The Young Center at Elizabethtown College provides annual Amish population numbers, with totals for each state, province and so on. But they also have figures for the Old Order Mennonite population, a group similar to Amish in many ways (and in some cases living next door to them as neighbors). According to their latest tallies, the horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites number over 38,000 across their…
Jim Halverson shares a visit he made back in the fall to the Wakarusa area of northern Indiana. This town lying north of Nappanee is in the vicinity of a small Old Order Mennonite community. Jim made two interesting stops while in the area, as you’ll see below. Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, I attended the Wakarusa Driving Horse Auction. Wakarusa is about 15 miles…
Last week we learned the tragic story of Jonathan and Wilma Hochstetler, a Mennonite couple shot in a late-night robbery in Indianapolis, with Wilma losing her life. Jonathan happens to be a cousin to Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder – the oldest cousin of 47 on her father’s side, as she describes him. In this week’s column, Gloria gives more details on the shooting, Jonathan’s…
This is a pretty awful and senseless story which hit me for several reasons. This couple is Mennonite, apparently grew up in an Amish community, and probably still have a good number of family who are Amish (two photos of family in the article linked below appear to be Amish). Hochstetler family photo provided by Andrew Yutzy Here’s what happened, via the Indianapolis Star: Sam…
This is an absorbing 42-minute documentary on the Little Belize Mennonite colony. Little Belize is the home of approximately 3,000 Old Colony Mennonites, living on about 100 square kilometers of land. The Old Colony Mennonites are Plain Anabaptist cousins of the Amish, with numerous similarities to them. The producers of the documentary, made for the Deutsche Welle network, were granted permission to film some families…
I was shocked to see this obituary today. I immediately recognized the photo from the back of her book. Lillian Fern Stoltzfus wrote a very nice guide to learning Pennsylvania Dutch called Speaking Amish. I don’t believe I ever met Lillian or anyone in her family, but have known of her for years. I would often see her books in stores in Amish communities and…
In February we posted about Philip E. Riehl, a now-excommunicated Mennonite man who defrauded Mennonite and Amish investors to the tune of $60 million, in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in state history. Riehl was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison. From the Allentown Morning Call: BERKS COUNTY — An accountant who promised safe investments for his Mennonite and Amish clients but…
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is one of the only places* where you’ll see both gray-topped and black-topped buggies in the same community. Black is easily the most common color for Amish buggies overall. But the Amish in this best-known of all Plain communities actually drive the gray version. So who is holding the reins of the black top carriages in Lancaster County? Those would be Old…
Members of a Missouri Mennonite community have forgiven the teenaged driver who struck a buggy July 11th, resulting in the death of a 7-year-old boy. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Meanwhile, some men in the Mennonite community have met with the boy to forgive him for killing 7-year-old Mervin Shirk. “They wanted him to know they were not harboring ill will against him,” said Clay…
Did you know that Amish, Mennonites and related churches have a hotline that connects them 24 hours a day, 6.5 days a week? Atlas Obscura looks at the story of the Amish and Mennonite Conference Line, which was founded in 2006 by a man named Gary (last name omitted in the article). This is a dial-in hotline where you can hear speakers discuss different topics…