Photographer Don Burke has been taking pictures of the Amish for many years, and we have featured his photos here on the site on many occasions since 2014. Don has kindly answered some questions about his photos, interest in the Amish, what the Amish think, and more. This is part one of a two-part interview. Amish America: How long have you been a photographer? Are…
I like drawing attention to these Amish business maps, and it seems more and more communities are creating them. Other recent examples we’ve seen include maps for communities in Buchanan County, Iowa, Livingston County, New York, and Crittenden County, Kentucky. It makes sense as a good way to attract visitors and of course supports the local Amish community. The map we look at today features…
A reader shared this week’s Amish home, currently advertised for sale at Zillow among other places. It technically has an Etna Green address, which would make it the south side of the Nappanee, Indiana settlement. The home has been mostly cleaned out, giving it a very sparse and bare appearance, but furniture has stayed behind in one or two rooms, along with some other details…
Homeschooling is uncommon among the Amish. Why? Karen Johnson-Weiner suggests in her book Train Up A Child that it conflicts with the concept of community, so important to the Amish. But, some do homeschool. I know at least one Amish family who has. They happen to be members of a New Order Amish church. Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder also belongs to a New Order…
What is an “Ohio Nebraska” Amish home? It’s a home of a Nebraska Amish family located in Ohio. And who are the Nebraska Amish? This is a small group of traditionally quite conservative Amish, who originated in Pennsylvania. Am I making this sound more confusing than it actually is? Well, their name comes from the origin state of Yost H. Yoder, a bishop who helped…
So in addition to the 2021 statewide Amish population numbers which came out two weeks ago, we now have the updated list of individual Amish settlements for 2021. There are around 600 of them. You’ll find it at the Elizabethtown College Young Center Amish Studies website here. This guide provides the following information for each Amish settlement: the county (or census division, for Canadian settlements) main town or geographical…
Yesterday in LaGrange County, Indiana, a large group of Amish came together to help a neighbor in need. From WNDU 16 News: A group of about 100 Amish were out helping a friend move a huge pole barn. 16 News Now is told the person who owned the barn recently died, and the man who now runs this property has his arm in a sling…
A danger of depending on appliances and lighting powered by fuels such as propane and natural gas, as many Amish do, is the risk or fire and explosions. An Amish boy has lost his life due to what appears to be propane igniting and causing an explosion and fire in a home in Kentucky. Here’s what happened last week in an Amish home in the…
With the announcement in July of a guilty plea in the Linda Stoltzfoos murder case, it was expected that Justo Smoker would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Smoker admitted to kidnapping, killing, and burying the 18-year-old Amish girl. He received a sentence of 35.5 to 71 years for charges of third-degree murder, kidnapping, and misdemeanors. Unresolved at that time were the additional…
There was a nice article recently in the Epoch Times, a feature on the monthly publication Plain Values, which has become popular with both Amish and non-Amish alike. The publisher of the magazine is Marlin Miller, who grew up Amish. There are three main “pillars” the magazine focuses on – children with special needs, adoption, and “to highlight good works being done both at home…