An interesting letter just appeared at Lancaster Online. An excerpt: I have an idea for the state to make a chunk of change. Why not make the Amish register each of their buggies and have a yearly inspection and safety check, just like those of us with motor vehicles are required to do? I believe the buggies ruin our roads. When I asked a state…
I like this video (see bottom of post) not so much for the song itself, but for the feel of sitting around in an Amish home in the evening. You’ve got the soft glow of the propane light, the water pitcher at the ready, the utilitarian folding chairs. Dinner’s been eaten, and everyone’s circled around in the kitchen. The video description is “Understand by and…
Meet “Amish Woman“. She’s a mom of 12 and a recent settler in a young Missouri community. A reporter with a local paper spoke with her and managed to learn a good bit about her life and church. She actually shares a lot more detail than I’d expect from this sort of “our new neighbors the Amish” report. Not the actual “Amish Woman” Amish people…
This obituary tells of an Amishman named Jonas A. Nisley who passed away late last month in Ohio. Jonas had 310 living descendants. If you add his step-descendants, you get an additional 70 individuals, for a total of 380 souls. Here’s the tally of his family, in addition to his twelve children: 96 grandchildren; 11 step-grandchildren; 201 great-grandchildren; 57 step-great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and two step-great-great-grandchildren….
After a buggy accident, people often ask “Why can’t there be buggy lanes for the Amish?” One big roadblock is cost. It’s generally judged too expensive to install buggy lanes in most of the hundreds of small communities where Amish live. So in reality it tends to happen primarily in the largest settlements. With that in mind, there is the good news that buggy lanes…
Which states have the most Amish communities? I should first note that this post is about individual communities, also known as settlements, not total Amish population. The two have some correlation, but are not the same thing. Scroll down or jump to list Amish Settlement Facts An Amish settlement is a distinct geographic location where Amish live. The roughly 400,000-strong Amish population is found in…
Lovina Eicher takes us through a typical day for her family in her latest Lovina’s Amish Kitchen column. It’s a nice look at some of the tasks and routines in an Amish household and family. A couple of things stand out to me. One is obviously the early start to the day. Amish families on average probably wake up earlier than 99% of Americans. That’s…
This Amish home stands out to me for several reasons. First is its simple but somewhat unusual design. It is one story, but pretty large in size – 3,200 square feet. Amish homes tend to be two stories, but maybe this family is not fond of climbing stairs. They decided to build their whole home on one floor. A nice broad front porch must make…
Last week we informed you of a new free online resource called The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities. Here’s a summary of one of the articles you might find of interest – Mark Louden’s “Plain Talk about Health: Linguistics Aspects of Mediation between Amish and Mennonites and Health Care Professionals”, courtesy of editor Joe Donnermeyer. The inaugural issue of The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities…
Last week we learned the tragic story of Jonathan and Wilma Hochstetler, a Mennonite couple shot in a late-night robbery in Indianapolis, with Wilma losing her life. Jonathan happens to be a cousin to Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder – the oldest cousin of 47 on her father’s side, as she describes him. In this week’s column, Gloria gives more details on the shooting, Jonathan’s…