This is a photo I came across recently on Flickr. Two Amish men try out hats at Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana, Indiana. What do you notice here? First, briefly on the location. Yoder’s is a department store that sells men’s and women’s clothing as well as fabrics and sewing supplies. The clientele is both Amish and English. It’s located in Yoder’s Shopping Center, which also…
Two days ago, reader Mike Sparks visited the Amish settlement at Fredericktown/Bellville, in Knox County, Ohio. He shares his visit and photos with us today. You might remember Mike’s previous trips to Ashland County and Holmes County. This is far from the only Amish community in Knox County. In fact the county has proven quite attractive to the Amish, with all or parts of 7…
Last week we saw Amish men building a barn, this week they are moving one. Over the past week or so a video showing Amish men moving a pole barn has gone viral. I noticed today even the big UK media started covering it. However, the original viral clip is not great. The phone is held at strange angles by the recorder, and there is…
Lovina Eicher of Lovina’s Amish Kitchen reports in her latest column on church service restarting in her Michigan community. Sunday, we hosted church services in our pole barn, which was the first time we met since the lockdown. Our church members decided to gather for the service and then all leave and have their lunches at home. Below: a photo of Lovina’s family’s pole barn,…
I came across something that got my attention while searching for Amish homes to share with you. Right now there are at least 7 Amish homes for sale in the community at Hillsboro, Kentucky (Fleming County). What’s going on here? It looks like a lot of people are moving out of the area for some reason. This settlement is a small one, but not that…
We’ve got five more histories of common Amish surnames today. If you missed previous editions, here’s Part 1 (Beachy, Swartzentruber, Lapp, Hostetler, Stoltzfus) and Part 2 (Zook, Gingerich, Troyer, King, Lehman). The following histories are from the Family Life series “Amish and Mennonite Family Names” by Joseph Stoll, which ran from December 1968 to March 1969. I’ve added my own comments in some places in…
Have you heard of cows attacking humans before? Bulls, sure, but run-of-the-mill dairy cows? Well, this happened yesterday in central PA: ELIMSPORT — A man, believed to be in his 70s, was recovering from injuries he suffered Monday afternoon when a dairy cow — weighing at least 1,000 pounds — suddenly attacked him and momentarily pinned him against a wall in a barn at an…
Back in February I shared with you 57 Amish businesses you can visit in Ethridge, Tennessee. This was based on a visitor’s map given out at a local business. Reader Al in KY has gone one better, and passed along a much fuller guide to Amish businesses in the community for your enjoyment. Says Al: “I counted up the number of Amish homesteads listed on…
Cool video. Amish in Vernon County, Wisconsin put up a barn over the course of twelve hours – condensed into a one-minute video (note: I believe they’ve edited the vid down further as it was originally about two minutes long). This time-lapse clip from 2016 shows the whole thing go up, interspersed with some still photos. Video at the bottom (credit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). This…
This is an interesting Amish home. The outside looks like the home of a family in a plain or plain-ish community — but the inside suggests otherwise. The place is Bonaparte, Iowa (Van Buren County), a settlement of two church districts. The exterior design of the home is a very simple boxy architectural look, which would coincide with plainer churches. Not too many design frills…