Amish America

Time 2020-11-11 20:04:08

Web Name: Amish America

WebSite: http://amishamerica.com

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Posted on October 9, 2020 in Amish Life This obituary tells of an Amishman named Jonas A. Nisley who passed away late last month in Ohio. Jonas had 310 living descendants. If you add his step-descendants, you get an additional 70 individuals, for a total of 380 souls. Here s the tally of his family, in addition to his twelve children: 96 grandchildren; 11 [ ]Continue Reading Three Hundred And Ten Descendants6 CommentsPosted on October 9, 2020 in Amish Life Two nice videos for you as we move into autumn, both by the 717 Drone Guys. First is this video from Kissel Hill Fruit Farm showing an Amishman picking apples to sell at the business. There is something about the crisp taste of a juicy apple on an autumn day and this video really makes [ ]Continue Reading Autumn Amish Videos: Apple-Picking Sunday Morning5 CommentsPosted on October 9, 2020 in Amish Culture After a buggy accident, people often ask Why can t there be buggy lanes for the Amish? One big roadblock is cost. It s generally judged too expensive to install buggy lanes in most of the hundreds of small communities where Amish live. So in reality it tends to happen primarily in the largest settlements. With that [ ]Continue Reading Buggy Lanes Coming To Geauga County1 CommentPosted on October 8, 2020 in Amish Communities Which states have the most Amish settlements? I should first note that this post is about individual settlements, not total Amish population. The two have some correlation, but are not the same thing. An Amish settlement is a distinct geographic location where Amish live. The roughly 350,000-strong Amish population is found in close to 600 [ ]Continue Reading The 10 States With The Most Amish Settlements9 CommentsPosted on October 7, 2020 in Amish Life I d like to draw your attention to an online event happening tomorrow: A Conversation about Amish Women with Karen Johnson-Weiner. This is hosted by the Young Center at Elizabethtown College, and open to anyone with an internet connection. Karen will be speaking with Young Center Senior Scholar Steven Nolt on Karen s new book, The Lives [ ]Continue Reading A Conversation About Amish Women With Karen Johnson-Weiner12 CommentsPosted on October 6, 2020 in Amish Life Lovina Eicher takes us through a typical day for her family in her latest Lovina s Amish Kitchen column. It s a nice look at some of the tasks and routines in an Amish household and family. A couple of things stand out to me. One is obviously the early start to the day. Amish families on [ ]Continue Reading 4AM 8PM: A Day In The Life Of An Amish Family7 CommentsPosted on October 2, 2020 in Amish Homes This Amish home stands out to me for several reasons. First is its simple but somewhat unusual design. It is one story, but pretty large in size 3,200 square feet. Amish homes tend to be two stories, but maybe this family is not fond of climbing stairs. They decided to build their whole home [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Tennessee Amish Home (13 Photos)8 CommentsPosted on October 1, 2020 in Mennonite Anabaptist Last week we learned the tragic story of Jonathan and Wilma Hochstetler, a Mennonite couple shot in a late-night robbery in Indianapolis, with Wilma losing her life. Jonathan happens to be a cousin to Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder the oldest cousin of 47 on her father s side, as she describes him. In this [ ]Continue Reading Amish Cook Gloria Yoder On The Hochstetler Shooting5 CommentsPosted on September 29, 2020 in Amish Controversies An Amish friend who saw the title of the post last week had this to say: Plain Parade what an oxymoron . I think that is an astute observation. The quotation marks were meant to suggest the term be taken with a grain of salt. Especially, as noted in the original post, since the actual [ ]Continue Reading A Follow-Up On The Plain Parade Posted on September 25, 2020 in Amish Controversies There was kind of a quirky Amish story that emerged last week in France. Not being a French speaker, I have mainly heard of it secondhand from French readers of this site, who have kindly kept me informed. I wanted to share a brief guest post from Romain Speisser on the topic with you today, [ ]Continue Reading The Amish, Macron 5G9 CommentsPosted on September 24, 2020 in Mennonite Anabaptist This is a pretty awful and senseless story which hit me for several reasons. This couple is Mennonite, apparently grew up in an Amish community, and probably still have a good number of family who are Amish (two photos of family in the article linked below appear to be Amish). Hochstetler family photo provided by [ ]Continue Reading Amish-Raised Couple Shot, One Killed In Indianapolis Robbery18 CommentsPosted on September 24, 2020 in Amish Books and Media Earlier this week I let you know about the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC), a new open-source scholarly publication. But what about publications produced by the Amish? While scholarly journals provide a different and valuable perspective, it s also nice to read writings direct from Amish writers. And there is a wide and growing range [ ]Continue Reading 17 Amish Periodicals5 CommentsPosted on September 23, 2020 in Amish Life Several readers shared this somewhat surprising story with me. Here s a video showing a parade in support of President Trump, which took place Saturday in and outside of Fredericksburg, Ohio: This is in the Holmes/Wayne County settlement. There were a reported 500 people who gathered in this small town lying just over the county border. [ ]Continue Reading Plain Parade Rallies Support For President In Amish Ohio74 CommentsPosted on September 22, 2020 in Amish Life I m happy to inform you that there is a new free online publication covering Amish and Plain Anabaptist topics which has just launched. One of the editors, Joseph Donnermeyer, has passed along the following to be shared with you: On September 18, the inaugural issue of the new online, free access journal – the Journal [ ]Continue Reading Announcing A New Publication: The Journal Of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC)9 CommentsPosted on September 21, 2020 in Amish Life Following our first post on natural remedies which Amish use, here are five more. This time, they re all sourced from Emma Byler s book Plain Happy Living: Amish Recipes Remedies. I m not promoting these as something you should use, though. I m just sharing them as ones that caught my eye for informational purposes . Amish [ ]Continue Reading 5 More Amish Natural Remedies8 CommentsPosted on September 18, 2020 in Amish Controversies This is a really ugly story which has been making its way around the web the past few days. I take no joy in covering this but it is an Amish story, and one that is getting attention for reasons which raise questions about equal treatment. Two adult brothers plead guilty to molesting their minor-age [ ]Continue Reading Amish Brothers Escape Jail Time In Abuse Case18 CommentsPosted on September 15, 2020 in Amish Culture The word Amish is getting attached to the events in Lancaster city following an incident in which a man was shot and killed by police. Specifically, some media sources have been framing this as something like trouble in Amish Country but that is a mis-framing. Lancaster city is in the middle of Lancaster County, [ ]Continue Reading Lancaster City Is Not Amish Country 18 CommentsPosted on September 14, 2020 in Amish Life In her latest, Lovina Eicher, an Amish mother of eight who writes the Lovina s Amish Kitchen column, explains a challenge of everyday Amish life making sure the water pump is working reliably enough for a shower. Lovina s household s water pump is run by a battery, in this case a solar powered-one. Lately in her [ ]Continue Reading Lovina Eicher: Water Pump Challenges In An Amish Home19 CommentsPosted on September 11, 2020 in Amish History I enjoy looking at old postcards. I came across five interesting vintage Amish postcards on Flickr to share with you. Several of these are from the Lancaster County area. One or two have a touch of humor to them. Let s have a look. 1. Greetings From The Pennsylvania Dutch Country This is a card with [ ]Continue Reading 5 Vintage Amish Postcard Scenes10 CommentsPosted on September 9, 2020 in Amish Homes Swartzentruber Amish homes are among the very plainest. They tend to fetch lower prices when put on the market, in part due to their lack of basic amenities including not just electricity but bathrooms and plumbing. This Swartzentruber home was last listed at $130,000 in spring 2019, though the Zillow listing now has its Zestimate [ ]Continue Reading An English-Ready Swartzentruber Amish Home (15 Photos)14 CommentsPosted on September 7, 2020 in Amish Business Goot Essa is an Amish business in Centre County, PA that sells 19 types of cheeses. Though this is a traditional Amish dairy and not in the Lancaster County area they ve built a nice reach into some upscale markets. Prior to the lockdown, they were selling their offerings to hundreds of East Coast [ ]Continue Reading Goot Essa: Buy Amish Cheese Direct Online7 CommentsPosted on September 4, 2020 in Amish Culture I promised I would follow up if I got more information on the Go Fund Me for Millie, described as a 27-year-old woman who left her Amish community, in what looks to be Delaware. A number of you were skeptical that this was real, which I can understand. While I reached out via two different [ ]Continue Reading Is Millie Real? Ex-Amish Fundraiser Follow-Up (Updated)5 CommentsPosted on September 1, 2020 in Amish Controversies This caught my eye yesterday. I ve not often seen an online fundraiser for a person who left his or her Amish community. But that s what this is, for a 27-year-old woman named Millie: Hi everyone, Millie may the decision to leave the Amish very recently. She had been shunned by her family and they would [ ]Continue Reading A Go Fund Me For An Amish Escapee ?20 CommentsPosted on August 31, 2020 in Amish Food There is an interesting discussion on the Ag Talk forum about Amish pies. The original post is basically a complaint that pies made by the Amish in the poster s area of central New York are not very good. An excerpt: I ve tried 3 different Amish sources 2 on farms and one at a Amish store. Yesterday [ ]Continue Reading Beware of Amish-Made Pies?82 CommentsPosted on August 28, 2020 in Amish History Reader Romain Speisser has shared a guest post today on the history of the Amish in his region of Alsace in France. Romain writes about the Heftler people and some of the significant figures of the area as well as one important oak tree over two centuries old. I share with you Romain s post [ ]Continue Reading Amish History: Anabaptists in Salm (Alsace)9 CommentsPosted on August 26, 2020 in Amish Homes This is the second Colorado Amish home we ve seen here. In June we looked at a home in Westcliffe in Custer County, set against some stunning mountain views. This home is located in a different community in the state Manassa in Conejos County, over a two-hour drive away. Both are within in the vicinity [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Rustic Colorado Amish Home (14 Photos)5 CommentsPosted on August 26, 2020 in Amish Life Reader The other Erik recently asked concerning the Linda Stoltzfoos case: How focused on this are Amish people? I’ve noticed a lot of recent articles on this website about this topic. That made me wonder: Are the local Amish, and those in more distant settlements, paying a lot of attention to this crime? What are [ ]Continue Reading Amish Thoughts On The Linda Stoltzfoos Disappearance5 CommentsPosted on August 24, 2020 in Amish Culture A while back a reader asked if Amish obituaries are made public. I responded with a post on the topic. I see them appear in news feeds nearly daily. They are published in newspapers and find their way online. With that in mind this recent obituary caught my eye for two reasons. One is that [ ]Continue Reading An Amish Obituary: Amos S. Zook, Age 935 CommentsPosted on August 20, 2020 in Mennonite Anabaptist This is an absorbing 42-minute documentary on the Little Belize Mennonite colony. Little Belize is the home of approximately 3,000 Old Colony Mennonites, living on about 100 square kilometers of land. The Old Colony Mennonites are Plain Anabaptist cousins of the Amish, with numerous similarities to them. The producers of the documentary, made for the [ ]Continue Reading Life In A Belize Mennonite Colony (Documentary)4 CommentsPosted on August 19, 2020 in Amish Culture Here s a simple video showing an Amish family harvesting corn row-by-row using a horse-drawn corn binder. Nice aerial scenes on a beautiful day. Rather than using a modern industrial-sized corn harvester, Amish family farmers harvest corn by this more laborious method. More than one pair of hands is needed which ensures it is a family [ ]Continue Reading Amish Corn Harvest From Above (Video)4 CommentsPosted on August 19, 2020 in Amish Business There are two Amish auctions I d like to bring to your attention, both scheduled for September 5th. The first, in Seymour, Missouri, Iowa, is the 11th annual school benefit auction. We can see from the sale bill (partially pictured below; full version here) that this sale has a pretty extensive list of items as well [ ]Continue Reading Two Upcoming Amish Auctions (Iowa Indiana)8 CommentsPosted on August 18, 2020 in Amish Communities As it does around this time each year, the Young Center at Elizabethtown College has just published its Amish population estimates for 2020. The total estimated Amish population is 350,665, found in 31 states, four Canadian provinces, and two South American countries. Some interesting takeaways from the figures: 1. Four Large Settlements. The largest settlement, [ ]Continue Reading The Amish Population Has Doubled Since 2000 Now Exceeds 350,000 (2020 Amish Population Figures)19 CommentsPosted on August 17, 2020 in Amish Life As we approach two months since Linda was last seen, Fox 43 has published an article containing a summary of details from testimony given at Justo Smoker s preliminary hearing August 5, along with a new video report. There were three new points to me in the bullet summary below, which actually appeared following the hearing. [ ]Continue Reading Additional Testimony Details On The Linda Stoltzfoos Case12 CommentsPosted on August 17, 2020 in Amish Culture A northern Indiana Amish farmer lost 241 of 270 calves in a devastating fire on August 5th. But he is already on the way to getting back on his feet, thanks to help from the community. From WNDU: While the sadness of the event still lingers, there’s also a sign of a hope. The rubble [ ]Continue Reading Calf Barn Already Rebuilt Following Devastating Fire3 CommentsPosted on August 17, 2020 in Amish Culture Another hit-and-run on an Amish buggy. This one happened yesterday in Clare County, Michigan, a place we recently covered here. From 9and10news.com: The Clare County Sheriff’s Department is asking for help to find whoever was behind the wheel during a hit-and-run with an Amish buggy. Deputies says it happened Sunday on Beaverton Road. They believe [ ]Continue Reading Authorities Seek Hit Run Driver (Clare County, MI)1 CommentPosted on August 14, 2020 in Amish Business How about another drone video to finish out the week. This one is quite different from the last one by the 717 Drone Guys, which gave us soaring views over Lancaster County Amish farms. In this video they are back at Kissel Hill Fruit Farm showing some human-level views of the Amish business Saturday [ ]Continue Reading An Up-Close Look At An Amish Food Business (Drone Video)No CommentsPosted on August 12, 2020 in Amish Life I grew up Amish and for somebody that never was Amish, and goes Amish, I have no way of telling you what that guy would have to go through, he laughs. I imagine it would be pretty tough. That s Swartzentruber Amishman Dennis Hershberger discussing Amish life, from a very nicely done 8-minute video showing us the [ ]Continue Reading An Interview With Swartzentruber Amishman Dennis Hershberger (Video)12 CommentsPosted on August 12, 2020 in Amish Business Well, not exactly like the Amish, if you re ordering online. But I still wanted to draw your attention to Shetler s Wholesale, a business based in Indiana with a long history of selling household goods to Amish via traditional catalogs. Wholesale is in the name, but they sell retail to individuals. They have now launched an [ ]Continue Reading Shop Like The Amish At Shetler s Wholesale (Now Online)13 CommentsPosted on August 11, 2020 in Amish Culture The planned prayer ride for Linda Stoltzfoos took place Saturday, and had quite a turnout. The riders traveled 30 miles, from Ephrata to Bird-in-Hand, the area where Linda was last seen. From WFMZ: Thousands of bikers from across the country traveled to Lancaster County this weekend. They were all wearing yellow, which is 18-year-old Linda [ ]Continue Reading Linda Stoltzfoos Prayer Ride Draws Thousands In Yellow, From As Far Away As California (Video)4 CommentsPosted on August 7, 2020 in Amish Homes I found an Amish home listing in The First State, aka Delaware. This state of just three counties has just one Amish community, but it is a long-lived one. It s located next to the city of Dover, which is one reason we might be finding this particular home advertisement online. That it, the settlement s proximity [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Delaware Amish Home (14 Photos)4 CommentsPosted on August 7, 2020 in Amish Culture Over 200 calves died following an explosion and fire which ravaged an Amish farmer s barn yesterday. From WNDU: ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. (WNDU) An Amish calf barn caught on fire this afternoon, killing the majority of the family’s calves. The call came in around 4:30 p.m. Crews responded to the 59000 block of State Road [ ]Continue Reading Over 200 Calves Lost In Amish Barn Fire15 CommentsPosted on August 6, 2020 in Amish Life The judge at a preliminary hearing yesterday found that there was enough evidence to move forward with a trial in the case of Linda Stoltzfoos disappearance. Justo Smoker will be tried for felony kidnapping and misdemeanor imprisonment. Detective Christopher Jones testified. Via Penn Live: “She was nice, caring and always wanted to know about other [ ]Continue Reading Justo Smoker Ordered To Stand Trial On Charges Of Kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos13 CommentsPosted on August 5, 2020 in Amish Books and Media Folks, does anyone actually take these offers? This is an addendum to my June post on the ad I found for Amish romance plot writers. A number of you chimed in explaining how bad their deal was. Here s what some of you with professional writing experience had to say then: Boyce Rensberger: The fees offered [ ]Continue Reading Amish Romance Ghostwriter Wanted: 1 Penny Per Word5 CommentsPosted on August 5, 2020 in Amish Culture The family of a 23-year-old Pennsylvania Amish man killed in an April hit-and-run may be closer to finding answers in a case described as having a number of strange twists . From WJAC: CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — It s been nearly three and half months since an Amish man was killed in a hit-and-run crash on [ ]Continue Reading Investigators Closer To Answers In Deadly PA Hit Run?1 CommentPosted on August 4, 2020 in Amish Beliefs This was filmed in Pinecraft Park by Ernie Bontrager, who made many Amish-themed films before his recent passing. This group of older folks sing a hymn which Ed describes as a funeral song. The hymn has a joyful feel and theme: God Be With You Til We Meet Again. Ed filmed this sitting amongst the [ ]Continue Reading Older Amish Folks Singing: God Be With You Til We Meet Again (Video)5 CommentsPosted on August 3, 2020 in Amish Life Amish children in larger communities benefit from bookmobiles, which travel around their settlements delivering a mobile library to eager young readers. The bookmobile might seem like a relic of a bygone time especially when we have more reading available to us in libraries, both online and off, than ever before. But for a community of [ ]Continue Reading Amish Bookmobile Grounded Due To Coronavirus10 CommentsPosted on July 31, 2020 in Amish Homes This is a neat and tidy Pennsylvania Amish home of 2,282 square feet, found in the Smicksburg community. There was a second home on the same lane for sale as well, probably the neighboring place. I imagine those might have been related families who moved away to a new settlement together. Smicksburg (Indiana County) is [ ]Continue Reading Look Inside A Pennsylvania Amish Home (13 Photos)2 CommentsPosted on July 30, 2020 in Amish Business Yoder Brothers is an Amish auction company run by brothers Willis and Leroy Yoder. I recently came across some upcoming auction listings, and even some videos of the brothers on YouTube. The pair were also profiled in a 2017 Goshen News article, on the occasion of Willis being inducted into the Michigan Auction Hall of [ ]Continue Reading Yoder Brothers Auctions4 CommentsPosted on July 29, 2020 in Amish History Riehl is not the most common of Amish names. You re most likely to come across it in Lancaster County, and that community s daughter settlements, but even then it is far outnumbered by all the Stoltzfuses, Fishers, and Zooks. The Riehl surname is noteworthy for having one of the more famous Amish origin stories of any [ ]Continue Reading Amish History: The Ludwig Riehl Story14 CommentsPosted on July 28, 2020 in Lancaster County Following the peach harvest video, here s another from the 717 Drone Guys. I have expressed mixed feelings about drones in the past, but I have to say this outfit makes some really nice clips. In this one they necessarily get the drone up a lot higher in the air. We follow a buggy down the [ ]Continue Reading Lancaster Buggy At Sunset (Drone Video)2 CommentsPosted on July 27, 2020 in Mennonite Anabaptist I was shocked to see this obituary today. I immediately recognized the photo from the back of her book. Lillian Fern Stoltzfus wrote a very nice guide to learning Pennsylvania Dutch called Speaking Amish. I don t believe I ever met Lillian or anyone in her family, but have known of her for years. I would [ ]Continue Reading Lillian Fern Stoltzfus 1974 202021 CommentsPosted on July 24, 2020 in Amish Business An Amish store in Perry County, Pennsylvania happens to be up for sale right now. This is Stoney Ridge Foods, which advertises itself as selling both discount and bulk foods. There are some nice photos showing both the exterior and interior at a site called Land and Farm. Amish stores for sale online are even [ ]Continue Reading Inside An Amish Food Store (21 Photos)3 CommentsPosted on July 24, 2020 in Amish Life Via WMTV: LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Wis. (WMTV) A Gratoit man has died following he and his son were thrown from their Amish buggy when it was struck from behind by a pickup truck. According to the Lafayette Co. Sheriff’s Office, Elmer Stoltzfus, 22, passed away shortly after 9:00 a.m. His toddler son also suffered serious [ ]Continue Reading Buggy Hit By Drunk Driver: Young Father Killed, Toddler Seriously Injured21 CommentsPosted on July 23, 2020 in Amish Beliefs The large organized searches for Linda Stoltzfoos have been stopped at this time according to the Facebook page dedicated to Linda s search ( postponed until farther [sic] notice from authorities to resume directed searches in specific areas ). The latest significant news came from last Thursday s press conference, in which new photos of Smoker s car were released, [ ]Continue Reading Linda Stoltzfoos Family Asks For Prayers Letters28 CommentsPosted on July 23, 2020 in Amish Life In today s Slice of Amish Life, an Amishman approaches the End Of The Commons General Store in the Geauga County, Ohio community, with what looks like his daughter in tow. This is not an Amish business, and has more of a touristic feel. But I would suppose it s one that Amish living nearby would visit [ ]Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: End Of The Commons8 CommentsPosted on July 22, 2020 in Amish Controversies A disturbing story reported yesterday out of upstate New York: TOWN OF DEKALB, N.Y. (WWNY) State Police are investigating suspicious incidents just outside the St. Lawrence County village of Richville last Wednesday. Troopers said a man and woman reportedly pulled into the driveway of an Amish household on Welch Road, where a sign was [ ]Continue Reading Suspicious Couple Visit NY Amish Home, Attempt To Lure 13-Year-Old Girl Into Car43 CommentsPosted on July 21, 2020 in Amish Business Pennsylvania peach season is just getting into full swing. This is a nice simple video of an Amish family bringing in a haul of peaches, to be sold at their farm market.  In the video we see two children and presumably their father gathering peaches and moving them around in a horse-drawn wagon. The [ ]Continue Reading Amish Peach Harvest (Video)4 CommentsPosted on July 21, 2020 in Mennonite Anabaptist In February we posted about Philip E. Riehl, a now-excommunicated Mennonite man who defrauded Mennonite and Amish investors to the tune of $60 million, in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in state history. Riehl was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison. From the Allentown Morning Call: BERKS COUNTY — An accountant who [ ]Continue Reading Man Who Defrauded Mennonites Amish In $60 Million Scheme Sentenced To 10 Years8 CommentsPosted on July 20, 2020 in Amish Culture Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder just had a baby boy and is off for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, editor Kevin Williams chose a nice old column of Gloria s to run while she s on break on how she and her husband Daniel began dating. First, Gloria describes the dating norms in her [ ]Continue Reading An Amish First Date7 CommentsPosted on July 17, 2020 in Amish Homes Update 2: Scratch the below update, I should not have stated it so confidently. I have no idea how large this home is, but now on third look I would say it is larger than 1,840 square feet and maybe the first number was in fact correct. I ll add something further I learned on basements [ ]Continue Reading Inside A 5,500 1,840 ??-Square-Foot Amish Home (23 Photos)10 CommentsPosted on July 16, 2020 in Amish Culture From the Akron Beacon Journal: RIPLEY TWP. — Four children were seriously hurt Wednesday after a collision between an Amish pony cart and a vehicle. The crash occurred around 11:10 a.m. on County Road 329 at Township Road 524, according to a news release by Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly. Sheriff’s deputies say a 56-year-old [ ]Continue Reading Pony Cart Driven By 8-Year-Old Struck In Holmes County; 3 Children Seriously Injured, 1 Killed10 CommentsPosted on July 15, 2020 in Amish Life The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has completed an extensive study the Statewide Amish Travel Study examining road safety in the Buckeye State. The study is presumably the precursor to safety improvement projects for the state s 70,000+ residents who travel by horse-and-buggy. The study found that over 700 accidents occurred on Ohio s state [ ]Continue Reading The 3 Biggest Road Safety Dangers According To Ohio Amish7 CommentsPosted on July 14, 2020 in Amish Culture This video is titled Amish Singing On Amtrak . The quality is passable though not great. But I couldn t pass up sharing it. This video combines two themes seen here in recent months Amish singing and Amish on trains. The men singing do appear to be Amish. I count at least three of them. The [ ]Continue Reading Amish Singing On Amtrak (Video)7 CommentsPosted on July 13, 2020 in Amish Life The York Daily Record has published more details on Linda Stoltzfoos disappearance. Here are some excerpts.  About the day she disappeared: Lloyd Stoltzfoos told the officer that his daughter was supposed to go to youth group after church the previous day but never made it. She did not come home to change her clothes [ ]Continue Reading More Details On Linda Stoltzfoos Disappearance7 CommentsPosted on July 13, 2020 in Amish Business Following our look at the Buchanan County, Iowa Amish business map, reader Denise Joyal shares her own visit to the community, including photos and more info on some of the stores there. On the map are listed nearly 50 businesses. Denise informs us below that the map doesn t quite have all the shops there. I [ ]Continue Reading Visiting Amish Stores In Buchanan County, Iowa (17 Photos)No CommentsPosted on July 11, 2020 in Amish Life News just broke this afternoon: 34-year-old Lancaster County resident Justo Smoker was arrested last night and charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos. A vehicle resembling Smoker s was seen by multiple witnesses in the area of Gap with an Amish female in the passenger seat on the afternoon Linda went missing. Linda remains missing, and investigators have [ ]Continue Reading Man Arrested Charged With Kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos; Linda Still Missing45 CommentsPosted on July 10, 2020 in Amish Life It s been nearly three weeks since Linda Stoltzfoos disappeared on June 21. The FBI is now offering a monetary reward for information. From crimewatchpa.com: The East Lampeter Township Police Department and the FBI continue to ask for the public s assistance in locating Linda Stoltzfoos. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for [ ]Continue Reading FBI Offers $10,000 Reward For Linda Stoltzfoos Info11 CommentsPosted on July 9, 2020 in Amish Homes This week s Amish home comes from Wisconsin. It is a 3-bedroom and 1-bathroom home of about 1600 square feet, sitting on almost 3 acres of land. It last sold for just $45,000 in 2018. This is in Waushara County, in central WI. This place is pleasant-ish inside, but I will not pretend that this is [ ]Continue Reading Inside A $45,000 Amish Home (16 Photos)13 CommentsPosted on July 8, 2020 in Amish Life You might have come across a See Rock City barn before. This was an advertising campaign created by a man named Garnet Carter and his wife Freida to promote their Rock City Gardens attraction, located just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. A number of these barns still exist, though the number is dwindling. These advertisements started appearing [ ]Continue Reading Slice of Amish Life: See Rock City4 CommentsPosted on July 8, 2020 in Amish Business Low milk prices have been an issue for Amish farmers for quite a while now, pushing some out of the dairy business. So I was happy to see this story about Amish in the Conewango Valley, NY settlement taking some control back by going in strong on a revamped cheese plant. The facility manager explains: [ ]Continue Reading Amish Push Back Against Low Milk Prices With Cheese Factory3 CommentsPosted on July 7, 2020 in Amish Life From the AP: SPARTA, Pa. (AP) — A hit-and-run crash involving an SUV and a horse-drawn Amish buggy left two adults and two young children in the buggy seriously injured. Pennsylvania state police say the accident in Sparta occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The SUV struck the buggy from behind and then fled the [ ]Continue Reading Hit-and-Run Seriously Injures Amish Adult 2 Babies13 CommentsPosted on July 3, 2020 in Amish Homes Today a look inside a simple and plain Amish home in Springboro, Pennsylvania. This is in Crawford County in the northwest corner of the state. You ll find Amish scattered across this county there are six settlements, all or part of which lie within its borders. This looks like it is the settlement near Conneautville, [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Plain Pennsylvania Amish Home (18 Photos)18 CommentsPosted on July 2, 2020 in Amish Business Another Amish business map to share this one from the sizeable settlement in Buchanan County, Iowa (Hazleton). The area promotes the local Amish Boulevard a stretch of county road running through the heart of the community (it s W13 on the map below). On this map you ll find nearly 50 Amish businesses. You can [ ]Continue Reading Amish Business Map (Buchanan County, Iowa)3 CommentsPosted on July 2, 2020 in Amish Culture Following up on a story from May, a man who was attacked by a cow on an Amish farm has been recovering. There was little info in the initial report on injuries suffered by Harley Chubby Fry. It turns out he was hurt badly. Fry was essentially paralyzed after the attack in central PA: Firefighters [ ]Continue Reading Man Paralyzed After Amish Farm Cow Attack Recovering2 CommentsPosted on July 1, 2020 in Amish Controversies Of course, coronavirus cases are increasing in some places. There is zero surprise in that, despite the way some headlines might be written to suggest otherwise. And in Holmes County, which thrives on Amish-themed tourism, cases have increased since reopening as well. Local officials are not pinning this on the return of tourism, however. From [ ]Continue Reading Holmes County Officials: Coronavirus Increase Not Due To Tourism39 CommentsPosted on July 1, 2020 in Amish Culture I put Amish tourism in quotes in the title because those two words usually mean non-Amish tourists visiting Amish areas. But this is the other, less-common meaning Amish as tourists themselves. It turns out a good number of Amish people are rather fond of a Colorado hot springs resort town named Glenwood Springs, which [ ]Continue Reading Amish Tourism To Colorado Town Hit By Amtrak Cuts12 CommentsPosted on June 29, 2020 in Amish Life The York Daily Record has published an article providing a bit more insight on the search for Linda Stoltzfoos. We get comments from two people Donald Kraybill, author and expert on the Amish, and Merv Fisher, Linda s uncle. This follows Saturday s update on FBI and local police involvement, including processing 100s of incoming tips. First, [ ]Continue Reading Merv Fisher Donald Kraybill On The Linda Stoltzfoos Search7 CommentsPosted on June 27, 2020 in Amish Life Day 6 since Linda Stoltzfoos was last seen. Readers have been asking for updates on the situation. So I ll share the freshest reporting on it. These points are taken from an article yesterday at Lancaster Online: Authorities have gotten hundreds of tips. Many are vague, but they are processed to see if patterns develop East [ ]Continue Reading Linda Stoltzfoos Update36 CommentsPosted on June 26, 2020 in Amish Business In a post last week, I mentioned visiting Manhattan with my friend Ben Riehl in search of the dealers where his father David once sold antique Amish quilts. I also shared a bit from his related 2018 talk at Elizabethtown College. Ben has kindly passed along a written version of that talk which I ve posted [ ]Continue Reading Ben Riehl On His Father David4 CommentsPosted on June 25, 2020 in Amish Homes Something unusual today. I managed to find a listing for an Amish home in Colorado (not currently for sale). This won t remind you much of other homes we ve seen (at least not on the outside). This is the Westcliffe community in Custer County. Not a lot of Amish in the Centennial State only five [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Colorado Amish Mini-Ranch Home (22 Photos)8 CommentsPosted on June 24, 2020 in Amish Life The FBI has now joined in on day 3 of the search for Linda Stoltzfoos. Via Lancaster Online: The FBI has joined East Lampeter Township police as the search for a missing 18-year-old woman enters day 3, according to East Lampeter Township police. Linda Stoltzfoos, of East Lampeter Township, was last seen in Bird-in-Hand wearing [ ]Continue Reading FBI Joins Search For Linda Stoltzfoos6 CommentsPosted on June 24, 2020 in Amish Culture I just found this unusual photo while checking out Amish homes for sale online. I have often seen similar flags attached to pony carts and other smaller vehicles used by Amish. Those are pretty common in larger communities like Holmes County (and a good idea there, considering the area s hilly terrain). But I ve never seen [ ]Continue Reading Orange Buggy Flags?20 CommentsPosted on June 23, 2020 in Amish Business Reader Jerry, an avid Amish auction-goer, is back on the Amish auction trail. He recently attended a sale held by Nebraska Amish aka white-topper Amish, which is what some call them on account of their buggies with white tops. This auction happened Saturday at a Zook farm on Back Mountain Road in Milroy, Pennsylvania [ ]Continue Reading At A White-Topper Auction (28 Photos)10 CommentsPosted on June 22, 2020 in Amish Life 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos went missing Sunday after failing to come home after church. Police believe she may be at risk for harm or injury. From WGAL: BIRD IN HAND, Pa. — Police in Lancaster County are looking for a missing 18-year-old woman, who was last seen on Sunday. East Lampeter Township Police issued the following [ ]Continue Reading Search Ongoing For Missing Lancaster Amish Teen Girl (Updated)21 CommentsPosted on June 19, 2020 in Amish Life From Cleveland 19 News: CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) The Ashland County Health Department says a recent outbreak affecting the area’s Amish community stems from a wedding. The outbreak, which is declared when at least two or more individuals test positive for an infectious disease like COVID-19, in the Loudonville area originated from an Ashland County [ ]Continue Reading Ohio COVID-19 Outbreak Traced To Amish Wedding31 CommentsPosted on June 19, 2020 in Amish Communities A look at one of Kentucky s oldest Amish settlements plus another Amish business map to add to the growing collection. This one is in Crittenden County, near the town of Marion. There are four church districts; Amish have been here for over 40 years. An article which ran in the Crittenden Press in 2018 [ ]Continue Reading The Amish Of Crittenden County, Kentucky2 CommentsPosted on June 18, 2020 in Amish Facts On the whole, the Amish are avid hunters. In Nature The Environment in Amish Life, one Amishman puts plainly how much hunting mattered in his community: When I was growing up, if you didn t hunt, it was almost as if you didn t belong. (p. 148). Why does hunting appeal to the Amish? For one, [ ]Continue Reading 5 Facts On The Amish Hunting4 CommentsPosted on June 17, 2020 in Amish Business David Riehl is a person I d heard a lot about both reading his story, and directly from his family. David was a key figure in the development of the Amish quilt industry. His is one of the more unusual tales of an Amish person crafting a successful enterprise by taking his goods right [ ]Continue Reading David Riehl, Amish Quilt Dealer (1987)11 CommentsPosted on June 16, 2020 in Amish Business This isn t a map, but it is a nice directory giving addresses of 26 Amish businesses in Clare County, Michigan. There are three Amish communities with a presence in Clare County. I believe the businesses here are from the more progressive of the two larger ones. That settlement has families both in Clare County, and [ ]Continue Reading 26 Amish Businesses (Clare County, Michigan)1 CommentPosted on June 15, 2020 in Amish Life Several years back Amish in Illinois made news when they moved the state s oldest-known Amish home using horsepower (that is, at least part of the way):  This was originally the home of an Amishman named Moses Yoder, and dates to 1865. The Moses Yoder house is joined by a second historic home, the Daniel [ ]Continue Reading Two Historic Amish Homes9 CommentsPosted on June 15, 2020 in Amish Life From the Wooster Daily Record: MILLERSBURG — Coronavirus cases in Holmes County have spiked in recent weeks after the county spent months in the single digits. The Ohio Department of Health reported on Friday that 84 cases had been detected in the county, up from 15 cases a month ago. The county has reported three [ ]Continue Reading Coronavirus Increases Among Amish: Two Responses18 CommentsPosted on June 12, 2020 in Amish Homes This is the largest and most expensive of the properties we ve seen from the batch of 7 Amish homes on the market in Fleming County, KY. While we ve looked at a couple of small houses and even a 21-acre baby farm , today s property could be considered more the real deal as far as Amish farms [ ]Continue Reading A 91-Acre Amish Cattle Farm Home (13 Photos)28 CommentsPosted on June 12, 2020 in Amish Controversies A case that we ve followed for some time now reached another point in its journey through the court system. On Monday a Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the original decision. The article in the Post Bulletin summarizes recent events in the matter: The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a ruling Monday that would require four [ ]Continue Reading Minnesota Amish Lose Appeal In Gray Water Case8 CommentsPosted on June 11, 2020 in Amish Life This is another great photo by Cindy Cornett Seigle. I can t say I ve ever encountered this exact sight coming down the road at least not at this size. These guys are riding atop piles of hay that have them literally two or is it three stories up in the air. I assume [ ]Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Moving Mountains Of Hay6 CommentsPosted on June 11, 2020 in Amish Beliefs Here s a simple article from the Alberta Press giving us a look at the Amish approach to retirement and aging. This comes from the Prince Edward Island settlement at Dundas. It largely consists of an interview with James Kuepfer, 35, and his father Peter (as an aside, note Kuepfer is not a common name among [ ]Continue Reading An Amish View On Aging Elder Care4 CommentsPosted on June 10, 2020 in Amish Business So Amish auctions returning is one sign that things are getting back to normal at least in some places. Below I ve posted the bill for a school sale this Saturday in Sheldon, Wisconsin (Rusk County). This is not the only Amish auction activity out there. The Kootenai Amish School Auction will also take place [ ]Continue Reading Amish Auctions Happening In Some States; Mud Sales Remain Stuck In The Mud13 CommentsPosted on June 9, 2020 in Amish Beliefs While we ve lately featured numerous videos of Amish singing, we haven t had too many examples of church singing here. If you haven t heard Amish church singing before, today s clip of Amish singing Lebt Friedsam, by Ed Yoder, will give you a sense of what it is like. A song leader opens with the first notes [ ]Continue Reading Amish Church Singing: Lebt Friedsam (Audio)7 CommentsPosted on June 8, 2020 in Amish Business I m seeing more and more examples of Amish business maps, both online and off. To give a few examples, there are the multiple maps in Ethridge, Tennessee, the map we saw last week from the small Whitefield, Maine community, and this online map of the Conewango Valley, New York settlement, with over 180 Amish businesses [ ]Continue Reading Amish Business Map Livingston County, New York11 CommentsPosted on June 8, 2020 in Amish History A very important person as regards Amish religious freedom passed away a month ago. I m not sure how many Amish people know of William C. Lindholm today, but he was instrumental to the freedoms Amish now have in educating their children. Young Center Senior Scholar Steven Nolt shares the following on Lindholm and his relevance [ ]Continue Reading William C. Lindholm 1932 20208 CommentsPosted on June 5, 2020 in Amish Homes I m a little puzzled by this home. It s listed as having five bedrooms. But we don t see any of them in the photos provided. We do see, however, other rooms, which are quite airy and spacious. This one is from the collection of 7 Kentucky homes for sale, which we ve been looking at the past [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Small-But-Spacious Amish Home (22 Photos)9 CommentsPosted on June 5, 2020 in Amish Books and Media We ve got two winners today of Ira Wagler s Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father. If you missed it, Ira discussed the book in our interview last week. This book follows up Ira s first memoir Growing Up Amish. We also have the full prologue of Broken Roads to share with you today. Thanks to Ira [ ]Continue Reading Broken Roads Book Winners Excerpt10 CommentsPosted on June 5, 2020 in Amish Life This happened Wednesday in the Smyrna, Maine community. Two young men were ejected from the buggy. One was killed; the second has critical injuries. “The crash is still under investigation, but it appears that speed was a factor,” said Aroostook County Sheriff Shawn Gillen. From the Bangor Daily News: NEW LIMERICK, Maine — A 25-year-old [ ]Continue Reading Buggy Struck From Behind In Smyrna, Maine; One Killed2 CommentsPosted on June 4, 2020 in Amish Culture York College professor Charles A. Kauffman has a nice article just out in the York Daily Record on the Pennsylvania Dutch language. I pulled five excerpts answering questions on the language including examples of Pennsylvania Dutch phrases, and what exactly is meant by Dutchified English. I ve also included three videos, giving examples of Pennsylvania [ ]Continue Reading What Is Dutchified English? 5 Questions Answered On Pennsylvania Dutch6 CommentsPosted on June 3, 2020 in Amish Books and Media Well, not wanted by me, but by someone who s posted a job offer on freelancing site Upwork. This is just a quirky thing I came across in my Amish news feed today. I wondered some years ago if the appeal of Amish romance would continue. Going by anecdotal evidence at least, the genre appears to [ ]Continue Reading Wanted: Amish Romance Plot Writer?10 CommentsPosted on June 2, 2020 in Amish Life A news blurb about an accident in Lancaster County several days ago contained few details. An English friend of the family involved has just filled out the story. Three Amish sibling children were hit by a pickup truck while driving the buggy to church in Bart Township, at around 7:30 Sunday morning. Parents Dave and [ ]Continue Reading Fundraiser Card Shower For Amanda King Family (Updated)9 CommentsPosted on June 2, 2020 in Amish History Back one more time with another edition of five Amish surname histories. If you missed previous posts, you can find them here: Part 1 (Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, Stoltzfus) Part 2 (Zook, Gingerich, Troyer, King, Lehman) Part 3 (Yoder, Schrock, Fisher, Stutzman, Wagler) These are excerpted from Joseph Stoll s series “Amish and Mennonite Family Names,” [ ]Continue Reading The Stories Of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 4)17 CommentsPosted on June 1, 2020 in Amish Controversies A video making the media rounds supposedly shows Amish singers in Minneapolis singing a hymn as they hold signs related to the death of George Floyd. The people in the clip were in several places described as Amish possibly due to the label at least one YouTube uploader gave the video, and those writing [ ]Continue Reading Not Amish Singers (Updated)17 CommentsPosted on June 1, 2020 in Amish Beliefs Marlene Miller joined the Amish at age 23, married and had ten children. She wrote about her life experience in Grace Called Me Home, later republished as Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order. I just learned yesterday that Marlene passed away Saturday from cancer, at the age of [ ]Continue Reading Marlene Miller 1944 202014 CommentsPosted on May 29, 2020 in Amish Homes I hadn t heard the term baby farm before coming across it in this listing, and I m not sure if the Amish would use it themselves (I doubt it). But that s how this home, one of the seven Hillsboro, KY Amish homes for sale, is described. It looks like baby farm might just refer to its [ ]Continue Reading Inside An Amish Baby Farm Home (26 Photos)18 CommentsPosted on May 28, 2020 in Amish Books and Media Ira Wagler s best-selling 2011 memoir Growing Up Amish told the story of his life as a young man, and his eventual decision to leave the Amish behind. Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father is his just-released follow-up. It covers subsequent events in his life, and in particular, his relationship with his father, David L. [ ]Continue Reading Ira Wagler on Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father (Interview Giveaway)138 CommentsPosted on May 26, 2020 in Amish Life This photo shows Amish people getting off an Amtrak train in Portland, Oregon. In states without Amish settlements (like Oregon), public transit stations are among the few places you re likely to see Amish folks (here s another example from Alabama). This shot, taken in 2011, captures a moment perhaps we re witnessing that happy relief at [ ]Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Disembarking In Portland6 CommentsPosted on May 25, 2020 in Amish Life Modem and Log on are my favorites. I came across this old Facebook post by Sol s in Berlin, a store in the heart of Holmes County, sharing the Amishman s Guide to Computer Lingo . I m not sure who the original author is, but this appeared in the Vendor, a Plain community newspaper. It was passed on [ ]Continue Reading An Amishman s Guide To Computer Lingo 14 CommentsPosted on May 22, 2020 in Amish Business As we learned in last year s post on 5 interesting facts about Lehman s, the customer makeup of this simple products retailer is more English than Amish (by a factor of 4 to 1). And the product line reflects this to some extent. The company has a wide array of products fitting the old-fashioned/off-grid concept. But [ ]Continue Reading 6 Lehman s Products Used By The Amish2 CommentsPosted on May 21, 2020 in Amish Homes Today a closer look at another of the seven Amish homes for sale in Fleming County, Kentucky. This little Amish starter is by far the smallest of the bunch, at just two bedrooms and 768 square feet. It actually looks more like a small shop from this angle which I shared in the original post. [ ]Continue Reading Inside A Very Small (768 ft2) Amish Home (17 Photos)12 CommentsPosted on May 20, 2020 in Amish Controversies Luckily, it was just the horse this time. This happened in Tuscola County, in Michigan s thumb . From mlive.com: CARO, MI — A driver distracted by his cellphone caused a motor vehicle-buggy collision, leaving a horse dead and a woman hospitalized, police said. About 11 a.m. on Friday, May 15, Tuscola County Sheriff’s deputies responded to [ ]Continue Reading Driver Hits Buggy While Sending Email On Phone, Kills Horse13 CommentsPosted on May 20, 2020 in Amish Culture Here s another Amish musical performance. This one stands out for two reasons instruments, and a big audience. The scene is the Mt. Hope Kidney Fund Auction in Mt. Hope, Ohio. You can see by the backs of heads that this crowd is filled with Amish people. On stage are three Amish girls. Recently we [ ]Continue Reading Amish Girl Musical Group Plays For Plain Crowd (Video)6 CommentsPosted on May 19, 2020 in Amish Life This is a photo I came across recently on Flickr. Two Amish men try out hats at Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana, Indiana. What do you notice here? First, briefly on the location. Yoder s is a department store that sells men s and women s clothing as well as fabrics and sewing supplies. The clientele is both Amish [ ]Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Trying On Hats At Yoder s12 CommentsPosted on May 18, 2020 in Amish Communities Two days ago, reader Mike Sparks visited the Amish settlement at Fredericktown/Bellville, in Knox County, Ohio. He shares his visit and photos with us today. You might remember Mike s previous trips to Ashland County and Holmes County. This is far from the only Amish community in Knox County. In fact the county has proven quite [ ]Continue Reading A Visit To The Amish Of Knox County, OH (28 Photos)7 CommentsPosted on May 15, 2020 in Amish Life Last week we saw Amish men building a barn, this week they are moving one. Over the past week or so a video showing Amish men moving a pole barn has gone viral. I noticed today even the big UK media started covering it. However, the original viral clip is not great. The phone is [ ]Continue Reading Amish Men Move A Barn Video (Best Version)15 CommentsPosted on May 15, 2020 in Amish History In another sign of things heading in the direction of normal , the Amish Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio (Holmes County) re-opened this week. The center says in a Facebook post that they have made a few upgrades in the past months. This is the place where you ll find the giant cyclorama painting of [ ]Continue Reading Amish Mennonite Heritage Center Re-Opens (Holmes County)3 CommentsPosted on May 14, 2020 in Amish Homes I came across something that got my attention while searching for Amish homes to share with you. Right now there are at least 7 Amish homes for sale in the community at Hillsboro, Kentucky (Fleming County). What s going on here? It looks like a lot of people are moving out of the area for some [ ]Continue Reading 7 Amish Homes For Sale In One Community (40 Photos)13 CommentsPosted on May 12, 2020 in Amish History We ve got five more histories of common Amish surnames today. If you missed previous editions, here s Part 1 (Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, Stoltzfus) and Part 2 (Zook, Gingerich, Troyer, King, Lehman). The following histories are from the Family Life series Amish and Mennonite Family Names by Joseph Stoll, which ran from December 1968 to March [ ]Continue Reading The Stories of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 3)7 CommentsPosted on May 12, 2020 in Amish Life Have you heard of cows attacking humans before? Bulls, sure, but run-of-the-mill dairy cows? Well, this happened yesterday in central PA: ELIMSPORT — A man, believed to be in his 70s, was recovering from injuries he suffered Monday afternoon when a dairy cow — weighing at least 1,000 pounds — suddenly attacked him and momentarily [ ]Continue Reading Cow Attacks Man At Amish Farm25 CommentsPosted on May 11, 2020 in Amish Business In another sign that business is on the way back in Amish and other areas, Amish Acres is reopening following re-branding as The Barns at Nappanee: They got a small taste of business by selling about 100 take home meals Saturday for Mother’s Day. And plan to open the restaurant at 50 percent capacity next [ ]Continue Reading Amish Acres Reopens Friday As The Barns At Nappanee8 CommentsPosted on May 8, 2020 in Amish Culture Cool video. Amish in Vernon County, Wisconsin put up a barn over the course of twelve hours condensed into a two-minute video. This time-lapse clip from 2016 shows the whole thing go up, interspersed with some still photos. Video at the bottom (credit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). This barn is 32 x 48 feet in [ ]Continue Reading An Amish Barn Raising: 12 Hours In 2 Minutes (Time-Lapse Video)3 CommentsPosted on May 7, 2020 in Amish Homes This is an interesting Amish home. The outside looks like the home of a family in a plain or plain-ish community but the inside suggests otherwise. The place is Bonaparte, Iowa (Van Buren County), a settlement of two church districts. The exterior design of the home is a very simple boxy architectural look, which [ ]Continue Reading Inside An Iowa Amish Home (19 Photos)13 CommentsPosted on May 6, 2020 in Amish Culture Last week we heard two Amish sisters singing Amazing Grace, accompanied by one sister s guitar playing. There were actually several more songs from that same after-dinner session that I wanted to share with you. It sounds like these lucky diners got a nice little concert. These songs are all a bit peppier than the slower [ ]Continue Reading 3 More Songs From The Singing Amish Sisters7 CommentsPosted on May 5, 2020 in Amish Culture With May upon us, new life is springing up everywhere we look perhaps nowhere more apparent than in our gardens. And in Amish communities, it s a rare home without a garden of some sort. But Amish homes are not all the same, and the typical garden you see in one community may be different [ ]Continue Reading 4 Kinds Of Amish Gardens11 CommentsPosted on May 1, 2020 in Amish Culture This is a neat video. Two Amish sisters from Charm, Ohio sing perhaps the best-known of all Christian hymns, Amazing Grace . This was filmed after a meal in an Amish home probably a home business which welcomes in English guests. Why is one of the girls playing guitar? You might have thought that Amish [ ]Continue Reading Amish Sisters Sing Amazing Grace With Guitar12 CommentsPosted on May 1, 2020 in Amish Business With much of the country s bricks-and-mortar economy shut down, e-commerce has been thriving. Ohio-based Lehman s specializing in off-the-grid and old-fashioned items is one business that has seen its sales spike. The Wooster Daily Record looks at Lehman s experience over the past couple months. Some products have been in especially high demand. So what [ ]Continue Reading Lehman s Sees Online Sales Surge6 CommentsPosted on April 30, 2020 in Amish Life A tragic story out of Kentucky yesterday: BATH COUNTY, Ky. (AP) — Authorities in Kentucky say four children died, and one is missing, after a horse and buggy carrying an Amish family was swept away while trying to cross a low-water bridge over a flooded creek. Kentucky State Police say all six people were swept [ ]Continue Reading 4 Children Dead, 1 Missing After Buggy Overturns In Creek11 CommentsPosted on April 29, 2020 in Amish Business Trade publication Furniture Today gives an optimistic look at how the Amish furniture industry is positioned to rebound once states reopen, and business can start getting back to something like normal. They spoke with several sources, including Roy Miller who is CEO of a large-for-the-Amish manufacturer which, like many others, has been shut down for [ ]Continue Reading Amish Furniture Makers Ready For RestartNo CommentsPosted on April 28, 2020 in Amish History Last week we looked at the histories of 5 common Amish family names Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, and Stoltzfus. Let s pick back up this week with five more. I used your suggestions from last week s post comments to put together this week s list. If there are other names you d like to see, let us [ ]Continue Reading The Stories of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 2)15 CommentsPosted on April 27, 2020 in Amish Homes Kettle will not stay, neither will the windmill. That was the stipulation attached to this unusual listing for an Amish home in the Seymour, Missouri community. This Amish home caught my eye for several reasons. For one, the community. Seymour is a plain settlement where many homes have a distinctive shingle-siding plain look to them [ ]Continue Reading Look Inside A (Very) Plain Amish Home (25 Photos)13 CommentsPosted on April 24, 2020 in Amish Life A nice article appeared last week in the Maysville Ledger Independent, on the May s Lick, Kentucky Amish settlement. In it we see a great example of a community helping out newcomers in a time of need. An Amish woman named SaraEtta Coblentz describes how several families from Indiana made the move to this corner of [ ]Continue Reading English Neighbors Show Love To Amish In Difficult Time8 CommentsPosted on April 23, 2020 in Amish Culture What kinds of natural remedies do Amish use? The book Plain Happy Living: Amish Recipes Remedies by Emma Jonas Em Byler covers many of them. It includes chapters like General Tonics , The Herbal Medicine Chest , and Poultices, Plasters and Salves . The more recent book Nature The Environment in Amish Life also contains [ ]Continue Reading 5 Natural Remedies Used By Amish23 CommentsPosted on April 23, 2020 in Amish Controversies Members of the Lancaster County Amish community contacted police after first meeting with church leaders about alleged cases of sexual abuse in their midst. From Lancaster Online: In what appears to be the first such case of its kind in Lancaster County, an Amish bishop has been charged with failing to report suspected [ ]Continue Reading Lancaster Bishop Charged With Failing To Report Suspected Abuse4 CommentsPosted on April 22, 2020 in Amish Life Some years back I wrote a post on why Amish don t discuss pregnancy: I never know when Amish friends have one on the way. I show up and there is another baby or one clearly about to happen. And even when it’s obvious, it never comes up, even as a mention. You’d think it [ ]Continue Reading Gloria Yoder On Her Pregnancy Baby14 CommentsPosted on April 21, 2020 in Amish History Over half a century ago, Amish writer Joseph Stoll penned a series of articles on Amish surnames, titled Amish and Mennonite Family Names. These were published in the then-fledgling Family Life monthly, in four parts spanning December 1968 to March 1969. I ve chosen origin stories for five common names to share with you today. Where [ ]Continue Reading The Stories Of 5 Common Amish Family Names34 CommentsPosted on April 20, 2020 in Amish Homes We have a look inside a less commonly-seen home today an Amish log home. It s not that often that you find Amish families living in log homes. I ve only come across them on occasion, though they might be more popular in certain settlements. This one is found in the Bonduel, Wisconsin community. The settlement [ ]Continue Reading Look Inside An Amish Log Home (22 Photos)10 CommentsPosted on April 17, 2020 in Amish Communities Back when I was tallying up the list of Amish communities I ve already visited, I got to thinking about the ones I haven t been to yet, but would like to visit. The list below is my current top 7. Maybe one of these is on your list? 1. Conewango Valley, New York This plainer-side Amish [ ]Continue Reading 7 Amish Communities I d Like To Visit12 CommentsPosted on April 16, 2020 in Amish Controversies Penn Live reports that a Chester County, PA woman has been accused of stealing 12 puppies from two Amish couples while they were away from home at church service. Charges, filed Monday, come well over a year after the thefts were reported: MIFFLINBURG – A Chester County woman is accused of stealing 12 pug puppies [ ]Continue Reading Puppies Stolen From Amish While Away At Church20 CommentsPosted on April 16, 2020 in Amish Controversies While preparing today s other post on stolen Amish puppies, I stumbled across an old article on a bizarre story I d never heard mention of before. On November 5, 1995, the New York Times reported the following: When the reports of a bank robbery in Wall Township came into the F.B.I. office in Newark on Oct. [ ]Continue Reading Serial Bandits Used Amish Disguises In Bank Robberies (1995)8 CommentsPosted on April 15, 2020 in Amish Culture I ve got another singing video for you today this one is titled Amish Grandchildren singing for their Grandpa s Funeral. I share it for two reasons. One it s another nice example of singing I hope you ll enjoy. Two a comment attached to the video caught my eye (more below

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