Amish Culture

Leaders of a sizeable Amish community in Ohio have accepted a new safety enhancement on their buggies. These are not the Swartzentruber Amish living in Ashland County (though that group has been open to buggy safety changes as well). A second group of Amish living near the city of Ashland are one of the more […]

Continue Reading Amish Group Known For Unusual Safety Triangles Expected To Add New Safety Enhancement

Reader Marge asked on our recent Amish funeral customs post, “Why do Amish not publish obits in local newspapers?” I responded that they do in fact appear in local papers. You can quite often find them online. Here is an example: an Amish man named Roman E. Harshberger, 70, of the Nappanee, Indiana community, passed […]

Continue Reading An Amish Obituary

The Amish community at Ellenboro, North Carolina is having an auction next month – the first annual sale for the five-year-old Swartzentruber settlement. What’s neat here is that the auction company has taken extensive photos of the things up for sale, posting over 100 photos online (viewable here). The Amish are not “frozen in time”, […]

Continue Reading 10 Interesting Household Items From A North Carolina Swartzentruber Amish Auction

It’s Friday, so how about something light. So, here are a couple of guys who took an Amish buggy and strapped a jet engine onto the back of it. Why not. The two men behind the rocket buggy live somewhere in Amish country and are apparently racing enthusiasts. One of the two bought a jet […]

Continue Reading Jet-Powered “Thunder Buggy” Reaches 60 MPH

Lancaster Online recently published a series of articles on the Amish and social media use. Eight years ago this topic got attention when it was publicized in another Lancaster Online report that Amish youth were using Facebook. We also saw Facebook covered in books like Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. Yet time passes and […]

Continue Reading Amish & Social Media: Youth Now On Instagram; Women Using It For Business

Reader Jim Halverson, who gave us a look at the Amish of Lagrange County, Indiana last summer, recently attended Yoder’s Consignment Auction in the same community. Jim spotted differences in the styles of clothing of those in attendance – particularly noticeable in the women’s dress. Clearly the Amish at the event were not all from […]

Continue Reading Amish Women’s Clothing – What Differences Do You Notice? (16 Photos)

How do Amish pay medical bills, if they don’t have health insurance? We get a look at how some Amish handle this in a new piece on Cincinnatti Public Radio. Amish famously do not use commercial health insurance, opting to rely on their own churches and extended communities when the need is great. And while […]

Continue Reading How Does An Amish Medical Aid Plan Work?

On its own, that’s a dramatic statement. There is some context, of course. First of all, who said it? This was Chet Lapp, a 37-year-old Amishman from Lancaster County. Lapp also happens to be a real estate agent in the community. From the WITF story by Rachel McDevitt: Chet Lapp, an Amish realtor, argues more of […]

Continue Reading Lancaster County Amish Realtor: “We have to move”

What is an Amish directory? Why do Amish publish them? What kind of info do they contain? In the early days of this website, I did a post on the subject, with a look at my 2002 northern Indiana directory. Don Burke is here to explain further what these guides are, and why you’ll find […]

Continue Reading All About Amish Directories

Are the Amish “backward”? Do they miss modern things we take for granted? What’s the correct way to pronounce “Amish”? Chuck Lofton of news station WTHR recently rode along with John Gingerich, an Amishman who operates a tour buggy in Shipshewana in northern Indiana. John shared several interesting insights as they rode around town. He […]

Continue Reading 5 Insights From Indiana Amishman John Gingerich