With the recent Amish smoke alarm controversy in mind, Tom Geist may very well have found a solution to the problem. Clearly, Tom has a sense of humor. Apparently the Swartzentruber Amish people he shares this with do too: “They all seem to laugh” says Tom. As you can see from these photos, this is very low-tech indeed. With the added bonus of being easy-to-construct…
How do Amish religious beliefs shape their views of nature? What outdoor recreational activities do they favor? What can be learned about their approach to gardening, animal husbandry, and agriculture? David McConnell and Lyn Loveless are exploring many questions like these in a new book project on the Amish and nature. Lyn Loveless is a professor of biology at the College of Wooster, and David is…
How do Amish harvest ice? Arthur Bolduc recently joined a crew for a day of ice-cutting in Knox County, Ohio to give an inside look into the process. Ice is a necessity for those Amish who don’t use mechanical refrigeration, relying instead on ice houses. But the way they get their ice varies. Amish in Geauga County, for instance, purchase ice stored in ice vending stations scattered throughout the…
I’m happy to welcome Janneken Smucker, author of Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon, who will be sharing her Amish quilt expertise with us here. Janneken is Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University, consulting curator for the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and author of multiple publications on quilts and quilting (read a Q-and-A with Janneken on Amish quilts). Janneken…
Amish researcher and writer Donald Kraybill will be retiring from his position at Elizabethtown College as senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. This semester will be his last one teaching at the college. I wanted to share a few thoughts, including on how I first met Don. I also asked Don a few questions about his plans now, challenges of his work,…
Author Serena Miller believes so. A TIME magazine article titled “Why Amish Kids Are Happier Than Yours” offers five “secrets” English parents can learn from the Amish. They’re taken from Miller’s book More Than Happy: The Wisdom of Amish Parenting. One of these five ideas I hadn’t thought of before. Any guess which one? Here they are, summarized: Extended Family – large family networks boost a child’s well-being. Imperfect Hospitality –…
Merlyn Yoder belongs to an Old Order Amish church in northern Indiana. A few weeks ago he shared why he felt the Ausbund is such an important book. In Why the Amish Sing: Songs of Solidarity and Identity, author D. Rose Elder explores the different purposes of Amish church song, including “to uplift spirits, to express devotion, and to experience joy in faithfulness to God.” As an Amish person…
The reader who shares today’s video clip (at end of post) writes, “it’s different, with some instruments”. Those instruments include a Casio keyboard, guitar and accordion. This is a short clip filmed last year by Ernest Bontrager in Pinecraft. He describes the group as the “Tri Valley Singers from Ohio”. The girls played on Estrada Street “to a large Amish crowd.” I would agree, it is…
From Syracuse.com: RICHLAND, N.Y. — Black horse-drawn buggies were parked outside a wooden house where Amish people were crowded inside — laughter and the smell of food spilled out of the front door Saturday afternoon. When Levi Swartzentruber came to the door though, his green eyes watered at the mention of his 6-year-old son Jonathan L. Swartzentruber. He died after being hit by an SUV…
Do you know who’s under the weather in your community, who just had a baby, or where to get a good deal on a sewing machine? If you were Amish and received the church newsletter, you’d have all this information at your fingertips. While wider-audience papers like the Budget and Die Botschaft have multi-state and national reach, papers such as the Lancaster Gemeinde Brief (covering Lancaster…