Amish History

In February we had a look at the first Amish settlement in North America, located at Northkill in Pennsylvania’s Berks County (founded approximately 1740). I recently came across an interesting Ontario historical blog with a photo of a plaque marking the location of the first Amish settlement in Canada, which came about some 80+ years […]

Continue Reading The First Amish Settlement in Canada

Cathedrals, Castles, and Caves: The Origins of the Anabaptist Faith is the new book by Marcus A. Yoder. Marcus serves as Executive Director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center and the Ohio Amish Library. Marcus and I touched base last December when I dropped by the Center (this is where I took the photos of […]

Continue Reading Marcus A. Yoder on Cathedrals, Castles, and Caves: The Origins of the Anabaptist Faith (Book Giveaway)

I came across some remarkable historical photos on the PBS American Experience site. I believe these were connected with the release of the documentary film “The Amish” in 2012, but I missed them the first time around. There are a total of 13 shots in the gallery which you can view in full, and in […]

Continue Reading 6 Fascinating Historical Amish Photos

You may have come across the term “Amish Mennonites” before. It popped up on the site here recently, in our post on the first Amish settlement in America. Both Jim Potter and Al in KY wondered, what does the term mean? You might see it in some accounts referring to a modernizing group which emerged […]

Continue Reading Who are the “Amish Mennonites”?

Where was the first Amish community in North America? Lancaster County is the oldest Amish settlement still around today. But it’s not the first place Amish settled on this side of the Atlantic. That distinction belongs to the Northkill settlement that existed in neighboring Berks County. It was organized by 1740, predating the Lancaster settlement […]

Continue Reading The First Amish Settlement in North America

The photo you see below, of Iowa Amish schoolchildren fleeing into a cornfield, was taken in 1965 by Des Moines Register photographer Thomas DeFeo and republished nationwide. It’s credited with spurring national support for the Amish, leading to the landmark Wisconsin v. Yoder 1972 Supreme Court decision (effectively allowing Amish to limit schooling to eight grades). The accompanying video features a number […]

Continue Reading The 1965 Iowa Amish School Incident (Video)

In today’s post, Janneken Smucker discusses Fraktur, an art form once popular among the Pennsylvania German people. — Fraktur and Family Records Among the decorative items in some Amish homes—both today and in the past—have been ornamental family records, some stitched, some inked, some produced on painted glass (a unique genre that clearly deserves its […]

Continue Reading Pennsylvania German Fraktur Art

In today’s post, Janneken Smucker gives us a glimpse of the homes and quilts of “Church Amish” in Lancaster County, over 70 years ago. — Recently my research interests have expanded from Amish quilts to New Deal era photography. Luckily, there is a small group of photographs in which these two topics perfectly mesh: photographs Irving Rusinow took […]

Continue Reading “Church Amish” Quilting in the 1940s

In today’s guest post, Suzanne Woods Fisher looks at the development of Amish plain dress, and the role played by Amish founder Jacob Amman. As Suzanne explains, Amman would have known something about clothing. — Why do the Amish dress the way they do? Simple clothing identifies the Plain People as set apart, as individuals belonging to a larger […]

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The Geauga Amish Historical Library recently opened in the heart of America’s fourth-largest Amish settlement, in the town of Middlefield, Ohio. John Gingerich is the only non-Amish member of the five-person board, which by default also makes him the library’s internet liaison. You might remember seeing John on this site a few years ago discussing his translation of […]

Continue Reading The Geauga Amish Historical Library