This video is titled “Amish Singing On Amtrak”. The quality is passable though not great. But I couldn’t pass up sharing it. This video combines two themes seen here in recent months – Amish singing and Amish on trains. The men singing do appear to be Amish. I count at least three of them. The […]

Continue Reading Amish Singing On Amtrak (Video)

The York Daily Record has published more details on Linda Stoltzfoos’ disappearance. Here are some excerpts.  About the day she disappeared: Lloyd Stoltzfoos told the officer that his daughter was supposed to go to youth group after church the previous day but never made it. She did not come home to change her clothes […]

Continue Reading More Details On Linda Stoltzfoos’ Disappearance

Following our look at the Buchanan County, Iowa Amish business map, reader Denise Joyal shares her own visit to the community, including photos and more info on some of the stores there. On the map are listed nearly 50 businesses. Denise informs us below that the map doesn’t quite have all the shops there. I […]

Continue Reading Visiting Amish Stores In Buchanan County, Iowa (17 Photos)

News just broke this afternoon: 34-year-old Lancaster County resident Justo Smoker was arrested last night and charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos. A vehicle resembling Smoker’s was seen by multiple witnesses in the area of Gap with an Amish female in the passenger seat on the afternoon Linda went missing. Linda remains missing, and “investigators have […]

Continue Reading Man Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos; Linda Still Missing

It’s been nearly three weeks since Linda Stoltzfoos disappeared on June 21. The FBI is now offering a monetary reward for information. From crimewatchpa.com: The East Lampeter Township Police Department and the FBI continue to ask for the public’s assistance in locating Linda Stoltzfoos. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for […]

Continue Reading FBI Offers $10,000 Reward For Linda Stoltzfoos Info

This week’s Amish home comes from Wisconsin. It is a 3-bedroom and 1-bathroom home of about 1600 square feet, sitting on almost 3 acres of land. It last sold for just $45,000 in 2018. This is in Waushara County, in central WI. This place is pleasant-ish inside, but I will not pretend that this is […]

Continue Reading Inside A $45,000 Amish Home (16 Photos)

You might have come across a “See Rock City” barn before. This was an advertising campaign created by a man named Garnet Carter and his wife Freida to promote their Rock City Gardens attraction, located just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. A number of these barns still exist, though the number is dwindling. These advertisements started appearing […]

Continue Reading Slice of Amish Life: See Rock City

Low milk prices have been an issue for Amish farmers for quite a while now, pushing some out of the dairy business. So I was happy to see this story about Amish in the Conewango Valley, NY settlement taking some control back by going in strong on a revamped cheese plant. The facility manager explains: […]

Continue Reading Amish Push Back Against Low Milk Prices With Cheese Factory

From the AP: SPARTA, Pa. (AP) — A hit-and-run crash involving an SUV and a horse-drawn Amish buggy left two adults and two young children in the buggy seriously injured. Pennsylvania state police say the accident in Sparta occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The SUV struck the buggy from behind and then fled the […]

Continue Reading Hit-and-Run Seriously Injures Amish Adult & 2 Babies

Today a look inside a simple and plain Amish home in Springboro, Pennsylvania. This is in Crawford County in the northwest corner of the state. You’ll find Amish scattered across this county – there are six settlements, all or part of which lie within its borders. This looks like it is the settlement near Conneautville, […]

Continue Reading Inside A Plain Pennsylvania Amish Home (18 Photos)

The FBI got involved in the Linda Stoltzfoos search last week. It was not said exactly what they were doing in the case. One of their tasks has now been revealed – they’ve created a “composite photo” showing what Linda might look like with an “English” appearance: They’ve basically simulated an image of Linda with […]

Continue Reading FBI Releases Composite Photo Showing Linda Stoltzfoos In English Clothing

Another Amish business map to share – this one from the sizeable settlement in Buchanan County, Iowa (Hazleton). The area promotes the local “Amish Boulevard” – a stretch of county road running through the heart of the community (it’s W13 on the map below). On this map you’ll find nearly 50 Amish businesses. You can […]

Continue Reading Amish Business Map (Buchanan County, Iowa)

Following up on a story from May, a man who was attacked by a cow on an Amish farm has been recovering. There was little info in the initial report on injuries suffered by Harley “Chubby” Fry. It turns out he was hurt badly. Fry was essentially paralyzed after the attack in central PA: Firefighters […]

Continue Reading Man Paralyzed After Amish Farm Cow Attack Recovering

Of course, coronavirus cases are increasing in some places. There is zero surprise in that, despite the way some headlines might be written to suggest otherwise. And in Holmes County, which thrives on Amish-themed tourism, cases have increased since “reopening” as well. Local officials are not pinning this on the return of tourism, however. From […]

Continue Reading Holmes County Officials: Coronavirus Increase Not Due To Tourism

I put “Amish tourism” in quotes in the title because those two words usually mean non-Amish tourists visiting Amish areas. But this is the other, less-common meaning – Amish as tourists themselves. It turns out a good number of Amish people are rather fond of a Colorado hot springs resort town named Glenwood Springs, which […]

Continue Reading “Amish Tourism” To Colorado Town Hit By Amtrak Cuts

Authorities are asking travelers for help in the Linda Stoltzfoos search. If you were on any of these five Lancaster County roads on June 21 between 8 AM and 4 PM, please contact the East Lampeter Township Police Department at 717-291-4676: Mill Creek School Road Stumptown Road Gibbons Road Beechdale Road Millcreek Road Map via […]

Continue Reading Were you on any of these 5 roads on June 21? Please contact police (Linda Stoltzfoos search)

This video was shot in an Amish kitchen – on the farm where the movie Witness was filmed in the 1980s. In it, Martha Beiler takes us through making a large batch of chicken pot pie. We don’t see her face at any point, but we do see what she’s doing and hear her speak […]

Continue Reading Making Chicken Pot Pie For 70 In A Lancaster Amish Kitchen (Video)

The York Daily Record has published an article providing a bit more insight on the search for Linda Stoltzfoos. We get comments from two people – Donald Kraybill, author and expert on the Amish, and Merv Fisher, Linda’s uncle. This follows Saturday’s update on FBI and local police involvement, including processing 100s of incoming tips. First, […]

Continue Reading Merv Fisher & Donald Kraybill On The Linda Stoltzfoos Search

Day 6 since Linda Stoltzfoos was last seen. Readers have been asking for updates on the situation. So I’ll share the freshest reporting on it. These points are taken from an article yesterday at Lancaster Online: Authorities have gotten hundreds of tips. Many are vague, but they are processed to see if patterns develop East […]

Continue Reading Linda Stoltzfoos Update

In a post last week, I mentioned visiting Manhattan with my friend Ben Riehl in search of the dealers where his father David once sold antique Amish quilts. I also shared a bit from his related 2018 talk at Elizabethtown College. Ben has kindly passed along a written version of that talk which I’ve posted […]

Continue Reading Ben Riehl On His Father David

Something unusual today. I managed to find a listing for an Amish home in Colorado (not currently for sale). This won’t remind you much of other homes we’ve seen (at least not on the outside). This is the Westcliffe community in Custer County. Not a lot of Amish in the Centennial State – only five […]

Continue Reading Inside A Colorado Amish “Mini-Ranch” Home (22 Photos)

The FBI has now joined in on day 3 of the search for Linda Stoltzfoos. Via Lancaster Online: The FBI has joined East Lampeter Township police as the search for a missing 18-year-old woman enters day 3, according to East Lampeter Township police. Linda Stoltzfoos, of East Lampeter Township, was last seen in Bird-in-Hand wearing […]

Continue Reading FBI Joins Search For Linda Stoltzfoos

I just found this unusual photo while checking out Amish homes for sale online. I have often seen similar flags attached to pony carts and other smaller vehicles used by Amish. Those are pretty common in larger communities like Holmes County (and a good idea there, considering the area’s hilly terrain). But I’ve never seen […]

Continue Reading Orange Buggy Flags?

Reader Jerry, an avid Amish auction-goer, is back on the Amish auction trail. He recently attended a sale held by Nebraska Amish — aka “white-topper” Amish, which is what some call them on account of their buggies with white tops. This auction happened Saturday at a Zook farm on Back Mountain Road in Milroy, Pennsylvania […]

Continue Reading At A “White-Topper” Auction (28 Photos)

18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos went missing Sunday after failing to come home after church. Police believe she “may be at risk for harm or injury.” From WGAL: BIRD IN HAND, Pa. — Police in Lancaster County are looking for a missing 18-year-old woman, who was last seen on Sunday. East Lampeter Township Police issued the following […]

Continue Reading Search Ongoing For Missing Lancaster Amish Teen Girl (Updated)

From Cleveland 19 News: CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Ashland County Health Department says a recent outbreak affecting the area’s Amish community stems from a wedding. The outbreak, which is declared when at least two or more individuals test positive for an infectious disease like COVID-19, in the Loudonville area originated from an Ashland County […]

Continue Reading Ohio COVID-19 Outbreak Traced To Amish Wedding

A look at one of Kentucky‘s oldest Amish settlements – plus another Amish business map to add to the growing collection. This one is in Crittenden County, near the town of Marion. There are four church districts; Amish have been here for over 40 years. An article which ran in the Crittenden Press in 2018 […]

Continue Reading The Amish Of Crittenden County, Kentucky

On the whole, the Amish are avid hunters. In Nature & The Environment in Amish Life, one Amishman puts plainly how much hunting mattered in his community: “When I was growing up, if you didn’t hunt, it was almost as if you didn’t belong.” (p. 148). Why does hunting appeal to the Amish? For one, […]

Continue Reading 5 Facts On The Amish & Hunting

David Riehl is a person I’d heard a lot about – both reading his story, and directly from his family. David was a key figure in the development of the Amish quilt industry. His is one of the more unusual tales of an Amish person crafting a successful enterprise – by taking his goods right […]

Continue Reading David Riehl, Amish Quilt Dealer (1987)

This isn’t a map, but it is a nice directory giving addresses of 26 Amish businesses in Clare County, Michigan. There are three Amish communities with a presence in Clare County. I believe the businesses here are from the more progressive of the two larger ones. That settlement has families both in Clare County, and […]

Continue Reading 26 Amish Businesses (Clare County, Michigan)

Several years back Amish in Illinois made news when they moved the state’s oldest-known Amish home using horsepower (that is, at least part of the way):  This was originally the home of an Amishman named Moses Yoder, and dates to 1865. The Moses Yoder house is joined by a second historic home, the Daniel […]

Continue Reading Two Historic Amish Homes

From the Wooster Daily Record: MILLERSBURG — Coronavirus cases in Holmes County have spiked in recent weeks after the county spent months in the single digits. The Ohio Department of Health reported on Friday that 84 cases had been detected in the county, up from 15 cases a month ago. The county has reported three […]

Continue Reading Coronavirus Increases Among Amish: Two Responses

This is the largest and most expensive of the properties we’ve seen from the batch of 7 Amish homes on the market in Fleming County, KY. While we’ve looked at a couple of small houses and even a 21-acre “baby farm“, today’s property could be considered more the real deal as far as Amish farms […]

Continue Reading A 91-Acre Amish “Cattle Farm” & Home (13 Photos)

A case that we’ve followed for some time now reached another point in its journey through the court system. On Monday a Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the original decision. The article in the Post Bulletin summarizes recent events in the matter: The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a ruling Monday that would require four […]

Continue Reading Minnesota Amish Lose Appeal In “Gray Water” Case

This is another great photo by Cindy Cornett Seigle. I can’t say I’ve ever encountered this exact sight coming down the road – at least not at this size. These guys are riding atop piles of hay that have them literally two – or is it three – stories up in the air. I assume […]

Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Moving Mountains Of Hay

Here’s a simple article from the Alberta Press giving us a look at the Amish approach to “retirement” and aging. This comes from the Prince Edward Island settlement at Dundas. It largely consists of an interview with James Kuepfer, 35, and his father Peter (as an aside, note Kuepfer is not a common name among […]

Continue Reading An Amish View On Aging & Elder Care

So Amish auctions returning is one sign that things are getting back to normal – at least in some places. Below I’ve posted the bill for a school sale this Saturday in Sheldon, Wisconsin (Rusk County). This is not the only Amish auction activity out there. The Kootenai Amish School Auction will also take place […]

Continue Reading Amish Auctions Happening In Some States; Mud Sales Remain Stuck In The Mud

While we’ve lately featured numerous videos of Amish singing, we haven’t had too many examples of church singing here. If you haven’t heard Amish church singing before, today’s clip of Amish singing Lebt Friedsam, by Ed Yoder, will give you a sense of what it is like. A song leader opens with the first notes […]

Continue Reading Amish Church Singing: Lebt Friedsam (Audio)

I’m seeing more and more examples of Amish business maps, both online and off. To give a few examples, there are the multiple maps in Ethridge, Tennessee, the map we saw last week from the small Whitefield, Maine community, and this online map of the Conewango Valley, New York settlement, with over 180 Amish businesses […]

Continue Reading Amish Business Map – Livingston County, New York

A very important person as regards Amish religious freedom passed away a month ago. I’m not sure how many Amish people know of William C. Lindholm today, but he was instrumental to the freedoms Amish now have in educating their children. Young Center Senior Scholar Steven Nolt shares the following on Lindholm and his relevance […]

Continue Reading William C. Lindholm 1932 – 2020

I’m a little puzzled by this home. It’s listed as having five bedrooms. But we don’t see any of them in the photos provided. We do see, however, other rooms, which are quite airy and spacious. This one is from the collection of 7 Kentucky homes for sale, which we’ve been looking at the past […]

Continue Reading Inside A Small-But-Spacious Amish Home (22 Photos)

We’ve got two winners today of Ira Wagler’s Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father. If you missed it, Ira discussed the book in our interview last week. This book follows up Ira’s first memoir Growing Up Amish. We also have the full prologue of Broken Roads to share with you today. Thanks to Ira […]

Continue Reading Broken Roads Book Winners & Excerpt

This happened Wednesday in the Smyrna, Maine community. Two young men were ejected from the buggy. One was killed; the second has critical injuries. “The crash is still under investigation, but it appears that speed was a factor,” said Aroostook County Sheriff Shawn Gillen. From the Bangor Daily News: NEW LIMERICK, Maine — A 25-year-old […]

Continue Reading Buggy Struck From Behind In Smyrna, Maine; One Killed

York College professor Charles A. Kauffman has a nice article just out in the York Daily Record on the Pennsylvania Dutch language. I pulled five excerpts answering questions on the language – including examples of Pennsylvania Dutch phrases, and what exactly is meant by “Dutchified” English. I’ve also included three videos, giving examples of Pennsylvania […]

Continue Reading What Is “Dutchified” English? 5 Questions Answered On Pennsylvania Dutch

Well, not wanted by me, but by someone who’s posted a job offer on freelancing site Upwork. This is just a quirky thing I came across in my Amish news feed today. I wondered some years ago if the appeal of Amish romance would continue. Going by anecdotal evidence at least, the genre appears to […]

Continue Reading Wanted: Amish Romance Plot Writer?

A news blurb about an accident in Lancaster County several days ago contained few details. An English friend of the family involved has just filled out the story. Three Amish sibling children were hit by a pickup truck while driving the buggy to church in Bart Township, at around 7:30 Sunday morning. Parents Dave and […]

Continue Reading Fundraiser & Card Shower For Amanda King & Family (Updated)

Back one more time with another edition of five Amish surname histories. If you missed previous posts, you can find them here: Part 1 (Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, Stoltzfus) Part 2 (Zook, Gingerich, Troyer, King, Lehman) Part 3 (Yoder, Schrock, Fisher, Stutzman, Wagler) These are excerpted from Joseph Stoll’s series “Amish and Mennonite Family Names,” […]

Continue Reading The Stories Of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 4)

A video making the media rounds supposedly shows Amish singers in Minneapolis singing a hymn as they hold signs related to the death of George Floyd. The people in the clip were in several places described as “Amish” – possibly due to the label at least one YouTube uploader gave the video, and those writing […]

Continue Reading Not Amish Singers (Updated)

Marlene Miller joined the Amish at age 23, married and had ten children. She wrote about her life experience in Grace Called Me Home, later republished as Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order. I just learned yesterday that Marlene passed away Saturday from cancer, at the age of […]

Continue Reading Marlene Miller 1944 – 2020

I hadn’t heard the term “baby farm” before coming across it in this listing, and I’m not sure if the Amish would use it themselves (I doubt it). But that’s how this home, one of the seven Hillsboro, KY Amish homes for sale, is described. It looks like “baby farm” might just refer to its […]

Continue Reading Inside An Amish “Baby Farm” Home (26 Photos)

Ira Wagler‘s best-selling 2011 memoir Growing Up Amish told the story of his life as a young man, and his eventual decision to leave the Amish behind. Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father is his just-released follow-up. It covers subsequent events in his life, and in particular, his relationship with his father, David L. […]

Continue Reading Ira Wagler on Broken Roads: Returning To My Amish Father (Interview & Giveaway)

This photo shows Amish people getting off an Amtrak train in Portland, Oregon. In states without Amish settlements (like Oregon), public transit stations are among the few places you’re likely to see Amish folks (here’s another example from Alabama). This shot, taken in 2011, captures a moment – perhaps we’re witnessing that happy relief at […]

Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Disembarking In Portland

“Modem” and “Log on” are my favorites. I came across this old Facebook post by Sol’s in Berlin, a store in the heart of Holmes County, sharing the “Amishman’s Guide to Computer Lingo“. I’m not sure who the original author is, but this appeared in the Vendor, a Plain community newspaper. It was passed on […]

Continue Reading “An Amishman’s Guide To Computer Lingo”

As we learned in last year’s post on 5 interesting facts about Lehman’s, the customer makeup of this simple products retailer is more English than Amish (by a factor of 4 to 1). And the product line reflects this to some extent. The company has a wide array of products fitting the “old-fashioned/off-grid” concept. But […]

Continue Reading 6 Lehman’s Products Used By The Amish

Today a closer look at another of the seven Amish homes for sale in Fleming County, Kentucky. This little Amish starter is by far the smallest of the bunch, at just two bedrooms and 768 square feet. It actually looks more like a small shop from this angle which I shared in the original post. […]

Continue Reading Inside A Very Small (768 ft2) Amish Home (17 Photos)

Luckily, it was just the horse this time. This happened in Tuscola County, in Michigan’s “thumb”. From mlive.com: CARO, MI — A driver distracted by his cellphone caused a motor vehicle-buggy collision, leaving a horse dead and a woman hospitalized, police said. About 11 a.m. on Friday, May 15, Tuscola County Sheriff’s deputies responded to […]

Continue Reading Driver Hits Buggy While Sending Email On Phone, Kills Horse

Here’s another Amish musical performance. This one stands out for two reasons – instruments, and a big audience. The scene is the Mt. Hope Kidney Fund Auction in Mt. Hope, Ohio. You can see by the backs of heads that this crowd is filled with Amish people. On stage are three Amish girls. Recently we […]

Continue Reading Amish Girl Musical Group Plays For Plain Crowd (Video)

This is a photo I came across recently on Flickr. Two Amish men try out hats at Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana, Indiana. What do you notice here? First, briefly on the location. Yoder’s is a department store that sells men’s and women’s clothing as well as fabrics and sewing supplies. The clientele is both Amish […]

Continue Reading Slice Of Amish Life: Trying On Hats At Yoder’s

Two days ago, reader Mike Sparks visited the Amish settlement at Fredericktown/Bellville, in Knox County, Ohio. He shares his visit and photos with us today. You might remember Mike’s previous trips to Ashland County and Holmes County. This is far from the only Amish community in Knox County. In fact the county has proven quite […]

Continue Reading A Visit To The Amish Of Knox County, OH (28 Photos)

Last week we saw Amish men building a barn, this week they are moving one. Over the past week or so a video showing Amish men moving a pole barn has gone viral. I noticed today even the big UK media started covering it. However, the original viral clip is not great. The phone is […]

Continue Reading Amish Men Move A Barn – Video (Best Version)

In another sign of things heading in the direction of “normal”, the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio (Holmes County) re-opened this week. The center says in a Facebook post that they have made a few upgrades in the past months. This is the place where you’ll find the giant “cyclorama” painting of […]

Continue Reading Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center Re-Opens (Holmes County)

I came across something that got my attention while searching for Amish homes to share with you. Right now there are at least 7 Amish homes for sale in the community at Hillsboro, Kentucky (Fleming County). What’s going on here? It looks like a lot of people are moving out of the area for some […]

Continue Reading 7 Amish Homes For Sale In One Community (40 Photos)

We’ve got five more histories of common Amish surnames today. If you missed previous editions, here’s Part 1 (Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, Stoltzfus) and Part 2 (Zook, Gingerich, Troyer, King, Lehman). The following histories are from the Family Life series “Amish and Mennonite Family Names” by Joseph Stoll, which ran from December 1968 to March […]

Continue Reading The Stories of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 3)

Have you heard of cows attacking humans before? Bulls, sure, but run-of-the-mill dairy cows? Well, this happened yesterday in central PA: ELIMSPORT — A man, believed to be in his 70s, was recovering from injuries he suffered Monday afternoon when a dairy cow — weighing at least 1,000 pounds — suddenly attacked him and momentarily […]

Continue Reading Cow Attacks Man At Amish Farm

Back in February I shared with you 57 Amish businesses you can visit in Ethridge, Tennessee. This was based on a visitor’s map given out at a local business. Reader Al in KY has gone one better, and passed along a much fuller guide to Amish businesses in the community for your enjoyment. Says Al: […]

Continue Reading Pot Holders, Crib Quilts, Pickled Okra & More: A Week’s Worth Of Amish Home Businesses

In another sign that business is on the way back in Amish and other areas, Amish Acres is reopening following re-branding as The Barns at Nappanee: They got a small taste of business by selling about 100 take home meals Saturday for Mother’s Day. And plan to open the restaurant at 50 percent capacity next […]

Continue Reading Amish Acres Reopens Friday As The Barns At Nappanee

Cool video. Amish in Vernon County, Wisconsin put up a barn over the course of twelve hours – condensed into a two-minute video. This time-lapse clip from 2016 shows the whole thing go up, interspersed with some still photos. Video at the bottom (credit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). This barn is 32 x 48 feet in […]

Continue Reading An Amish Barn Raising: 12 Hours In 2 Minutes (Time-Lapse Video)

This is an interesting Amish home. The outside looks like the home of a family in a plain or plain-ish community — but the inside suggests otherwise. The place is Bonaparte, Iowa (Van Buren County), a settlement of two church districts. The exterior design of the home is a very simple boxy architectural look, which […]

Continue Reading Inside An Iowa Amish Home (19 Photos)

Last week we heard two Amish sisters singing Amazing Grace, accompanied by one sister’s guitar playing. There were actually several more songs from that same after-dinner session that I wanted to share with you. It sounds like these lucky diners got a nice little concert. These songs are all a bit peppier than the slower […]

Continue Reading 3 More Songs From The Singing Amish Sisters

With May upon us, new life is springing up everywhere we look — perhaps nowhere more apparent than in our gardens. And in Amish communities, it’s a rare home without a garden of some sort. But Amish homes are not all the same, and the typical garden you see in one community may be different […]

Continue Reading 4 Kinds Of Amish Gardens

For the past several days I have been checking news sources regularly hoping for a miracle. But after the child wasn’t found the first evening, it was harder and harder to see a happy outcome for that one unaccounted-for girl or boy. I was really hoping not to see this…but the sad news finally broke […]

Continue Reading Fifth Child Found Deceased Following Buggy Creek Accident (UPDATED)

This is a neat video. Two Amish sisters from Charm, Ohio sing perhaps the best-known of all Christian hymns, “Amazing Grace“. This was filmed after a meal in an Amish home – probably a home business which welcomes in English guests. Why is one of the girls playing guitar? You might have thought that Amish […]

Continue Reading Amish Sisters Sing “Amazing Grace” – With Guitar

With much of the country’s bricks-and-mortar economy shut down, e-commerce has been thriving. Ohio-based Lehman’s – specializing in off-the-grid and old-fashioned items – is one business that has seen its sales spike. The Wooster Daily Record looks at Lehman’s experience over the past couple months. Some products have been in especially high demand. So what […]

Continue Reading Lehman’s Sees Online Sales Surge

A tragic story out of Kentucky yesterday: BATH COUNTY, Ky. (AP) — Authorities in Kentucky say four children died, and one is missing, after a horse and buggy carrying an Amish family was swept away while trying to cross a low-water bridge over a flooded creek. Kentucky State Police say all six people were swept […]

Continue Reading 4 Children Dead, 1 Missing After Buggy Overturns In Creek

Trade publication Furniture Today gives an optimistic look at how the Amish furniture industry is positioned to rebound once states “reopen,” and business can start getting back to something like normal. They spoke with several sources, including Roy Miller who is CEO of a large-for-the-Amish manufacturer which, like many others, has been shut down for […]

Continue Reading Amish Furniture Makers Ready For Restart

Last week we looked at the histories of 5 common Amish family names – Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, and Stoltzfus. Let’s pick back up this week with five more. I used your suggestions from last week’s post comments to put together this week’s list. If there are other names you’d like to see, let us […]

Continue Reading The Stories of 5 Common Amish Family Names (Part 2)

“Kettle will not stay, neither will the windmill.” That was the stipulation attached to this unusual listing for an Amish home in the Seymour, Missouri community. This Amish home caught my eye for several reasons. For one, the community. Seymour is a plain settlement where many homes have a distinctive shingle-siding plain look to them […]

Continue Reading Look Inside A (Very) Plain Amish Home (25 Photos)

A nice article appeared last week in the Maysville Ledger Independent, on the May’s Lick, Kentucky Amish settlement. In it we see a great example of a community helping out newcomers in a time of need. An Amish woman named SaraEtta Coblentz describes how several families from Indiana made the move to this corner of […]

Continue Reading English Neighbors Show Love To Amish In Difficult Time

What kinds of natural remedies do Amish use? The book Plain & Happy Living: Amish Recipes & Remedies by Emma “Jonas Em” Byler covers many of them. It includes chapters like “General Tonics”, “The Herbal Medicine Chest”, and “Poultices, Plasters and Salves”. The more recent book Nature & The Environment in Amish Life also contains […]

Continue Reading 5 Natural Remedies Used By Amish

Members of the Lancaster County Amish community contacted police – after first meeting with church leaders – about alleged cases of sexual abuse in their midst. From Lancaster Online: In what appears to be the first such case of its kind in Lancaster County, an Amish bishop has been charged with failing to report suspected […]

Continue Reading Lancaster Bishop Charged With Failing To Report Suspected Abuse

Some years back I wrote a post on why Amish don’t discuss pregnancy: I never know when Amish friends have one on the way. I show up and there is another baby or one clearly about to happen. And even when it’s obvious, it never comes up, even as a mention. … You’d think it […]

Continue Reading Gloria Yoder On Her Pregnancy & Baby

Over half a century ago, Amish writer Joseph Stoll penned a series of articles on Amish surnames, titled “Amish and Mennonite Family Names.” These were published in the then-fledgling Family Life monthly, in four parts spanning December 1968 to March 1969. I’ve chosen origin stories for five common names to share with you today. Where […]

Continue Reading The Stories Of 5 Common Amish Family Names

We have a look inside a less commonly-seen home today – an Amish log home. It’s not that often that you find Amish families living in log homes. I’ve only come across them on occasion, though they might be more popular in certain settlements. This one is found in the Bonduel, Wisconsin community. The settlement […]

Continue Reading Look Inside An Amish Log Home (22 Photos)

Back when I was tallying up the list of Amish communities I’ve already visited, I got to thinking about the ones I haven’t been to yet, but would like to visit. The list below is my current “top 7.” Maybe one of these is on your list? 1. Conewango Valley, New York This plainer-side Amish […]

Continue Reading 7 Amish Communities I’d Like To Visit

Penn Live reports that a Chester County, PA woman has been accused of stealing 12 puppies from two Amish couples while they were away from home at church service. Charges, filed Monday, come well over a year after the thefts were reported: MIFFLINBURG – A Chester County woman is accused of stealing 12 pug puppies […]

Continue Reading Puppies Stolen From Amish While Away At Church

While preparing today’s other post on stolen Amish puppies, I stumbled across an old article on a bizarre story I’d never heard mention of before. On November 5, 1995, the New York Times reported the following: When the reports of a bank robbery in Wall Township came into the F.B.I. office in Newark on Oct. […]

Continue Reading Serial Bandits Used Amish Disguises In Bank Robberies (1995)

I’ve got another singing video for you today – this one is titled “Amish Grandchildren singing for their Grandpa’s Funeral.” I share it for two reasons. One – it’s another nice example of singing I hope you’ll enjoy. Two – a comment attached to the video caught my eye (more below 🙂 ). First, the […]

Continue Reading Amish Grandpa Funeral Singing (Video…& 3 Myths Debunked)

Just a snippet of a story, but one I found amusing. Tourist carriage horses from around Manhattan’s Central Park have been sent to Amish Country. Frank Riccobono, owner of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, explains: In mid-March, the entire industry made a decision to put our horses on furlough, and I sent my eight horses to […]

Continue Reading Manhattan’s Tourist Carriage Horses Escape To Amish Country

Amish have lived in Pontotoc County, Mississippi for a quarter-century. I made an unplanned visit to this community in late January. It was slightly out of the way, but well worth it. I hope you enjoy these photos and my comments on this Swartzentruber Amish settlement of two church districts. Amish came here in the […]

Continue Reading A Visit To The Amish Of Pontotoc County, Mississippi (25 Photos)

Today’s look inside an Amish home comes from Mecosta County, Michigan. This is clearly a plainer Amish dwelling, especially compared to the Kentucky home we saw last week. This farmhouse (listed on Landflip) is set on a large-by-Amish-standards plot of land – 170 acres. There are numerous outbuildings, barns, and even a guest house on […]

Continue Reading Inside A Plain Michigan Amish Farm Home (18 Photos)

So it looks like a lot of children will be having a short school year this time around, both English and Amish (at least their time physically present in the classroom). But did you know that Amish children traditionally finish school earlier than their English counterparts? In the Lancaster County example, they finish about 3 […]

Continue Reading Amish Minister: Why We Prefer A Short School Year (1966)

Some photos in the latest Kentucky Amish home post caught at least one reader’s eye – showing a lamp in an upstairs bedroom which appeared to have a cord. Meanwhile, in the downstairs portion of the home, we saw more traditional examples of Amish lighting. So I thought it would be interesting to share with […]

Continue Reading 5 Types Of Lamps In Amish Homes (22 Photos)

Walking into the auction with the day growing long and things winding down, I knew exactly what I was looking for. When I spotted a stand with baked goods, I beelined over. The stand owner had set up under the porch of one of the farmhouses on the auction property, there in the Ethridge, Tennessee […]

Continue Reading Baked Goods by Mary Mast (Ethridge, Tennessee)

If you passed this home on the road, would you immediately know it was Amish? Some Amish homes don’t look traditionally “Amish,” but are built in styles more reminiscent of English (non-Amish) country homes. But if you stepped inside, you would definitely spot some Amish accents: You can pick up on some characteristic cues looking […]

Continue Reading Look Inside A Kentucky Amish Home (20 Photos)

This is a third Amish singing clip recorded by Phil Sarlo, following three Amish teens singing “The Whippoorwill Song” and Amish schoolchildren singing “The Ninety-Nine”. We have a much larger collection of singers this time – a New Order Amish youth group in the Walnut Creek area of Ohio. There are four songs in this […]

Continue Reading New Order Amish Youth Group Singing (4 Songs)

Brad Igou shared the story of his book Amish Voices: A Collection of Amish Writings with us last week. We also had an excerpt entitled “Free Rein.” Today we have several more excerpts, and the book giveaway winner. I focused on some of the shorter excerpts, but taken from different sections of the book, to […]

Continue Reading Amish Voices: Excerpts & Book Winner

With all the talk about isolation and distancing lately, I thought it would be a good time to look back at an Amish community that’s among the most isolated of all – the one at Burke’s Garden, Virginia. Some of you will remember I visited this place last Thanksgiving. I actually made two stops in […]

Continue Reading Images of Burke’s Garden, Virginia (40 Photos)

Following a motion filed last week by his attorney, beard-cutting clan leader Sam Mullet will be released early due to threat from the novel coronavirus. From the AP: Sam Mullet Sr. was moved to a halfway house in Youngstown on March 4 and was scheduled to be released in January. But his attorney argued in […]

Continue Reading Sam Mullet Will Be Released To Finish Sentence At Home

I came across the following list of Amish church rules in a book called Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore, edited by John A. Hostetler. These were the rules of a church in Mifflin County, PA in 1897, as recorded by a woman named Sadie Newman. Sadie was a convert to the […]

Continue Reading Rules Of A Pennsylvania Amish Church (1897)

Free Rein One day in late fall, snow fell and caught me unprepared for winter. Hoping to save a little time, I took a different way home, one with which I was not too familiar, yet I anticipated no problem. Old Dobbin obligingly trotted on, but I was not far until I began to have […]

Continue Reading Brad Igou on Amish Voices: A Collection of Amish Writings (Book Giveaway)

There is a certain type of driver who likes gunning his engine and waking up the residents of the local graveyard when passing through town. That driver is unlikely to heed the warning of this post. But others who drive vehicles louder than a typical car would do well to keep the lesson drawn here […]

Continue Reading Be Careful Around Buggies If Your Vehicle Is Loud

Following our NYC Amish singing post, I came across a few more nice videos of Amish singing. This one features three Amish teens from somewhere in Minnesota. The song is “The Whippoorwill Song” (aka “I Give You Freedom”), written by Alfred B. Smith in 1975 (lyrics below). You can hear quite a contrast when it’s […]

Continue Reading Three Amish Teens Sing “The Whippoorwill Song” (I Give You Freedom)

While putting together last week’s post on 5 old but small Amish communities, I came across another real estate listing for an Amish farm – this time in Indiana in the Kokomo settlement. While the exterior photos are not great (taken on an overcast day), there are good photos of the interior showing the different […]

Continue Reading Look Inside An Indiana Amish Farmhouse (18 Photos)

One thing that has always fascinated me are the Amish communities which have a long history – but for one reason or another, today are surprisingly small in size. With the high Amish birth rate, and today most Amish choosing to remain Amish, you would expect most communities to continue growing larger with the benefit […]

Continue Reading 5 Old – But Surprisingly Small – Amish Communities

We’ve lately seen photos of Amish on the beach on Staten Island, so how about Amish singing an uplifting Christian song in the NYC subway?  Beautifully sung. There is some discussion in the Youtube comments over whether these are Amish, or a Mennonite or other Anabaptist church. Would you recognize this group as Amish? […]

Continue Reading Amish Sing “I Am Free” Underground In NYC (Video)

Sad news from northwestern PA: CLINTONVILLE, Pa. — One adult and one juvenile were killed after a logging truck and an Amish buggy crashed in Clintonville, Venango County, on Sunday afternoon, the Pennsylvania State Police confirmed. According to PSP, the logging truck struck the horse-drawn buggy from behind while both were traveling eastbound in the […]

Continue Reading PA Amish Woman, Child Killed In Logging Truck Accident

New York Upstate lists the 12 destinations, which I call “food outlets” because they are not all traditional shops and markets, though some are. Several are multi-vendor markets. Most of these are Mennonite-owned or “Amishy“, but there are at least two Amish-owned markets on the list – Troyer’s General Store, and Weaver’s Farm Market. Many […]

Continue Reading 12 Amish & Mennonite Food Outlets in Upstate NY

Gloria Yoder answers questions from time to time in her Amish Cook column. In her latest, she gets an interesting question from a reader: another friend and reader, Betsy, from Lebanon, Ohio…wondered if there are different levels of Amish and how we believe about our relationship with Jesus, which is so very sweet and important. […]

Continue Reading Are There “Different Levels” Of Amish?

Who teaches in Amish schools? Do Amish children attend public schools? What about homeschooling? Today we look at those and other questions on the Amish and education (full list here): Who teaches Amish children?  Amish parochial school teachers are typically female and young, though some women make a lifelong career of teaching. Teaching is most […]

Continue Reading 10 Questions on the Amish & Education

I have mixed feelings about drones. I’m generally not a fan of these flying cameras, but admit that they can capture some amazing footage. One example would be this two-minute video flying over Amish farms in Lancaster County. Someone recently did a drone video in Amish Ohio and shared it to YouTube. The machine does […]

Continue Reading Two (Creepy?) Amish Drone Videos

Good news for those who wish to see this northern Indiana tourist institution continue: Amish Acres will live on, in somewhat different form, under new ownership. The people who purchased the key parcels of property will continue the venue as a food and entertainment destination. However they are re-branding the attraction under a different name: […]

Continue Reading Amish Acres Will Continue; Rebrands as “The Barns at Nappanee”

Following a reader question on the topic, several months ago I shared an example of an obituary of an Amish person. Many Amish do have their obituaries posted in general news sources, even appearing online. I came across another example today, of an Amish woman named Elizabeth Petersheim. Elizabeth passed away on Saturday. Her obituary […]

Continue Reading Another Amish Obituary (& Funeral Song)

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)

Monroe Yoder is an Amish bishop in the Shipshewana area of northern Indiana. In 2018, he invited a tour group into his home and spent time answering their questions, along with his wife Susie. This was written up on a blog called Midwest Wanderer by someone who attended the occasion. The post was just brought […]

Continue Reading 5 Insights From Amish Bishop Monroe Yoder

Joseph Donnermeyer of Ohio State University today shares with us an article published two weeks ago in the Budget newspaper. In it, Joe looks back at all the Amish settlement attempts throughout their history in North America. He highlights some interesting figures, including a total of 342 settlement attempts since 2000. At first that seemed […]

Continue Reading Amish Settlement Attempts Since The 1700s

I always tell people that if you are new in an Amish community, and want to meet the locals, the best thing to do is to visit their businesses. Larger communities like Lancaster County and Holmes County have significantly more Amish businesses. But they’re not as densely located or convenient to visit as in Ethridge, […]

Continue Reading 57+ Amish Businesses You Can Visit (Ethridge, Tennessee)

Amish Cook Gloria Yoder is expecting, and she is thinking about a name for her boy or girl. How do Amish parents decide on a baby name? Gloria shares her family’s approach – and some common Amish naming conventions – in her latest column: While some Amish communities stick with using only one name, in […]

Continue Reading How Do Amish Choose Baby Names?

Ohio lawmakers want all 75,000+ Amish in the state to make some changes to their buggies. A proposed law would require a buggy-top flashing light, and a new kind of tape. From the Wooster Daily Record: Rep. Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster) and Rep. Darrell Kick (R-Loudonville) announced a bill Monday designed to make buggies more visible. […]

Continue Reading Ohio Bill: Flashing Roof Light Required On All Buggies

Lovina Eicher makes it in this week’s edition of Lovina’s Amish Kitchen. As she describes it, pon hoss is “a fried dish made from leftover hog meat.” It is also another name for scrapple. Photo: Lovina’s Amish Kitchen The dish was first created by German settlers in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here is […]

Continue Reading What Is Pon Hoss?

From time to time we see Amish properties up for sale online. Two such homes appeared in Ohio and New York. Comparing those two cases, you can see how different Amish homes can be. The Ohio home is from a New Order Amish church. The New York home is from a Swartzentruber community. They are […]

Continue Reading Look Inside A New York Amish Home (12 Photos)

Lancaster County is (I believe) the only place* where you’ll see both gray-topped and black-topped buggies in the same community. Black is easily the most common color for Amish buggies overall. But the Amish in this best-known of all Plain communities actually drive the gray version. Lancaster County Amish buggies So who is holding the […]

Continue Reading Lancaster County: Gray Buggy or Black Buggy?

On our recent post “Nearly 40 Amish Youth Partygoers Arrested,” reader Al in KY commented about an unusual billboard. It can now be seen on the edge of Shipshewana, the center of the northern Indiana Amish community where the arrests occurred: Near the intersection of Hwys 5 and 20 (the main, very busy intersection as […]

Continue Reading Who Put Up This “Anti-Rumspringa” Billboard?

Why do some Amish use scooters, but not bikes? It’s a common question. I’ve never really come across a definitive answer, though have hit upon a theory or two after looking into it. Today at Lancaster Online, Steve Nolt provides an answer. It includes a couple of elements I did not expect. First, some brief […]

Continue Reading Why Do Some Amish Ride Scooters (But Not Bicycles)?

A story published this week by Type Investigations and Cosmopolitan magazine has collected the accounts of victims of sexual abuse in Amish communities. Author Sarah McClure also tallied up cases of abuse by Amish offenders over a two-decade span. McClure reached a total of 52 documented cases of abuse across seven states in her investigation. […]

Continue Reading Report Highlights 50+ Sexual Abuse Cases In Amish Communities Over Two Decades

As we wrap up the 2010s, a look back at some favorite posts of the past 12 months. My thanks to all of you who took the time to read, share and comment on posts this year. Wishing you all good things in 2020 ~ Erik Church 6 Examples of Amish Ordnung Rules Colorado Amish […]

Continue Reading Favorite Posts Of 2019

We caught a glimpse of North Carolina’s Swartzentruber Amish settlement in an article back in May, when someone interviewed a man from this community as he waited at an Alabama Amtrak station. More recently I previewed the community auction which was to take place in late November. Amish began moving to the area near Ellenboro, […]

Continue Reading Visiting North Carolina’s Swartzentruber Amish Community (31 Photos)

Amish from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana visited the President and Vice President in the Oval Office Friday, as reported in the Washington Times. This was apparently the first time Amish people have visited the White House in this capacity (with one possible exception, see below). The Amish as a whole are not overtly political, so this […]

Continue Reading Amish Delegation Visits White House

Car drivers complain about the lack of visibility of Amish buggies, particularly those of the plainest (Swartzentruber) churches. This group of Amish is highly resistant to change. But do Swartzentruber Amish never bend when it comes to making changes to their buggies? We’ve now seen more than one example showing that, in fact, they do. […]

Continue Reading One Swartzentruber Community’s (Unique?) Buggy Visibility Improvement

Yesterday in Holmes County, my friend Myron shared the following poem with Rich Stevick and me. Later in the day we shared it with a few more Amish friends, who seemed to like it. I hope you do too. Happy Thanksgiving. I Am Thankful – Poem Of Thanksgiving I am thankful: For the wife Who […]

Continue Reading “I Am Thankful”

A funeral director serving the Amish in Lancaster County says that Amish rarely donate organs. But the law still requires that the bodies of the deceased be held “until an organ procurement organization reviews the case and releases the body.” This hold-up frequently causes distress to Amish families who wish to proceed with traditional viewing […]

Continue Reading The Amish & Organ Donation

The Amish community in the Sarasota-area Pinecraft neighborhood is one of the most unique Amish settlements. I went into more on why in the Florida Amish state guide page, as well as in the 40+ photo post about my 2013 visit. So if you don’t know much about this unusual community, I’d suggest checking out […]

Continue Reading Another Visit To The Amish At Pinecraft (44 Photos)

Amish father Jonas Stoltzfus recently filed a lawsuit challenging a new New York state law requiring students to be fully immunized against contagious disease. Stoltzfus says he was informed that his three children will be blocked from attending their Cranberry Marsh School, a traditional Amish school in this Seneca County settlement of six church districts. […]

Continue Reading NY Judge: No Religious Vaccination Exemption For Amish

The Amish community at Ellenboro, North Carolina is having an auction next month – the first annual sale for the five-year-old Swartzentruber settlement. What’s neat here is that the auction company has taken extensive photos of the things up for sale, posting over 100 photos online (viewable here). The Amish are not “frozen in time”, […]

Continue Reading 10 Interesting Household Items From A North Carolina Swartzentruber Amish Auction

“I did not tell them I was leaving…I left them a note, and left.” Miriam Lambright says that “looking outside, I was like – there’s more there.” Leaving her community meant “freedom.” Miriam left the Amish seven years ago, at age 22. Her story is briefly told in a new video from Milwaukee station WTMJ. […]

Continue Reading Wisconsin Woman Leaves Amish Community, Starts Successful Bakery

Amish residents near Berlin, Ohio have been complaining about the odors emanating from a local rendering plant for some time. They’ve now been given an outlet to do so formally – and have taken advantage of it. An “odor hotline” has received around 450 complaint calls since being set up in July. The complaints are […]

Continue Reading Amish Plea For Help In Face Of Rendering Plant Stench (Updated)

“I feel like one thing they learned, is they ‎could stay culturally Amish, and doctrinally be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” That is an LDS church member speaking about 3 Ohio Amish convert families – in a new video titled “Amish Latter-day Saints: Blending Two Worlds into One”. This […]

Continue Reading “Amish & Mormon”: 8 Things That Caught My Eye In The Latest Video

Heading to the Amish community in Holmes County, and want to have a memorable meal? How about one served by an Amish family? I picked up this business card last time I was in the community: I haven’t tried this so can’t personally vouch, but it seems like a nice option if you’d like some […]

Continue Reading Eat A Meal In An Amish Home (Holmes County, Ohio)

Half of them are in Indiana. Two apiece in Pennsylvania and Ohio. And one in Illinois. The list of the top 10 largest Amish settlements doesn’t change much from year-to-year. These places generally have similar steady growth, and relatively few people leaving. Photo by Don Burke Still, I like to do a fresh post from […]

Continue Reading The 10 Biggest Amish Communities (2019)

Reader Jim Halverson, who gave us a look at the Amish of Lagrange County, Indiana last summer, recently attended Yoder’s Consignment Auction in the same community. Jim spotted differences in the styles of clothing of those in attendance – particularly noticeable in the women’s dress. Clearly the Amish at the event were not all from […]

Continue Reading Amish Women’s Clothing – What Differences Do You Notice? (16 Photos)

It was just three months ago that three young Amish siblings were killed in a buggy crash in southern Michigan. Tragically, the story has repeated itself, in another part of the state. This time, it seems alcohol was not involved. The driver struck the children’s buggy as they returned home from school. From Lansing State […]

Continue Reading 3 More Amish Children Killed In Michigan Buggy Crash

You might have noticed that Amish settlements tend to cluster together on the map. Especially in high-Amish-population states, many communities lie within a short drive or even buggying distance. In fact, most individual Amish settlements are going to be within a half-hour to an hour’s car drive from at least one other settlement. Even when […]

Continue Reading 5 Remote Amish Settlements

I didn’t plan on this becoming a series, but we’ve had a nice run of articles lately with Amish people sharing their lives and beliefs (see posts on Indiana Amishman John Gingerich and Illinois Amishman Reuben Mast). I’ve enjoyed them, and hopefully you have too. It would be good to get a female Amish perspective […]

Continue Reading 5 Insights From Swartzentruber Amishman Sam Shetler

Amish in Lenawee County, Michigan were told they had until last Friday to leave their homes – due to “unsafe living conditions.” This comes after a years-long conflict between the county’s Amish and local authorities. Here’s a summary of the story til now, from WTOL: The first group arrived four years ago after branching off […]

Continue Reading Michigan County Deems Amish Homes “Unfit For Human Habitation”

Have you ever watched Amish “reality” TV? This type of programming made its first big splash in 2004 with “Amish in the City”. The series followed five Rumspringa-age Amish youth paired with a similar number of non-Amish young people living in a home in Los Angeles. “Amish in the City” was just a precursor of […]

Continue Reading The Ugly Reality Behind Amish “Reality” TV

So after I visited Charlotte County, Virginia in April, I wrote about a local Amish variety stand. In that post I mentioned the following, about a different place: As I finished up my purchase, the girl directed me to a dry goods store not too far away. After she gave me directions explaining that it was […]

Continue Reading A Visit To An “Off The Map” Amish Dry Goods Store

How about a feel-good story? Delta, Pennsylvania lies in extreme southern York County. Amish live in two places in the county – five or six church districts lying across the Susquehanna river (technically part of the Lancaster County settlement), and a separate stand-alone community. It turns out local Amish have been glad for the generosity […]

Continue Reading Pizzeria Owner Repays Amish Who Helped After 2013 Fire

Lycoming County, PA’s Washington Township wants local Amish buggies and their horses to change – in a pretty big way. From Pennlive.com: ELIMSPORT – “Blatant discrimination” is what an attorney for Old Order Amish says about proposed ordinances in a rural Lycoming County township that would require horses on public roads to wear a device […]

Continue Reading PA Township Seeks Horse Diapers, Rubber Horseshoes, & 4-Side-Numbering For Amish Buggies

The Young Center has just published their annual Amish population numbers. As of 2019, an estimated 342,100 Amish live in four different countries. That includes Amish in: 31 US States 4 Canadian Provinces One settlement each in Bolivia and Argentina There don’t seem to be any big surprises after looking over the figures. Unlike most […]

Continue Reading From Idaho to Argentina: The Amish Population in 2019

It seems the most contentious issue with Amish moving into Lancaster County towns and subdivisions has to do with housing horses. Amish have been seeking allowances to keep horses on smaller-than-normally-permitted properties. Who among the Amish wants to live in a suburban or “in-town” home? These may be young families, or older retired couples, who […]

Continue Reading Lancaster County Resident Objects To Amish Keeping 2 Horses On Half-Acre Lots

The Amish in Texas County, Missouri are few in number. Nonetheless, they’ve found themselves frequent victims on the roads lately. A woman and her two children are in serious condition after their buggy was hit Friday night by a pickup truck. This was the third buggy accident in two years for this sparsely-populated southern Missouri […]

Continue Reading “Disrespect For Amish” – Underreported Cause Of Buggy Accidents?

Do Amish people believe that when you take their photos, you also take their souls? I’ve heard this idea from time to time over the years. It has always seemed to me like an urban legend or romantic exaggeration – with perhaps just a loose basis in what Amish actually believe. The latest case comes […]

Continue Reading Do Amish Believe Taking A Photo Captures Their Souls?

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..?

Where can you stay on an Amish farm? We often get this question, and happily around this time last year were able to point to amishfarmstay.com. The site lists Lancaster County Amish-owned properties where you can pay to stay overnight. As of last summer the site featured 6 Amish hosts; this year the listings have doubled […]

Continue Reading 12 Amish Farms Where You Can Stay Overnight (Lancaster County – 2019)

What’s it like to attend Amish church as an outsider? In previous posts, we followed Don and Pam Burke as they made their first trips to the Amish in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. In this third post in the series, Don and Pam take us along to a Lancaster County Amish church service*. If you’ve […]

Continue Reading A First Visit To The Amish: Attending Amish Church (9 Photos)

Earlier this month, Don Burke gave us the story of how he first visited the Amish in Ohio, along with photos from that trip. We left off as he and his wife Pam were about to continue on — for a first visit to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. So let’s rejoin them now for the next […]

Continue Reading A First Visit To Amish Pennsylvania (23 Photos)

If you’ve read this site for some time, you’ll know Don Burke has been a long-time contributor here, sharing his visits and top-notch photos from Amish communities around the country. For a few examples, see Don’s trips to Ethridge, Tennessee, inside a Missouri Amish home, or at an “Amish-ish” wedding. Today Don tells us the […]

Continue Reading A First Visit To Amish Ohio (24 Photos)

This is my friend Daniel Weaver. Daniel belongs to a New Order Amish church: You might remember him from the Guardian article “Our faith will be lost if we adopt technology” (which is where this photo comes from). Daniel just opened a market in his community of Morris (Otsego County) in upstate New York. The Daily […]

Continue Reading My Friend Daniel Weaver Has Opened A New Market (Morris, NY)

How many eggs do Amish eat? How much do they can? How often do Amish order pizza or other food to the home? I’m currently reading the new book Nature & The Environment in Amish Life. Authors David McConnell and Marilyn Loveless include a survey revealing interesting points about the Amish diet. They compared the four […]

Continue Reading 5 Surprising Facts About The Amish & Food

I came across some remarkable historical photos on the PBS American Experience site. I believe these were connected with the release of the documentary film “The Amish” in 2012, but I missed them the first time around. There are a total of 13 shots in the gallery which you can view in full, and in […]

Continue Reading 6 Fascinating Historical Amish Photos

I have lately been seeing a lot of list posts on one or another aspect of Amish life. These typically have catchy titles and are designed to get you to click on them. Hard to resist a list! (I’ve been known to create a few myself 😉 ) One caught my eye this week – […]

Continue Reading 20 “Unique” Ways Amish Raise Their Children..?

You may have come across the term “Amish Mennonites” before. It popped up on the site here recently, in our post on the first Amish settlement in America. Both Jim Potter and Al in KY wondered, what does the term mean? You might see it in some accounts referring to a modernizing group which emerged […]

Continue Reading Who are the “Amish Mennonites”?

So another memorable stop from my recent Holmes County trip was at a farm I had first visited a decade earlier. This is a Swartzentruber Amish farm, technically located in Wayne County. They have a creaky signpost by the road displaying whatever it is they have for sale. At the time, the only items on […]

Continue Reading A Visit To A Swartzentruber Amish Rug Seller (12 Photos)

Where was the first Amish community in North America? Lancaster County is the oldest Amish settlement still around today. But it’s not the first place Amish settled on this side of the Atlantic. That distinction belongs to the Northkill settlement that existed in neighboring Berks County*. It was organized by 1740, predating today’s Lancaster settlement […]

Continue Reading The First Amish Settlement in North America

If you’re hungry in Holmes County, you could do a lot worse than Boyd & Wurthmann. This restaurant, located in “downtown” Berlin, is a local institution, serving up sandwiches and hearty meals for 70+ years. I visited in December, again with my friend Rich Stevick. It’s a circa-1940s restaurant and it kind of has that atmosphere […]

Continue Reading A Visit to Boyd & Wurthmann Restaurant – Berlin, Ohio (8 Photos)

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

What do Amish wear to church? In addition to their many women’s head coverings, the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center also has several items of church clothing on display. The Woman’s Cape & Apron First of all, a woman’s cape and apron: The cape and apron are commonly worn on Sunday across communities (we had a […]

Continue Reading Amish Church Clothing (8 Photos)

Why don’t they just build buggy lanes wherever Amish live? People often ask just this, especially when there is a bad buggy accident in the news. Realistically, it’s an idea constrained both by budgets and practicality. But in some limited cases, areas with larger Amish populations have done just that. And some Amish-heavy areas will […]

Continue Reading Buggy Lanes In Action (11 Photos)

Ever noticed how Amish women in different places wear different head coverings? A good example is the heart-shaped Lancaster women’s covering, versus the straight-sided, pleated coverings worn by Amish women in the Midwest. Like other items of Amish clothing, there are quite a few different styles of women’s coverings, and some with rather subtle differences. […]

Continue Reading Comparing Amish Women’s Head Coverings (19 Photos)

You might recall this image from the 5 Mystery Photos post: I explained in the follow-up that this unusual buggy was from the settlement at Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. I had been wanting to visit this settlement for some time and had a chance to do so in early December, but due to time constraints, weather […]

Continue Reading The Amish of Enon Valley, PA (14 Photos)

When I stay at John and Rachel’s* home in Lancaster County, one of my morning tasks is to go on a milk run. This doesn’t mean running down to the store but rather to the closest source possible. And in this part of the world, that means another Amish farm. Here’s the jar I used […]

Continue Reading Morning Milk

This is a photo which we saw on a previous post. Notice anything unusual about this otherwise-standard Maytag wringer washer, common in Amish homes? I wonder if anyone caught it when we shared it before. If you’re still scratching your head, Don Burke explains what’s going on here below. Today Don gives us one last […]

Continue Reading 10 Unexpected Things I Saw In An Amish Home (20 Photos)

Gloria Yoder is an Amish mother from Illinois who writes the Amish Cook column (previously penned by Lovina Eicher). Gloria was recently asked by a reader “What five things do you enjoy the most about the Amish way of life?”, and in this week’s column, she answers. Gloria starts with a couple of important disclaimers: […]

Continue Reading 5 Things I Like About Being Amish, According To Amish Cook Gloria Yoder

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)

What should people who want to join the Amish or Mennonites or other Plain Anabaptist church believe? What about their behavior? What kind of commitments should they be ready to make? Nicci Price – who herself is a convert to an Old German Baptist Brethren church – writes in Mennonite World Review about getting regular […]

Continue Reading 17 Questions For Anabaptist Seekers