My first Amish trip of 2014 happened last week. I made a short visit to one of only two Amish communities in North Carolina, the Union Grove settlement. (Note: see update at end of post for the latest on NC Amish). The Union Grove community includes both Union Grove and Hamptonville addresses (Iredell and Yadkin counties). This is the western part of the state, about…
Actually, it’s a “workshop and equipment shed” raising, but that’s not quite as catchy, is it? Â Either way, the Amish of Union Grove, North Carolina have been busy on a construction project the past few days. The proprietors of Hickory Nut Gap Farm, a business which sells specialty beef and pork near Asheville, opted for the services of the state’s only Amish community, hiring a…
Two weeks, 5 states, 15 communities. Five (plus) pounds. It was a whirlwind trip as I packed a month of visiting into 2 weeks of time. Â I spent the past weekend zonked out and resting up (3700 road miles will do that to you). But I’ve recovered enough to put together a collection of highlights from my recent Amish trip: Dessert at the home of…
North Carolina is my home state, and not one known for having a large Amish population. Amish have attempted to settle NC in the past, however, and today one settlement does exist, at Union Grove, a hamlet lying some miles west of Winston-Salem. Union Grove, which began in 1985 as a spinoff of the Guthrie, Kentucky community, is considered a New Order settlement. Like its…
From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through Ohio and Indiana and on out to other long-established settlements in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, we tend to associate the Amish with the nation’s middle latitudes. Since their earliest years in America, the Amish have gravitated to the cooler climes of these corn and dairy regions. However, the Amish have also had a long history of attempting to settle America’s southern…
Today, a small New Order Amish settlement is found in western North Carolina, near the town of Union Grove. Before this settlement came about, (and not counting a short-lived community in the late 50’s), the only other full-fledged attempt to settle in the Tar Heel State occurred in 1918, lasting a full quarter-century before extinction in 1944. The Amish who originally came here, mainly from…