The Amish in Maine

The Amish of Fort Fairfield, Maine

The Amish of Fort Fairfield, Maine

Maine is now home to five Amish settlements, up from three just a few years ago. Thanks to reader Judy for passing along an excellent article on the Amish of the Fort Fairfield area, in Maine’s northernmost county of Aroostook. This piece in Down East Magazine traces the path of the 6-year-old community via interviews with the community’s founder, 45-year-old craftsman Noah Yoder, and a…

Visiting the Unity, Maine Amish Settlement

Being a bit off the beaten path, we haven’t had too much on this site about Amish communities in Maine.  A reader recently visited the settlement at Unity and had the following story and photos to share.  — My family was up in Maine this past weekend looking at land to purchase in Unity or Thorndike. The parcel we are most interested in is located…

Amish population statistics

Just got a hot tip from the Young Center that the 2009 Amish population statistics are up at the Amish Studies web site. A couple quick things I noticed between this year’s and last year’s numbers:  on the lower end, Arkansas has jumped from 1 to 3 settlements, and the Maine Amish, Montana Amish, and Kansas Amish have all added a settlement. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and…

Amish growing like mushrooms after a rain shower

An AP story has just hit the wire on population growth among the Amish.  This coincides with the release of additional information on trends in Amish growth and migration from here at the Young Center. The Amish studies site now lists trend data for the 1992 to 2008 period as well as the 2007 to 2008 one-year trend. The most surprising statistic:  according to the…