Name that Amish community
Do you know where these 3 photos were taken? (UPDATE: see “Clues” in the comments section)
Photo 1:
Photo 2:
Photo 3:
Katie Troyer, The Budget & COVID in Pinecraft
This article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune attempts to examine if there are any connections between the behavior of the Amish and Mennonite population of the Pinecraft community, and the area’s high rates relatively high rates of infection. In a nutshell, the conclusion here is: it’s tough to say. You kind of get the feel that the writer wouldn’t mind making that connection, but the hard…
Eddie Swartzentruber’s False Claims
So if you’re not into “social media drama”, just skip this post. I don’t plan to make a habit of covering things from Facebook, but I need to address this here. You might remember a post I did in August about Eddie Swartzentruber’s TikTok channel (“Swartzentruber Amish-Raised Man Shares The Bad Sides Of His Amish Life“). Eddie responded on Facebook, making some false claims about…
Amish Disaster Relief…At A Distance
This is a neat video showing volunteers putting together pre-built homes right in the heart of Holmes County, Ohio – Charm, to be precise – but destined for families struck by disaster hours away, in West Virginia and Dayton, Ohio. Amish have traveled to the sites of disasters to help clean up and reconstruct for decades now. But this effort via Mennonite Disaster Service expands…
Sheriff’s Deputies Grabbed Hoses to Fight Amish Sawmill Blaze Before Fire Crews Arrived
Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County, New York showed up on the scene of a fully involved fire at an Amish sawmill yesterday morning. Fire crews had yet to arrive – so the two men, Lieutenant Justin Smith and Sergeant Luke Paine, had to act quickly. As it happened, one of them had firefighting training, and the other did not. More from WRGB 6 News: GLEN,…
Lancaster Amish Country In Spring (23 Photos)
I just spent a week in Lancaster County, and enjoyed some wonderful spring weather. It’s been a little while since I visited at this time of year. With the flowering trees at peak-level, or near it, it’s truly beautiful right now. I wanted to share a grab bag of photos from my visit with you today. First off, mamma and foal. I came a little…
bird in hand,lancaster county,pennsylvania
Just guessing
First photo: The only two Amish settlements that I know of that use tractors with custom-built cabs and altered gear ratios to transport families is Yoder/Hutchinson, KS, and Oakland, MD. I’m guessing Kansas. Photo two: It’s definitely Lancaster County related with its gray box and rounded top. I’m guessing a daughter settlement since it looks a bit bushy for Lancaster: How about Brush Valley, PA? Photo three: It looks like the Amish cemetery on Eby Road in Lancaster County, but maybe all Amish cemeteries look alike ?) P.S.to Erik: Please don’t do these quizzes any more. My honey-do list is already long, and I should be raking leaves rather than doing your quizzes 🙂
Rick,
I think Erik’s testing should be priority over yard work. Didn’t I see an Amish farmer with an ipad 2 strapped to his rake? :o)
Are these three all taken in the same community? It seems to me like the first one is in Guthrie KY, 2nd, well the weeds don’t look healthy around the shed like they do in Lancaster. so I rule out Lancaster. The 3rd looks like the flat land of Arthur IL.
where are the pictures?
Picture #1 might be the Amish community in Guthrie, Kentucky
Picture #2 is Lancaster County, PA (gray buggies)
Picture #3 could be the Swiss Amish who live in Adams County and Allen County, Indiana
NY Times Op Ed piece
Eric,
I thought you and your readers would enjoy this. An amazingly accurate portrayal to be found, in all places, in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/opinion/our-amish-ourselves.html?src=recg
Thank you Greg, I actually just posted that on the AA Facebook page as well. I think the quality of the piece is due to its author Joe Mackall, who wrote Plain Secrets based on his long firsthand experience among Amish neighbors.
Thats funny about the weeds in the second picture. I was thinking that exactly… Lancaster but yet maybe not because of the weeds.
LaGrange, Indiana
I don’t know the answer to any of the pictures, but the tractor is quite a sight to see!
I declare, to me, it almost looks like a woman driver as well.
Clues
A couple clues:
None of these photos is from PA.
Each photo is from a different community.
Each community is smaller than 20 church districts.
I’ll let you know when someone gets all 3 correct 🙂
Name that amish community
I don’t know about the first two but the third one might be in Holmes County, OH
I’ll just take some guesses here:
#1 – Holmes Co., Ohio
#2 – St. Mary’s Co., Maryland
#3 – Dover, Delaware
Photos
1 could be Crofton , Ky . They use tractors for there ways of getting from point A tom Point B
My guesses:
1. Union Grove, N. C.
2. Wayne County, Ind.
3. Branch County, Mich.
That gray buggy looks like some I’ve seen in Parke County, Indiana, near Rockville. Here’s a photo from a year ago.
I may have seen a cemetery like #3 in LaGrange County, Indiana, but am not quite as sure about that one. Dunno about the tractor. I recently saw an Amish tractor with steel tires in Wayne County, Indiana, but this one has rubber tires.
Well, if it’s a community of less than 20 church districts, that rules out LaGrange county for the cemetery.
The winners
Here are the winning guesses:
1. Guthrie, KY–tractors commonly used for road transportation in this electric New Order settlement
https://amishamerica.com/amish-kentucky/#guthrie
2. St. Mary’s County, MD–as Rich said, this photo looks a “bit bushy” for Lancaster. They are one of the larger Lancaster daughter settlements.
https://amishamerica.com/maryland-amish/#stmarys
3. Allen County, Indiana–unconventional cemeteries, wooden stakes marking graves.
https://amishamerica.com/indiana-amish/#allen
mystery pictures
Thanks Erik….that was fun. I automatically thought Lancaster Co when I saw the gray buggy, but otherwise I did well.
You did do well Galen, thanks. I almost had to call it for you. The 2nd was probably the toughest.
I thought so…actually I had all 3 wrong, but fun trying to figure out
Glad you enjoyed it too Bob, we may need to do another one of these in future.
Glad you’d given the anwers by the time I saw this post – Id *never* have guessed any of the three, but sure would have driven myself up the wall trying to guess *grin*. These types of things are fun, Erik! ( PS – Raking leaves? What in the world does that mean…..*looks under her huge Ash tree at a yellow + brownish “carpet” of leaves and sighs*. 😀 ).
“Suggestion Box”
Hi Erik. I recall you wrote an interesting article on how a person joins the ministry in the Amish faith, but I was wondering if somewhere along the line you could work on a post on how a minister prepares for a church service in the context of the Amish. I think it would be something interesting to read about.
How do Amish ministers prepare?
Shom, a very good thought for the suggestion box 🙂 When I’ve asked ministry people, the response usually goes something like spending time with the Bible on Saturday reading. When I was selling books, I had at least a handful of the ministers who bought from me say that the books would be helpful in brushing up, particularly for recounting the Old Testament for twice-annual Communion service (not to toot my own horn or my books’ horn).
To be honest I don’t know to what degree each minister would go in armed with what he is going to say. I’ve heard it described as part inspiration, which is what you’d expect. You don’t see preachers whipping out notecards when they lose their train of thought. I’m not the best to comment, as I don’t speak the dialect, though I can tell there are often periods of repetition during the sermons. I believe The Amish Way also discusses this.
I was just in St. Mary’s Co.! 🙂 Visited the Pineview dry goods store. I have also seen them crabbing on the Potomac (it looks rather odd to see a buggy hauling a pedal boat!) If they are a daughter settlement of Lancaster, that would be why their buggies and clothing are similar?