Texas seems an odd spot to find Amish. Besides the current community in Bee County, there have been at least four other attempts to settle the Lone Star State. In his meticulously researched The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed, 1840-1960, David Luthy describes a short-lived settlement that came about in the state’s southernmost county. Amish fields today brim with corn, alfalfa and hay. One…
‘Hershberger’ is an Amish family name particularly common in Midwestern communities. It is also found in other spelling variations, such as ‘Herschberger’ and occasionally ‘Harshberger’. The following is a short history of the name from Family Life: “This is a Swiss name and may have originally meant, “one who lives on Deer Mountain”. The Hershberger family first came into Anabaptist circles in the canton of…
Thanks to substantial genealogical records, many Amish can trace their lineage back to the 1700’s and 1800’s, when significant waves of Amish immigration to North America occurred. One of the most common Amish names is Stoltzfus, found predominantly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and its offshoot settlements. The short-version history of the Stoltzfus name, courtesy of Family Life: “On Oct. 18, 1766 Nicholas Stoltzfus with his…
Any work that discusses bundling in ‘the good old-fashioned way’ has got to be a heady read. And so it goes with Little Known Facts About the Amish and the Mennonites, a tourist booklet first printed in 1938. The seeds of Amish tourism were planted in the early 20th century, with the enterprise really getting a proper start in the 1930’s and 40’s. Amish-themed postcards,…
Millers, Yoders, Schrocks, Stoltzfuses. These names are a dime a dozen in Amish America. Meet enough Amish people, and once in a while you’ll come across an unusual name, one that may sound non-Germanic or even a Germanic-sounding name that is simply uncommon. The Amish have welcomed a fair share of converts to the faith over the years. Last names such as Jones, Jess, Chupp…
With an average of around seven children, Amish families are hefty by modern standards. Farm families tend to be the biggest. A dozen or more children is not rare. But the largest Amish family ever? There’s a good chance this was it: John Troyer, who lived near Kokomo, Indiana, had an unusually large family, perhaps the largest of all time among the Amish or Mennonites….
The latest issue of Family Life includes an article by David Luthy entitled Amish Settlements Across America: 2008. It’s a comprehensive listing of Amish settlements along with some commentary and analysis. Last time Luthy did one of these was in 2003. Interesting facts: Some settlements are very old, yet due to various factors, are very small today. Hicksville in Ohio was founded in 1914, yet comprises just one…
The Amish Studies site based out of Elizabethtown College tells us that as of mid-2007, there were approximately 400 separate Amish settlements comprised of approximately 1,600 church districts in 27 states and Ontario. The Amish continue to grow at a rapid pace and can today be found in such unlikely places as Mississippi, Florida and Montana. photo: Mennonite Church USA Throughout their 250-plus years of…
Kudos to Matthew for the link to a story about a Geauga County, Ohio man who joined the Amish in 2000. David Rapinz adopted the lifestyle around a decade ago. He met an Amish woman, Martha, who ‘took a chance on him before his baptism’, and later married her. Rapinz found beards, horses, and the Pennsylvania Dutch language all a bit unwieldy at first, but…
Today, a small New Order Amish settlement is found in western North Carolina, near the town of Union Grove. Before this settlement came about, (and not counting a short-lived community in the late 50’s), the only other full-fledged attempt to settle in the Tar Heel State occurred in 1918, lasting a full quarter-century before extinction in 1944. The Amish who originally came here, mainly from…