Last week we looked at the histories of 5 common Amish family names – Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, and Stoltzfus. Let’s pick back up this week with five more. I used your suggestions from last week’s post comments to put together this week’s list. If there are other names you’d like to see, let us know in the comments here. I’ll do at least one…
Over half a century ago, Amish writer Joseph Stoll penned a series of articles on Amish surnames, titled “Amish and Mennonite Family Names.” These were published in the then-fledgling Family Life monthly, in four parts spanning December 1968 to March 1969. I’ve chosen origin stories for five common names to share with you today. Where did common Amish names come from? Do they have any…
I came across the following list of Amish church rules in a book called Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore, edited by John A. Hostetler. These were the rules of a church in Mifflin County, PA in 1897, as recorded by a woman named Sadie Newman. Sadie was a convert to the Amish, having worked for an Amish family and joining the…
One thing that has always fascinated me are the Amish communities which have a long history – but for one reason or another, today are surprisingly small in size. With the high Amish birth rate, and today most Amish choosing to remain Amish, you would expect most communities to continue growing larger with the benefit of time. We see this in many examples today, as…
Joseph Donnermeyer of Ohio State University today shares with us an article published two weeks ago in the Budget newspaper. In it, Joe looks back at all the Amish settlement attempts throughout their history in North America. He highlights some interesting figures, including a total of 342 settlement attempts since 2000. At first that seemed higher than I’d expect, but it only underscores the growing…
This past December, a group of Amishmen visited the White House and met with the president and vice-president. After the report of this unusual meeting emerged, Steven Nolt, author of A History of the Amish, shared a follow-up, adding some interesting detail about Amish encounters with past presidents. Steve first addresses the question: Was this the first time Amish people were guests of a president…
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 after Northkill. Here’s the text from the plaque: THE FIRST…
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 Amish women’s head coverings and Amish church clothing – it’s…
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 larger sizes, here. I pulled a few of my favorites…
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 in the latter 1800s, in contrast to what became the…