Amish History

The Martyrs Mirror:  How Amish forefathers chose to die

The Martyrs Mirror: How Amish forefathers chose to die

When selling books in Amish communities, I’m often asked if I carry the Martyrs Mirror. This book is very popular in Amish homes today.  It is an account of the numerous Anabaptists, spiritual predecessors of the Amish, who perished on account of their faith. It is also a hefty tome–at over 1100 pages there are more than a handful of accounts in here.  One of…

The Amish Church Directory

The Amish Church Directory

I just picked up my 2002 Indiana Amish Directory for Elkhart, Lagrange, and Noble Counties, and flipped to a random page. Here are the last names of the Amish in the 40 households in the district I landed on, in order:   Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontrager, Bontreger, Bontreger, Eash, Gingerich, Hochstedler, Hostetler, Jones, Lambright, Lambright, Lambright, Lambright, Lambright, Lambright, Lehman, Miller, Miller, Miller,…

Amish or Amana?

Amish or Amana?

About 45 minutes south of Cedar Rapids you come to the Iowa Amish settlement at Kalona, set among the lovely rolling hills of Johnson and Washington counties.  There are 8 or 9 church districts here, making it one of the largest settlements west of the Mississippi. In addition to traditional dairying, raising and milking goats has become especially popular in this settlement in recent years. …