Wisconsin is home to America’s fourth-largest Amish population, with over 27,000 Amish living across the state. These ten communities rank as the biggest in Wisconsin, based on the most current Amish population estimates. While Wisconsin does not have many very large Amish communities, the state makes up for it in number – having the second-most individual Amish settlements of any state. Population numbers via Young…
Amish life presents certain hazards that typical non-Amish life does not. Those can include dangers when traveling by buggy, working on the farm, or even dangers from non-electric fuels in the home. Adding a lot of children to the mix, as is the norm for Amish families, adds another layer to the topic. Of course, Amish parents teach their children the do’s and don’ts for…
A 16-year-old Amish girl named Laura Schwartz was killed when a semi-truck rear-ended the horse-drawn buggy she was riding in. The crash happened early Saturday – the morning of June 6 – in Adams County, Indiana. It’s been a bad stretch on the roads for the Amish — and this is at least the second Amish teen to lose their life in a buggy wreck…
Michigan has returned to the news with another buggy crash — and again, one involving a (potentially) impaired person behind the wheel. A driver rear-ended an Amish buggy Friday evening in St. Joseph County, ejecting all four people inside and leaving a pregnant woman in critical condition. Drug use is suspected. Here’s more from WTVB: According to the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were…
Back in April we featured an Amish homestead for sale in the Randolph community of Pontotoc County, Mississippi – one of only two Amish settlements in the entire Deep South. Not too long after that post went up, a reader named William left a comment: “There are 3 Amish homes for sale in that area. We’re looking to potentially relocate to the area and are…
The church parking lot in Holmes County was already filling when Lizzie and I pulled in. Women in plain dresses, women in jeans, and women in dress slacks moved steadily toward the doors carrying coffee cups, purses, notebooks, and homemade snacks. Some greeted each other like old friends. Others looked nervous, like they were still trying to decide whether they belonged there at all. Inside,…
An intoxicated 25-year-old woman struck an Amish buggy in Kosciusko County, Indiana several days ago, leaving behind multiple injured victims, and ultimately a trail of ugliness. And I say this is one of the uglier such stories, for several reasons. Those include what happened to the Amish victims involved – but especially for this person’s alleged behavior after the wreck happened. A Series of Bad…
Reader Shawn has been visiting the Amish community at Pearisburg, Virginia for over a decade now. The first visit of Shawn’s we saw here was back in 2014, followed by a return in 2016 to check on the newly opened Walker Valley Market. I’ve made a couple of visits myself – one on a rainy February day in 2020, and another in December 2020 when…
Another tragic buggy crash has claimed the life of a young member of an Amish community in northern Kentucky, and left two others injured. The crash happened this past Saturday in Carroll County, Kentucky, as local Amish youth were on a fishing trip. According to reporting by the Madison Courier: The teens were traveling along with other teens from an Old Order Amish community in…
Jim Halverson recently attended an auction in Gladwin County, Michigan. As you can see from the photos, it was a well-attended event, likely in the hundreds of people. It happened this past Friday, May 29. Auctions are a fixture of Amish community life. They may be estate sales, farm sales, benefit events, or simply a regular community consignment auction. Whatever the occasion, they tend to…