I’m traveling on the way to Ohio now and haven’t had a chance to put together a post on Saturday’s visit to NC’s Swartzentruber Amish community and their first annual auction. It was a great visit and you can expect to see more on that soon. Here’s a preview shot, of an Amish auction patron hauling home a wringer washer: Yesterday I stopped at Burke’s…
Amish Acres, in the Nappanee, Indiana community, is one of the best-known Amish tourist destinations, so this news surprised me. The owners are heading for retirement after 50+ years running the business. Amish Acres will shut down this year on New Year’s Eve. There are currently no set plans for it to be taken over. Image: WNDU The attraction features an historic farm which can…
A funeral director serving the Amish in Lancaster County says that Amish rarely donate organs. But the law still requires that the bodies of the deceased be held “until an organ procurement organization reviews the case and releases the body.” This hold-up frequently causes distress to Amish families who wish to proceed with traditional viewing and funeral preparations, according to Philip W. Furman. Furman’s family’s…
The Amish community in the Sarasota-area Pinecraft neighborhood is one of the most unique Amish settlements. I went into more on why in the Florida Amish state guide page, as well as in the 40+ photo post about my 2013 visit. So if you don’t know much about this unusual community, I’d suggest checking out those. One difference between now and that 2013 visit: there…
This story caught my attention first for how the paper framed it with their headline: “Horses lead the way to a less peaceful coexistence in Amish country.” Is that meant to be a cute title? It sounds like it is strictly blaming the Amish for the conflicts, at the least. The article addresses two issues, both of which we’ve had an eye on here. One…
Some Amish people make a supplemental income – and sometimes a full living – through what might be termed “alternative animal breeding”. These are not your everyday cows, pigs, and chickens we’re talking about. The authors of Nature and the Environment in Amish Life explore this topic in chapter 6 of their book (“Tinkering with Creation”), identifying four main categories of this activity found among…
Pioneer Equipment is a longstanding Amish manufacturer which makes horse-drawn equipment, wagons and other vehicles, and related implements. The company got its start in the mid-1970s when Wayne Wengerd and his father Henry tested out a plow prototype on a back field of their land, a response to the growing lack of horse-drawn equipment available to Plain farmers. Amish people had for years used the…
Leaders of a sizeable Amish community in Ohio have accepted a new safety enhancement on their buggies. These are not the Swartzentruber Amish living in Ashland County (though that group has been open to buggy safety changes as well). A second group of Amish living near the city of Ashland are one of the more recognizable communities for their unusual safety-triangle design. Here’s a photo…
“You’re supposed to defend yourself if you’ve been aggressed upon.” That’s what Ora Hochstetler, now 82, says in his own defense, a half-century after his excommunication from the Amish church. He likens it to a famous battle from Scripture: “Kind of like David and Goliath. I don’t believe in just going out and boom, kill somebody, but if I’m aggressed upon, I believe in defending…
Amish father Jonas Stoltzfus recently filed a lawsuit challenging a new New York state law requiring students to be fully immunized against contagious disease. Stoltzfus says he was informed that his three children will be blocked from attending their Cranberry Marsh School, a traditional Amish school in this Seneca County settlement of six church districts. All 24 students at the school are Amish. An Amish…