The Bloomfield Amish community is one of the largest in Iowa The Amish community lying north and west of Bloomfield, Iowa is one of the three largest in the state. Like the nearby settlement at Kalona, and the more conservative group found in Buchanan County in the northeast part of the state, Bloomfield is home to roughly 8 church districts, comprising about 175 households. Yet…
It’s nearly 15 years old, but this New York Times article (http://www.cora.org/amish-skate-art.html) remains an interesting look at a “modern” form of transportation used by Amish (and which some may find surprising). In-line skates, aka “rollerblades”, are popular in the Lancaster County settlement. Amish historian Sam Stoltzfus estimates that (at the time of writing) they may be “tacitly” accepted in one third of settlements. In the article,…
A while back I wrote a post on Raber’s Almanac, an annual guide used by the Amish. The Almanac includes an extensive listing of Amish church districts and their ministers. It also includes a Scripture and hymn schedule for church service as well as some folk wisdom and even a dab of astrology, which I examined in the original post. The other day I came…
David Luthy shares the history of Nathan Smiley, born in Ireland to a British mother in 1797. At age four, Nathan arrived in America with his mother, and for reasons unexplained was placed in a foster home in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. That home happened to belong to an Amish family. On coming of age, Nathan chose to join the Amish church, and later married. Nathan Smiley…
Have just recently been finalizing page proofs for Success Made Simple. If you’re wondering, this is the part where the text of the book is placed in the proper font and style and fitted to the page, so it actually looks like the page of a book, as opposed to a Word document, which is what we’ve been using up til now. You work from…
A bit of good news lost in the mix over the holidays, and maybe appropriate to share here on New Year's Day. About a week ago I received word that my friend Abe, whom I've mentioned in the past on the blog, has just become a father for the third time, this one a boy like the previous two. Abe, who is a produce grower…
The third-largest Amish community in Indiana Nappanee is what I tend to think of as a ‘prototype’ Amish community, smallish to medium-sized, centered around a single small town. It’s the type of place where once you leave the main town of a few hundred or thousand souls you’ll find Amish homesteads radiating out in a number of miles in any direction. Little or no suburban…
Not “Amish”, but quite entertaining nonetheless. Kevin Roberts, “Friend” to some and “Quaker” to others, writes a nice blog at quakerthink. In his latest post, Kevin surveys the transportation options available to him on his isolated Ohio homestead, and had me chuckling as he described Dude, the twenty-five dollar donkey that may be worth even less, and the one-holer convenience outhouse that comes in handy…
Temperatures are dropping and that can mean only one thing: the return of the “Amish Miracle Heater”. The device got worked-over pretty well in the press last season, but regardless (or perhaps in part due to all the attention), the sales campaign of the Canton, Ohio-based Heat Surge company was by all accounts wildly successful. Which means the latest round of ads hawking the heater,…
Three points I wanted to discuss on the Missouri Amish abuse case. I confess my previous post on the issue was a bit hastily and not too terribly well written. I also wish I were more of an expert on the Amish approach to two kingdoms doctrine as it would likely come in handy in such cases. I find the two kingdoms doctrine fascinating but…