The Amish of Jamesport, Missouri (34 Photos)

The Amish of Jamesport, Missouri (34 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
30 Comments

Last month, contributor Don Burke gave us a look at the Kalona, Iowa Amish settlement.  Don returns today with a selection of photos from the Jamesport, Missouri Amish community. At eight church districts, Jamesport (Daviess County) is the third-largest of Missouri’s three dozen+ Amish settlements, smaller than only Seymour (Webster County) and Clark (Audrain/Monroe/Randolph County).  Founded in 1953, only the Bowling Green community is older among the Show-Me State’s…

The Honeyville Quilt Auction (42 Photos)

The Honeyville Quilt Auction (42 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
15 Comments

2017 UPDATE: This year’s two editions of the Honeyville Quilt Auction will be held Saturday, April 8, and Saturday, September 16. The first Honeyville Quilt Auction of 2014 takes place tomorrow (Saturday April 12th) in the Elkhart-Lagrange, Indiana Amish settlement. We usually post auction photos taken during the event. Today is a little different, with a pile of pre-auction pictures showing all the neat things…

Amish in South Dakota (13 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
27 Comments

Contributor Tom Geist recently shared his visit to South Dakota’s only Amish community.  It was a nice post but a little short on images.  Today, the photos. Hutchinson County contains a grand total of 7,187 people (as of 2012), spread over 814 square miles, or just under 9 people per square mile.  By comparison, similarly-sized Lancaster County, PA has about 535 people per square mile….

Fountain Acre Foods (Wayne County, Indiana)

ByErik Wesner
34 Comments

One of our contributors recently paid a visit to the Wayne County settlement.  The weather did not quite cooperate that day. However that gave him a great excuse to duck into one of the more prominent Wayne County Amish businesses. Fountain Acres (Amish-owned Food Store) Fountain Acres Foods is a sizeable Amish-run “foods and more” store in the Wayne County Amish community, in the Fountain…

The Amish “Barn Moving” (Video)

The Amish “Barn Moving” (Video)

ByErik Wesner
12 Comments

You’ve heard of the Amish barn raising–but what about the Amish “barn moving”? Not only do Amish work together to put up a barn in short order, sometimes they team up to literally pick up and move a structure. And there are a handful of videos on Youtube showing this in action. First, from Wisconsin. The video maker writes: This took place in rural Dalton,…

The Amish and Deer Farming

The Amish and Deer Farming

ByErik Wesner
26 Comments

The Coshocton Tribune and Indianapolis Star recently published a series of stories on the deer farming industries in Ohio and Indiana. Amish people figure prominently in a number of the articles. The first is about an Amish craftsman putting deer antlers to a creative use. Amish-Made Deer Antler Pens Some have wondered what Amish deer farmers do with the animals they raise. The answer: a variety…

What are Amish “Affiliations”?

What are Amish “Affiliations”?

ByErik Wesner
19 Comments

You may have heard the term affiliation used to describe this or that Amish group. So just what is an “Amish affiliation”? Broadly speaking, affiliations describe groupings of Amish churches of similar practice, identity, and lifestyle.  The best discussion of Amish affiliations I’ve come across is in Chapter 8 of The Amish by Donald Kraybill, Karen Johnson-Weiner, and Steven Nolt. The authors describe the concept:…

The Amish of Hutchinson County, South Dakota

ByErik Wesner
13 Comments

South Dakota has had a spot on the Amish map since 2010, when a handful of families from Wisconsin settled near Tripp in Hutchinson County. One of our contributors, Tom Geist, recently shared a little on his visit to the Tripp Amish community. Tom writes: I was lucky enough to travel to Tripp, South Dakota on March 12th 2014. They now have 9 families there,…

Airville Mud Sale – York County, PA (22 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
18 Comments

Two Saturdays ago the Airville Volunteer Fire Company held their annual mud sale. Airville is a small community lying in southeastern York County.  Due east across the Susquehanna River you’ll find the southern Lancaster County Amish population including communities around Holtwood and Quarryville. The Airvile Fire Company has posted a fun batch of photos via its Facebook page. You can see some of them here, but…

The Amish of Kalona, Iowa (32 Photos)

The Amish of Kalona, Iowa (32 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
50 Comments

The Amish community at Kalona, Iowa is the ninth-oldest, having been founded in 1846 by Amish from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. By what we see in the first photo below, that would predate the founding of the town itself by over 30 years. This community permits a relatively high level of technology in the Amish world, including tractors used for field work. There is a…