The Martyrs Mirror is revered by Amish and other Anabaptists. Â It’s a 1,000+ page book recounting the stories of Christian martyrs. Â In addition to Biblical-era martyrs, it includes tales of the many early Anabaptists persecuted in Europe. The Martyrs Mirror is in the news because a very old (1748) German-language edition is up for sale at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society auction (I’ve linked to…
Following up last week’s look inside a New York Amish living room, we have a couple more photos of an Amish home interior, courtesy of SUNY-Potsdam anthropology professor Karen Johnson-Weiner. These shots were taken in a home in the Swiss Amish settlement in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Swiss Amish tend to be fairly plain, and I think this interior reflects that. A few things jumped out…
Beth Russo has kindly shared 10 photos of the Amish settlement at Bowling Green, Missouri (Pike County). Â Beth recently made a trip during which she visited an Amish woodworking shop and a beekeeper. Â You can find more of her photos on her Facebook page. Bowling Green is the oldest Amish settlement in Missouri, founded in 1947. Â There are a total of 3 church districts and…
I just got off the phone with an Amish friend, “Alvin”, from Holmes County. Â I like to call Alvin, a furniture maker, from time to time, to check up on things in Amish Ohio. The big news? Â March Madness, or I suppose the Plain equivalent, is apparently heading to Holmes County. I’ve written a number of times about Amish and sports. Â Sports and games are…
Nadege Armour asked in a comment yesterday: Â Any chance we might be able to see the inside of an anonymous Amish home? Well, here we have a photo of the inside of an Amish home near Clymer, New York, shared by Amish researcher Karen Johnson-Weiner: First off, you can see one of the most important types of technology in an Amish home (at least in…
Traveling through Amish settlements you may notice something like this: That’s not a Plain people hauler, nor the caboose of some sort of horse-drawn train. Â This bulky vehicle is a church wagon, and you’ll see them throughout Amish America. Each Amish church district will have its own wagon, used to transport benches from one location to the next. The benches are mainly used as seating…
Delaware may be our first state, but examining a US map today, it’s easy to overlook.  The average state in America consists of 63 counties; Delaware, with the fewest of all, has just three. The “one in the middle”, Kent County, is home to the second largest city and state capital, Dover.  Just west of Dover city limits you’ll find Delaware’s only Amish settlement, a community…
Pennsylvania and Maine have been locked in a sweets skirmish the past few weeks. Â The territory under siege is the famous whoopie pie. Both PA Dutch culture and the Amish have connections to the whoopie pie, so there are tourism marketing implications at stake here. Folks in both states have laid claim to the whoopie as the official state dessert. Â If you can believe it,…
In her guest post last Friday, Kate Hastings pointed out how common calendars are in Amish homes. Â Kate noted that while visiting an Amish friend, “I realized that I could see six picture calendars from where I was sitting in the kitchen.” Â The calendars “featured horses, barns, lighthouses, bluebirds, and wildflowers.” While you won’t find family portraits on Amish walls, you will find a range…
Today is the first day of spring (also known as the furthest day possible from next winter). Depending on your latitude, you may need the calendar to tell you that. But even if your weather this morning doesn’t seem so springy, it will be here soon enough. With spring, plants know the wait is over. They may now officially begin to sprout and grow. Of…