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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5 Outdated Technologies Amish Still Use

5 Outdated Technologies Amish Still Use

ByErik Wesner
75 Comments

Have you ever heard one Amish person suggest another Amish person is “behind the times”? It might sound funny, but you do hear things like that in places like Holmes County, Ohio. That community is a grab-bag of Amish groups–some very restrictive of technology, some liberal. Of course, Amish aren’t anti-technology. But different groups make different decisions about technology. In fact, many do use certain modern devices, tools, and gadgets. LED lights, recumbent…

Man Arrested in Amish Home Intrusion Case

ByErik Wesner
10 Comments

A frankly creepy story has hopefully come to an end in Lancaster County. Last November you might have caught a report of an intruder entering Amish homes in eastern Lancaster County. The man in both cases would touch Amish females while they slept. He would speak to them and then leave. A 27-year-old Lancaster County man was arrested Friday and charged in one incident in East Earl township: According…

Growth of the Amish in Kentucky (and the South)

ByErik Wesner
17 Comments

In “The Growth of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Communities in Kentucky” (see latest issue of JAPAS), Joseph Donnemeyer and Corey Anderson examine the development of Amish and other Anabaptist communities in the Bluegrass State. They also touch on Amish settlement (or lack thereof) in the southern states. I pulled some interesting points from the article to share with you below. Amish-Mennonites in Kentucky One thing to be aware…

Rich Stevick: Why Not Everyone Approves of Pinecraft

ByErik Wesner
38 Comments

Rich Stevick checks in from Pinecraft, where he and wife Pauline are reloading on vitamins C and D courtesy of the Florida sun and citrus. Today Rich shares excerpts from chapter 6 of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years, giving us a glimpse of life in the “Plain People’s Paradise”. The Sarasota-area neighborhood is a popular destination for older folks, Amish youth, and vacationing families. But not…

Five Trees Memorialize Nickel Mines Girls

Five Trees Memorialize Nickel Mines Girls

ByErik Wesner
25 Comments

I had never been in the Nickel Mines area until after the infamous school shootings of October 2006. Even later, I never sought it out. I guess because I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing so. But over the past few years I have happened to pass by a few times. Usually it was hauling Amish friends to somewhere in the southern end of Lancaster County, our route taking us…

The 5 Friendliest Amish Communities

The 5 Friendliest Amish Communities

ByErik Wesner
137 Comments

Which are the most friendly Amish communities? Yes, to answer that question we do have to generalize. But I think it’s true that Amish communities can take on a certain character. If you’ve visited more than one Amish community and met enough people, you may have noticed this. People in some places just seem more happy to see you than in others. Below are my (non-scientific) choices for “most…

Jim Cates: How Amish Solve Problems–Outside the Courtroom

Jim Cates: How Amish Solve Problems–Outside the Courtroom

ByErik Wesner
17 Comments

Jim Cates returns today with a look at Amish lay leaders, the National Amish Steering Committee, and solving problems outside the courts. Part one of Jim’s discussion of Amish and politics can be found here. — Politics Is the Art of Looking for Trouble The entire quote (by Groucho Marx, no less) actually goes “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing…

Amish Boy Killed Chasing Wind-blown Hat

ByErik Wesner
25 Comments

From Syracuse.com: RICHLAND, N.Y. — Black horse-drawn buggies were parked outside a wooden house where Amish people were crowded inside — laughter and the smell of food spilled out of the front door Saturday afternoon. When Levi Swartzentruber came to the door though, his green eyes watered at the mention of his 6-year-old son Jonathan L. Swartzentruber. He died after being hit by an SUV…

David Arment: How Bob Found His Way Home

ByErik Wesner
20 Comments

I met Bob by accident, or fate, hard to know which it was. He and I spent three hours together one Sunday morning in September, walking the countryside, my Sunday shoes getting wet from the dew. He was a good listener, but he often got bored and wanted to run. He is young so you have to forgive his wandering attention. Bob has four legs…

The Gemeinde Register

The Gemeinde Register

ByErik Wesner
31 Comments

Do you know who’s under the weather in your community, who just had a baby, or where to get a good deal on a sewing machine? If you were Amish and received the church newsletter, you’d have all this information at your fingertips. While wider-audience papers like the Budget and Die Botschaft have multi-state and national reach, papers such as the Lancaster Gemeinde Brief (covering Lancaster…