Amish History

I think you’ll enjoy this guest post today from Kate Hastings, about a special publication with a long and interesting history: I was excited when Erik asked me to be a guest blogger, although I feel unworthy of the honor. I teach journalism, film, and writing at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and I am not [...]

Continue Reading A Calender Tale

After yesterday’s look into the future, a glance at the past. These images of Lancaster County were adapted from 35mm slides, courtesy of Russ Glasson. Hex signs, as seen above, are commonly associated with Pennsylvania Dutch culture, though you won’t find them on Amish barns. These were apparently all taken in 1963.  How different Lancaster [...]

Continue Reading Lancaster County, 50 years ago

Last week, an excerpt from The Amish Way mentioned a gentleman named Abner, a deceased Amish historian whose trade was bookbinding. Abner was apparently quite a remarkable person who touched a lot of people in his community.  Brad Igou (The Amish in Their Own Words) knew Abner well and has shared some remembrances which he [...]

Continue Reading Abner the bookbinder

David Luthy shares the history of Nathan Smiley, born in Ireland to a British mother in 1797. At age four, Nathan arrived in America with his mother, and for reasons unexplained was placed in a foster home in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.  That home happened to belong to an Amish family. On coming of age, Nathan chose [...]

Continue Reading History of Amish names: A ‘Smiley’ Amishman by way of the British Isles

AAP has just informed me of progress on the Stoltzfus House project, which seeks to build a barn-museum at the restored home of Nicholas Stoltzfus. Stoltzfus was an 18th-century Amishman whose descendants number one million, and to whom roughly 98% of Lancaster Amish are related. I wrote a bit about Stoltzfus House after attending a [...]

Continue Reading Calling all Stoltzfuses…

Behalt is a pictorial history of the Anabaptists from the time of European beginnings through their existence in America.  Not only is it educational, it has been dubbed “the most exciting cyclorama in America”. Having only visited one cyclorama in America (the other–of the Battle of Raclawice in Poland being non-American and of a decidedly non-pacifist [...]

Continue Reading Behold Behalt!

Two interesting Amish-related links today. The first is not really a story about Amish, but touches on a place where a number of them work. Canton-based Belden Brick, through its Plant no. 6, has been a local institution in Sugarcreek, Ohio since 1957. Belden’s facilities dominate the town, and driving down the main thoroughfare, you [...]

Continue Reading Thursday Amish links

Notes from the recent Lancaster trip, part two: Normally I drive an old, wheezing-but-somehow-still running red truck.  It’s got, let’s see, around 275,000 miles?  But like an old faithful dog or a worn-but-still-comfy-recliner, we’ve been through a lot together, and it’s just hard to get rid of it.  Abe calls it ‘the squeaky truck’ in [...]

Continue Reading Lancaster Happenings, part two

Texas seems an odd spot to find Amish.  Besides the current community in Bee County, there have been at least four other attempts to settle the Lone Star State.  In his meticulously researched The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed, 1840-1960, David Luthy describes a short-lived settlement that came about in the state’s southernmost county. [...]

Continue Reading Settlements that Failed: Amish on the Border

‘Hershberger’ is an Amish family name particularly common in Midwestern communities.  It is also found in other spelling variations, such as ‘Herschberger’ and occasionally ‘Harshberger’.  The following is a short history of the name from Family Life: “This is a Swiss name and may have originally meant, “one who lives on Deer Mountain”.  The Hershberger [...]

Continue Reading History of Amish names: Hershberger