From the White House to the Amish is the new book from Katrina Hoover Lee telling the story of Thomas E. Kirkman, who lived a remarkable life which took him from the highest corridors of power to becoming a convert to the Amish. The book is a real page-turner. Katrina wrote Kirkman’s story as a biographical fiction, which she explains in the Q-and-A below. Katrina…
This article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune attempts to examine if there are any connections between the behavior of the Amish and Mennonite population of the Pinecraft community, and the area’s high rates relatively high rates of infection. In a nutshell, the conclusion here is: it’s tough to say. You kind of get the feel that the writer wouldn’t mind making that connection, but the hard…
You probably know by now that if you see “zero” bathrooms, that means this is going to be a plainer Amish abode. And that’s the case with this New York Amish home, which has a quite rustic look to it but appears cozy inside. It also comes with a rather low price tag, which we’ll get to at the end. The community is in western…
Eggs are disappearing in a major way in one Missouri Amish community. From a letter-to-the-editor in the Webster County Citizen: There is something the community needs to be aware of … someone is stealing eggs, chickens, along Highway C and some of the side roads. That may sound minor to most people, but when you make a living off your eggs as the Amish do,…
We’re not told where this singing video takes place, but the dress is Midwestern Amish. We see numerous Amish young people sitting around the table at what looks to be a youth gathering. This is a relatively new video, posted this past November. You can see a wringer washer – are we in a basement, or some kind of utility room? I see some board…
The Young Center at Elizabethtown College provides annual Amish population numbers, with totals for each state, province and so on. But they also have figures for the Old Order Mennonite population, a group similar to Amish in many ways (and in some cases living next door to them as neighbors). According to their latest tallies, the horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites number over 38,000 across their…
We finish out the Rediscovering the Ausbund series with part 4 of 4 today. Thanks to Elam Stoltzfus for sharing with us. This series was originally published in Plain Values magazine. If you missed them, here are parts one, two, and three. Music, hymns and words are ingrained at an early age; indeed there is abundant evidence that babies can hear music before birth. Music…
Here’s one that’s not too common – a mobile home put up for sale by an Amish family. Amish do sometimes live in mobile homes, especially young families starting out. This one is located in Pomeroy, Ohio (Meigs County). I hadn’t heard much if anything of Meigs County, and for understandable reasons. The location is well off the beaten Amish path, lying on the West…
This is a fun story which made me crave an Amish Country favorite food. Food and Wine magazine decided to pick each state’s best sandwich. Ohio’s winner is the hot bologna and Swiss on a bun. The publication sampled this at a somewhat overlooked spot in Holmes County called Trail. Trail is known for its “Trail bologna” named for the little hamlet lying between Walnut…
A new study with COVID implications suggests that acceptance of vaccines by Amish in one of the largest communities (Holmes County) has plummeted in the past 10 years. It also finds that Amish would refuse COVID vaccination at a rate of almost 10-to-1. The key findings: The response rate was 39%. Among 391 respondents, 59% did not vaccinate their children, compared to only 14% that…