Few Amish live in Nebraska
The Cornhusker State was first settled by Amish in 1880.
Settlement since then has been sporadic and sparse, with just a handful of Amish living in the state today (for the ultraconservative Pennsylvania group also known as “Nebraska Amish”, go here).
Amish business advertisement in Pawnee County, Nebraska
Amish in Nebraska
Amish are found in two locations in Nebraska: near the towns of Ewing and Orchard in Antelope County, and near Pawnee City in Pawnee County.
The Antelope County settlement was started in 2005 by Amish from Wisconsin, attracted to the area by its sparse population and cheaper farmland. ”The tar road not far from us had a steady stream of traffic all day long,” explained one of the first settlers, in an article on the community. ”We were looking for a place with less people.”
Amish in Antelope County farm and supplement their income in other ways, including by making quilts and raising animals (“Amish family finds peace and quiet in Nebraska”, Lisa Wuebben, Omaha World-Herald, August 8, 2010). The community was one church district in size as of 2011 (read more about Amish furniture in Nebraska).
A second community was founded near Pawnee City in Pawnee County in 2011. Like the Antelope County community, the Pawnee City community was started by Wisconsin Amish in search of cheaper land.
An Amish farm in Pawnee County, NE
Amish had previously lived in the area, before leaving in the early 1980s, due to restrictive laws over schooling (“Old Ways Return to Pawnee City; Amish Moving Back In”, Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald, April 19, 2008). The Pawnee City community is also a single congregation in size.
The Verdigre area (Knox County) was home to another Amish settlement founded by Amish from Michigan in 2003. The pioneer couple, Eddie and Mattie Petersheim, were profiled in a newspaper article shortly after arriving in Nebraska. The Petersheims sought land in a less-populated area, as their home community of Marlette, Michigan, had experienced crowding due to its proximity to the city of Detroit.
Pointing the way to a pair of Amish businesses in Nebraska
A number of newspaper articles written about the couple note their unusual occupation of running a restaurant over an hour’s drive from their home. Other Amish, including relatives, joined the Petersheims in Nebraska. The Verdigre community survived five years, and was reported extinct in 2008 (Amish Settlements Across America: 2008, David Luthy, p.4).
However, there have been indications of some Amish currently living in the area, either remnants of the original settlement or a new group that started a fresh settlement following the first community’s extinction.
Former Amish settlements in Nebraska
Amish first moved to Nebraska in 1880. A group led by Bishop Yost H. Yoder (arriving from Juniata County, PA) settled near the town of Bertrand in the south-central Nebraska county. This community never grew large, with historian David Luthy noting that it never totaled more than about a dozen families in its near-quarter-century existence.
The settlement battled drought and poverty. A number of the settlers built sod houses before later building frame ones. With Bishop Yoder’s death in 1901, the extinction of the community was hastened, and the last Gosper County settlers moved away in 1904 (The Amish in America: Settlements That Failed 1840-1960, David Luthy pp. 270-6).
Trailers sometimes make temporary housing for Amish, or homes for single people
As noted above, today’s Pawnee City settlement is not the first Amish community to exist in the area. The original Pawnee City Amish settlement was founded in 1977.
At the time, local officials required the Amish to employ a college-educated and certified teacher at their school. Rather than become involved in a court dispute, Amish from this settlement disbanded, with the families having all moved to other states by 1982 (“Appendix: Amish Migration Patterns”, The Amish Struggle with Modernity, David Luthy, p. 246).
Clearing up confusion-Pennsylvania’s “Nebraska Amish”
The term “Nebraska Amish” is in fact more commonly used to describe a group living well outside the Cornhusker State. The term came to be applied to an ultraconservative affiliation of Amish which formed in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania in 1881.
A fledgling conservative-minded group wrote to Yost H. Yoder, an Amish bishop living in the Gosper County, NE settlement. Yoder responded to their request for help, traveling to Pennsylvania to help organize the new church.
A characteristic white-topped buggy of the Pennsylvania "Nebraska Amish" group
Later, members of Yoder’s own Gosper County church joined the Pennsylvania group, which took the nickname “Nebraska Amish” due to their Nebraska ties (A History of the Amish, Steven M. Nolt, p. 243-6).
Nebraska Amish are today found in two communities in Pennsylvania–the largest, by far, being the settlement in Kischacoquillas Valley, more commonly known as Big Valley–as well as in one small settlement in Ohio.
Today, the Nebraska Amish are known as being among the most conservative of all Amish. Nebraska Amish use characteristic white-topped buggies and minimal technology. Read more here on the Nebraska Amish affiliation.
Amish outposts in the Cornhusker State
For many years, the term “Nebraska Amish” has more readily meant the conservative affiliation found mainly in Pennsylvania’s Big Valley.
Rare sight: an Amish buggy warning sign in Nebraska
However, as we have seen renewed Amish settlement in the Cornhusker State over the past decade, the term has taken on geographical meaning again.
The Amish population in Nebraska remains low. But with the tendency of Amish to migrate for various reasons–including overcrowding, economic betterment, and church issues–it’s quite possible more Amish will hear the call of the breadbasket state, with its vast tracts of relatively empty, inexpensive land.
For further information, see:
“Amish finding warm welcome in northeast Nebraska”, High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal, September 9, 2004
“Amish family finds peace and quiet in Nebraska”, Lisa Wuebben, Omaha World-Herald, August 8 2010
“Old Ways Return to Pawnee City; Amish Moving Back In”, Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald, April 19, 2008
A History of the Amish, Steven M. Nolt
The Amish in America: Settlements That Failed 1840-1960, David Luthy
Amish Settlements Across America: 2008, David Luthy
“Amish Population by State (2010)” Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College(http://www2.etown.edu/amishstudies/Population_by_State_2010.asp)
The New American Almanac 2011, Raber’s Bookstore (Baltic, Ohio), Ben J. Raber
Photo credit: all Nebraska Amish photos (except PA Nebraska buggy) by Lindsay O’Brien
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15 responses to Nebraska Amish
I grew up in Lincoln so this article was very interesting to me. I’ll have to keep an eye out as we travel back there next month for a family reunion!
Hey Beth – I didn’t have too much of a problem finding the Pawnee County bunch. It was well worth the trip down there…not a ton of businesses yet but there seems to be indication from the locals that the community down there continues to grow. Apparently every Wednesday in Pawnee City there is a farmer’s market where the Amish come in to sell veggies and other items.
I’m from Lincoln area myself…always nice running into Huskers on the net and in real life!
Nebraska Amish
Lindsay I appreciate your help on this article, and of course for the rare Amish-in-Nebraska photos! Thanks again.
Te nada…I enjoyed it and it gave me an excuse for a road trip!
If they stick around will we have to give this group a new moniker as Nebraska Amish is already taken? I liked Erik’s Cornhusker Amish suggestion…or perhaps Big Red Amish (we can hope they change their buggy color to scarlet red lol).
Coining them as “cornhusker amish” would to outsider eyes appear to be a slight against them. Not everyone in the US and abroad know that the cornhuskers are the local college team that Nebraskans go insane over.
No no no,
Nebraska is known as the Cornhusker State, and…we’re just having a little fun here. They’ll be okay.
I drove through Pawnee City for the first time yesterday on my way to Kansas City from Omaha. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the buggy signs – I had no idea there was an Amish community in Larry the Cable Guy’s hometown! Lol! We saw a few men in town but did not see an actual buggy. I can’t wait to drive back through and maybe see more signs of this community. My kids and i are fascinated!
Nebraska Amish
Amish In Pawnee City
Drove to Pawnee City looking for the Amish Community. I was able to find a large farm 4.5 miles east of the center of town off HWY 50. Turn left and they should be approximately 1 mile down the road.
The amish are great people, spent some time getting to know a couple (Barbie & Angus) in Lancaster, PA last year.
No Cornhusker Amish
In NE there are way too many things with the moniker “cornhusker”. When I first moved to NE I thought that they were advertising gum. Big Red is a chewing gum and when I mentioned it… Many of my new native Nebraskan friends were unaware.
Now, to the Amish. Coining them as “cornhusker amish” would to outsider eyes appear to be a slight against them. Not everyone in the US and abroad know that the cornhuskers are the local college team that Nebraskans go insane over.
Everywhere else cornhusker is a moniker of someone who husks corn. I say we continue calling them Nebraskan Amish and leave the craziness of the football team in the stadium. (They keep losing anyhow.)
Nebraska Amish
Yes yes yes
Dear No no no,
I’m from NC, aka the Tar Heel State. The Tar Heels, of course, are the mascot for one of our better-known universities. When you’re writing, using “Tar Heel” as a sub for “North Carolina” is nice for the sake of variety. Maybe I am not aware of local Nebraska uses and connotations, but I don’t see an issue with doing the same thing with other states’ nicknames.
Also, capitalization (Cornhusker v. cornhusker) should remove most cause for confusion in meaning between the state nickname and the occupation of husking corn
All said I think the Amish will survive our minor burst of creativity here 
Nebraska Amish
LOL, no no no don’t get so worked up! I think the main reason calling them “Cornhusker Amish” is to differentiate them from an Amish sect actually called “Nebraska Amish” that live in Pennsylvania.
It’s true though, lots of local business are “Big Red” this or “Cornhusker” that.
I’ve found in the UK, when I tell people I’m from Nebraska I usually get the reply “Like the Bruce Springsteen album!”
The football team finished 9-3 in regular season, that isn’t a losing record
Nebraska Amish
Brethren in Pawnee City area
Some of the earliest settlers in the Pawnee City and surrounding area were German Baptist Brethren, an anabaptist group with ties similar to the Amish.
Over the years, these people were scattered to other communities in states such as KS, CA, SD, and CO.
A good number of the early Brethren in that area came from MO, particularly Gentry County. Some of their descendants still live in that area but have been absorbed by mainline denominations.
Nebraska Amish
The Name Game
Do some Amish have a sense of humor about their name? (per the discussion above)
If you look at the photo listed above for the variety store one would have to assume one of two things. Either these Amish running the store are not educated enough to know the correct way to spell “country” or they are just having a little fun. (kuntry)
Anywho, I just returned from a vacation trying to meet some Amish in Kalona Iowa, Bloomfield Iowa, Clark Missouri and Jamesport Missouri. Wish I would have read about the Pawnee City group before I got back.
Really tough to get to know these people in so short of time. I did find more smiling friendly people than what I assumed I would. I was expecting stern somber people.
Nebraska Amish
Northern NE Amish
It appears most of the Amish who moved into the Verdigree , NE area have given up and moved to greener pastures. Wonder how often Amish communities are started that fail? One family at Tripp, SD has also sold out and moved away, selling the farm to an “Englisher” who has installed electric lights.
They're still here
The Amish still live in Verdigre. They haven’t left from here.
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