Here is an upbeat song for your day – Mike and Marty just released a new one called “Keep On The Sunny Side”. This tune was originally written in the late 1800s by Ada Blenkhorn, and later recorded by the Carter family. The story behind its writing is moving: In 1899 Ada Blenkhorn was inspired to write the Christian hymn by a phrase used by…
An Amish buggy – carrying at least five people and towing a boat – was struck from behind this morning, killing the horse and leaving five injured. This happened in Stark County, Ohio – part of the sprawling Holmes County Amish settlement. Here’s the report from the Canton Repository: LAWRENCE TWP. ‒ A horse died and five people were injured after a pickup truck hit…
There have been a couple of recent updates on the Mercy & Truth Retreat case. Retreat Leader Sam Shetler, indicted on 10 counts including multiple felonies, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the Cooper County, Missouri Courthouse. Also, in what I would assume is a “win” for his side, he had previously requested – and been granted – a new judge in his case. However, that…
After a relatively quiet period of (at least no widely-reported) fatal Amish buggy accidents, sadly another bad one happened Tuesday afternoon. This comes out of Lafayette County, Wisconsin. In some of these accidents, the horse survives, while a rider or driver doesn’t make it, and sometimes the reverse. But in this case, both died – following one of the most common types of car-buggy wrecks…
You’re probably aware that the Amish vote much less often than non-Amish do. But a notable minority still do vote in general elections, and on local matters. So it’s not that odd to hear of Amish people voting. But I’d never seen a story quite like this before. In a new report, a school superintendent in New York is complaining about Amish participation in a…
Indiana is where you’ll find America’s third-largest Amish population, with over 68,000 Amish living across the state. These ten communities rank as the biggest in the Hoosier State, based on the most current population estimates (2026). Population numbers via Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College (source link at bottom). 1. Elkhart-LaGrange Counties Elkhart-LaGrange Counties Community founded: 1841 Total Amish population: 30,795…
A pair of videos have been making the rounds showing an Amish fisherman and a boy – who I would guess is his son – hauling away a giant fish after a successful catch. The fish is a muskellunge, better known as a “muskie” – and you can tell by the way the man is lugging it on his back that it is a hefty…
A lot of things are jumping out about this Amish home listing in Guernsey County, Ohio — starting with the fact that you might drive right past it thinking it’s a commercial building. More on that in a minute. As to the locale, this home sits in one of the most Amish-dense counties in the United States (at least when it comes to number of…
If you’ve been following Ben and Rose, you probably know Conrad Fisher has been part of their story from the beginning — producing their music, playing on their recordings, and showing up in their video clips. The Associated Press recently did a piece which centers on Conrad and Ragamuffin Hall — a former Presbyterian brick church building in the rural Pennsylvania community of McCoysville —…
This sort-of dramatic story with a happy ending comes from an Amish community in the excellently-named Otter Tail County, Minnesota. It turns out that an Amish horse collapsed while traveling on a highway – falling into water of some sort. The details come from a law enforcement roundup report at the Perham Focus: [May 11] 11:40 a.m., Horse reportedly collapsed on the roadway after suffering…