As the Lancaster County Amish community has grown, it has sprawled beyond the borders of the county itself. And for years, readers have noted that Lancaster County Amish are living across the state line in Maryland. On a previous visit to Pennsylvania (Dec. 2023), I drove around a bit in the area of Rising Sun in Cecil County, MD. The county has a separate, small…
So here are ten (more) views from Virginia’s largest Amish community – in Charlotte County. I did a post like this five years ago. Some things have changed in this community, and some things haven’t. Let’s have a look. As you approach the community from the south, a sign alerts you to be on the lookout for Amish buggies. Fifteen miles gives you a sense…
Yet another hit-and-run accident on an Amish buggy has occurred. This one was in Clare County, Michigan, an area which we cover here on the site fairly frequently. From ABC 12 News: CLARE COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) – Police are looking for a full-size Ford pickup truck involved in a hit-and-run crash with an Amish buggy in eastern Clare County on Monday. The Clare County Sheriff’s…
Randy Evans writes about the passing of Titus Wagler, of Bloomfield, Iowa. Titus was brother to Ira Wagler, and son to David Wagler, both well-known writers with Amish roots. From Randy’s recent column “Never put off what you might regret”: This lesson arrived the week before Christmas when I spotted a small obituary in the Bloomfield Democrat. Seven succinct paragraphs informed readers of the death…
I dropped in on the Charlotte County, Virginia Amish community just before Christmas. I’ve been visiting this one since there were just a relative handful of Amish here. As the community has slowly grown over the years, the number of Amish-run stores here seems to be slowly increasing as well. One of the places I visited is called Country Corner Dairy. It’s one of the…
We are about to turn the page on another year. How time flies. As we always do this time of year, a look back at some favorite posts from the past 365 days. Some of these posts were highly-viewed. Others generated good discussion and responses from you. They’re not all necessarily about happy topics (for example, the Rebekah Byler case, which is due to finally…
Here’s one for your New Year. Following the Amish Country Music Video post, some of you brought back to my attention videos by the Brandenberger family of northern Indiana. I had come across these some years ago but forgotten about them. I think at the time I wasn’t 100% sure if this was an Amish family – or more an “Amish-esque” one (eg, keeping Amish cultural…
Jim Halverson has checked in with another visit to Amish in Clare County, Michigan. This visit took place a few days before Christmas. There are two Amish communities in the county, one much larger than the other, and a third partially in the county. In addition to the snow-covered landscape you can see Jim also encountered some fresh snow on his visit. Like in this…
I asked Marlene Lehman about the Amish custom of circle letters. If you haven’t heard of the circle letter, it’s a delightfully old-fashioned way for Amish people (with some sort of connection – sometimes “deep”, sometimes based on coincidence) to stay connected across communities. A viewer on YouTube jokingly referred to the circle letter as “Amish group chat”. Marlene explains more in our talk,…
It’s not “goodbye” quite yet, but one Maine Amishman is soon closing down his – dare I say semi-famous – upscale meats-and-cheeses market. I call it “semi-famous” because Matthew Secich’s Charcuterie has been featured multiple times in newspaper articles. Part of the public interest has to do with his unusual background. Secich is a former big-city chef who joined the Amish in the Unity, Maine…