Rita asks: I’ve seen the comments about teens, during Rumspringa, driving cars. How do they get a permit, practice time, license and money to buy a car without the parent’s assistance? We’ve discussed Amish youth getting their first buggies, but what about cars?  First off, some Amish youth do in fact drive, and some Amish parents have no choice but to concede car driving to…
Here’s a neat story I missed during Christmas, worth taking a look back at. A couple reasons why–one, it’s about an Arkansas Amish community–and you don’t hear too much about Amish in Arkansas, owing to the small size and remoteness of the Natural State Amish population.  Two, it ties in with an issue we discussed earlier this week–challenges created by obstacles like busy roads running through Amish…
Mona asks: How do the older people date/marry after a spouse dies? Or even the younger spouses who may lose a spouse to an accident, etc.? Divorce is taboo in the Amish church, but Amish people do fairly often remarry after a spouse dies. If you look through an Amish publication like The Diary for instance, you can find a monthly record of marriages, with several…
A controversy has erupted in a small New York Amish community (near Marathon in Cortland County, 1 hr S. of Syracuse) over busing of Amish schoolchildren. New York state law requires busing to be provided to private school students as well as those attending public schools. This would include the local Amish community. The issue has to do with Amish kids mixing with non-Amish children….
Some may have heard that Stephen Scott passed away suddenly last week. Â Stephen was a member of the Old Order River Brethren church, an Anabaptist researcher and the author of numerous books on Anabaptist topics, such as Plain Buggies and Why Do They Dress That Way? I came to know Steve at the Young Center at Elizabethtown College in 2008, and catching up with him…
There has been a lot of speculation over the Holmes County Amish shooting. Â Many have wondered about the lack of a bullet hole in the buggy, and the distance from which the gun was fired. Over the weekend, reader Mary (not to be confused with Michigan Mary, who has also added details) shared some insights into the tragedy. Mary is a cousin of Rachel Yoder’s…
Michigan Mary, who commented earlier on the Ohio Amish shooting, has shared some photos taken in Holmes County last week. In my neck of the woods we just hit winter–both technically and meteorologically speaking, with the season’s first snowfall yesterday. Â Looks like they’ve had a bit of the same lately in Ohio. Exotic animal farm. There are a couple of these in Holmes County–the…
Rachel Yoder was killed by a stray bullet from a hunter’s rifle, according to new reports. A hunter was getting ready to clean his weapon about a mile and a half away, and discharged the firearm into the air. Â In the most recent news piece I can find, Holmes County Sherriff Timothy Zimmerly describes it as “in all probability” accidental. If there is any “good…
Following yesterday’s post on the Ohio Amish shooting, there was some discussion on the group of Amish victim Rachel Yoder belonged to. Rachel was apparently a member of the Andy Weaver Amish, which is colloquially known as the “Dan” Church (thanks to Michigan Mary, who was about a mile away at the time of the shooting Thursday, for filling in some gaps). Rachel’s home community…
Sad story: late last week a 15-year-old Amish girl was shot and killed while returning home by buggy in the Holmes County, Ohio Amish settlement. Rachel M. Yoder was coming back from a Christmas party for employees of the produce business she worked for. The shooting apparently happened a few miles east of Fredericksburg, near the Holmes/Wayne County border. Â Police are treating her death as…