The Amish in Texas

For nearly 25 years, the Lone Star State has been home to a sole Amish community, found in Bee County. Read more on the state’s Amish population & history at our Texas Amish state guide, or see articles on the Bee County settlement below.

Life in the Bee County, Texas Amish Community

I hadn’t seen today’s video until a few days ago, when Bob Rosier passed along a link.  Author and Amish Cook editor Kevin Williams visited the Beeville (Bee County), Texas Amish community 2 or 3 years ago, and filmed this 8-minute piece giving a window into the settlement and their culinary traditions. Kevin’s video (now unavailable) takes you inside the community, which at the time…

The Beeville,Texas Amish Community (23 Photos)

The Beeville,Texas Amish Community (23 Photos)

Today we have some photos courtesy of Bob Rosier, taken in the sole Amish community in Texas (in Bee County, about 90 miles southeast of San Antonio). We’ve featured posts on this community before (see Bee County, Texas Amish), as well as on now-defunct Texas Amish settlements (see Amish in Texas), if you’d like to catch up on the story of the Amish in the Lone…

The Amish of Bee County, Texas

Texas is home to one small Amish community, near Beeville, county seat of Bee County. Reader Debbie shares photos and comments today following a visit to the community. Stacked up against the verdant lands of Lancaster or midwestern Amish communities this is hardscrabble territory, which the photos here reveal. About businesses, Debbie comments that “There is a main store at the beginning of the settlement….

Leaving the Amish: A Texas ex-Amish story

Lately we’ve seen many articles, books, and even TV programs about Amish leaving their communities. Below, a video interview of brothers John and Joe Yoder, who recently left their Texas Amish community.  The Yoders’ former home is the only Amish presence in Texas, in the southern part of the Lone Star State. Why so much interest in former Amish? On the one hand, there is…

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Friday brain dump: Lone Star Amish, getting hitched, and an Illinois buggy “brew-thru”

It’s become something of a habit to share a few thoughts, comments, and links every couple weeks in what I call a “brain dump”.  It’s not as scary as it sounds: Reader Steve recently asked “Where are the Texas Amish?”  We don’t have a Texas Amish State Guide entry yet, but I can point you to this blog post entitled Southern Amish, which has a…

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Settlements that Failed: Amish on the Border

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. Amish fields today brim with corn, alfalfa and hay.  One…

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Reporter duped by ‘ignorant’ Amishman?

Not to hammer the political topic, but a Polish friend just sent a link related to yesterday’s post.  This time a reporter from one of Poland’s largest dailies, traveling through the US hot on the Obama/McCain trail, has dug up an Amishman who apparently had no idea that the elections were going on right now. ‘But I never heard of Obama’ is the name of the article (translated…