This Rare Deep South Amish Community Now Has 4 Homes For Sale — Is It Disbanding? (20 Photos)

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 curious as to why 3 Amish homes, 2 on the same road, would be for sale at the same time? Is there something happening in that area that is making the Amish leave?”

That was a good question. Since that comment was posted, the count has gone up. By my count there are now four Amish homes for sale online in this settlement. That includes the home we saw here in April, a second listing on the same road, a third property, and the one we’re looking at today.

Four homes for sale in a community of roughly 145 people is a notable number. When you see something like that, you tend to wonder if the local Amish are on the way out.

I don’t have a definitive answer for why this is happening, and it’s worth noting that Amish families move for plenty of ordinary reasons. But it gets your attention, especially when you look at what’s happening in a related community in the region.

A Sister Settlement Is Reportedly Disbanding

The Randolph community was founded in 1995, primarily by families from Ethridge, Tennessee. Twenty years later, Amish from Randolph and Ethridge formed another Swartzentruber settlement in the area of Ellenboro, North Carolina.

There have been signs that North Carolina community may be disbanding. In the post on the recently-founded Amish settlement in Alabama, I noted a YT channel comment that suggested as much, as well as a report in Die Botschaft Amish newspaper confirming a family from North Carolina had moved to Kentucky.

So, assuming that is the case that the NC group is parting ways, is something similar happening in the Randolph community? I can’t say for certain, but a couple of things makes me think “no”. For one, the comment I referenced above, for what it’s worth, states that the families from North Carolina are going to Kentucky – and to Mississippi.

What may actually be happening, is that these four families selling their homes (or at least some of them) are making the move to the new Alabama community. At least one family from Mississippi in the Die Botschaft writings was cited to have been Alabama-bound.

That’s just a guess, but it would make more sense to me than to have two of the established Southern Swartzentruber communities winding down simultaneously. So that said, let’s take a look at the latest property.

The Home

This home is two stories and built in a traditional Swartzentruber Amish style. It’s listed at 2,940 square feet including the basement, with five bedrooms and no bathrooms. This is an “outhouse-only” community.

The property includes a barn, shop, woodshed, and chicken house. Looks like it was laundry day when the real estate photographer came by. The pipe is likely to collect rainwater for use.

A view from the rear of the home shows a long covered back porch (easy for laundry hanging in rainy weather), the entrance to the basement area, and a pair of children’s wagons.

A view from under the front porch reveals more laundry lines under the simple metal overhang construction. And, an especially low-hung porch swing.

Inside the House

The living room gives us a good look at the simple beauty of many of these Swartzentruber Amish homes. While the interiors can vary, this one has beautiful hardwood floors, and characteristic light blue or blue-gray painted molding and window frames. The wall clock, oil lamps, and rockers are other classic notes for these homes.

The kitchen is a pretty open space with a wood cookstove on the left, a large dining table at right, and a blue painted cabinet hutch along the back wall. Utensils hanging from a rack on the wall, another wall clock and oil lamp above them.

A walk-in pantry room off the kitchen is stocked with pots, metal cookware, empty jars, and some cooking ingredients in containers, among other items. Two further details catch my eye – ironing board, to be used with non-electric sad irons, and…a handsaw.

The entry room has a large water cooler to hold the family’s drinking water supply.

A bedroom containing a bed with a dark blue patterned quilt, and a wooden crib alongside it. Likely the parents’ room. This home listing doesn’t have a ton of interior photos; this is the only one of the five bedrooms shown.

The staircase heading down to the basement. Items stored on the ledges along the sides.

The basement is a large unfinished cinder block-enclosed space. Used for cold storage and canning. While some Amish families use their basement spaces to hold church service, it’s highly unlikely that’s the case here – they’re likely using one of the external buildings for that.

There’s also a photo of this unfinished space. This is clearly not the basement, given the windows and light. Can’t say for sure but I suspect we are seeing the interior of the next structure…

…which is a red shop building – which, as is common with this group of Amish, may have, or may in future, serve as a basic living space as well (“shop home”). It’s pretty typical especially in plainer Amish communities for a young family to live in a shop structure first before completing a proper home.

Here’s another view of it, showing the long laundry line that takes better advantage of sunny days than the under-porch-hung ones.

And one more shot showing the location of the red shop building relative to the home.

The barn is a large weathered metal structure. Nothing showy about this and certainly nothing like, say, the beautiful stone barns found in a wealthy Amish settlement like Lancaster County, PA. It’s possible they use this space for church gatherings.

I’m not totally sure what this structure is used for. It has an outhouse look, and is positioned about where outhouses usually go, relative to the home – but no doors. Hmmm.

The chicken house with its fenced yard, and behind it a small pond. Waterfront property!

One other “small” (not-so-small) detail worth mentioning about this place: it is on 45 acres of land.

As you may have figured out by the Zillow screenshot I posted at top, this property is listed at $320,000. It’s represented by Carey Cossey of Southern Hills Realty & Appraisal.

These Swartzentruber places by their nature take the most “Englishizing” to get them up to non-Amish standards. But I for one am fond of the classic farm house look of these places, and someone could do something nice with this place, or the others currently on the market.

It would also be interesting to see if perhaps Amish moving from NC to this area buy any of them. But if that were going to happen, I would assume it would happen without the help of a realtor and being listed online.