The scenes below come from the Adams County, Indiana Amish settlement, from the recent building of a new school. You’ll see two structures in the photos below. The school is actually the foundation you see in the bottom two photos. The wooden structure the men are working on is a barn for the school. The slab on the right hand side of the bottom…
Non-Amish friendships? The allure of technology? Religious strife? These and other factors may very well play into individual decisions to leave behind an Amish faith and background. Caroline Faulkner, a professor of sociology at Lancaster’s Franklin & Marshall College, is trying to shed some light on this and related questions in a new study. In today’s guest post, Caroline examines depictions of Amish people leaving their faith and…
Today we have Part 1 of an interview with Messiah College professor emeritus of psychology Richard Stevick on his Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. Win 1 of 3 copies of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years Ask Rich a question in the comments below, and you’ll automatically get a chance to win one of three copies of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. This…
A recent article in the Massillon Independent depicts the efforts of law enforcement in Holmes and neighboring Tuscarawas County to thwart large parties held regularly in the area. According to authorities, these parties, such as those held at a resort in Tuscarawas County, have a significant Amish youth presence. Drugs such as meth and cocaine are sold and used at them. From the article: Such parties are…
When I saw “graffiti” in the title of the email, I imagined spray-painted epithets, possibly the work of ne’er-do-wells with an axe to grind against the Amish. By the looks of things, the etchings in these photos from contributor ShipshewanaIndiana appear to be the work of young boys, perhaps killing time after a church service. I can’t quite make everything out in the images–in the first…
If you were scanning a map of Kansas for places where Amish might be found, Yoder in Reno County would seem a logical guess, given how common that last name is among Amish today. And it’d be a good guess–the town itself was named after the son of an Amish bishop, Eli M. Yoder, who came to homestead here in 1870 (see GAMEO – Yoder). In 1886, the…
Loren and Dorcas Yoder are the owners of Silver Star Leather, located near Shipshewana in the northern Indiana Amish community. I first met Loren in 2006 while selling books in his area, and bumped into him again last summer through a mutual friend. It was a nice chance to visit with Loren again and see his growing business–like many Amish-owned companies housed in a small workshop sitting…
Reader Mike Atnip shares a panorama shot of the Meadow View Mill School Auction, which took place this past Saturday in Holmes County. Since panoramas don’t show up well here, I asked Mike to send me a large version that I could crop bits out of. First I split it into 3 chunks: Next, I zoomed in more, which gives you a better look at the…
We have a winner of the latest Name that Amish Community quiz, who got the right answers in yesterday evening just before the bell. Well done to Linda, who wins a year’s subscription to Family Life magazine. For those curious, I wanted to explain the thinking behind the quiz and how you could have solved it (with a bit of work! 🙂 ). Since I suggested…
These photos of a pantry in an Amish home were taken in Carroll County, Tennessee. Reader Brenda shared these some time ago and I’m just now getting to them (thanks, Brenda). What time of year do you think these photos were taken? For that matter, when do pantries look their thinnest? I’ve rarely done anything but deplete them, so I couldn’t pinpoint when exactly canned good…