In today’s post – part 1 of 3 – Don Burke and Laura Graber take us into the world of Amish horse-drawn transport. Together they look at photos Don has taken over the years in the Jamesport, Missouri Amish community, showing various horse-powered vehicles used by the Amish. Laura, who grew up Amish (and recently shared how she managed eight grades at once as an…
Despite Amish efforts to aid firefighters in extinguishing the blaze, a variety store in the Canton, Missouri Amish settlement burned to the ground yesterday evening. As reported by Michele McCormack in Muddy River News: LEWIS Co., Mo. — Just after 5 p.m. Thursday, a fire erupted at the Amish Variety Store along Highway 81 just north of Canton, Mo. “This is a bad time of…
An Amish organic dairy farm in the perfectly-named New Holstein, Wisconsin just listed for $1,420,000 — and no, as you might expect, electricity is not included. This is one of the highest-priced Amish properties we’ve covered in this series. We did recently see a $1.5 million Amish farmstead in Kentucky. Pricewise, this Wisconsin property is in that ballpark, but is a somewhat different kind of…
A buggy carrying Amish youth was hit by a pickup truck late Friday night in Geauga County, Ohio, causing serious injuries to at least two Amish teens. Unfortunately, the young driver of the pickup did not see fit to stop and help the occupants of the buggy he’d just hit. Instead, after freeing his truck from a ditch, he fled, according to authorities. More from…
Two Amish people were hurt – one critically – in a wreck which left the horse standing remarkably unharmed. This happened late Sunday night in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. No ages are given in this report – just a “young Amish woman”, and an “Amish man”. It describes how the buggy the pair were riding in was struck from behind, ejecting both and sending them to…
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for explosions in Amish buildings. Following the Amish schoolhouse explosion in northwestern PA, yesterday a barn and workshop were destroyed in an explosion and fire at an Amish property in Geauga County, Ohio. The cause was reportedly a propane gas leak. A caller reported a “hissing” noise coming from the barn. Fortunately no one was hurt, but based…
We often think of the Amish as living in the Midwest, and states like Pennsylvania. But Amish communities in the South are nothing new. States like Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee have seen their Amish populations grow robustly in recent decades. However, there’s one part of the South that the Amish have (for whatever reason) not settled — the “Deep South”. The Deep South is most…
We’ve got a new update following the March 27 explosion at the Spartansburg, Pennsylvania Amish school which left three girls seriously injured. Two of the girls were aged 6 and 11, and are students at the school, while the third girl, age 17, is their teacher. We learn in the update (shared in full below) that the 11-year-old and 17-year-old are sisters. Following the early-morning…
Last April, we learned of the theft of five Labradoodle puppies from an Amish farm in Lancaster County. Someone had slipped into the barn under cover of night, taken the pups — and also made off with the owner’s “black box” phone and a piece of paper. At the time, police were investigating, and a suspect hadn’t been named. And that was the last we…
Here’s something you don’t come across every day — an Amish homestead for sale in Mississippi. The Randolph community in Pontotoc County is one of only two Amish settlements in the entire Deep South. It was founded in 1995, primarily by settlers from the community at Ethridge, Tennessee — and close ties between the two communities remain. This is a Swartzentruber Amish community — one…
According to local officials,Amish traffic in Branch County, Michigan has been destroying roads – despite the county spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain them. And unlike in other cases, this goes beyond standard buggy traffic. From the Coldwater Daily Reporter: [Manager Jay] Miller said that despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Ray-Quincy, Copeland, and Hamman Roads over the last three years,…
If you’ve followed my stops through the Somerset County, Pennsylvania Amish settlement these past several months – starting at the charming backroad bakery, stopping in at the tiny farm stand, and on to the hidden variety store – we now come to the final Amish business I visited on this wintry mid-December day. And I actually went one state over to reach it. That sounds…
The Ultimate Mud Sale Guide | Jump to full 2026 Mud Sale Schedule OR scroll down 2026 Mud Sale Guide (22 Sales) When are the mud sales in Lancaster County? The Lancaster County mud sale schedule for 2026 is now available, with the traditional first event happening soon (February 27 & 28 at Strasburg Fire Company). What is a “Mud Sale”? How did it get…
Just an awful story out of the New Wilmington, Pennsylvania Amish community. A two-year-old boy has died, after falling into an open septic tank. From New Castle News: The Lawrence County Coroner’s Office and state police investigated the drowning death of a 2-year-old Amish boy who reportedly fell into an open septic tank Saturday. The child, identified as Steven Byler, was discovered deceased around 11…