Pennsylvania Amishman John Stoltzfus has kindly agreed to answer some reader questions about the Amish. Of course “the Amish” includes different groups with different practices. With that in mind, John writes that “my views will not be the only view from our people, because of the vast geographic area of our communities, and because each community or settlement has its own Ordnung. I will try…
Fracking is slowly entering the Amish community at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, located an hour north of Pittsburgh. The community lies above the Marcellus Shale, an underground rock formation stretching across a half-dozen states which contains vast supplies of natural gas. Fracking, in a nutshell, works by drilling into rock formations, and then injecting large amounts of water mixed with chemicals and sand to fracture the…
Amish heat their homes in various ways, including wood and coal stoves and natural gas heaters. But how do they stay warm when they hit the road? The answer to this question would depend in part on what kind of buggy you drive. Those Amish whose Ordnung prohibits a storm front (the “windshield” enclosing the front), such as the Nebraska Amish group, have a harder…
Over the weekend a number of readers sent me a Lancaster Online article which happens to be the best behind-the-scenes look at the ‘Amish Mafia‘ program, and reaction to it, that I’ve read. Some highlights below. On main character Lebanon Levi, from an Amish-raised man who knows him: “He’d rather sit back in a corner than go after somebody,” the man said, claiming he’s hung…
That may seem a dumb question. Hard work = exercise after all, and “hard work” is one of the bullet points in the Amish job description, for most Amish folks anyway. However I think there is a difference between the two. What I mean is the 21st-century Western approach to exercise, where we isolate it as its own, often-intense activity done strictly for health, weight…
“Amish-founded bank” may be a better way to describe the proposal to create a new bank in eastern Lancaster County. Lancaster New Era/Intelligencer Journal reports that operations at Bank of Bird-in-Hand could begin “in the next few months”. The heavily-Amish area is apparently underserved, and the investors see an opportunity there. The article reports that a “substantial” number of the bank’s 18 investors are Amish. If you…
It’s safe to say the past few years have seen increased interest in the Amish. We can see this, among other ways, by the sheer amount of cultural offerings–books, TV, films, and so on–appearing on the scene. This Washington Post slideshow provides a brief listing of reasons why. It accompanies a column on Amish interest which takes as its jumping-off point the popularity of the Amish Mafia…
A reader in Indiana shares photos and a description of a water pump system in an Amish home: This is the most common configuration for a well pump in the Northern Indiana community. A water pump driven by a Honda engine. This picture was taken in one of the houses we looked at buying. This particular unit was located in a side room of the…
What are the boundaries of Amish work? Besides tech limitations, conscience corrals the jobs Amish will do. Morally-questionable businesses are out-of-bounds. For instance, you won’t find Amish working at reservation casinos in Wisconsin, or selling liquor in downtown Philadelphia. But what about working in vineyards? Grape cultivation falls under agriculture, a comfortable occupational zone for Amish. Many Amish have their own home vines, using their…
A reader writes: I took this picture about a month ago in Shipshewana. The surrey buggy on the right is totally different than others in the community. It was a new buggy. I showed the picture to an Amish friend and he said something to the effect of “once and a while you see things like that. Seems like it’s usually new people moving into…