I quite liked this story on a Sugarcreek, Ohio man who was raised Amish and is now planning to attend medical school at Ohio State (no longer online). Obviously, it’s not typical for someone who only went through eight grades to have such high educational goals. In fact, Andy Yoder completed his GED and is now finishing his final semester at Goshen College in Indiana….
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…
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…
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…
Who loves rankings? (everyone loves rankings) – today I offer my personal top-five favorite Amish settlements. I hope you’ll indulge my self-indulgence for this one day (I’ve been wanting to do this post for a long time!). I haven’t been everywhere, but of the 17-or-so communities I’ve visited, these are the ones I would most readily revisit (and do when I can), and why. For…
‘In 1847, nine families, all Bylers, moved to Lawrence, PA, they were: Solomon, Christian, Yost, Daniel, Noah, John, Reuben, Rudy, and Eli, and were among the first Amish in that section. In year 1880 bishop Crist (Christian) Byler walked from Lawrence County to the Valley. He traveled a distance of 250 miles in 4 days at the age of 68. He also made the trip…
Many people have seen photos of the fairly well-known ‘white-top buggy’ Amish. This group is based mainly in Pennsylvania’s diverse Big Valley region. They are most commonly known as the Nebraska Amish, named after a Nebraska-based bishop who helped the group get started in the late 1800s. Traditionally considered one of the most conservative Amish groups, they have also been called the “Old School Amish”….
Sitting on the lawn around the firepit last week with some Amish friends, talk turned to ‘White’ Jonas Stutzman, who once lived just a few miles away. Stutzman was one of the first Amish settlers in Holmes County. He was also one of the oddest. photo: behalt.com ‘White’ Jonas is portrayed in a local attraction, Behalt–a huge cycloramic painting of Anabaptist history, done about fifteen…
I really enjoyed church service today. This is the second weekend in a row I’ve gone with this group. Church in any particular district is normally held bi-weekly, the two consecutive Sundays in this case being due to a special situation. Many Amish are conscious of the differences that exist among their own people. I spent some time discussing this with church members today. Very…
WHEN I was in college, I read a book by Sherwood Anderson called Winesburg, Ohio. I remember it as a mostly downbeat collection of vignettes of small town life. As I recall it was firmly entrenched in the university Lit canon. Inspired Hemingway or something like that. This is not that Winesburg. Anderson’s town was fictional. The real Winesburg, Ohio also happens to be a…