Amish Life

Here’s a video from Daniel Stoltzfus, of his wife Lydia discussing and sharing some of her scrap quilts. They are not in an Old Order Amish church, but grew up in one. I always love hearing this accent. Daniel and Lydia are parents to Lillian Stoltzfus, who passed away this summer at age 46. You can see Lillian in this video as well. At the…

Gallia County is way down in southeastern Ohio on the West Virginia border. I visited back in 2013 – it’s well off the beaten track, but a pleasant place by my impression, with some beautiful hilly country. There are two Amish settlements in this county, one of five church districts and the other of two. A writer named Jason Williams did something rather unusual: he…

Via WHAM: (WHAM) – New York State Police are asking for help to find a man suspected of trying to lure children off of an Amish buggy in Seneca County. Investigators said they were contacted after a man driving down Dublin Road in Junius approached a buggy that was carrying several children. The man reportedly tried to lure the children into his car by offering…

A little Amish girl is safe thanks to the quick response of a Pennsylvania state trooper. Via WTAE: MARIENVILLE, Pa. — A state police officer jumped into action to save a toddler in a runaway buggy. A 3-year-old Amish girl was alone in a buggy in Marienville, Forest County when the horse was spooked. The horse took off at full gallop and the buggy almost…

Meet “Amish Woman“. She’s a mom of 12 and a recent settler in a young Missouri community. A reporter with a local paper spoke with her and managed to learn a good bit about her life and church. She actually shares a lot more detail than I’d expect from this sort of “our new neighbors the Amish” report. Not the actual “Amish Woman” Amish people…

This obituary tells of an Amishman named Jonas A. Nisley who passed away late last month in Ohio. Jonas had 310 living descendants. If you add his step-descendants, you get an additional 70 individuals, for a total of 380 souls. Here’s the tally of his family, in addition to his twelve children: 96 grandchildren; 11 step-grandchildren; 201 great-grandchildren; 57 step-great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and two step-great-great-grandchildren….

Lovina Eicher takes us through a typical day for her family in her latest Lovina’s Amish Kitchen column. It’s a nice look at some of the tasks and routines in an Amish household and family. A couple of things stand out to me. One is obviously the early start to the day. Amish families on average probably wake up earlier than 99% of Americans. That’s…

Several readers shared this somewhat surprising story with me. Here’s a video showing a parade in support of President Trump, which took place Saturday in and outside of Fredericksburg, Ohio: This is in the Holmes/Wayne County settlement. There were a reported 500 people who gathered in this small town lying just over the county border. If you watch the video, you’ll see it is a…