Somerset County, Pennsylvania is home to one of the most intriguing of Amish settlements. It’s small and not especially well-known, but it has an important history as a “seed settlement” for other large and significant Amish communities (including Holmes County and Arthur, Illinois). It also has the unusual distinction of being one of the few Amish groups which use meetinghouses for worship. The vast majority…
Anna Schrock continues with part two on her time as part of the Lancaster County New Order Amish. If you missed part 1, you can find that here. Beautiful Farms & Simple(?) Living As you drive through the Lancaster County countryside, you may notice that most of the farms and homesteads are very neat looking. Yards are neatly manicured, and the landscaping is breathtaking. It…
Anna Schrock has an unusual backstory for a person who grew up Amish. Her family was a part of the New Order Amish movement in Lancaster County. The New Order Amish are primarily associated with Ohio, and particularly Holmes County (though today there are communities in quite a few other states). As the Ohio New Orders emerged in the 1960s, there was another New Order…
Writing in to the Finger Lakes Times in early December, a reader made the following claim as part of a review of communism and socialism through history: The only form of communism today that is the same from several hundred years ago is the Amish. Yes, they practice a true form of communism right here in the USA! Last week a reader named Ivan Martin…
In our interview with Nic Stoltzfus on German Lutherans To Pennsylvania Amish: The Stoltzfus Family Story, we also learned about the contribution of Nic’s father Elam, who provided many of the beautiful photos in the book. Today, Elam shares part 1 of 4 in a series he wrote on the Ausbund. This was originally published in Plain Values, a Holmes County-based magazine geared towards Amish…
In some Amish communities, such as Lancaster County, the traditional wedding season is the autumn months following harvest, spanning from late October, through November, and into December. In other communities (and for that matter, in Lancaster County as well), that tradition has given way to weddings happening at other times of the year, such as May or June. But with the traditional wedding season arriving,…
This was filmed in Pinecraft Park by Ernie Bontrager, who made many Amish-themed films before his recent passing. This group of older folks sing a hymn which Ed describes as a funeral song. The hymn has a joyful feel and theme: “God Be With You Til We Meet Again.” Ed filmed this sitting amongst the group which gives you the feel that you are in…
The large organized searches for Linda Stoltzfoos have been stopped at this time according to the Facebook page dedicated to Linda’s search (“postponed until farther [sic] notice from authorities to resume directed searches in specific areas”). The latest significant news came from last Thursday’s press conference, in which new photos of Smoker’s car were released, and state police asked for surveillance footage and information from…
Here’s a simple article from the Alberta Press giving us a look at the Amish approach to “retirement” and aging. This comes from the Prince Edward Island settlement at Dundas. It largely consists of an interview with James Kuepfer, 35, and his father Peter (as an aside, note Kuepfer is not a common name among the Amish, but it is found in Canada). The men…
While we’ve lately featured numerous videos of Amish singing, we haven’t had too many examples of church singing here. If you haven’t heard Amish church singing before, today’s clip of Amish singing Lebt Friedsam, by Ed Yoder, will give you a sense of what it is like. A song leader opens with the first notes of each line of the hymn. The congregation then joins…