Two weeks ago NBC ran a piece on Mennonites building homes in the Gulf area, post-Katrina. Five years after the fact, it’s easy to forget there is still a rebuilding effort going on down there. The video below shows Mennonites working on homes in Bayou Country in Louisiana. “We don’t have to know somebody to do good for somebody” says one of the young Mennonite…
Continuing the “10 views” series, today we have photos of Juniata County, Pennsylvania. A couple months ago we had a post on the Juniata County Amish. This community is one of the many lesser-known Pennsylvania settlements. With 8 church districts, it’s actually a pretty sizeable one. That’s about 1000 Amish, give or take. But Juniata County is overshadowed by nearby Big Valley, nearly 4 times…
I think you’ll notice quite a contrast between this photo and last week’s Swiss Amish home photos. This was taken in a Michigan Amish home by Karen Johnson-Weiner: Comparing these photos you can really see the diverse material standards of different Amish groups. I’ve zoomed in on a couple parts to make things more visible: Notice anything familiar? Also if you missed it, inside a…
I left a couple of photos out of last week’s Bowling Green, Missouri Amish collection. Here are shots of an Amish beekeeper’s facilities, and the happy end-product (courtesy of Beth Russo, thank you Beth). First, the hives: These hives are located on the Hilty farm, known as Hilty’s Bee Yard. In addition to regular pure honey, Hilty’s sell Raspberry-flavored Honey (see below), Buckwheat Honey, and…
The Martyrs Mirror is revered by Amish and other Anabaptists. It’s a 1,000+ page book recounting the stories of Christian martyrs. In addition to Biblical-era martyrs, it includes tales of the many early Anabaptists persecuted in Europe. The Martyrs Mirror is in the news because a very old (1748) German-language edition is up for sale at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society auction (I’ve linked to…
Following up last week’s look inside a New York Amish living room, we have a couple more photos of an Amish home interior, courtesy of SUNY-Potsdam anthropology professor Karen Johnson-Weiner. These shots were taken in a home in the Swiss Amish settlement in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Swiss Amish tend to be fairly plain, and I think this interior reflects that. A few things jumped out…
Beth Russo has kindly shared 10 photos of the Amish settlement at Bowling Green, Missouri (Pike County). Beth recently made a trip during which she visited an Amish woodworking shop and a beekeeper. You can find more of her photos on her Facebook page. Bowling Green is the oldest Amish settlement in Missouri, founded in 1947. There are a total of 3 church districts and…
I just got off the phone with an Amish friend, “Alvin”, from Holmes County. I like to call Alvin, a furniture maker, from time to time, to check up on things in Amish Ohio. The big news? March Madness, or I suppose the Plain equivalent, is apparently heading to Holmes County. I’ve written a number of times about Amish and sports. Sports and games are…
Nadege Armour asked in a comment yesterday: Any chance we might be able to see the inside of an anonymous Amish home? Well, here we have a photo of the inside of an Amish home near Clymer, New York, shared by Amish researcher Karen Johnson-Weiner: First off, you can see one of the most important types of technology in an Amish home (at least in…
Traveling through Amish settlements you may notice something like this: That’s not a Plain people hauler, nor the caboose of some sort of horse-drawn train. This bulky vehicle is a church wagon, and you’ll see them throughout Amish America. Each Amish church district will have its own wagon, used to transport benches from one location to the next. The benches are mainly used as seating…