It’s fun to visit a new Amish community when you have someone waiting there to greet you. Last Monday I had a chance to drop in on Mark Curtis, son of frequent commenter Don Curtis. If you recall from last year’s account, Mark joined the Amish after living much of his adult life on the other side of the fence, at the age of 50….
Reader Darlene paid a recent visit to Amish near Stone Arabia, New York (Montgomery County). This is in the Mohawk Valley area of the state, near the Adirondack Mountains, and in the vicinity of the town of Fort Plain. In New York Amish, Karen Johnson-Weiner writes that Amish migration to the area began in 1986, when Byler Amish (New Wilmington, PA roots) settled in the…
Summer is when people travel. Many of those trips take in Amish areas. Actually, in a lot of states it’s getting harder to drive anywhere without passing near an Amish spot on the map. I also know a lot of you live in or near Amish settlements. So I thought I’d throw it out–are you visiting any Amish communities this summer? (or have you already?)…
The Young Center of Elizabethtown College has just released annual Amish population estimates. The big news: over the past year Amish settled two states with no existing communities. Wyoming I had heard about Amish heading to Wyoming late last summer. I’m told the new community has ties with Amish in southern Wisconsin. At around half a million people, Wyoming is America’s least-populated state, but one…
Good news for Amish drivers in southern Indiana. The Amish settlement in Daviess County will be getting buggy lanes on one major road. The Odon-Cannelburg road runs north-south through the middle of this community. The road, also known as County Road 900 E, is a major economic artery with Amish buggies, semi’s, cars, and all types of motorized transportation sharing the road, with sometimes disastrous results. The…
Tonya Clifford shares a batch of photos today from Ethridge, Tennessee.
There has been some discussion over whether an Amish community exists at Verdigre in Nebraska. Here’s what I wrote a year ago in the Nebraska Amish state guide: The Verdigre area (Knox County) was home to another Amish settlement founded by Amish from Michigan in 2003. The pioneer couple, Eddie and Mattie Petersheim, were profiled in a newspaper article shortly after arriving in Nebraska. The Petersheims sought…
The best known Amish community in Ohio is of course the huge Holmes County settlement, home to around 30,000 Amish. Next would be the Geauga County community, the fourth largest of all Amish settlements, with a little less than half the population of Holmes County. Those may be the most well known Ohio Amish locations, but there are many other Amish settlements scattered across the…
Texas is home to one small Amish community, near Beeville, county seat of Bee County. Reader Debbie shares photos and comments today following a visit to the community. Stacked up against the verdant lands of Lancaster or midwestern Amish communities this is hardscrabble territory, which the photos here reveal. About businesses, Debbie comments that “There is a main store at the beginning of the settlement….
The Harmony, Minnesota Amish community is the largest in the state. In the video below, a television station visits the community and interviews an Amishman named Dennis as well as a local tour guide. It’s a brief but enjoyable look at this conservative Swartzentruber settlement. I don’t recall a lot of cases in which Swartzentruber Amish appeared on camera. Dennis gives a nice interview here;…