Driver Who Fled Amish Buggy Crash That Injured Pregnant Woman Pleads Guilty; Arrested Again For Drunk Driving

Driver Who Fled Amish Buggy Crash That Injured Pregnant Woman Pleads Guilty; Arrested Again For Drunk Driving

ByErik Wesner

Another ending of sorts, this one on a story out of Williams County, Ohio ​we’ve been following since November. The driver who injured Martha Wagler, a 27-year-old Amish woman, and her two children in a hit-and-run crash last fall has taken a plea deal. As we covered back in November and again in December, Wagler’s buggy was struck from behind on November 12 in her community. The driver…

A Little Amish-Founded Clinic Has Identified More Rare Genetic Disorders Than Any Other. These 2 August Auctions Support It

A Little Amish-Founded Clinic Has Identified More Rare Genetic Disorders Than Any Other. These 2 August Auctions Support It

ByErik Wesner
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Auctions To Support The DDC Clinic Are Happening in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania (August 7) and Middlefield, Ohio (August 28) Two benefit auctions this August support the DDC Clinic in Middlefield, Ohio – an Amish-founded nonprofit that has identified more rare genetic disorders than any clinic in the world. In the late 1990s, a group of Amish mothers in Geauga County, Ohio – whose special-needs children met…

Kentucky Is America’s #8 Amish State — Here Are Its 10 Biggest Communities

Kentucky Is America’s #8 Amish State — Here Are Its 10 Biggest Communities

ByErik Wesner

Kentucky is home to America’s eighth-largest Amish population. Over 16,000 Amish live in more than 50 settlements across the state. These ten communities are the largest in Kentucky, based on the most current Amish population estimates. Population numbers via Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College (source link at bottom). 1. Munfordville Munfordville (Hart County) Community founded: 1989 Total Amish population: 2,525…

The Amish “Black Box” Phone: The Device They Built to Keep Big Tech Out

The Amish “Black Box” Phone: The Device They Built to Keep Big Tech Out

ByErik Wesner
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Looking at its name alone, the Amish Black Box Phone has an air of secrecy or mystery to it. Is it some sort of clandestine Amish spy-ops device? A tool meant for conveying bad news? Of course, many of us will connect “black box” with the recording devices used to record communication in plane crashes, another morbid association. But it’s none of those things. Rather,…

6 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Ohio’s Largest Amish Community

6 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Ohio’s Largest Amish Community

ByJoe Donnermeyer

A Population Profile of the Greater Holmes County settlement of Northeast Ohio Out of 700-plus Amish settlements, there are four that can be considered super-sized. In previous editions of The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC), profiles for three already were published. The first of these was by Lawrence Greksa about the Greater Geauga, Ohio settlement, published in volume 1, issue 2. This was followed…

New From Ben & Rose: “How Great Thou Art”

New From Ben & Rose: “How Great Thou Art”

ByErik Wesner
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Ben & Rose are back, this time covering a hymn beloved by many. “How Great Thou Art” went up on YouTube yesterday, their first new song since “Stroll Over Heaven” at the end of June. The hymn has an interesting history. It started life as a Swedish poem, “O Store Gud,” written by Carl Boberg in 1885, reportedly after he was caught out in a…

Amish Man Pleads Guilty To Murder Of Amish Woman Rosanna Kinsinger, Sentenced To Life in Prison

Amish Man Pleads Guilty To Murder Of Amish Woman Rosanna Kinsinger, Sentenced To Life in Prison

ByErik Wesner
5 Comments

A very sad and awful story is now coming to an end of sorts, as Samuel Hochstetler has pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in the death of 28-year-old Amish woman Rosanna Kinsinger. Kinsinger was found dead in her Meigs County, Ohio home back in March 2025. Hochstetler, 18 at the time, was arrested and charged nearly two months later in the crimes. After a series…

Missouri Has Gained 21 New Amish Settlements Since 2015 — More Than Any Other State

Missouri Has Gained 21 New Amish Settlements Since 2015 — More Than Any Other State

ByErik Wesner

We pretty regularly feature posts on the Amish in Missouri on this site. So it’s probably no surprise to many readers that it is the #7 state when it comes to total Amish population. In a new piece on Amish in the state, the Columbia Missourian draws attention to another noteworthy Missouri Amish statistic. Namely, that the Show Me State has added more communities than…

This Idyllic Ohio Amish Homestead Has 3 Barns, an Icehouse, and Its Own Creek (35 Photos)

This Idyllic Ohio Amish Homestead Has 3 Barns, an Icehouse, and Its Own Creek (35 Photos)

ByErik Wesner

This Amish home listing in Frazeysburg, Ohio contains the description “some of the most beautiful farm ground you can imagine.” Hard to argue after seeing these lovely photos. The property is 25 acres with the Wakatomika Creek running right along its western edge (visible in the photo below). The presence of an icehouse building (we’ll see that farther down) suggests this is an Amish group…

This Amish Buggy For Disabled Riders Has A Solar-Powered Lift

This Amish Buggy For Disabled Riders Has A Solar-Powered Lift

ByErik Wesner
2 Comments

Sixteen months after starting the process, Amish Kitchen columnist Lovina Eicher’s youngest son Kevin finally has his handicap-accessible buggy. This week, Lovina shares a closer look with readers of her column. Kevin, age 20, has muscular dystrophy. He gets around on a mobility scooter (see photo further down). But at about 6’4″ and 230 pounds, getting him in and out of a standard buggy has…

“We Are Not Targeting The Amish” — Township Delays Vote Banning Steel Wheel Buggies After Packed Meeting

“We Are Not Targeting The Amish” — Township Delays Vote Banning Steel Wheel Buggies After Packed Meeting

ByErik Wesner
5 Comments

A proposed ordinance that would ban steel-wheel buggies in a Pennsylvania township is on hold after dozens of residents packed a supervisors’ meeting Tuesday night to speak against it. Despite the planned vote, Bedford Township supervisors (Bedford County) did not take one in the end. They now say they plan to meet with the local Amish community – which they apparently never did (more on…

The Amish Rarely Settle In This Southern State — Now It’s Getting A Second Community

The Amish Rarely Settle In This Southern State — Now It’s Getting A Second Community

ByErik Wesner

It appears the Amish are putting down roots in a state that they have rarely settled in the past — Mississippi. In fact, for the past three decades, the Magnolia State has had just one small Amish community. But a second is now arising in Prentiss County in northeast Mississippi, according to a new report. At least one family, and possibly more, has already moved…

5 Things You Should Never Say To An Amish Person (Or Should You?)

5 Things You Should Never Say To An Amish Person (Or Should You?)

ByErik Wesner
15 Comments

So I couldn’t resist commenting on this one. You may have come across slideshow-style “listicle” posts on mass media sites like MSN or AOL. I’ve been seeing a lot of them lately about the Amish (sometimes they link to this website as a source, so no complaints there). Things like “10 surprising technologies the Amish use” or “The 15 largest Amish communities”. Often enough, the…

Amish Take “Very Rare” Public Action — But This $6.4 Million Matter Is An Exception

Amish Take “Very Rare” Public Action — But This $6.4 Million Matter Is An Exception

ByErik Wesner

The matter at hand is a major road overpass project in Seymour, Missouri – meant to help improve safety in the state’s largest Amish settlement. It’s intended to go up in a part of the community where they are “genuinely scared” to drive their buggies, according to the former mayor. We first came across this story back in January, when we learned the Amish were…

New Law Aimed At Amish Community Would Ban Steel Wheel Buggies, Require Manure Cleanup

New Law Aimed At Amish Community Would Ban Steel Wheel Buggies, Require Manure Cleanup

ByErik Wesner
45 Comments

A proposed ordinance in Bedford County, Pennsylvania would force local Amish to adapt their buggies to be more “road-friendly”, at least from the perspective of some residents. At the same time, others are concerned it could “disproportionately impact” the Amish community. From the report at WJAC: BEDFORD COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — A proposed ordinance in Bedford Township is drawing scrutiny ahead of a vote scheduled…

Bread Soup, Oyster Stew & More: Favorite Dishes From My Ohio Amish Community

Bread Soup, Oyster Stew & More: Favorite Dishes From My Ohio Amish Community

ByErik Wesner
10 Comments

Nora Kurtz is a member of a Geauga County, Ohio Amish church. Today she shares some favorite dishes from her childhood – and some she still loves today, including bread soup and more. Anyone who lives in or around a large Amish community is probably going to be at least somewhat familiar with “Amish food”. Fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed vegetables, pies and puddings…

The Top 3 Buffet Restaurants in America Are All in Amish Country

The Top 3 Buffet Restaurants in America Are All in Amish Country

ByErik Wesner
5 Comments

That’s according to the latest Top 10 list just released by USA Today, which pegs several Amish Country/PA Dutch-style buffets as the best in the country. The top three, in fact, are all in that category. In order, they are: Shady Maple Smorgasbord (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) Der Dutchman (Sarasota, Florida) Miller’s Smorgasbord (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) And not only that, but a fourth Amish Country buffet…

A Return To Virginia’s Oldest Amish Community — And The Woman Who Left Something Beautiful Behind (15 Photos)

A Return To Virginia’s Oldest Amish Community — And The Woman Who Left Something Beautiful Behind (15 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
3 Comments

Reader Shawn has been visiting the Amish community at Pearisburg, Virginia for over a decade now. The first visit of Shawn’s we saw here was back in 2014, followed by a return in 2016 to check on the newly opened Walker Valley Market. I’ve made a couple of visits myself – one on a rainy February day in 2020, and another in December 2020 when…