I had a chance to catch up with a couple more friends the Thursday before last–‘Martin’, a minister of the New Order Amish persuasion, his wife, ‘Annie’, and their neat kids. My timing was perfect–suppertime! A grinning Martin plunked me down in front of a ‘haystack’–a potato-lettuce-chili-cheese- crumbled nachos concoction Annie had just prepared. Yum. (Yeah, I definitely had seconds). As we dug into our…
The homes of the Swartzentruber Amish and similar groups tend to be among the plainest. Metal roofs and dirt lanes are characteristic. Usually Swartzentruber yards are a bit scrabbly-looking compared to the typical meticulously-cared-for Old Order front lawn. This may reflect a difference in concern for the material world. While many Old Order Amish will work out on construction crews and in factories, Swartzentrubers tend…
Day Two in Holmes County was a great one. I had a chance to catch up with a lot of Amish friends and acquaintances. I sat for an hour and a half having a nice chat with one friend, ‘Johnnie’, who just had his fifth child (all girls!). He gave me a bottle of homemade blackberry wine to take away. He, like many Amish, appreciates…
I’m still picking the splinters out of my hands this morning and counting up the nicks and scratches on my arms. The Amish broke a city boy in yesterday. But it was only about three and a half hours, so I guess they went easy on me. Hay is ‘made’ in groups. It’s something Amish farmers need to do regularly in the growing season. I…
The Amish arrange themselves into compact groupings known as church districts. Each district has its own name, usually a geographically-based one–Lamoni South, Randolph, and Crab Orchard are examples of places providing names for districts, these being found in Iowa, Mississippi, and Kentucky Amish communities. Since the Amish travel by horse-and-buggy to one another’s homes for Sunday service, most districts are grouped together in a logical,…
The Sugarcreek, Ohio Budget newspaper is a vital print lifeline stretching across the diverse Anabaptist settlements of North and South America. Founded in 1890, this weekly paper out of Sugarcreek, Ohio, serves as an information exchange for families sometimes separated by great distances and formidable technological barriers. The Budget is among the favorites when it comes to Amish reading material. Budget ‘scribes’ regularly report on…
The caption accompanying the above photo in an AP story on Amish and gas usage reads: “Using real horse power to get around, an Amish buggy makes its way through Middlefield, Ohio, unconcerned about the rising gas prices…” Actually, the Amish aren’t as oblivious to rising gas prices as we might think. While it’s true they don’t have to worry about filling up a gas-slurping…
Siss im blut is PA Dutch for ‘it’s in the blood’. It’s often given as a reason when Amish and Mennonites talk about genetic problems in their midst. Amish and Mennonites have taken a practical approach to an unfortunate situation: a cramped gene pool causing numerous genetic disorders, often popping up with a frequency unseen outside their tight communities. Amish communities have accepted medical help…
I just Googled ‘amish news’ and it seems the Amish are getting some polarized coverage these days. If they’re not being lauded as an example of how we should all be more forgiving, they are under fire as heartless puppy abusers. What’s the real deal? Besides stating the obvious that we should look at the individual and not the whole, the Amish seem to exhibit…
A small, accidental settlement of Amish apparently once existed in New Orleans. David Luthy explains that in the 1800s, many migrant Amish came to America from Europe by way of the Mississippi River port. Sometimes it happened that an Amish family lacked the funds to continue upstream and onward to established settlements, often in Illinois. Previous to 1850, stranded families formed a small and short-lived…