Inside a Snowy Amish Community in Rural Missouri (21 Photos)
How about a look-in at another off-the-beaten-path Amish settlement? This one is at Kahoka, Missouri, in the northeastern corner of the state. The photos here are all by Don Burke.
The Kahoka community (Clark County) today is two church districts in size, with a little over 200 Amish residents. It’s just one of over 60 Amish settlements in Missouri.
These photos were taken back in 2015, and are mostly presented here for your enjoyment with no comment.
However, we do have a bit of settlement history, which Don shares. This account dates from 2016:
In 1985, some families from Bowling Green, Missouri and Maywood, Missouri were checking out different areas in northeast Missouri, thinking of starting a new settlement. Some land was bought that summer Northeast of Kahoka, Northwest of Wayland, Missouri, sort of on the ridge between the Des Moines River, and Fox River.
Bishop Peter C. Burkholders moved in first, in October, from Maywood, Paul Eichers, and Jacob Masts moved in from Bowling Green in November, and Eli Burkholder also came in from Maywood. Two school houses were built to start the 1986-1987 school term, having forty (40) school children, when the tenth family moved in soon school started.
School for the first four families was held in Peter Burkholder’s basement, that first winter. Of the first ten families only three remain here, others moved out. Others moved in from Kenton and Marrietta, Oregon*, plus a few other areas.
Twenty-four of the twenty-three families here at present, married here or married elsewhere and brought their partner back.
*It’s likely this “Oregon” is a typo; Don’s theory is that it was written as “OH” originally and misread as “OR” by whoever transcribed it – especially since Amish settlement in Oregon has been scarce, while there are Amish settlements today in the vicinity of both Kenton and Marietta, Ohio.
This might be my favorite from the whole set, saved for last. A family dog waits outside of a phone shack, no doubt his or her owner inside taking care of some phone business.
Thanks to Don for this great set. Check out more posts by Don here.
Amish were there
Looking at these photos made me shiver. Winter in an Amish settlement has a certain look to it — cold outside, but you know somewhere there’s a warm kitchen and a wood stove going.
I’ve spent years driving Amish around Missouri and somehow never drove Amish to Kahoka.
I grew up in Oregon. Over a century ago, there was a small Amish settlement out there. Amish in my area once asked me to drive them there – they wanted to see the old house that belonged to their grandparents, and visit the little Amish cemetery that is rumored to still be there.