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

Young Amish boy driving a two-horse team pulling a hay rake through a field — Amish are starting a new community in a Southern state they’ve rarely called home. Photo: Don Burke

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 in, according to the story at WTVA-9:

BALDWYN, Miss. (WTVA) — Prentiss County ordered new road signs to alert drivers about Amish horses and buggies.

This news comes as an Amish community recently moved onto a property in the Geeville community, northwest of Baldwyn. …

District 3 Supervisor Kyle Murphy said the new residents arrived recently.

“To my knowledge, the first ones moved this past weekend, actually,” Murphy said. “They’d been working on a house for the last couple of weeks prior to that, and they actually moved this last weekend.”

One note: it’s a bit unclear to me whether this is one household or more than one. The text says that a “community recently moved onto a property” — but that description contains some internal tension.

Swartzentruber Amish buggy parked beside a tank and construction materials at a new Amish homestead in Prentiss County, Mississippi — The Amish have begun moving into Prentiss County, Mississippi. Image: WTVA-9/Y

I say “tension” because Amish families usually each purchase their own individual properties to live on, rather than a whole “community” moving onto a single property (though multiple-home Amish properties are hardly unheard of).

Then there’s the comment from Kyle Murphy, that “the first ones move this past weekend”. “First ones” could refer to one family, or more than one.

One family does not a community make, but get one or two more in, and then you’re talking. And it sounds like that’s the way it is heading, if it’s not there already — especially since the county has gone ahead and ordered buggy signs.

The WTVA video report (at bottom) adds a bit more context, with reporter Jake Holcomb saying that “they bought a lot of land in the Geeville community, but so far only a handful have actually moved onto that land.”

There have been other Amish settlements in Mississippi besides these two, with the earliest dating all the way to 1896, but those mainly existed in the first half of the 20th century.

Amish Rolling In — Welcome Mat Rolling Out

One positive sign: this appears to be a community that is happy to have the Amish coming in. It’s not always that way (or eventually gets to a point where it’s not that way).

But we learn that local residents have already gotten a “positive impression” from their new Amish neighbors:

Neighbor James Roberts said members of the community have offered to help with repairs on his property.

“They’ve talked about doing things for me, as far as fixing my barn and stuff,” Roberts said. “They’re never up against the fence, and before they do anything, as far as close to the property line, they always come and ask.”

Those are the kinds of things, Amish or not, which will make people happy that you’ve arrived. Along those lines, I also like the peppy chyron on the WTVA report: “The Amish are rolling into town.” And you can tell the reporter is having fun with this one.

I also love this quote in the video, from one young man named Gage Roberts:

“They’re moving in so we don’t have to drive like two hours to the Amish, when we can just walk two minutes through the backyard.”

By the way, I’m guessing he’s talking about driving to the large-ish Ethridge, Tennessee community, which is about two hours away, and probably where you’d go if you want to visit a wider selection of Amish stores and have more of an “Amish County experience.” As opposed to the much closer but significantly smaller Randolph community in Mississippi.

Murphy also urged everybody to “please be cautious” on the roads to prevent accidents. It will take some getting used to for local drivers. The buggy warning signs have been ordered, and “should be up in the next couple of weeks” according to Holcomb.

So it’s really good on WTVA to be doing this report — and for that matter, a good idea for news stations in other areas to run coverage like this when a new Amish community is rolling into town.

Where might they have come from?

Mississippi has one other Amish settlement — the Swartzentruber community at Randolph, in Pontotoc County, about fifty miles to the southwest. That community was founded in 1995 by families from Ethridge, Tennessee.

But based on online real estate activity, signs are that people are leaving. I noted in June that four Randolph-area Amish homes were up for sale online at the time. And a Die Botschaft scribe from Randolph has written about at least one Randolph family (the Noah S. Hostetlers) planning to help start the new Amish settlement at Clanton, Alabama.

The Amish settlement in Pontotoc County, Mississippi (Randolph)

So there are several possibilities — the Prentiss County families are an internal Mississippi move, or an offshoot of Ethridge, Tennessee or from another Swartzentruber community. And I think it’s clear they are a Swartzentruber group, based on the buggy image featured in the WTVA report.

A couple of months ago we also heard from a commenter on the Amish America YouTube channel, who wrote about the Ellenboro, North Carolina Swartzentruber community — which has been showing signs of decline:

“Unfortunately, the Ellenboro community is leaving. They are splitting up. Half are going to Kentucky and some are going to Mississippi.”

If that report was accurate, the North Carolina Mississippi-bound families have to land somewhere. Perhaps Prentiss County is that destination. Someone out there knows better than I do, and when I learn more I’ll be glad to update this post.