Amish Culture

This is a simple two-minute video, showing scenes from a barn-raising at Walnut Creek, Ohio. I like it because, besides some bumper text, there is no narration – just clips of activity accompanied by the sounds of hammering and machinery. You see children observing the scene, horses chomping on a snack, and women walking around, while […]

Continue Reading Scenes From An Amish Barn Raising (Video)

Anyone out there in Amish America-land catch the eclipse yesterday? I noticed a few news articles today referencing Amish and the event, such as this report or this one referencing a meeting “with some 1,200 other Amish and Mennonites on a large hill on an Amish farm.” More than a handful of Amish communities were in the […]

Continue Reading Did you catch the eclipse?

How do Amish support each other when disaster strikes? How do rules typically change in Amish churches? And how do Amish pay for health care? Amish couple Ivan and Ruth Chupp of Burr Oak, Michigan share succinct answers to these questions in today’s interviews. The three videos below are by Joseph Michaels, responsible for other interviews we’ve seen […]

Continue Reading An Amish Couple Answers Questions – On Health Care, Mutual Aid, and How Church Rules Change (Video)

How different are High German and the everyday language of the Amish*, Pennsylvania German (aka Pennsylvania Dutch)? In today’s video, a High German speaker converses with three Amish people – first Menno Petersheim of Shipshewana, IN, then Ivan and Ruth Chupp of Burr Oak, MI. You can see how well they are able to understand one […]

Continue Reading High German vs. Pennsylvania German In Conversation (Video)

Longtime readers might recall the story of Amos Hertzler, an Amish boy in Cattaraugus County, NY who was born with a serious esophageal condition in addition to having Down Syndrome. We first heard of this case in 2011 when Amos was just a one-year-old. Amos hasn’t appeared in the news much lately from what I’ve […]

Continue Reading Amos Hertzler Benefit Auction Draws Thousands

An Amish-owned horse decided to go for a little ride with no one behind the wheel, so to speak. The incident happened Sunday morning in the Holmes County, OH community. From the Wooster Daily Record: Ohio State Patrol Sgt. C.O. Smith was the one of a a small group of law enforcement officers from the […]

Continue Reading Amish Horse Leaves Owner Behind, Goes On 10-Mile “Joyride”

As a toddler, George Sorrells was once saved from burning by an Amish woman – who rescued him from a fireplace and then spent months nursing him back to health. Now 79 and a pediatrician, he helps Amish and Mennonite people in the area of Daviess County, Indiana – something he’s done since the 1960s. And by […]

Continue Reading A Neat Story About A Doctor Helping Amish In Southern Indiana

It’s hard to watch this video and not smile. A class of Amish schoolchildren sings “The Ninety-Nine” for the camera in what looks to be a Holmes County, Ohio Amish school. So enjoy this sweet rendition of a 120-year-old hymn…and can you tell from the video why I guessed this to be that community? The […]

Continue Reading Amish Schoolchildren Sing “The Ninety-Nine” (Video)

When reading of the Amish buggy accidents that seem to happen so frequently (a second Amish woman died Wednesday following last week’s accident in Ashland County, Ohio), my thoughts eventually but inevitably go to the vehicle driver. Hard to fathom what it must be like to have someone’s soul on your conscience, even in a situation where you’re […]

Continue Reading An Amish Forgiveness Story in Ontario

I share this video today not for its educational content but for its remarkable footage. If you’re like me and craving some green in the waning weeks of winter, you’ll probably like this Smithsonian Channel clip shot in Lancaster County. It’s basically a 2-minute cut-up of shots of Amish farmers and homes taken from above […]

Continue Reading Fly Over Amish Country in this 2-Minute Aerial Video