{"id":27423,"date":"2026-07-01T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=27423"},"modified":"2026-07-02T01:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:30:17","slug":"elizabethtown-college-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/elizabethtown-college-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown lunch features the story of professor Elizabeth Myer and the Pennsylvania Garb Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Frank Ramirez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a story of ignorance, prejudice, nativism, and ill will, and a mean-spirited law aimed at us Dunkers and all the \u201cplain people,\u201d with consequences that continue to be felt in our day. And it was appropriate that a story involving an Elizabethtown (Pa.) College founding professor, Elizabeth Myer, should be shared by Steve Nolt, director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies on Elizabethtown\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, July 1, is the 10th anniversary of Nolt\u2019s tenure as director and senior scholar at the Young Center, which celebrates its 40th year. He recently returned from a Measles Summit in San Diego involving experts from Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In a session on special populations, Nolt spoke about the Amish community\u2019s interface with public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the Elizabethtown College lunch at the 2026 Annual Conference, he celebrated being able to \u201cshare a story not well known: Professor Myer and her struggle for religious liberty\u201d\u2014although over a century ago it made the front page of the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His presentation was titled, \u201cProfessor Elizabeth Myer, Religious Liberty, and the Pennsylvania Garb Law, 1908-1910,\u201d<\/strong> but the story actually began nearly 20 years earlier when the Gallitzin school system hired several nuns from the Sisters of Saint Joseph to teach in the local public schools. The nuns were teaching the public curriculum. No religion was taught, but the anti-Catholic prejudices of the day caused some to demand they be fired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a court ruled the nuns could stay, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law in 1895 forbidding teachers from wearing \u201cany dress, mark, emblem or insignia\u201d that signified their membership in a religious organization. The nuns chose to quit their jobs rather than comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Nolt, director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, at the Elizabethtown College lunch. Photo by Frank Ramirez<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Brethren had opposed the law. More than 100 Mennonite and Brethren women traveled to Harrisburg, the state capitol, to oppose the legislation\u2014to no effect. Elizabeth Myer (1863-1924), was already \u201ca legendary teacher,\u201d said Nolt, \u201cwho was especially skilled and talented after dealing with unruly seventh and eighth grade boys,\u201d when she became the first full-time teacher hired at Elizabethtown College and was permitted to teach in plain garb. This was a time when the college went out of its way to be inclusive, neither requiring students to wear plain garb, nor making chapel services mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of her first students however, Lillian Risser, ran afoul of the law soon after her graduation. She was hired by Wheatland School, not far from the college, In 1908, a local farmer complained about Risser\u2019s Dunker garb, which she adopted shortly after her baptism. One of her uncles was an influential attorney who took her case to the Lancaster District Court, where Justice William U. Hensel ruled the law unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nativist and anti-immigrants ultimately raised enough money to influence the state Supreme Court to uphold the garb law, insisting that the law \u201cis directed against acts, not beliefs.\u201d The court justified the decision by saying, \u201cTrue religion is just beliefs and should not affect how you live.\u201d As Nolt noted, this is just the opposite of what Anabaptist groups teach. \u201cA teacher could dress as a clown, a flop, or a flirt,\u201d Nolt said, or sport \u201cpolitical badges under freedom of speech.\u201d But teachers could not wear plain garb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades went by, and the law remained on the books. Myer herself died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1924. \u201cRisser got a job selling plain clothes\u2026black stockings and sensible footwear\u201d at a department store, Nolt said. Following her marriage, she and her husband helped to start a mission church. She herself died in 1986 at the age of 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The garb laws remained on the books and were used to prohibit Muslim women from wearing garb appropriate to their faith. Efforts to overturn the law failed in 2018 and 2020. Finally, in 2023, two state senators succeeded: Kristen Phillips-Hill, a Republican from York County, and Judy Schwank, a Democrat from Berks County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nolt concluded his talk by highlighting the upcoming 40 Year Anniversary Series at the Young Center. More information can be found at etown.edu\/centers\/young-center<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

— Frank Ramirez is a member of the Annual Conference Press Team.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

———-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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