One of our readers, Carl Oliver, recently attended an event on this month’s Amish auction list. Many Amish-attended auctions are benefit sales–raising funds for medical needs, schools, and other community-wide causes. Others include estate sales, auctions run as a private business, or, as in today’s example, moving sales. You see, moving when you’re an Amish farmer is not as simple as cramming the contents of the house into…
The Amish community at Kalona, Iowa is the ninth-oldest, having been founded in 1846 by Amish from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. By what we see in the first photo below, that would predate the founding of the town itself by over 30 years. This community permits a relatively high level of technology in the Amish world, including tractors used for field work. There is a…
Migration to previously-unsettled areas has been a story of significance for Amish in recent years.  Migration is not a new phenomenon, as Amish have long moved to new areas for reasons of economics, due to church issues, or for other causes. Places that have seen a recent influx of Amish include Missouri, Wisconsin, and New York–all states that have established Amish populations. Recent years have…
The Bloomfield Amish community is one of the largest in Iowa The Amish community lying north and west of Bloomfield, Iowa is one of the three largest in the state. Like the nearby settlement at Kalona, and the more conservative group found in Buchanan County in the northeast part of the state, Bloomfield is home to roughly 8 church districts, comprising about 175 households. Yet…
I like to check in at Ira Wagler’s blog from time to time. Always nice writing. Ira grew up Amish in Canada and Iowa, and thus can offer a viewpoint that non-Amish people, like yours truly, cannot. In a recent post, Ira shares his personal take on Rumspringa. He comes out against some popular perceptions of the ‘running around’ time and explains how it plays…
Millers, Yoders, Schrocks, Stoltzfuses. These names are a dime a dozen in Amish America. Meet enough Amish people, and once in a while you’ll come across an unusual name, one that may sound non-Germanic or even a Germanic-sounding name that is simply uncommon. The Amish have welcomed a fair share of converts to the faith over the years. Last names such as Jones, Jess, Chupp…
Who loves rankings? (everyone loves rankings)–today I offer my personal top-five favorite Amish settlements. I hope you’ll indulge my self-indulgence for this one day (I’ve been wanting to do this post for a long time!). I haven’t been everywhere, but of the 17-or-so communities I’ve visited, these are the ones I would most readily revisit (and do when I can), and why. 1.Daviess County, Indiana–I…
I’ll be away from the blog for a day or two, so if anyone reads this regularly (listen up, you three), I’ve put up a few links to some of my favorite posts. So if you like, you can: read how Amish forefathers chose to die, or about the controversy among the Amish surrounding assurance of salvation, or how some clever Iowa Amish got the…
The Amish arrange themselves into compact groupings known as church districts. Each district has its own name, usually a geographically-based one–Lamoni South, Randolph, and Crab Orchard are examples of places providing names for districts, these being found in Iowa, Mississippi, and Kentucky Amish communities. Since the Amish travel by horse-and-buggy to one another’s homes for Sunday service, most districts are grouped together in a logical,…
Diversity in the Amish world is a common theme of this blog. Ever wonder how different Amish groups use technology? Judging by the chart, it can be seen that the most conservative groups include the Swartzentruber Amish, Nebraska Amish, and the Buchanan County, Iowa Amish (the three of which Amish historian Steven Nolt groups together under the ultraconservative label, referring to the Buchanan group in…