One of my favorite pieces on the Amish is a Donald Kraybill examination of the four main affiliations of Holmes County, Ohio. This work does a great job of describing the cultural variety found within the Amish world. Reading it one is reminded of the difficulty of making broad generalizations about Amish society. The Amish in Holmes County follow a conservative-to-progressive arc that starts with…
Driving the backroads of Amish America you find yourself passing the horse-and-buggy in miniature, with little Amish pilots egging on their diminutive yet sturdy ponies, whipping across front yards or up the shoulder and down to the neighbor’s, perhaps to collect a missing ingredient for the casserole mom is working on back at home. Photo:Â Randall Persing The pony cart serves a useful function in…
Produce sales have become an important way for many Amish to earn a living. Some Amish have their own stands which they often operate at the end of the lane. Even more sell their produce to buyers at local produce auctions. This has become especially popular in recent years among the Amish of eastern Lagrange County, Indiana, who bring their produce to a specially-built auction…
Holmes County locals had a really nice idea a few years ago – to convert an old train bed into a multi-purpose pedestrian and horse trail. The Holmes County Trail was the result. The paved part actually stretches from Wayne County – Fredericksburg -around ten miles down to Millersburg, the Holmes County seat. It continues on in both directions unpaved. Motorized vehicular traffic is banned….
The eight-grades-and-out system has been criticized by some. One Amish teacher’s opinion, (taken from The Amish School, co-authored by Amish schoolteacher Sara E. Fisher and European Mennonite transplant Rachel K. Stahl): But do Amish schools prepare their children for life? Amish schools prepare their children to be God-fearing, hardworking, and self-supporting persons. They do not, however, teach them to be self-seeking, ambitious, and competitive. Amish…
With the races for the presidential nominations heating up, seems you can’t turn around without hearing what so-and-so said about you-know-who, who’s waffling, flip-flopping or what-not. Just 12 more months of it to go. So what do the Amish think about the political process? Well I can’t speak for all of them, but it seems to me that there are some closet political junkies among…
Being a well-known non-resistant group, people sometimes wonder if the Amish use guns for hunting. John at the Spokesrider has posted a few questions on this topic, which I’ve been meaning to get to for a while (thanks John!). I remember while in the Arthur, Illinois settlement a few years ago being surprised to learn that the Amish do use guns for hunting. Since that…
It looks like Anita and Jakub, the ‘Amish in Poland’, are back in the news again. The Pennsylvania/Indiana-transplant couple, who settled in a village not far from Warsaw 14 years ago, appeared on the national talk show ‘Rozmowy w Toku’ (roughly, ‘Conversations in Progress’) tonight. Kind of an odd place to find an Amish family, but again, we’re not sure exactly what their particular brand…
The Amish commitment to restricting schooling to eight grades is well-known. But what happens with those individuals who are driven to go further? In Amish Society, John Hostetler examines the issue. ‘Before the Amish operated their own schools, more Amish youths were exposed to the possibilities of higher education and to teachers who inspired them to continue their education than is the case today. To…
As you venture further south in the Holmes County Amish settlement, towards the Coshocton County line, two things happen. The countryside gets more rugged, and the churches more conservative. The large Amish settlements–Holmes County, Lancaster County, northern Indiana–have their progressive and conservative factions. In Holmes County, the area past Charm and Farmerstown, down around Becks Mills and New Bedford and on into Coshocton County is…