Joseph Warren Yoder (September 22, 1872 - November 13, 1956) was an educator, musicologist, and writer. The first successful Mennonite literary figure in the U.S., he was especially known for his s...visualizza altroJoseph Warren Yoder (September 22, 1872 - November 13, 1956) was an educator, musicologist, and writer. The first successful Mennonite literary figure in the U.S., he was especially known for his semi-fictional account of his mother’s life, Rosanna of the Amish (1940), his investigation of the sources of the Amish tunes of the Ausbund, and his efforts to record and preserve traditional Amish music.
Born in in the Kishacoquillas Valley (known locally as the Big Valley) region of Mifflin County in Belleville, Pennsylvania, Yoder received a traditional Amish education. He was a schoolteacher in Milltown, Pennsylvania, for two years from 1892-1894. He attended the Brethren Normal School (later Juniata College) in Huntingdon and was graduated in 1895. He later attended the Elkhart Institute (later Goshen College) in Indiana, where he also taught English and music. In 1898 he switched to Northwestern University in Illinois. He also taught at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania and later as a college recruiter for Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He also organized and conducted singing schools for Mennonites throughout that state, and attempted to achieve reforms within the Amish and Mennonite churches in the Mifflin and Huntingdon County areas.
At almost age sixty he married Emily Lane of Lane’s Mills, Jefferson County in 1932. They lived in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Later in life he taught at Belleville Mennonite School.
He began his writing career in 1940, when he wrote Rosanna of the Amish, the story of his mother’s life (and his own). He later wrote a sequel, Rosanna’s Boys (1948), as well as other books presenting and recording what he regarded as a true picture of Amish culture.
His musical background enabled him to transcribe traditional Amish slow music into musical notation (Amische Lieder, 1942).
Joseph Yoder died in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in 1956, aged 84.visualizza meno