Amish Life

Dr. Holmes Morton, of the Clinic for Special Children located in Strasburg, PA is planning to open a new clinic in Pennsylvania’s second-largest Amish community, known as Big Valley. The modest Lancaster County medical center specializes in treating rare genetic diseases which disproportionately affect Amish and Mennonite communities. It garners wide support from the Plain community, seen financially in donations and auctions which help provide it funding. The new…

In the photos below, you can see the unusual sight of Lancaster-style clothing in the northern Indiana (Elkhart-Lagrange) Amish settlement. These Pennsylvania visitors were apparently in town for a wedding. First, you see some local families arriving, in Indiana-style clothing (with women in Lancaster-style clothing on the far right). Next, a mixed group: You can see that both men and women have different head coverings,…

I’ve zoomed in below on a few chunks of this superb panorama photo shared by reader Mike Atnip (you might recall his previous panorama of the Meadow Mill School Auction). Mike describes this photo as “Lining up for the pony parade at New Bedford, Ohio.” The 15-minute parade, which you can see includes many Amish children as well as adults helping out, is part of the area’s…

Michigan Live reports that an Amish toddler was killed on the road Wednesday in Hillsdale County. According to the Sheriff’s Office: a 56-year-old Pittsford, Mich. man was driving his 1999 Chevy S-10 pickup truck northbound on S. Bird Lake Road south of Tamarack Road when the child walked across the road at the crest of a hill. The 56-year old man stated he tried to swerve to…

What would you do if the family pet started behaving badly–at the worst possible moment–at dinner in an Amish home? Jim Cates shares some humorous–and revealing–mealtime stories in today’s post on the importance of the Amish family. Are Amish and English families as different as we might think? Family: The Building Block of Amish Life Writer Nancy Mitford once said “The great advantage of living in a…

A nine-year-old Amish girl was accidentally shot on her family’s Mercer County, Pennsylvania farm on Saturday. Firearms are common in Amish farm households. The father had been using the 12-gauge shotgun to shoot rodents, and set it down to fish on a pond on the property. According to PA State Trooper Joseph Morris, “there were several younger children that we believe caused the firearm to discharge.”…

I’m in Lancaster County this week, catching up on all the pie I’ve missed eating, and doing other important thing like that…but I will be popping in here periodically. And we have some posts lined up for you. Look for another “Five Points” list post on Wednesday (topic hint: this week’s list was inspired by the response to one of last week’s posts). And on…

You’re never too old to throw a snowball, right? I’m 36, and I’ll confess to tossing a few earlier this winter, so I hope not 🙂 . On the lighter side of things, the photos here are from a snowball fight that broke out among Amish youth somewhere in northern Indiana. The photographer writes: “A youth was joining church today in our district and there were…