The Arthur Amish community occupies a special place with me. This was where I first really got to know something about Amish people. As an outsider who knew nothing about them, I never intended to “study the Amish”. I could scarcely have had any idea where things might lead when I knocked on that first Amish farmhouse door ten years ago. As I tell in the foreword of…
Following our look at a $9,681 Amish buggy, we’ve got an excerpt from Richard Stevick’s Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years which explores the topic of Amish youth and their horsepowered vehicles. In this selection taken from Chapter Seven (“Singings: The First Step to Independence”), we learn about the many ways the Youngie adorn their buggies (including one surprising modification I had never heard of before, see…
Last year, Sam Mullet received 15 years for his role in beard and hair cutting attacks on Amish in eastern Ohio. But 15 others got lesser terms, ranging from a year and a day to seven years. The first of the Bergholz people have now done their time and returned home to eastern Ohio. A Reuters news piece details how two of the group, married couple Raymond and Kathryn Miller, spent…
We started the week talking Amish population–so why don’t we close doing more of the same! First, there were a number of interesting points from the recent Young Center Amish population data that I wanted to share, but couldn’t really fit on the Amish population infographic: There are 480 Amish settlements, but most are small. Fifty-two percent of all settlements are just one district in size. There…
It’s not exactly the season for making maple syrup, but it’s always the season for eating it, right? David Arment shares photos of syrup being made, along with the finished product, a remarkably dark syrup which I’m sorry I can’t sample over the internet somehow. David explains: We lived on 15 acres of wooded ground. One of the local Amish guys asked if he could…
I’m not an asthma sufferer, but I found this pretty fascinating. A recent study by researchers at Franklin and Marshall College suggests that something about the Amish or their lifestyle may be connected to lower rates of asthma. From the Lancaster Online article: Living on farms and coming from large families are considered protective factors against asthma, just as city dwelling is a risk factor,…
These days, wherever you go in Amish America you’ll see signs alerting you to all those good things that come out of Amish gardens–green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, onions, and the like. They’re a happy excuse to pull the car over, pick up something healthy for the table, and maybe chat a bit with an Amish housewife or her children. For the families, these roadside…
The final price tag on this sweet vehicle is $9,861.18, to be precise. The photos were taken by reader Jerry, who attended a recent auction in Perry County, PA, where the buggy was up for bidding. Here’s the interior: The price gave Jerry “sticker shock”, he says (and this leaves out the horse, which adds around $1600). Just like ordering a car, you get to select your features…
Amish people are no longer just the subjects of television programs–now they’re beginning to fill in the commercial breaks. A Colorado-based bank is running a series of three 15-second ads featuring an “Amish” spokesman promoting a smartphone app. The point of the spots is that banking-by-phone is so easy, even the technology-fearing Amish could do it. As you can see in the clips below, they play off of…
David Arment and his wife Pam are photographers living in northern Indiana. In today’s Q-and-A, David discusses his craft, including how he takes his photos and what life is like in one of America’s largest Amish settlements. I also asked David to share the stories behind a selection of his photos. I love the behind-the-scenes info he shares here. You can find more of his images…