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How Did We Get the Name Amana?

By Emilie Hoppe - local historian and author and publisher of the Willkommen newspaper

On July 9, 1855 the first group of 33 settlers left the Ebenezer villages of New York State for Iowa. Their goal was the Iowa River valley upstream some miles from Iowa City in the eastern half of Iowa, where they were to build a community they called “Bleibtreu” meaning to remain true.   As the first group got to work converting an abandoned homestead cabin and moving another to the site where they intended to build their village, they wondered if the German word might not be too difficult for their new neighbors to say.

"Amana" in the Bible

So writing back to Ebenezer they suggested using a Biblical place name and they had one in mind - Amana, for the mountain and the river of the same name mentioned in Song of Solomon 4:8. “ Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana..... A river of the same name, Amana, was felt during biblical times, to have pure, life-giving, waters.  According to the theologian and teacher, Watchman Nee, the word Amana means “to confirm truth” and comes from a word related to “amen.” It is often translated as “faithfulness” or “to remain true” by Biblical scholars. So when it came time to confirm the name, the first village was called Amana and after that five of the villages had Amana in their name.

Homestead

The village of Homestead was already on the map and was purchased by the Amana folks. They kept the name Homestead because it denoted what they were doing; building a new community, a new home here in Iowa. Today we have six villages using Amana: East Amana, Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana, and Homestead.