I’m not sure that looking back “favorite” will be a word I’ll associate with 2020. But there were certainly bright spots in what most would probably agree was not the greatest year. In that spirit I am keeping with the usual tradition here of sharing a “favorite posts” year-end compilation. These are posts which either got a lot of responses from you, or that I…
A new store has opened in one of Kansas’s oldest Amish communities. Owners Robert and Elaine Headings bought an existing Amish store’s inventory (Anna Borntrager’s Country Variety Store) to outfit their new store. They also added some items. The business is now called R & E Country Store, and it opened about three weeks ago (any guesses where the new name came from?). The community…
Farmhouse Frocks is a Millersburg, Ohio clothing company run by an Amish-raised woman named Lena Schlabach and her daughters. Though Lena is no longer Amish herself, Amish women are key to this business, which makes plus-sized garments and other clothing. From Root and Vine News (hat tip to DBK): From the beginning, Farmhouse Frocks has partnered with Amish seamstresses to design and make the clothes…
Don Burke is back today to share his visit to the Graber family in Jamesport, Missouri, and his stay at their “Doddy House”. We’ve heard about the Graber family before in other posts from Don (links to follow). Don explains what the Doddy House is below. First off it’s not an Amish grandparents’ house, which is what the term usually refers to in PA Dutch…
I’m starting to dread looking at my Amish news feed because it seems every other story lately is some sort of tragedy. Sorry to say that this news out of Marquette County, Wisconsin falls into that unfortunate category. Amish often make use of frozen ponds and lakes for ice skating. In this case it ended with an accident and one child losing his or her…
A nice article in the Boston Globe on how the Amish came to settle Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Some excerpts: “They wanted to see a particular place,” Maclure recalled. “I told them it was getting awful dark. Let’s wait until morning. They asked if they might camp in a field or barn.” They’d brought sleeping bags. Maclure wouldn’t hear of it. “I said, ‘No, you’re not…
This happened December 23rd. From WZTV: WEAKLEY COUNTY, Tenn. (WZTV) — An 8-year-old boy was killed a house fire in an Amish community in Weakley County, Tenn. on Wednesday. Jason Arnold, Battalion Chief at McKenzie Fire and Rescue, said crews responded to the blaze just after 11 p.m. and arrived to find a home along Blaylock Road completely engulfed in flames. A neighbor reported hearing…
In the video below Amish girls Amy and Marlene play the guitar and keyboard while singing “Joy To The World” in Walnut Creek, Ohio. The video dates to 2009. The event was an open house at a local business, with this being “one of the many songs that they entertained the crowd with.” A few facts on this classic hymn, via Wikipedia: “Joy to the…
The news is breaking that Justo Smoker, charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos, has now been charged with killing her: State police on Monday charged Justo Smoker — already facing a trial related to the kidnapping of Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos — directly with the June death of the Lancaster woman, according to an arrest warrant. Police cited numerous sources of evidence, including witness accounts, DNA…
On Saturday I visited the Union Grove Amish settlement, one of two in North Carolina. This was a quick one as I was on the way to the Blue Ridge Parkway on a trip with my brother. We stopped in at the big attraction in the community, the Amish-owned Shiloh General Store. That was followed up by a stop at Wholesome Country Creamery just down…