed down through the family. More recently, members of the
Jacob Hochstetler Family Association uncovered additional facts that were invaluable in writing our fictional portrayal.
My posts over the next few months will focus on the world of the Northkill Amish, the
French and Indian War, and the Native American tribes that held three of my ancestors captive. Theirs is a deeply inspiring story of steadfast faith, courage in the midst of tragedy, and God’s unfailing love. I hope it will bless you as much as it has Bob and me.
Today I’m giving away a copy of
Northkill to one lucky reader, either print or ebook edition. To be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment on this post and include your email addy and which edition you’d like to receive.
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J. M. Hochstetler is a descendant of Jacob Hochstetler’s oldest son, John. An author, editor, and publisher, she is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history.
Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series, won
ForeWord Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution.
One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year. You will find her at
http://www.jmhochstetler.com/.
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