From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through Ohio and Indiana and on out to other long-established settlements in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, we tend to associate the Amish with the nation’s middle latitudes. Since their earliest years in America, the Amish have gravitated to the cooler climes of these corn and dairy regions. However, the Amish have also had a long history of attempting to settle America’s southern…
photo: waynet.org Indiana is an interesting place when it comes to Amish diversity. In the Hoosier state, you will find communities of New Order, Swartzentruber, ‘Swiss’, and of course, ‘standard’ Old Order Amish. One relatively new influence in the state has been the presence of two settlements of Lancaster Amish, which both formed in the 1990’s. The two settlements, on opposite sides of the state…
It might not be too clear in the photo, but in the New Wilmington, Pennsylvania Amish settlement, even the milk house doors get painted blue. Photo from late September 2007. And if you’d like to get a closer look at this community, Bill shares how, thanks to some lovely Google technology: PA 208 is available in “Street View” on Google maps. The Amish settlement runs…
lithograph: Stan Jolley An Amish friend recently pointed out that the Amish population (roughly 220,000 today), currently doubling in size every 20-odd years, will hit a million sometime in the 2050s. For what it’s worth, 200 years from now, if current trends hold (a huge ‘if’), we should expect to see…204 million Amish on the planet. That would be over five times the current population…
Shannon shares some nice photos from the Amish settlement at Montcalm County, Michigan. Shannon says that the family she knows here belongs to the ‘Troyer Amish’ group. There are currently 24 Amish settlements in Michigan, according to the latest Calender, the almanac-and-guide to Amish church districts. The oldest Michigan settlement, that in the vicinity of Centreville in St. Joseph County, dates to 1910. It is…
‘Sylvan’, one of my Amish friends in Lancaster County, runs a scooter workshop in addition to milking cows. In Lancaster County and related settlements, you rarely see bicycles–in Lancaster, for instance, there are only a few church districts I’m aware of that seem to allow them. I’ve also seen scooters in use among the Amish of Allen County, Indiana, and I’d imagine they’d be found…
Amish also enjoy competitive team sports. This photo, taken by Holly in Mount Hope, Ohio, illustrates one of the most popular. Amish typically play sports as children and as members of the youth. On marriage and having kids, participation in sports tends to drop off markedly. It’s also worth remembering that different groups of Amish may have differing opinions on the matter of sports. Generally…
Across America in places where the Amish have set up shop, local businesses and government authorities have had to adapt some practices to accommodate the preferred Amish transportation. Traffic Jam off County Road 77 in Holmes County, Ohio Sometimes an Amish group showing up in an area can lead to disputes with locals over horse mess or hoof damage on roads. The smarter businesses, or…
As you venture further south in the Holmes County Amish settlement, towards the Coshocton County line, two things happen. The countryside gets more rugged, and the churches more conservative. The large Amish settlements–Holmes County, Lancaster County, northern Indiana–have their progressive and conservative factions. In Holmes County, the area past Charm and Farmerstown, down around Becks Mills and New Bedford and on into Coshocton County is…
Who loves rankings? (everyone loves rankings) – today I offer my personal top-five favorite Amish settlements. I hope you’ll indulge my self-indulgence for this one day (I’ve been wanting to do this post for a long time!). I haven’t been everywhere, but of the 17-or-so communities I’ve visited, these are the ones I would most readily revisit (and do when I can), and why. For…