Nearly three months after the April fire that killed an Amish mother and her six children in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, state police say they cannot determine what caused it. The reason: too much destruction to work with. From the report at PennLive: The cause of the fire in Clinton County that killed an Amish mother and her six children three months ago could not be…
Emergency crews in central Pennsylvania were called to an Amish farm on Saturday evening after a person was run over by a horse. The call came in shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Responders were drawn from both Dauphin and neighboring Perry County. A few details, per PennLive, citing county 911 dispatchers: The call, reported as a traumatic injury,…
Rain tapped steadily against the metal roof while muddy boots shuffled across the floor of the open shed. The building wasn’t insulated — just a tall shell of a structure with church benches lined up beneath dim gray light filtering in through the open doors. Outside, vans sat parked in a wet field, tires slowly sinking deeper into the mud as the rain kept falling….
Reports are coming out over the past hour that authorities in deep southern Illinois are asking for help finding a young Amish man who hasn’t been seen since Friday evening. The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is searching for 20-year-old Joseph Kaufman, who they’ve classified as an “at risk” missing person. Here are the main details concerning his description via KFVS: According to the sheriff’s office,…
Today we’ve got more photos from Jim Halverson’s visit to a retirement auction in Gladwin County, Michigan. It’s a “retirement” auction because the family holding it are apparently getting out of the dairy business. As they write in the sale bill, “We are retiring and will offer the following at Public Auction.” It happens commonly enough. In many cases, a willing son and his family,…
Amish life presents certain hazards that typical non-Amish life does not. Those can include dangers when traveling by buggy, working on the farm, or even dangers from non-electric fuels in the home. Adding a lot of children to the mix, as is the norm for Amish families, adds another layer to the topic. Of course, Amish parents teach their children the do’s and don’ts for…
The church parking lot in Holmes County was already filling when Lizzie and I pulled in. Women in plain dresses, women in jeans, and women in dress slacks moved steadily toward the doors carrying coffee cups, purses, notebooks, and homemade snacks. Some greeted each other like old friends. Others looked nervous, like they were still trying to decide whether they belonged there at all. Inside,…
Jim Halverson recently attended an auction in Gladwin County, Michigan. As you can see from the photos, it was a well-attended event, likely in the hundreds of people. It happened this past Friday, May 29. Auctions are a fixture of Amish community life. They may be estate sales, farm sales, benefit events, or simply a regular community consignment auction. Whatever the occasion, they tend to…
The van heater hummed while the sky was still black outside, and I was deep asleep when— Rap tap tap, rap tap tap, rap tap tap. “Hey, Haley, are you awake?” David B’s baritone voice jolted me upright. I blinked at the clock. 6:00 a.m. Seriously? I thought. Don’t these Amish let their drivers sleep? Apparently not. I slipped out of bed quietly so I…
An Amish-owned grocery store in Newaygo County, Michigan burned to the ground overnight — destroyed in a fire that broke out around midnight Thursday. This is From WOOD TV8: GARFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — An Amish-owned grocery store west of Newaygo burned to the ground overnight. The fire broke out around midnight Thursday at Brookside Discount Grocery on 72nd Street near Croswell Avenue in Garfield…