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
The latest issue of Family Life includes an article by David Luthy entitled Amish Settlements Across America: 2008. It’s a comprehensive listing of Amish settlements along with some commentary and analysis. Last time Luthy did one of these was in 2003. Interesting facts: Some settlements are very old, yet due to various factors, are very small today. Hicksville [...]
Continue reading Amish Settlement Facts
It’s the ‘long weekend’ in Poland (a combination of the traditional May 1st communist worker’s holiday and Poland’s May 3 constitution day), and I’ve just paid another visit to my friends Jacob and Anita Martin, whom I’ve written about a few times on the blog. The Martins, who’ve lived in Poland since 1993, struggled a [...]
Continue reading Photos from the Martins in Poland
The Amish Studies site based out of Elizabethtown College tells us that as of mid-2007, there were approximately 400 separate Amish settlements comprised of approximately 1,600 church districts in 27 states and Ontario. The Amish continue to grow at a rapid pace and can today be found in such unlikely places as Mississippi, Florida and [...]
Continue reading Amish settlements that failed
Today, a small New Order Amish settlement is found in western North Carolina, near the town of Union Grove. Before this settlement came about, (and not counting a short-lived community in the late 50′s), the only other full-fledged attempt to settle in the Tar Heel State occurred in 1918, lasting a full quarter-century before extinction [...]
Continue reading NC Amish history: Skeeter birds, flaming muck, and the Dismal Swamp
Throughout the 1800′s and 1900′s through today, adventurous Amish have pioneered new communities in places hitherto unknown to their people. One such group set its sights on California in 1913–the first and only attempt to settle in America’s ‘foremost farm state’. With its vast farmlands, you’d think the location would make a good match for [...]
Continue reading A California Amish community
A small haphazard settlement of Amish apparently once existed in New Orleans. David Luthy explains that in the 1800s, many migrant Amish came to America from Europe by way of the Mississippi River port. Sometimes it happened that an Amish family lacked the funds to continue upstream and onward to established settlements, often in Illinois. [...]
Continue reading Settlements that failed: Stuck in the Big Easy–with the original ‘urban Amish’?
The Amish settlement at Piketon, Ohio was an odd one to begin with. A few things made the Amish who settled here in 1949 different from most. One was their evangelistic emphasis. Amish traditionally do not try to convert others. Piketon, Ohio was begun by a minister sympathetic to the idea of spreading Amish beliefs. [...]
Continue reading Settlements that failed: The Amish get ‘nuked’
