Richard Stevick, Messiah college professor and author of Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years, has kindly shared an interesting report on an unusual new Amish publication (excerpts to come) based in the Sunshine State: Sunny Pinecraft, Florida, may not be replacing frozen Alymer, Ontario, as the creative and intellectual center of Amish thought and writing, but at the least, Pinecraft seems to be experiencing a…
A reader in Canada has shared some photos and background on the small settlement located near the village of Springford in Ontario. The community consists of 4 church districts and was founded in 1954. It is apparently quite conservative, using outhouses and open-front buggies and oil lamps for lighting, and blankets used to keep warm in winter. One particular point of interest in this community,…
Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia is a century-old institution in the heart of the city. There has been an Amish presence in the market for nearly three decades. I write about Reading Terminal in my book, as well as in a post last year on Amish markets. In a recent article, Summer Beckley of The Temple News gives a brief but interesting history of the…
Bruce Stambaugh describes peak season at the vacation/retirement community at Amish Pinecraft, in Sarasota, Florida: The atmosphere was part family reunion, part auction crowd. Some came to meet and greet. Most were there to watch. Men with white beards and denim pants with suspenders and women in pastel dresses and lacy white coverings predominated the scene. A few children in straw hats and long, plain…
The Bloomfield Amish community is one of the largest in Iowa The Amish community lying north and west of Bloomfield, Iowa is one of the three largest in the state. Like the nearby settlement at Kalona, and the more conservative group found in Buchanan County in the northeast part of the state, Bloomfield is home to roughly 8 church districts, comprising about 175 households. Yet…
It’s nearly 15 years old, but this New York Times article (http://www.cora.org/amish-skate-art.html) remains an interesting look at a “modern” form of transportation used by Amish (and which some may find surprising). In-line skates, aka “rollerblades”, are popular in the Lancaster County settlement. Amish historian Sam Stoltzfus estimates that (at the time of writing) they may be “tacitly” accepted in one third of settlements. In the article,…
Thought this might be a nice out-of-season shot to share, on yet another snowy day in my neck of the woods (and maybe yours, too). Rick offers us a pic from Mercer County, Pennsylvania, near the hamlet of Jackson Center, an hour north of Pittsburgh.  There are at present 3 Amish settlements in Mercer County, the oldest and largest settled in 1942, and having 5…
Technically, I believe we are not in a recession anymore (though try telling that to any of the 10%+ unemployed, or those that have simply given up looking for a job and are no longer counted in that statistic; on that count it looks like the new buzzword to describe the current situation is “human recession”), but I just read a story about how Amish businesses…
The blog will be relatively quiet for the next few days, as we are working on a few changes here. The blog platform will be switched from Typepad to WordPress–which is a good thing, and something I’ve wanted to do for a long while. WordPress seems to be a much more versatile platform (any WordPress users out there concur?). But, expect Amish America to remain…
Amish and Mennonites have been putting on annual auctions for the benefit of people in Haiti for many years now. They take place in various locations across the nation, including communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida, and Illinois. Furniture, quilts and other items are auctioned off at these large events. The Florida auction, held in Sarasota, is in fact taking place this weekend. The photos…