Amish in the News

New Auburn, Wisconsin - Richard A. Atkinson had a theory on why the green 2001 Ford Windstar he was driving ran into the back of a horse-drawn buggy, injuring two people on May 24 in New Auburn. A criminal complaint detailed that Atkinson, 49, of 2723 3 ½ Ave., New Auburn, transports the Amish and felt terrible about hitting the buggy. It read: “Richard Atkinson thought that the reason he did not see the buggy was because the front lights on the buggy were not activated because, ‘They sometimes like to save batteries.’”

Lancaster, Pennsylvania - It took three days, but Elma Byler, 66, was finally released from the Lancaster County Mental Health Facility after being mistakenly committed a few days earlier. Byler spent the last month telling her friends and family that she was “retahren.” When she revealed this news to her physician, Dr. Mark Barenger, during a routine check-up, he immediately contacted the LCMHF. “She told me she was…in poor mental health,” said Barenger. “Just outright told me.”

Clark, Missouri - Maryann Yoder, 5, will join her sister Edna, 7, and other Amish children in a local one-room schoolhouse in a few years. But until then, speech therapist Anna Crusha provides a different education for the girls, just for the two of them, in their tidy home every Thursday. Crusha, working for the Sturgeon R-V School District, uses board games and other activities to improve their speech. The sisters are both partially deaf.

Seymour, Missouri - A 30-year-old Amish man died Friday morning after a lightning strike hit his horses as he plowed a garden at his farm on Smith Road, about six miles northeast of Seymour. Samuel H.K. Beechy was leading his two-horse team, pulling a cultivator, when lightning struck the horses at about 11:30 a.m., Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole said Monday morning. “The question still remains, as of today, whether his death is the result of the lightning strike or the result of a secondary injury, such as injuries sustained in the impact after the strike,” Cole explained. “Regardless, it is safe to say that the lightning strike did lead to his death.”

I’ve been fascinated by the Amish since my first trip to Holmes County, where my sister and I donned bonnets to play in a buggy, and my brother got a wooden rubber band gun. Every year we went, stopping first at the Shearer’s outlet store in Brewster to stock up on sustenance for our day of exploring. We’d stop at the wooden toy store outside Wilmot and the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock in Winesburg, and whatever else looked enchanting.

Seymour, Missouri - A man has died after being struck by lightning in a southwest Missouri farm field. KYTV reports the 30-year-old Amish man died Friday morning along with two horses he was using to cultivate the field near Seymour.

Russellville, Kentucky - Jail time was averted, at least for now, by an Amish father and son who refuse to pay fines for violating an Auburn city ordinance requiring owners to prevent waste from horses from falling on city streets. Logan District Court Judge Ken Williams deferred a show cause hearing for two weeks in the cases of Amos and Dan Mast.

Blanchard, Michigan - Horse drawn buggies clatter across the streets of Blanchard in increasing frequency. Shops are often patronized by customers dressed in homemade garments, reminiscent of the 1800s. As the Amish community continues to flourish in the small Michigan farming town, residents work to adjust to their hardworking but soft­spoken new neighbors.

Jefferson County, Ohio - A child was killed after a pickup truck crashed into her horse and buggy on Tuesday afternoon along County Road 58 in Bergholz. Officials say an 86-year-old who lives nearby was heading westbound behind the 11-year-old child, who was operating the horse-drawn buggy.

Four decades ago, Carl Cisney’s life changed when he gave an Amish neighbor a lift to a welding shop. The neighbor introduced him to an Amish man named Steve Esh. The Amish population is growing and needs drivers, Esh told Cisney. If you get a van, I’ll make sure you’re busy, he promised.

Auburn, Kentucky - Amos Mast and his son Dan Mast are scheduled to appear in court Thursday, June 25 to pay fines they owe to the City of Auburn, as well as court costs they owe to the county after being found guilty in April of violating an animal ordinance. Amos Mast owes the court $386 and Dan Mast owes $193. Since the trial Amos has been cited again for the same violation.

In case you missed it, The First Lady took over London earlier this week and she did not arrive empty handed! While having tea with none other than Prince Harry at Kensington Palace on Tuesday, Mrs Obama brought gifts for him to give to his royal nephew and niece. The Prince was said to be very pleased to host Michelle at the palace after the pair bonded back in 2013 over their joint work to honour veterans and support their families.

Carroll County, Missouri - Two Amish men accused of sex crimes in Carroll County entered pleas of guilty this afternoon. KMZU’s Kim Nuelle was in the court room when Melvin Gingerich, 29, pleaded guilty to one felony count of first degree child molestation. He was given a 5-15 year sentence, which is suspended while he is placed in a 120 day sex offender assessment program in Farmington, Missouri to decide if he will be a repeat offender.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - A man rode a bicycle past a group of young Amish children several times in Lancaster County before police say he stopped and assaulted one in the group. Police responded to the reported indecent assault around 5:30 p.m. on May 25 in the first block of west Center Square Road, according to a news release from East Lampeter Township police.

Auburn, Kentucky - Clara Mast, an Amish woman who was cited recently in the city of Auburn for violating an animal ordinance, will not be heading to court since someone came into City Hall and paid her $50 fine. Ms. Mast looked as if she would be following in the footsteps of two other Amish individuals, who also violated the ordinance, but so far have refused to pay the fine and court costs associated with taking it through the judicial system.

Fonda, New York - A St. Johnsville man was sentenced today to 40 years in state prision after being convicted of sexually abusing six Amish boys at his farm. Robert Madsen, 48, of 1489 Kringsbush Road, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court by Judge Felix J. Catena.

Augusta, Maine - Emergency legislation was submitted Tuesday to allow Amish hunters to wear red items of clothing instead of the standard orange during hunting season. The Amish faith prohibits the use of bright colors, but Amish hunters are forced to use the bright, fluorescent hunter orange to comply with safety regulations, Maine Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

St. Lawrence County, New York - State Senator Patty Ritchie says she feels confident a compromise can be reached that will allow members of the Amish community to avoid using orange safety triangles on their buggies. Several Amish bishops met with the senator, St. Lawrence County Legislative Chair Joe Lightfoot, Sheriff Kevin Wells and State Police Lieutenant Kevin Boyea for more than an hour at the Heuvelton fire station Thursday.

Auburn, Kentucky - Clara Mast, an Amish woman, was cited recently in the city of Auburn for violating the animal ordinance. Mast will be joining two other Amish individuals who were recently found guilty by a jury in Logan County District Court for the same infraction. She is scheduled to appear in court May 27 at 1 p.m. unless she pays the $50 fine associated with the violation.

The McJenkin family has a special connection to the Jewish holiday Shavuot. On the eve of the holiday last year, they became part of the Jewish people, and on Wednesday, days before this year's holiday, they immigrated to Israel with their 11 children. Meet the family: father Chad-Shalom, 38, mother Jennifer-Nehama, 35, and children Ashley, 17, Madison, 16, Clara, 15, Chad Jr., 13, Madeline, 12, Ryan, 10, Ethan, 8, Journey, 6, Nathan, 3, Nava, 2, and baby Yosef who is less than a year old.

Warrnen, Ohio - The father of an Amish girl who was sexually assaulted by Norman Mullet, also of the Amish community, asked prosecutors not to send Mullet to jail. The father also would have asked Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for a nonprison penalty, but Judge Logan declined to let him speak during Mullet’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Orleans, New York - State police have released the name of the Amish boy killed in Tuesday's accident on a farm in the town of Orleans. The child is identified as 9 year old Andy Swartzentruber. State police were called to 31623 Dog Hill Road at approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Warren, Ohio - The father of an Amish girl who was sexually assaulted by fellow Amish man Norman Mullet asked prosecutors not to send Mullet to jail. The father also would have asked Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for a non-prison penalty, but Judge Logan declined to let him speak during Mullet’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Huntingdon, Pennsylvania - A woman has been charged in a deadly crash months after it happened. Police arrested Roberta Bolden Wednesday on several charges including homicide by vehicle. They say the 31-year-old was driving the car that hit a buggy back on August 30th 2014, killing Daniel Swarey and his wife, Mary. The horse also died. No word on what lead to the crash, but at the time Bolden did not have a valid license.

Hazleton, Iowa – The iconic photo of Amish children fleeing into Iowa cornfields to escape school and law enforcement officers who were there to enforce compulsory public education laws turns 50 this fall. Taken by Des Moines Register photographer Thomas DeFeo, the image was picked up in Life magazine and other publications, and historians credit it with rallying a national public outcry. It resulted in a religious liberties movement that substantially shifted Iowa's public education requirements, granting wide exemptions that remain in place today.

Hazleton, Iowa – The iconic photo of Amish children fleeing into Iowa cornfields to escape school and law enforcement officers who were there to enforce compulsory public education laws turns 50 this fall. Taken by Des Moines Register photographer Thomas DeFeo, the image was picked up in Life magazine and other publications, and historians credit it with rallying a national public outcry. It resulted in a religious liberties movement that substantially shifted Iowa's public education requirements, granting wide exemptions that remain in place today. The Register in the past month returned to the site as part of its yearlong "Lost Schools" project and spoke with some of the key players in the 1965 incident.

Kosciusko County, Indiana - Law enforcement officers visited an Amish school in Kosciusko County on Tuesday to talk primarily about bike safety. The school asked Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine and the department’s public information officer Sgt. Chad Hill to talk to the children about bicycle safety as well as the functions of the sheriff’s department.

St. Lawrence, New York - Monday night the St. Lawrence County Legislature voted to table a resolution that would ask the state to require Amish buggies to display orange, reflective triangles. People on both sides of the buggy debate spoke at the meeting. Mark Matthews, a member of the Kendrew Grange in DeKalb, the group that brought the buggy issue to legislator Larry Denesha, said his group is focused on safety.

Middlebury, Indiana - On hearing that confession is good for the soul, Chuck Mather stood up at an Old Timers’ meeting, a free event held once a year in Middlebury for young and old alike, and he told the audience about a buggy prank that he and some of his friends pulled when they were young men many decades ago. During the 1930s through the early 1980s, before video games and cell phones gave idle young men something to do with their hands, they would get into mischief, especially on Halloween.

Russellville, Kentucky - An Amish father and son were found by a jury to have violated a local ordinance concerning the collection of large animal waste. Amos Mast and his son, Dan Mast, both of Auburn, were found guilty today in Logan District Court of violating the Auburn city ordinance on three separate occasions in January.