Feb. 2, 2009 issue
Hutterite elder says good-bye
By Robert RhodesOccasionally, I have a recurring dream from the six years our family spent in a Minnesota Hutterite colony. Some Hutterites and I are fishing on Dean’s Island, a flood-prone peninsula of farmland on the Mississippi River north of Memphis, Tenn., and near the Arkansas town where I grew up.
Though I never fished there with any Hutterites, the dream always seemed to bring together the various streams of my life.
The last time I had this dream, the night of Jan. 18, it seemed to focus on one person. David Decker, the elderly senior minister at Starland Colony, where we had lived, was speaking to our daughter Lydia in the Hutterites’ Tyrolean dialect. He told Lydia to keep her parents on the straight and narrow and to encourage us to return someday to the colony that had been our home from 1995 to 2002.
In the dream, David Vetter, as he was known in the Hutterian parlance afforded older men, looked much stronger and more vital than the last time I had seen him in person. Then, he had been confined to a wheelchair and barely able to speak.
A few days later, on Jan. 22, my 45th birthday, I was in downtown Lancaster, Pa. On the cold, blustery street, I saw an older man who reminded me a great deal of David Vetter, whose white whiskers gave him the rather vivid appearance, some said, of an Old Testament prophet.
For a split second, this man fixed me in his precise gaze, and I thought, immediately, “He is telling me goodbye.”
Though I did not know it, David Vetter was being brought home at that very hour from a week’s hospital stay. He had contracted pneumonia and was returning to the colony to die. That night, at 8:30 p.m., he passed away with his wife of more than 60 years and many of his 14 children around him. He was 86 years old.
Among the Hutterites, David Vetter was something of a pioneer. Born at Barrickman Colony, along the Assiniboine River west of Winnipeg, Man., he had been part of the southward migration of the Hutterites after the Second World War. He was still quite young when he became senior minister at Tschetter Colony near Parkston, S.D., after his father, also a minister, died in a car accident. He would admit he was scarcely prepared for the burden of leadership, which he carried for several decades.
David Vetter knew both poverty and prosperity. He was the first Hutterite to receive a college degree, when he went to a South Dakota teachers college to prepare for several years of service in a Hutterite classroom.
He was open to welcoming outsiders who wanted to live among the Hutterites. Over the years he saw many such people — the sincere and the odd — come and go. It would not have been possible for our family to live at Starland without his willingness to welcome “world people.”
In this day, when many pressures tear at the Hutterian world, from wealth and advanced technology to the spiritual attractions of more “progressive” churches, it is hard to imagine Starland without David Vetter there. He left his mark not only on his community but on me — a bequest I carry now as a blessing.
When we parted ways that final time, he offered me this whispered benediction, in Hutterisch: “Go in peace, Robert. Go with God.” I travel now with this protection always in mind, with David Vetter’s modest seal on my life, wherever it leads.
Robert Rhodes, of Bird-in-Hand, Pa., is a former associate editor of Mennonite Weekly Review.
Comments
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The passing of Elder David Decker of Starland Hutterite Colony is a great loss to those who serve Christ in the realm of Things Anabaptist. He was my friend, my brother in Christ, and a great leader. I remember when he told me as a young convert to the Hutterian way..."We are not perfect, and please do not expect us to be." His love for those from the outside who were seeking Truth was so refreshing. I miss him greatly.
Terry Miller Director Hutterite Studies Centre Manitoba and South Dakota HutteriteStudies@hotmail.com
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Hello! I have often wondered about Starland community. My husband, Marlin and I, along with our two children, Brian and Chris used to live a couple of miles from the Starland Community in Gibbon, MN. I do not know if Starland is still located there. When I knew them they had just moved to Gibbon. (late 80's?) They were renting two farm houses (one each on two parcels of land) and then built the first communal living apartments. I fondly remember the Deckers and was just thinking about them the other day! I do not remember so much the men's names but I do remember Paulina and Suzanna especially. How strange. When the Decker's first came to Gibbon and started Starland, my husband and I were very interested in their ways. Being Christians but not living in community, we were searching. And, above all else, I (Debby) was very lonely out in the middle of the country with my two kids while my husband was "trucking". The Deckers invited us over many a meal. I sewed with the women. We joined their singing sessions. We were always welcome and I have not forgotten that. The boys and I actually spent a week at the colony outside of Aberdeen SD. I quickly found out I was not going to make a good Hutterite but totally respected their desire to live in community. Anyway, just happened to do a google search and found this news. Thanks for informing all of us. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family.
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My family lived in Starland in 1988 for about 3 months. We weren't quite ready to make the leap into living there permanently, but I'm sure we would have been welcome to had we wanted to.
David Vetter was very welcoming. We've thought about him often over the years, and decided to see if there was anything on the internet about him or the colony. I'm glad to see they're still there.
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I lived on my farm-site in Gibbon Minnesota for 7 years, I heard allot about this community and bought eggs, jams, and butter from them...it was refreshing to see the true meaning of trading. I often seen their teens working at the grocery store in Winthrop Minnesota. Their lives seemed so simple and pioneering, but yet they were willing to open their lives and minds to technology while keeping the simplicity of their heritage and survival alive, they seemed to branch out to new ventures and knowledge in order to make it....
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