Author: Erik Wesner

Erik Wesner is the creator of amishamerica.com, and author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look At Why Amish Businesses Thrive. Erik began visiting Amish communities in 2004 – eventually meeting thousands of Amish families while selling books.

He began writing about the Amish on this website in 2006, and is often cited in national media, including USA Today, The New York Times, and others on a wide range of Amish topics. A native of North Carolina, Erik has visited dozens of Amish communities across the country, and loves spending time with Amish friends and discovering new Amish places.

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Virginia Department Of Health Says “Stay Away” From Amish Auction – Due To Measles Outbreak

Virginia Department Of Health Says “Stay Away” From Amish Auction – Due To Measles Outbreak

ByErik Wesner
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The Virginia Department of Health doesn’t often have opinions about Amish auctions. This week it made an exception. In a health advisory issued Thursday, the department pointed to the Amish Parochial School Consignment Auction in Dillwyn, set for this Friday and Saturday, as an event people should skip if they’re not vaccinated against measles. That’s because Buckingham County is in the middle of a measles…

11-Year-Old Amish Boy Seriously Injured After Buggy Pulls Into Path Of Oncoming SUV

11-Year-Old Amish Boy Seriously Injured After Buggy Pulls Into Path Of Oncoming SUV

ByErik Wesner
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It’s believed that an 11-year-old Amish boy pulled out into oncoming traffic, resulting in a serious accident in Gladwin County, Michigan on Wednesday morning. According to police the boy’s view was obscured. Here’s more from ABC 12: The crash happened just after 10 a.m. on McCulloch Rd., about a quarter-mile north of Lang Road in Beaverton Township. According to the Gladwin County Sheriff’s Office, an…

12 More Photos From the Central Michigan Amish Retirement Auction

12 More Photos From the Central Michigan Amish Retirement Auction

ByErik Wesner
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Today we’ve got more photos from Jim Halverson’s visit to a retirement auction in Gladwin County, Michigan. It’s a “retirement” auction because the family holding it are apparently getting out of the dairy business. As they write in the sale bill, “We are retiring and will offer the following at Public Auction.” It happens commonly enough. In many cases, a willing son and his family,…

Wisconsin Is America’s #4 Amish State — Here Are Its 10 Largest Communities

Wisconsin Is America’s #4 Amish State — Here Are Its 10 Largest Communities

ByErik Wesner

Wisconsin is home to America’s fourth-largest Amish population, with over 27,000 Amish living across the state. These ten communities rank as the biggest in Wisconsin, based on the most current Amish population estimates. While Wisconsin does not have many very large Amish communities, the state makes up for it in number –  having the second-most individual Amish settlements of any state. Population numbers via Young…

Hundreds of Amish Turn Out for Road, Home, and Farm Safety Day (Nappanee)

Hundreds of Amish Turn Out for Road, Home, and Farm Safety Day (Nappanee)

ByErik Wesner

Amish life presents certain hazards that typical non-Amish life does not. Those can include dangers when traveling by buggy, working on the farm, or even dangers from non-electric fuels in the home. Adding a lot of children to the mix, as is the norm for Amish families, adds another layer to the topic. Of course, Amish parents teach their children the do’s and don’ts for…

16-Year-Old Amish Girl Killed When Semi Rear-Ends Buggy On Indiana State Road

16-Year-Old Amish Girl Killed When Semi Rear-Ends Buggy On Indiana State Road

ByErik Wesner
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A 16-year-old Amish girl named Laura Schwartz was killed when a semi-truck rear-ended the horse-drawn buggy she was riding in. The crash happened early Saturday – the morning of June 6 – in Adams County, Indiana. It’s been a bad stretch on the roads for the Amish — and this is at least the second Amish teen to lose their life in a buggy wreck…

Michigan Driver Strikes Amish Buggy, Ejecting Four — Including Pregnant Woman; Drug Use Suspected

Michigan Driver Strikes Amish Buggy, Ejecting Four — Including Pregnant Woman; Drug Use Suspected

ByErik Wesner
2 Comments

Michigan has returned to the news with another buggy crash — and again, one involving a (potentially) impaired person behind the wheel. A driver rear-ended an Amish buggy Friday evening in St. Joseph County, ejecting all four people inside and leaving a pregnant woman in critical condition. Drug use is suspected. Here’s more from WTVB: According to the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were…

This Rare Deep South Amish Community Now Has 4 Homes For Sale — Is It Disbanding? (20 Photos)

This Rare Deep South Amish Community Now Has 4 Homes For Sale — Is It Disbanding? (20 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
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Back in April we featured an Amish homestead for sale in the Randolph community of Pontotoc County, Mississippi – one of only two Amish settlements in the entire Deep South. Not too long after that post went up, a reader named William left a comment: “There are 3 Amish homes for sale in that area. We’re looking to potentially relocate to the area and are…

Woman With 0.14 BAC Hits Amish Buggy Carrying Five, Including Baby — Then Flees Wrong Way On Highway

Woman With 0.14 BAC Hits Amish Buggy Carrying Five, Including Baby — Then Flees Wrong Way On Highway

ByErik Wesner
1 Comment

An intoxicated 25-year-old woman struck an Amish buggy in Kosciusko County, Indiana several days ago, leaving behind multiple injured victims, and ultimately a trail of ugliness. And I say this is one of the uglier such stories, for several reasons. Those include what happened to the Amish victims involved – but especially for this person’s alleged behavior after the wreck happened. A Series of Bad…

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
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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…