10 views of northern Indiana Amish
After yesterday’s Arthur Amish photos, here’s another ten–from the northern Indiana Amish of Elkhart and Lagrange Counties.
I’ll be taking all next week off from posting (family vacation), but will return to a regular blogging schedule Monday Sep. 19. Â In the meantime, we’re doing a little contest.
I’ve got a few back issues of Amish magazine The Connection to give away (The Connection is headquartered in lovely little Topeka in Lagrange County; I dropped in for a visit while I was in town).
To enter the contest, just leave a comment (could be anything–about your own visit to Indiana, your favorite scene from these photos, a question, etc.) Â I’ll draw 3 names at random from your comments, and announce the winners on the 19th. See you then!
More on Indiana Amish:
suspenders
Why is it that the men in these photos are not wearing suspenders?
Good eye Stephanie, not all Amish wear suspenders everyday, and you see that quite a bit in this northern Indiana community. And the young men of running-around age in this settlement often sport a pretty casual look with shirts untucked.
The Amish in this part of IN seem very different from many other communities. I wonder how much the trailer factory work and use of public schools has shaped these communities.
Lowell
Good observation, Stephanie!
Also, I see the one guy on a recumbant-I am seeing more of these in Holmes County Ohio, am trying not to “covet” owning one!
Recumbant
The recumbants do seem a bit modern. This is an unusual group.
Clothes lines
Greetings,
I love all the pictures, they are awesome!! I seem to have a thing about clothes lines though so I would have to say my favorite picture is the second one with the clothes lines. I suppose it conjures up memories of days gone by when growing up and we hung our clothes on a line. A dryer just can’t get that same fresh smell as clothes haning out in the sun and breeze do.
I have not made any trips to Indiana Amish country but you see clothes lines all over the Arthur area as well. I miss hanging clothes out on a line as the last few places I lived in did not have a clothes line. Can’t wait till I get in my own place and put one up. 🙂
Please enter me in the contest I would love to win!!
Thanks Erik for the pictures and the contest!!
Blessings, Alice
Hi Erik,
Hope you have a good time on your vacation. We will miss you. I have never been to Indiana except to Notre Dame college when my brother was looking for colleges 40 years ago. I love the picture of the fellow on the sitting bicycle. I’d like a bike like that.
Marilyn
Thanks Marilyn, will miss you all too. I’m not saying I won’t ever be tempted to poke my head into the comments section during the week though. But it will be a good time to spend some quality days with family. Lounging on the beach in SC!
Comment on 10 views of Northern Indiana (and free giveaway)
We visited this area for the first time this summer and will be back next June. Our B and B is already booked, right in time for the Quilt Fest in Shipshewana! I loved the friendliness of the Amish and how they were so willing to let us participate in their lives. We had an buggy ride with an Amish neighbor, who was so willing to tell us facts and explain their faith- he actually came to breakfast with us and visited, then invited us to an auction at his barn that evening. What marvellous scenery, friendly people and beautiful personalities. Loved it all. Your pictures made me homesick.
Next week, we go to Paradise PA for a week to relax and again enjoy the quiet lifestyle and faith of the Amish people.
Barn
I love the second photo of the barn but I never get tired of the horses & buggies. I noticed that the Price Chopper plaza in Richfield Springs, NY, now has a “buggy parking” area but I see more buggies parked at the McDonalds.
Photos
What lovely photos! I particularly love seeing the beautiful work horses. And can I safely assume that that charmingly fenced and flowered small building is a phone shack?
I did not go inside but I believe it is Laura. Never seen one before with such log cabinesque pizazz.
Mag. Giveaway
Hello.
Please enter me in the Mag. giveaway, As I enjoy everything about the Amish. My husband and I have been to Lagrange In. many times and have stayed with an Amish friend , I very much love there way of life as I was raised Mennonite.
Barbara Michels
Clothesline
I love the picture with the clothesline going up that high on the barn.
I’ve never visited the Amish area in Indiana, but would love to. I’ve been to the Amish area in Iowa and in Jamesport, MO.
Nostalgia
I, too, love the clothesline picture. When I was growing up, nobody had a dryer, and I confess, I’d like to hang out clothes using the pulley system like the amish do. I like how their clothes hang way up in the air. Maybe this will spur me to get a clothesline put up at my house, I haven’t had one in over 30 years.
Enjoy your vacation. Everybody needs to “get away”.
Thanks for all you do.
Wonderful-gut
Eric,
Thank you for all the wonderful pics and info you provide, it gives us a broader prospective than our small PA community of Amish and Horse & Buggy Mennonites. Keep clicking away and visit PA sometime!
Giveaway
I would love to be entered into the drawing. I miss my subscription to the Amish magazine..Keepers of the home. I haven’t had time to renew it. Love your blog!
Great pictures!
I am enjoying all these wonderful photos. I was born in Daviess County, Indiana and would love to see some Amish photos from that area if anyone has any. Peace to all!
Comment on 10 views of Northern Indiana (and free giveaway)
Thank you so much for the beautiful pictures. I love them all, but particularly the clothes line and the buggy pictures.
I was born and raised in the Philadelphia area and am of German/Pa Dutch linage. I love to visit the farming areas of Pa and Ohio especially the Amish settlements. It always feels like “going home” to me. I have been to Indiana, but not to the Amish settlement there. Hopefully…. one day I will.
I would love to win the magazines, but if I don’t I’m sure they will go to the right person!
Thank you and have a great vacation.
Betty
Ditto to all the clothesline comments – SO cute! And I love all those little kids playing soccer. GREAT pics!
That last picture is awesome with the sun and the clouds with the barn! Wow! The clothesline with clothes all the way up to the top of the barn, funny! Guess they had to pull on the cord to get them that high, but keeps them away from kids and animals!
Is that a shanty for the kids to stay in while waiting the bus by the mailbox? Beautiful. Nice little cabin. Your fantastic with a camera and I just love all the photos you post. The horses are great and Im trying to place what type of horses they are. Clydsdale? Seems a bit so with the large hoofs. Perfect work horses. How I miss the farm and country life.
You bring all the best out in your photo’s. Truely enjoy your blog.
Horses and shanty
Thank you Lee Ann! I drove past like 3 or 4 time, and I’m pretty sure that is a phone shanty. Never seen a log cabiny-style one before so I had to take a snap.
I am not a horse guy at all, but the Amish tend to use Belgians or Percherons as work horses. These look like Belgian to me, but knowing my luck they’ll turn out to be some weird pseudo-mix of two breeds I’ve never heard of. We have a few readers here who know horses very well so I consider them the authority on all horse business 🙂 But they look like Belgian to me.
Great pictures!! Love looking a pictures of the Amish, their homes and animals. Please enter my name in the drawing for the magazine and keep up the good work.
Not all Amish
I enjoy the pictures – have not visited that area for over ten years. I believe the picture of the rows of buggies is at an Old Order Mennonite church, possibly the Yellow Creek meeting house. We attended a wedding at an Old Order Mennonite home near Elkhart on August 3o, 1979, At nine in the morning, one of the guests said, “I think this will be a warm day.” It was already 90 degrees fahrenheit at that point! After the wedding, we visited Emma Schrock, an elderly crippled Mennonite woman who did a lot of painting. That day she had painted a winter scene of the old Schrock homestead and I could not resist buying it even though it was quite expensive (I paid $25 for it!) I assumed she painted a winter scene for the cooling effect it would have had on a hot day.
Please enter me in your draw as well. If you need anything for a future draw, I could get you several copies of my late father’s book, “A Separate People”.
Hi Osiah, I don’t know that I’ve ever been to Yellow Creek, but these particular rows of buggies were shot in Topeka across from the auction house. I am not as acquainted with the Old Order Mennonite areas as I’d like to be but did spend some time around Wakarusa this past trip.
And wow, I did not know that your father was Isaac Horst. I have his book and have enjoyed it. I’m sure we’d love to do a drawing of A Separate People, thank you for offering.
Clotheslines and Barn yards
I have a clothesline, and have rarely lived in houses with a dryer, and sometimes without a washer, so I did the laundry by hand, in tubs with a wringer. I hung the wash on a pulley clothesline one time, which ran out over a temporary holding pen for the young ewes. Like the one in the photo, the line was very high above the ground, running from a second floor balcony to a pole. It started to rain, though, and the sheets on the line, as they got heavier, drooped closer to the ground. The young sheep couldn’t resist the temptation to play, and when I looked out to see how my wash was doing in the rain, I found that the ewes had, by standing on their hind feet and pulling at the sheets with their teeth, pulled all the just-washed linen to the ground and were moiling it into the mud.
The Giveaway
There is nothing like waking up in the morning, “kaffee” in hand, and looking at a bunch of Amish homes and people to inspire your day!
I love these pictures. On all the pictures I’ve seen of the Amish they take very good care of their property. It always looks so neat and clean. I’m washing clothes in my washer but gonna hang them out on the line in a bit. I’m from southern Mississippi so we have good days for drying clothes. When I was little we never had a dryer but had a wringer washing machine. I would help mama with the clothes. One day I got my arm caught in the wringer up to my elbow. Had to get neighbors to take us to the doctor – my arm was fine. I will always remember that.
My favorite
Beautiful pictures, I really like the clothesline one. There must be a good reason why the line is so high – perhaps to prevent the animals from pulling the clothes off the line?
Beautiful pictures!
I dearly love all of your pictures, I love the Amish and everything about them! They are the neatest people I know! Everything is spotless and always SO clean! Please keep the pictures coming we sure do enjoy them! Have a blessed day!
Indiana photos
Great photos as usual. I am always partial to horse and buggy photos, so that one as well as the farm scene are my favorite. This area does appear to be a bit more progressive than some others. Have a great family visit!
Love the pics!
Thank you so much for posting the beautiful pictures! Since moving from the east coast to Oklahoma, I don’t get to see much in the way of Amish living. I have really enjoyed your blog and the pictures you post…they make me smile and cause a bit of heart ache since I can’t take a drive to the nearby Dutch market or up to Lancaster anymore. Keep them coming please! Oh, and the 19th is a great day for a givaway…that’s my birthday! 🙂
All of the pictures are great. I moved to Texas from Coshocton Co Ohio where I could see Amish daily, and living that close to Holmes County made it easy to visit that peaceful area as often as I wanted. The only Amish settlement here in Texas, at least the only one I have found, is in the Southern part of the state. I miss the peace and quiet of visiting Amish country so I was very happy to have found your site. It keeps me from being so homesick, or does it make me want to go back! Thank you and keep the interesting photos and articles coming.
My clothesline sure doesn’t have the same charm!! What’s up with that? Must be the backdrop of barns…. :):):) I received an Amish clothesdryer last Christmas. (my request) Use it all winter. (look it up on Lehman’s) Also, love to see the work horses~our living history museum received a pair of retired Amish horses~Benjamin & Jacob~a few years back, to work the fields there.
Thanks for sharing the pictures. I love learning about and looking at pictures of the Amish. I live a couple hours away from Holmes County Ohio and look forward to our “girlfriend days” I’m hoping to plan a trip in the fall when the leaves are changing. My most favorite time in Amish Country…
I love the pictures. It’s so serene and peaceful and quiet. Enter me in the mag giveaway.
10 pictures
My favorite picture is the one where the horses are unhooked and standing in the pasture in front of the beautiful house and barn. In all these pictures I noticed how well kept their houses and lawns are, no clutter around them anywhere. I love to read books about the Amish I own so many and even though they are Fiction we learn so much about them as a people. My dream vacation is to go to visit the Amish country and be a part of it for a few days.
Love it!
I have never been to a amish comunity its in the woks though and can not wait last visit with in-laws the trip was planned till my son became sick with flu and was cancled so when we head p there again from boring AZ i will finally see. I love reading about them articles novels. love looking a pics and dreamng of the day i see it! i dont know why the fascination just there mst be the simplicity of it all. Love the sunset pic and the Barn with the clothes line ;ove to see where they live.
The Connection- magazine copy
If love to have a copy of
the Connection Magazine
Thanks!
Nice pics! I’ll be sending mine to you soon.
Photos
Love all the photos. Going to Amish country is my “release”. After a hectic week, I love traveling to Amish communities. Sometimes I just travel the back roads and see their homes with children of all sizes playing in the yard or working in their huge gardens. Sometimes pick up a community map and visit the shops and purchase baked goods. It is an amazing stress reliever for me…I recommend others see if it works that way for them.
To Nancy
I know what you mean about your “release”. I used to travel to Lancaster at least twice a year for that reason. Of course that has changed (1) because of the commercialization” of the area and (2) I know live in an area where there are a few settlements.
Back roads are the best! When I do go to Lancaster I make it a challenge to get to where I’m going without traveling on Rt. 30, 283 or 222.
beautiful pics
I love all the pics but the last one with the barn is really pretty. I miss seeing the big barns of my child hood. Also love the clothes line. As soon as my new house is finished I will be putting one up. Cant wait! Please enter me in the contest.
C onnection
Thanks for the nice pictures. Someday I would like to submit a few I have from my many visits to Lancaster and the more local ones from Central PA. I actually almost got cuffed by a young Amish man when I took a picture at an auction of a buggy with two older gentlemen standing by it. At the time, I didn’t know about the aversion to being photographed. The young guy ran up up and threw his hand over the lens of the camera and said something that was obviously angry. That was years ago and I have seen him many times since.
One of my pictures (not the incident, but the subjects) was when I came on a fire. The picture of some Amishmen helping fight it. I’ll have to look that up again.
Anyway, I have never heard of the Connections magazine. I used to receive the Budget from a friend of mine. It looks like a very interesting read.
Greg would be glad to see them, sounds like you’ve had some intense photo experiences 🙂 The Connection is really a neat magazine that I’ve only recently gotten to know well, but has been around since 2004. The link at the top goes to a post where I gave a pretty thorough look at what it’s about. If you are interested in Amish writings and Plain values, I recommend it.
Thanks for these great photos from my home community! These are scenes I see daily in my commute to & from work in Middlebury. Recumbent bicycles are quite common here amongst the Amish factory workers.
Mary, I’ve never had a chance to ride one, but I’ve always thought recumbents had to be the “coolest” bicycles. Probably among the most comfortable too I’d guess. I did notice they are everywhere in your community.
Indiana Amish
I have been to Shipshewana, Indiana and thought it interesting.
Love anything and everything about the Amish people. Am an avid reader of books about the Amish. Since I live in Illinois we have the Amish in Arthur, IL. I think all the Amish are different in each State. Have also been to Pennsylvania and Ohio where there are Amish.
My mother always hung her clothes out because we did not own a dryer and I love hanging clothes out on the line in the warm weather.
Love seeing all the pictures.
Comments on 10 views of Northern Indiana Amish (and giveaway)
I like the picture of the clothesline. It starts at ground level and goes all the way to the top of the barn. It must be on a pulley of some sort. I wish we had one of those when I was a kid and responisble for hanging up and taking down the clothes. Would have saved a lot on bending over all of the time. I don’t think I’ve seen that in pictures of Amish homes before. Is this specific to Northern Indiana or is it a common sight.
Patty you do actually see this type of clothesline pretty frequently, also in Lancaster County and Holmes Co Ohio. You turn the crank and it brings laundry in and out. Really a convenience and space saver compared to the traditional ‘T’ clotheslines all over the yard.
I spent several wonderful days in and around Shipshewana in 2003. We stayed in an Amish guest house and spent our days wandering around the back roads, looking at quilts, second hand stores and fabric shops. I bought a wall lamp from the shop next door to Gohn Brothers in Middlebury, I love that lamp so much.
As you know I have had a life long interest in the Amifh and it was a joy to me to be able to spend time in the area meeting with them. I love to read anything about them and scour the internet for information. Your blog is the first I look at each day to find our where you are and what you are up to.
I was so sad to read this week of another fatality involving an Amish family and a suv……In Indiana……I am so sad for the familes who have lost loved ones.
Pictures of Northern Indiana Amish and giveaway
In the past month, I have enjoyed trips to Kalona, Iowa and Montgomery, Indiana. Each time we have had meals with the locals and enjoyed them so much. I am anxious to go back to Shipshewana. I appreciate the book list by Monica & am attempting to get them thru my local library RSA. Like your blogs so much and it’s a treat to receive them. Thanks!!!
comment and prize entry
Love reading so many entries. I compare the sense of peace I get gazing upon the wonderful photos close to the calmness I get reading my Bible. 🙂
Have a content weekend!
clothesline
Amazing how many comments a contest brings, eh Erik? I also loved the closeline photo. I remember helping my grandmother pull sheets through the ringer, then hanging them on the line, in Ocean City, NJ. When we lived in Oswego, NY, on Lake Ontario, I’d hang my sib’s diapers on the line in the winter, and have to crack the ice to fold them. When I moved to Honduras, for a while I did diapers, sheets and everything on a washboard. That is HARD work. The last place I lived there was over the water. I hung my wash on our flat roof, watching squid,sea turtles and dolphins play. Now I live in Florida,near the Plain community of Pinecraft, and hang my sheets out back, whenever I can find day that doesn’t promise showers, which hasn’t been lately. I still love the fresh-air smell line-drying gives to the linens. Some things can’t be imitated. Have a great rest.
clothesline
Amazing how many comments a contest brings, eh Erik? I also loved the closeline photo. I remember helping my grandmother pull sheets through the ringer, then hanging them on the line, in Ocean City, NJ. When we lived in Oswego, NY, on Lake Ontario, I’d hang my sib’s diapers on the line in the winter, and have to crack the ice to fold them. When I moved to Honduras, for a while I did diapers, sheets and everything on a washboard. That is HARD work. The last place I lived there was over the water. I hung my wash on our flat roof, watching squid,sea turtles and dolphins play. Now I live in Florida,near the Plain community of Pinecraft, and hang my sheets out back, whenever I can find day that doesn’t promise showers, which hasn’t been lately. I still love the fresh-air smell line-drying gives to the linens. Some things can’t be imitated. Have a great rest, Erik.
Thanks Jane, yes I am always shocked! Just kidding, I love comments be they on a contest or non-contest post. My take on clotheslines–love the way they look, but the clothes are usually a little too stiff for my liking. Okay maybe I’m being a prima donna here 🙂
I hung our wash out when I was a kid and also when I had children. Now I dry on hangers hung from a pipe in the basement. The linens, I dry in the dryer.
It takes a nice breeze to make the clothes soft on the clothesline. My favorite thing about line dry clothes is the smell of the fresh outdoors. One of y favorite childhood smells was the clean sheets on my bed on washday.
clothes line
I have always use a clothes line, never to that extreme height before though. What struck me about the photo was the top of the power line support showing in the background, an irony of sorts compared to the height of the clothes line on the barn. Contrasts in the extreme, height against height, culture to culture in the same space!
Clothes Line
I LOVE the clothes line photo. Although I am only in my mid forties, my great-grandmother kept me in the summers when I was young. She did not have running water, just a well on the back porch where she drew water. She did have electricity, but not actually run in the house, just extension cords to whatever she was using at the time. I remember vividly loving to help her do laundry on that back porch. She would let me help draw water, we would heat it on the wood burning stove (which she also cooked from) and we used a rub board. Then she would let me help by turning the crank of the wringer. Brings back wonderful memories. I so enjoy Amish America…thanks for sharing.
Great story Donna. It’s funny how small items can bring back strong reminiscences like that. Thank your for checking in with us!
Erik, so many of these stories let us be thankful what we have and the clutter we need to get rid of. It is a hard life, but so many Amish are so close to the relatives…Helping each other out is their way of survival. I don’t think they take that much for granted as we do.
I like to read the newsletters too.
Deb
love seeing pictures from other Amish from near & far. Thank you for sharing them. I think my fav is the pictures with the horses by the barn. I just love horses. =-D
Great job!!
Isn’t it amazing how everyday things i.e. wash on line can look so amazing if we stop,look, and smell the roses!!