I was informed yesterday that David Luthy had passed away earlier in the morning. Among other things, David was an Amish historian, founder and maintainer of the Heritage Historical Library, and an editor and contributor to Family Life, one of the most well-known and influential publications in the Amish and Plain Anabaptist world. Personally, he was one of the people who, through his writings, helped…
The Township calls this a “recurring issue”: people – it seems they mean primarily Amish people – building structures such as horse barns without following the rules. The current matter involves a man in East Earl Township Earl Township* (Lancaster County, PA), reported a few days ago at Lancaster Online. *Corrected: the township in question is Earl, which is not the same as East Earl….
There have been a spate of car-buggy crashes reported in Kentucky over the past several days. Some quite serious, starting with this wreck in central Kentucky which claimed a young man’s life. 1. 19-Year-Old Killed in Casey County First, the most serious (at least at this point). It involved a van and a buggy driven by a 19-year-old Amish male. This happened in Casey County,…
We got an intriguing short clip of this song back in August. So I’m happy to see Ben and Rose release the full studio song with video. I found it intriguing due to its background. It’s a hymn written by Aldine Kieffer and B.C. Unseld way back in the late 1800s. That’s not so old compared to, say, Ausbund hymns. But for songs rendered in…
This Tennessee Amish home is said in the description to have “unrivaled views”. And further: “Glorious and amazing views in every direction. Seriously. This is not an over exaggeration.” That’s a pretty strong claim…”unrivaled” literally means the best of anything of its kind. So, I doubt that word is technically true. Real estate sales involves some salesy language. But, it does look like it has…
A man whom the Amish trusted – and paid – to drive them places was actually working against them. While he operated as an Amish taxi driver, his side occupation was allegedly helping criminals target some of those very same Amish homes for burglary. That’s according to new reports and allegations about a fourth man arrested in connection with the Geauga County, Ohio home invasion and assault case. From…
Samantha Jo Petersen’s sentence was delivered earlier today. Samantha pleaded guilty in July for her role in a September 2023 crash which killed two Amish girls in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Samantha was driving an SUV which rear-ended the buggy the girls were traveling in along with two other siblings. Irma Miller (11) and Wilma Miller (7) lost their lives that morning, while on their daily…
Haley Straw returns today with the second installment on what it’s like to be an Amish taxi driver. And here’s part one if you missed it. In my last article, I shared what it’s like behind the wheel as an Amish taxi driver. Today, I want to look at the other side of the story: the rules of the road. Because while many Amish see hiring…
When it comes to buggy accidents, we tend to focus on the more egregious incidents, when bad drivers clearly are at fault. But it goes without saying that motor vehicle drivers aren’t always to blame. Operators of horse-drawn vehicles bear their own responsibility on the road. And sometimes they are the reason for an accident happening. That appears to be the case in this incident…
Following numerous serious car-buggy crashes in his state, a Virginia sheriff is proposing that a new light system – triggered by passing Amish buggies – could warn drivers of horse-drawn travelers on the roads ahead of them. Similarly to how flashing lights draw attention to upcoming stop signs on secondary highways, a flashing light system could tell drivers to expect to see horse-drawn vehicles just…