This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of an unusual (at least at the time) Amish settlement in Indiana. In December of 1991, two Amish families departed Lancaster County for their new home 700 miles away in the Hoosier State. New settlements were less common then than they are today, and Lancaster Amish had rarely moved outside the state to form new communities….
Justo Smoker today pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, kidnapping and other charges, admitting to killing Linda Stoltzfoos in June of last year. He will serve a sentence of 35½-to-71 years in prison as part of a plea deal. Smoker is 35 years old. He will avoid the death penalty. He also faces further charges over a parole violation which could add about 17½ more years. Lancaster…
It’s being reported that Justo Smoker is expected to plead guilty tomorrow (Friday) in the Lancaster County Courthouse. Smoker has been charged with homicide, kidnapping and false imprisonment regarding the disappearance and death of Linda Stoltzfoos. However, one – wrinkle? – in this report is the fact that it’s not being made known to which charges he’ll plead guilty. From Lancaster Online: The Lancaster County…
Amish in Farmersville, New York have threatened to move if a wind farm is built in their area. They are involved in a conflict between Alle-Catt Wind Energy (owned by energy giant Invenergy) and local residents organized as the Coalition of Concerned Citizens fighting the proposed 117-turbine farm. So it’s not just a case involving the Amish (I don’t know that the Amish are even…
This is a feel-good story from an off-the-beaten-path Amish corner of Ohio. Amish had remodeled a barn into a two-story home in a small settlement in Harrison County, Ohio (this is about a 40-minute drive southeast of the Holmes County community). The newly-remodeled home burned down July 2. True to form, a week later, Amish were already putting up a new home. But for me,…
I’m highlighting this report to make the point that motor vehicle drivers are not always at fault in car-buggy accidents. In this accident, the buggy driver failed to yield. A reminder that Amish are humans and also do not drive perfectly. Fortunately, the eight-year-old passenger who was thrown from the buggy has only non-life-threatening injuries. From syracuse.com: Orleans, N.Y. — An 8-year-old boy was thrown…
Last month we got a report and photos of the West Kootenai Amish auction (Rexford, MT). This latest report is from another Montana settlement well-known for its auction – the one at St. Ignatius. This single-church-district settlement is the Treasure State’s second oldest, having come into existence back in 1997. We’ve seen stories on this community before – including on the settlement’s Mission General Store,…
Linda Byler is rare in the world of Amish fiction writing. She is an actual member of an Old Order Amish church in an industry dominated by non-Amish writers. That’s one reason I found this recent profile of Linda so interesting. It begins charmingly with Linda not being totally sure how many books she’s actually written since first picking up the pen in 2003: While…
Fourteen Amish families settled in a corner of Kansas (Hartford in Lyon County) in the summer of 2020. That community just held a benefit to raise funds for a new school (article in the Emporia Gazette). Amishman Eddie Yoder explained that the event had two purposes: “to raise money for a much-needed school building and also an an opportunity to get to know people in…
Fireworks. A swamp. “Dead Man’s Hollow”. An Amish horse stuck up to its neck. It sounds like the elements of a TV drama or Halloween story. But these all came into play in the village of Union City in Michigan this past weekend. So I didn’t expect to post another Amish fireworks accident story so soon, but I guess the week following July 4th would…