Amish in the News

AARONSBURG, PA - An Amish family is without a home after it caught fire Thursday. 

ST. ANNA, WI — The Mast family didn’t set out with a master plan to open an Amish bakery.

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ALBANY, NY — The state Appellate Division of Supreme Court has granted an appeal made by a St. Johnsville man who was sentenced to a 40-year term in state prison in May 2015 for abusing six Amish boys over the course of a seven-year period.

Amish dairy farmers who lost their milk buyer the first day of the new year have been given another chance to maintain the livelihood they've held for generations. 

ALBANY, NY – A former Montgomery County farmer convicted in 2015 of sexually preying on six adolescent Amish boys has a new chance at freedom after a mid-level appeals court  reversed more than two dozen of his convictions Thursday.

STRASBURG, PA - Visitors to the Clinic for Special Children (CSC) just outside Strasburg, Pennsylvania, might be forgiven for thinking they’ve made a wrong turn.

TOWN OF NEWPORT, N.Y. - New York State Police are investigating a crash involving a horse and buggy in Herkimer County.

NEWPORT, N.Y. — New York State Police in Herkimer responded around 8 a.m. Wednesday to reports of a hit-and-run crash on Summit Road in the town of Newport.

MIDDLEFIELD, OH  — Work to widen roads and make other safety improvements is planned in an area of Ohio’s Amish country plagued by crashes resulting in injuries, according to federal and state officials.

A group of Amish dairy farmers have lost their milk buyer, putting their livelihood and way of life at risk, as a crisis deepens in America’s dairyland.

Daniel Weaver does not vote, drive a car, read a paper, listen to music, watch sport of any kind, own a mobile phone or use a computer. But as we eat the food grown in his garden outside the window, he confesses that he did once see a film. He refuses to disclose what, brushing aside my questions as we sit talking around the dining table with his wife, five of his eight children and one grandson. “I am not proud of that,” he says. “I went against my parents’ wishes.”

MIDDLEFIELD, OH - Fire officials in northeastern Ohio say a blaze that killed a 2-year-old child and injured 10 members of an Amish family began with a lamp that used liquid fuel.

Thelma Miller feels the pop, but tells herself not to worry. She’s 31 weeks pregnant, too early for her water to break. But this baby is coming nonetheless.

As an auctioneer pressed his Hartly audience toward the highest bid possible for a set of dishes, an Amish man watched from the side of the tent, his arms crossed as he leaned on a tent pole.

This week I helped with preparations for the wedding for Lovina’s niece Emma. As an outsider, I am impressed by how beautifully orchestrated these events are. Family, neighbors and the church community all pitch in to help with the work of hosting weddings.

GOSHEN, IN — Dale Raber sees a range of mental health needs as a therapist at Oaklawn Psychiatric Center, but his clients all have one thing in common: They’re all Amish.

PRESTON, MN — For the last week, four members of the Swartzentruber Amish community have listened to arguments on whether their religious beliefs would allow them to not comply with state wastewater regulations.

When Walid Abdul-Wahab met the Amish and Mennonite farmers he now works with, they didn't suspect he was a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. "They assumed I was Amish because of my beard," he says.

MIDDLEFIELD TWP, OH - A fire swept through an Ohio home on Wednesday night, killing a two-year-old and injuring 10 members of an Amish family, officials said.

PAINT TOWNSHIP, OH - Authorities are searching for a driver who struck an Amish buggy and then drove off following a crash in Holmes County on Tuesday afternoon.

ORWELL, OH - Grand Valley Superintendent William Nye said Orwell is getting close to being the next Middlefield when it comes to the size of Amish settlements.

An Amish farmer in Kentucky is asking President Donald Trump for a pardon after he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mislabeling homemade herbal products.

WATERLOO – Gene Raffensperger stood next to the big yellow school bus in front of a country school and watched as Amish schoolchildren came out of the school. They were crying as their mothers embraced them, and then someone yelled “Run.”

A campaign rally with Vice President Mike Pence in central Ohio on Wednesday included two unlikely voters, farmers Levi Miller and Ben Hostetler, who are part of a determined effort by Trump supporters and the Republican Party to get members of the conservative Amish and Mennonite communities to the polls.

LAWRENCEBURG, TN - A surge in crashes with Amish buggies in Lawrence County has the Tennessee Highway Patrol sending out a serious warning for drivers.

LANCASTER, PA - I live in Lancaster County, Pa., home to one of the largest Old Order Amish communities in the world. My work brings me into regular contact with the Amish.

One of the highlights of the recent 2018 Annual Council was Andy Weaver’s incredible testimony shared with World Church delegates on Monday, October 15

VERMONT - Vermont Digger reports that 10 Amish families have moved to Vermont’s quaint and pastoral Northeast Kingdom over the last two years. The paper says the families are “loosely related” and have come from Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker is hustling down a dizzying spiral staircase in the United States Capitol. He’s cutting through the cavernous basement hallways and around security guards, up more stairs and down others.

SULLIVAN TOWNSHIP, OH - A West Salem man has been charged with a felony count of aggravated vehicular assault in connection with an Amish buggy crash that injured seven people, the Ashland County prosecutor announced Wednesday.