Amish Facts

On the whole, the Amish are avid hunters. In Nature & The Environment in Amish Life, one Amishman puts plainly how much hunting mattered in his community: “When I was growing up, if you didn’t hunt, it was almost as if you didn’t belong.” (p. 148). Why does hunting appeal to the Amish? For one, […]

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Joseph Donnermeyer of Ohio State University today shares with us an article published two weeks ago in the Budget newspaper. In it, Joe looks back at all the Amish settlement attempts throughout their history in North America. He highlights some interesting figures, including a total of 342 settlement attempts since 2000. At first that seemed […]

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On the heels of the “20 Unique Ways Amish Raise Their Kids” article, another click-magnet piece popped up on my news feed this morning. This one is called “15 Insane Rules All Amish Kids Must Follow.” I take “Insane” in this context to mean crazy, odd, or absurd (that is, according to the article writer/editor). […]

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Which states are home to the most Amish? Here are the top 15 states ordered by how many Amish people live in each. Numbers are based on the 2018 figures from the Young Center. I’ve grouped the states into 3 tiers below. You’ll also find a brief description of each state’s Amish population. The three figures in […]

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Donald Kraybill is retired, but hasn’t slowed down much as far as putting out books. He has a new one out called Simply Amish, a short overview of the Amish. He recently sat down with LNP/Lancaster Online to answer some reader questions on camera, about the Amish in general but with a focus on Lancaster […]

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One thing that makes the Amish such a rich and vibrant group is that there are various ways of “being Amish”. Something about each of the 10 settlements below makes them unusual – meaning something seen in few, or no other Amish communities. This might have to do with their transportation, way of worship, or […]

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In many ways, the Amish are not one uniform group. To take one example, there are material differences between churches and communities. On one end, there are Amish who permit telephones in the home, regularly hire Amish taxi drivers to transport them for errands or to and from work, and who have homes which visually […]

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Last month we explored 5 common features of the most conservative Amish communities. Today let’s have a look at 5 things found in the more progressive Amish communities. The term “progressive” comes with a caveat, as the word can refer to different things. For instance this could mean materially progressive – meaning allowing higher levels of […]

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We had a look at icehouses last week, which you’ll find in plainer Amish settlements. What are some other things you’d expect to find in the most traditional Amish communities? 5 Features of the Most Traditional Amish Settlements 1. Outhouses   – So we start with another type of “house”. Homes in the plainest Amish communities […]

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Popular Mechanics recently published an in-depth look at the Amish buggy. The main source for this story was an unidentified Amish buggy maker in Lancaster County, PA. Amish buggies have all sorts of technology built into them, from the lighting, to the brakes, to the suspension system. As article author Matthew Jancer writes: You might have thought […]

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