excommunicate former members. This practice is considered by them to be out of love and concern for the former member's soul, and to be meant to remind those who have left the faith of what they have lost spiritually. The women members dress in conservative plain garb that preserves 18th-century Mennonite details at all times, the men members do so at meetings, church gatherings, and other official functions. Regular day wear for the men is modern conservative clothing. The men do not wear beards. Their children attend public schools. Higher education is not frowned upon and members are encouraged to attend university and trade school. They permit the use of automobiles, radio, television, telephones, cell phones, computers, and internet. Membership The membership of the Reformed Mennonite Church has been mostly declining since the death of founder John Herr in 1850. The 1890 U.S. Census reported a membership of 1,655 in 34 congregations. By 1948, these figures had fallen to 733 and 24, respectively, and in 1958, the Church had only 616 members. By 1987, membership had further declined to 257 and in May 2000, it reached 171. A similar decline occurred in Ontario, which in 1948 had 6 congregations with 217 members. In May 2000, this figure stood at 131. As of 2000, the single largest congregations were in North Easthope and Stevensville, Ontario, with 73 and 58 members, respectively. Congregations in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee were considerably smaller. Current estimates place total membership in the Reformed Mennonite Church at less than 300 serviced by no more than 10 churches. Milton S. Hershey's mother was a Reformed Mennonite. Robert Bear, a Pennsylvania farmer who was excommunicated in 1964 and again in 1972 has since been actively and publicly attacking the church. Literary portrayal Reformed Mennonites have been depicted in a variety of literature from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Leo Tolstoy, in his book The Kingdom of God is Within You, praised the religious pamphlet Non-Resistance Asserted by Reformed Mennonite member Daniel Musser. Helen Reimensnyder Martin harshly portrayed the Reformed Mennonite Herrites and other Pennsylvania Dutch groups in her novel Tillie: a Mennonite Maid (1904), a novel which provoked cries of misrepresentation from those who resented her depictions. Early in the story a young girl of Pennsylvania Dutch, but not Mennonite, background, joins a Reformed Mennonite group after listening to a funeral sermon but is excommunicated