What is an “Amish taxi”? Do Amish ever own or drive cars? How do the most conservative Amish travel? Why do Amish use the horse-and-buggy? What about Uber? Although we associate them with simpler modes of travel, many Amish depend heavily on car transport. I made a video recently looking at the role that motor […]

Continue Reading 6 Surprising Facts on the Amish & Cars

Just a small addendum to the post on the tragic loss of a three-year-old in upstate New York. In that one I made the frequently-made point that different Amish do things differently, and also that some ways of being Amish are more dangerous on the whole than others. Following that post, Jim Halverson has sent […]

Continue Reading Amish Buggy Safety Seats

Tragedy hit on Sunday in an upstate New York community. A young Amish boy lost his life after falling from a buggy. There are not a lot of details, but this is most of the report at news10.com: New York State Police confirmed that on September 12, troopers responded to a report of an accident […]

Continue Reading Amish Three-Year-Old Dies After Buggy Fall

Reader Rebecca recently took a visit to the only Texas Amish community, at Beeville in Bee County. She stopped in at the community’s best-known Amish business – Borntrager’s Combination Shop – but writes that she “didn’t get to chat with Mr. Borntrager as he was busy shoeing a horse.” Mr. Borntrager is the owner of the […]

Continue Reading Stopping in at the Bee County, Texas Amish Community

Photographer Don Burke has been taking pictures of the Amish for many years, and we have featured his photos here on the site on many occasions since 2014. Don has kindly answered some questions about his photos, interest in the Amish, what the Amish think, and more. This is part one of a two-part interview.  […]

Continue Reading Picturing The Amish – Q&A with Photographer Don Burke (Part 1)

I like drawing attention to these Amish business maps, and it seems more and more communities are creating them. Other recent examples we’ve seen include maps for communities in Buchanan County, Iowa, Livingston County, New York, and Crittenden County, Kentucky. It makes sense as a good way to attract visitors and of course supports the […]

Continue Reading A New Map Highlights 17 Businesses in Kentucky’s Largest Amish Community

A reader shared this week’s Amish home, currently advertised for sale at Zillow among other places. It technically has an Etna Green address, which would make it the south side of the Nappanee, Indiana settlement. The home has been mostly cleaned out, giving it a very sparse and bare appearance, but furniture has stayed behind […]

Continue Reading Inside A Nappanee Amish Home (26 Photos)

So I made my post on 5 common features in Amish homes (which you may have read already) into a video. This has the advantage over the post of having a lot more images illustrating the points. So if you’ve read the post already, you might still enjoy this video. In this one, I focused […]

Continue Reading 5 Common Things in Amish Homes (Video)

Homeschooling is uncommon among the Amish. Why? Karen Johnson-Weiner suggests in her book Train Up A Child that it conflicts with the concept of community, so important to the Amish. But, some do homeschool. I know at least one Amish family who has. They happen to be members of a New Order Amish church. Amish […]

Continue Reading A Day In The Life of a Homeschooling Amish Mom

What is an “Ohio Nebraska” Amish home? It’s a home of a Nebraska Amish family located in Ohio. And who are the Nebraska Amish? This is a small group of traditionally quite conservative Amish, who originated in Pennsylvania. Am I making this sound more confusing than it actually is? Well, their name comes from the […]

Continue Reading An “Ohio Nebraska” Amish Home For Sale (15 Photos)

It’s probably not a huge revelation that Amish people, like non-Amish, enjoy fast food and eating at restaurants. I take a look at the topic in this new video. Below are a couple of the images I share in the video. First, this sign showing buggy parking at a McDonald’s in Sugarcreek: I took that […]

Continue Reading Do the Amish eat fast food?

So in addition to the 2021 statewide Amish population numbers which came out two weeks ago, we now have the updated list of individual Amish settlements for 2021. There are around 600 of them. You’ll find it at the Elizabethtown College Young Center Amish Studies website here. This guide provides the following information for each […]

Continue Reading 2021 Amish Settlement List (600+ Communities)

Yesterday in LaGrange County, Indiana, a large group of Amish came together to help a neighbor in need. From WNDU 16 News: A group of about 100 Amish were out helping a friend move a huge pole barn. 16 News Now is told the person who owned the barn recently died, and the man who […]

Continue Reading 100 Amish Help Injured Neighbor To Move Barn – By Hand

A danger of depending on appliances and lighting powered by fuels such as propane and natural gas, as many Amish do, is the risk or fire and explosions. An Amish boy has lost his life due to what appears to be propane igniting and causing an explosion and fire in a home in Kentucky. Here’s […]

Continue Reading Amish Boy Loses Life In Likely Propane Explosion Fire

In this new video I look at a simple question: can Amish people marry non-Amish people? I also discuss a couple of related situations, which fall under the same or similar umbrella. Those two situations are cases when someone joins the Amish, and cases when someone in a married couple leaves the Amish. I hope […]

Continue Reading Can Amish Marry English? (Video)

With the announcement in July of a guilty plea in the Linda Stoltzfoos murder case, it was expected that Justo Smoker would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Smoker admitted to kidnapping, killing, and burying the 18-year-old Amish girl. He received a sentence of 35.5 to 71 years for charges of third-degree murder, […]

Continue Reading Justo Smoker Gets Additional 17+ Years; First Parole Hearing Will Be At Age 87

There was a nice article recently in the Epoch Times, a feature on the monthly publication Plain Values, which has become popular with both Amish and non-Amish alike. The publisher of the magazine is Marlin Miller, who grew up Amish. There are three main “pillars” the magazine focuses on – children with special needs, adoption, […]

Continue Reading About Plain Values – The Magazine

I don’t know if it was just coincidence, but two stories on the Amish and e-bikes came out last week on the same day – one on Amish in Ohio, and the other on Iowa (that can’t be coincidence, I’m thinking). If you’re not familiar, e-bikes are bicycles fitted with an electric motor which provide […]

Continue Reading The Amish & E-bikes

Last week we saw the release of the 2021 Amish population figures at the Young Center website, showing an estimated Amish population of 361,635 Amish in 608 settlements. Joe Donnermeyer has dug deep into the settlement data – particularly a separate set of data which he discusses below – and today presents us with a […]

Continue Reading The 14 “Two-State” Amish Settlements

In this video I talk about Amish friendships and the idea of “separation from the world”. What’s the Biblical basis of this idea and what does it translate into in practice? Do Amish people have non-Amish friendships? Can you attend Amish church service as a non-Amish person? I also share a couple of photos from […]

Continue Reading Amish Friendships & Separation From The World (Video)

A non-Amish farmer in Morrow County, Ohio lost his barn in a fire in July. Soon after, a local Amish friend offered help (via Morrow County Sentinel): One of the first to come after the fire was their Amish friend, David Raber. The Robinsons have sold hay to the Amish and transported them many times for […]

Continue Reading Amish Raise Barn For English Neighbors After Fire

The new Amish population estimates are out for 2021 via the Young Center at Elizabethtown College. We’ll have some posts related to this coming up, including from Joe Donnermeyer of Ohio State University. In the meantime you can find the tables and map here. Some quick facts from the latest figures: The estimated total Amish […]

Continue Reading The Amish Population in 2021

Amish in Rosebud County, Montana have been ordered to evacuate the area in the face of the Richard Spring fire. The fire in the southeast of the state is about 150,000 acres in size. From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle: The Richard Spring fire was discovered on Sunday, according to Inciweb, a wildfire information service. As of […]

Continue Reading Amish Community Ordered To Evacuate In Face Of Montana Wildfire

From the “Off-the-Amish-Beaten-Path Files” (not really a thing, but maybe it should be a thing): Reader Denise sends in a nice little account of an Amish store in a corner of Iowa. The community is Chariton, in Lucas County. I know little about it beyond what Denise shares, and what clues I can gather here […]

Continue Reading Off The Beaten Path: A Friendly Amish Store in Iowa

I did a video looking at ten unusual Amish communities. Across 600 different communities and dozens of affiliations, you can notice quite a number of differences in the ways Amish people live and manifest their faith. So what makes these communities unusual or atypical? It could be something about how they worship, or get around, […]

Continue Reading 10 Unusual Amish Communities (Video)

A Lancaster County Amish farmer faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and potential jail time for repeated violations of food safety laws. Miller’s Organic Farm, owned by an Amos Miller in Bird-in-Hand, has been described as “tangling with federal authorities for several years over its food handling practices” in this report by Fox43: […]

Continue Reading Lancaster Amish Organic Farmer Must Pay $250,000, Faces Possible Jail Time For Food Violations

Lovina Eicher shares some happy news in her latest Lovina’s Amish Kitchen column: After church services the bishop announced the wedding dates of two girls in our church. Mary and Danny chose September 24 for their wedding date, and daughter Loretta and Dustin chose October 1st for their wedding. Congratulations to both couples! “Announcing” a […]

Continue Reading The Amish Wedding Announcement

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of an unusual (at least at the time) Amish settlement in Indiana. In December of 1991, two Amish families departed Lancaster County for their new home 700 miles away in the Hoosier State. New settlements were less common then than they are today, and Lancaster Amish […]

Continue Reading The Amish of Parke County, Indiana (24 Photos)

I did a video looking at the question of Amish family sizes. How do they compare across communities? They can vary by a good bit – differing by several children on average (I give some examples from Indiana settlements). What can influence that? I also look at the question of what Amish think about birth […]

Continue Reading Amish Family Size: How large is the Amish family? What do Amish think about birth control? (Video)

Justo Smoker today pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, kidnapping and other charges, admitting to killing Linda Stoltzfoos in June of last year. He will serve a sentence of 35½-to-71 years in prison as part of a plea deal. Smoker is 35 years old. He will avoid the death penalty. He also faces further charges over […]

Continue Reading Justo Smoker Pleads Guilty To Killing Linda Stoltzfoos; Will Serve Up To 88 Years. Plea deal made “to bring Linda home”

It’s being reported that Justo Smoker is expected to plead guilty tomorrow (Friday) in the Lancaster County Courthouse. Smoker has been charged with homicide, kidnapping and false imprisonment regarding the disappearance and death of Linda Stoltzfoos. However, one – wrinkle? – in this report is the fact that it’s not being made known to which […]

Continue Reading Guilty Plea Expected Friday In Linda Stoltzfoos Case

We’ve got a selection of photos from a Swartzentruber Amish settlement in Missouri today. This is Shannon County; this is in the vicinity of Summersville and Hartshorn. The photo collection is by Don Burke, who has passed through this community several times over the years. The community was started in 2006 according to the State […]

Continue Reading A Virtual Visit To A Small & Plain Amish Community (35 Photos)

Amish in Farmersville, New York have threatened to move if a wind farm is built in their area. They are involved in a conflict between Alle-Catt Wind Energy (owned by energy giant Invenergy) and local residents organized as the Coalition of Concerned Citizens fighting the proposed 117-turbine farm. So it’s not just a case involving […]

Continue Reading Recent Supreme Court Decision Could Help Stop Wind Farm Threatening Amish Community

This is a feel-good story from an off-the-beaten-path Amish corner of Ohio. Amish had remodeled a barn into a two-story home in a small settlement in Harrison County, Ohio (this is about a 40-minute drive southeast of the Holmes County community). The newly-remodeled home burned down July 2. True to form, a week later, Amish […]

Continue Reading Amishman “Feels Loved” Following Fire & Support From English, Emergency Crews

I’m highlighting this report to make the point that motor vehicle drivers are not always at fault in car-buggy accidents. In this accident, the buggy driver failed to yield. A reminder that Amish are humans and also do not drive perfectly. Fortunately, the eight-year-old passenger who was thrown from the buggy has only non-life-threatening injuries. […]

Continue Reading Amish Driver Fails To Yield, Causing Collision With Truck; 8-Year-Old Thrown From Buggy

Last month we got a report and photos of the West Kootenai Amish auction (Rexford, MT). This latest report is from another Montana settlement well-known for its auction – the one at St. Ignatius. This single-church-district settlement is the Treasure State’s second oldest, having come into existence back in 1997. We’ve seen stories on this […]

Continue Reading St. Ignatius, Montana Amish Hold Auction After One-Year Break

Linda Byler is rare in the world of Amish fiction writing. She is an actual member of an Old Order Amish church in an industry dominated by non-Amish writers. That’s one reason I found this recent profile of Linda so interesting. It begins charmingly with Linda not being totally sure how many books she’s actually […]

Continue Reading Old Order Amish Author Linda Byler On Writing 39 Novels

Fourteen Amish families settled in a corner of Kansas (Hartford in Lyon County) in the summer of 2020. That community just held a benefit to raise funds for a new school (article in the Emporia Gazette). Amishman Eddie Yoder explained that the event had two purposes: “to raise money for a much-needed school building and […]

Continue Reading Kansas Amish Hold Benefit For New School – And To Meet The English

Fireworks. A swamp. “Dead Man’s Hollow”. An Amish horse stuck up to its neck. It sounds like the elements of a TV drama or Halloween story. But these all came into play in the village of Union City in Michigan this past weekend. So I didn’t expect to post another Amish fireworks accident story so […]

Continue Reading Fire Crews Rescue Amish Horse – Startled By Fireworks – From Swamp

Here’s my video look at a question that often comes up: Why do some Amish use bicycles, while others only ride scooters? In some communities you’ll mainly, or only, see the classic kick scooter. Lancaster County is the first that comes to mind. But this is also the case in places like Geauga County, Ohio, […]

Continue Reading Bikes or Scooters? [Video]

In this guest post by Joe Donnermeyer, he shares an interesting discovery he recently made in Manhattan. Have you ever come across something like this? In celebration of completing our regimen of Covid-19 shots and wanting to travel once again, my wife (Diane) and I decided to spend a week in a place where we […]

Continue Reading The Mid-town Manhattan “Amish Market”

This is being reported by Ashland County Pictures, a news-oriented Facebook page focusing on Ashland County, Ohio: On 7-04-2021 around 10:07pm the Ashland Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol, Ashland County Sheriff’s Office along with the Polk Fire Department & EMS responded to a two Amish Buggy Crash on County Road 175 just North of […]

Continue Reading Fireworks Cause 2-Buggy Collision

This AP story recounts the efforts that went into finding Linda Stoltzfoos, and reveals a detail that I wasn’t aware of, on how she was eventually found. First, it captures well just how much the community came out for this girl: Tim Hoerner, president of the Hand-in-Hand Fire Company in Bird-in-Hand, which was also involved […]

Continue Reading Behind The Search For Linda Stoltzfoos

Lizzy Hershberger lives in the same community as the Fillmore County, Minnesota Amish group who won an appeal case at the Supreme Court last week. She is concerned over wastewater leaking into the ground in her area. Hershberger said that she was “devastated that this is the outcome.” This caught my attention as I believe […]

Continue Reading Amish-Raised Neighbor Reacts To Supreme Court Decision: “Devastated”

Two years ago, three Amish children lost their lives on a road in southern Michigan, having been rear-ended by a drunk driver while traveling by buggy. The driver has now been sentenced. From WMMT: COLDWATER, MI (WNWN/WTVB) – A Fremont, Indiana man was ordered to serve between 42 months and 15 years in the Michigan […]

Continue Reading Drunk Driver Who Killed 4 Amish Children Will Serve 3.5 to 15 Years

The Amish plaintiffs appealed this case to the Supreme Court back in March (if you’re new to this story, here’s a summary of the issue, and some further explanation shared with us by expert witness Karen Johnson-Weiner). At the time, it was unclear whether it would even be heard. And it seemed unlikely, as the […]

Continue Reading Supreme Court Sides With Amish In Gray Water Case

Gloria Yoder writes an introspective Amish Cook column this week, on why she is Amish. As she often does, Gloria first notes that there are many different types of Amish people and that she can only speak for her community (Gloria belongs to a New Order Amish church). She then explains: Of the thousands of […]

Continue Reading Gloria Yoder: Why Am I Amish?

I did a video giving my list of five friendliest Amish communities. I also discuss one well-known and large community that did not make the list. And, at the end I share two communities that I consider not-so-friendly, and why. If you’d like to see the written version of this video, you can find that […]

Continue Reading 5 Friendliest Amish Communities (& 2 Not-so-friendly) [Video]

Have you ever heard anyone make a claim like “the Amish are against technology”, or that they “shun” modern conveniences? There is even the idea that Amish think technology is “evil”. I recall the video for the silly Weird Al Yankovic song, with Amish feet stomping on a pile of gadgets in one scene. These […]

Continue Reading Do Amish think technology is “evil”? (Video)

“Amish Atheist” certainly feels like an oxymoron. That’s what I thought when first hearing about the turn in Kenneth Copp’s life in a story four years ago. Copp originally appeared on this site even earlier than that, when he was still with the Amish and living in the Unity, Maine community. In 2013 one of […]

Continue Reading A Short Film on Former Amish Convert – Now “Amish Atheist” – Kenneth Copp

I’ve got some photos of the community at Daviess County, Indiana to share with you today. These were taken by a friend of mine and emailed to me several years ago. For whatever reason, at the time I didn’t get around to posting them. I wanted to share them because we have surprisingly relatively little […]

Continue Reading The Amish of Daviess County, Indiana (17 Photos)

Last year, a PA State Deputy saved a 3-year-old Amish girl in a runaway buggy. Here’s another feel-good story – also involving law enforcement, Amish, and a speeding vehicle. Deputy Travis Goodwin of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office made a traffic stop to remember Friday. From Fox8 Cleveland: “There is no such thing as a […]

Continue Reading Ohio Sheriff Pulls Over Speeder…Minutes Later, Helps Deliver Amish Baby

The post yesterday on one Amishman’s daily schedule mentioned meals – and that got me thinking a bit about the different places Amish eat their meals. So traditionally Amish life revolves around the home. We picture Amish having regular meal times as a fixed facet of daily life, and safe to say that’s still where […]

Continue Reading 6 Places Where Amish Eat Meals

There are around 600 Amish settlements across North America, with new settlements being started at a rate of about one every 10 days. You may have even seen Amish start a new community near you recently – or you might sometime soon. At the same time, many Amish settlements have failed over the years. There […]

Continue Reading The 25 Amish Communities At Least 100 Years Old

Adams County, Indiana wants to build a municipal sewer system in a certain area of the county. And it wants Amish living in that area to “get with the program” and connect to the electrically-powered system. The Amish side attempted to reach a compromise first but were denied. Here’s the gist of the problem from […]

Continue Reading Adams County: Amish Must Connect To Sewer System. Amish Respond With Lawsuit

Milo Miller is the Publisher of two publications widely-read in Amish circles – The Budget & The Diary. I had the pleasure of meeting Milo at his office for the first time on a visit to Sugarcreek, Ohio in 2019 (below photo). I asked Milo if he’d answer a few questions for us about The […]

Continue Reading Q&A with Milo Miller, Publisher of The Budget & The Diary (Book Giveaway)

We recently looked again at Amish women’s occupations in the post 5 Jobs Done By Amish Women. In that post, commenter “Along 340” shared a personal list of 12 further examples of Amish women’s occupations which I felt deserved a post of its own. Photo: Kelsey Hochstetler/Keim Lumber By the way, some of you may […]

Continue Reading 12 More Jobs Done By Amish Women

Grounded Upon God’s Word: The Life and Labors of Jakob Ammann is a new book by co-authors Andrew V. Ste. Marie and Mike Atnip. Ammann was the early leader of the Amish, for whom the group is named. For many years, little was known about Ammann, though in recent decades fresh research has revealed more […]

Continue Reading Who Was Jakob Ammann? Q-and-A & Book Giveaway

Up to 90% of Lancaster County Plain families have had at least one family member infected with COVID-19, according to a local health center administrator. From Lancaster Online: Late last spring a COVID-19 wave tore through the Plain community when they resumed church services, infecting an untold number of Amish and Mennonites in Lancaster County. […]

Continue Reading Have The Amish Reached Herd Immunity?

Will it be possible to attend a Lancaster County mud sale in 2021? Every year in early January I post a listing of the coming year’s mud sales. I have not done so yet this year due to the uncertainty (in 2020, many were cancelled due to COVID). Looking at the current schedule, things do […]

Continue Reading Lancaster County Mud Sales 2021 (The Sales Still Happening & Cancellations)

Molly asks a good question on the recent Lancaster farm stay post: Eric, would you tell us the differences between Lancaster county & Holmes county? We have visited Holmes county, but would like to know the differences. As the two largest and most-visited Amish communities, people often wonder which one of Holmes County and Lancaster […]

Continue Reading Which Community Should You Visit? 7 Differences Between Lancaster County & Holmes County

There is an interesting discussion on the Ag Talk forum about Amish pies. The original post is basically a complaint that pies made by the Amish in the poster’s area of central New York are not very good. An excerpt: I’ve tried 3 different Amish sources 2 on farms and one at a Amish store. Yesterday […]

Continue Reading Beware of Amish-Made Pies?

A comment by Al in KY got me thinking about how many Amish settlements I’ve actually visited. I had tallied this up before, but it was years ago. So I thought it a good idea to put together a fresh list. I believe the very first settlement I went to was Lancaster County, but that […]

Continue Reading My Amish Settlement List (58 Communities)

On the heels of the “20 Unique Ways Amish Raise Their Kids” article, another click-magnet piece popped up on my news feed this morning. This one is called “15 Insane Rules All Amish Kids Must Follow.” I take “Insane” in this context to mean crazy, odd, or absurd (that is, according to the article writer/editor). […]

Continue Reading 15 “Insane” Rules All Amish Children Must Follow..?

Amish are well-known for living by guidelines and rules governing technology, dress, and other aspects of daily life. But Amish churches are not all the same. Some are more traditional, and others more progressive. Some do things one way, and others do things another way. So how do Amish know the dos and don’ts specific […]

Continue Reading 6 Examples of Amish Ordnung Rules

Donald Kraybill is the author of over a dozen books on the Amish, and currently serves as Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. I asked Don if he’d answer some questions for us today on the Amish and his newest book, called Simply Amish: An Essential […]

Continue Reading Donald Kraybill on Simply Amish (Q-and-A & Giveaway)