Amish in the News

Pinecraft, Florida - It’s a weekday at 2 p.m. Though definitely past the peak lunch hour, there’s still a line of customers waiting to be seated at Yoder’s Restaurant. It’s an eclectic collection of patrons — overall-clad construction workers in yellow hardhats, college students in university sweatshirts and flip-flops and an Amish family from Wisconsin, easily recognizable in their bonnets, beards and plain dress.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - A Lancaster County man will face trial for allegedly touching an Amish teenager and woman while they slept during two separate burglaries. Justin Schwanke, a Goodville parolee who has a prior burglary conviction on his record, waived a preliminary hearing Thursday morning before District Judge Rodney Hartman.

Pinecraft, Florida - Not only is the Suncoast a haven for snowbirds, but also a group of people who come from Holmes County, Ohio and Lancaster, Pennsylvania -- the Amish and Mennonites. The Pinecraft community, located off of Bahia Vista in Sarasota County, is their vacation hot spot.

Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania - “Amish Mafia” notwithstanding, the man responsible for what many around the world know of the Amish is Donald Kraybill. Now the widely known Plain Sect researcher is retiring. Kraybill is teaching his last classes at Elizabethtown College and will step down as senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, a research center at the college, at the end of June.

Middlefield, Ohio - A second teenager has been sentenced to prison aftercommitting crimes against the Amish in Geauga, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties last year. Christopher Barnett, 18, of Middlefield Township, pleaded guilty on Nov. 24 to two counts of third-degree felony complicity to attempted felonious assault, one count of third-degree felony complicity to robbery, one count of fourth-degree felony safecracking and four counts of fifth-degree felony breaking and entering.

Indianapolis, Indiana - Indiana House committee members have passed a bill allowing a religious exemption from photographs on state identification cards. The Roads and Transportation Committee approved the bill Wednesday that would allow the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to issue a photo-less ID to applicants who have sincere religious objections to having their pictures taken. Instead a digital image using facial recognition technology would be kept on record.

Curryville, MO - An Amish man remains in custody after being arrested Saturday in connection to several fires that took place around the area south of Curryville Saturday afternoon and evening.

A Goodville parolee has been charged with breaking into a second local Amish home. On this occasion, police allege, Justin J. Schwanke sexually assaulted a teen girl in bed.

Herman, MY - Passing drivers would slow and stop to gawk at the Howells' house and barn and old mobile home, which were shrouded by a line of trees and overgrowth along the road. So the Matthewses did something they had never considered before. They bought the homestead, burned and buried it.

Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania - The winter solstice is past and each cold but lengthening day brings closer the time when white flowers will blossom on five young trees standing in a shallow and tragic valley. Five young Amish girls - named Anna, Lena, Marian, Mary and Naomi - were murdered there in 2006. Some locals are unaware of the trees' significance. Others welcome the sight of them maturing, season by season.

Berlin, Ohio - For more than 30 years, Jerry Schlabach has owned and operated Berlin Bulk Foods, a quaint Amish mom-and-pop shop nestled in the heart of downtown Berlin. His five sons all worked at the store. And each received a traditional Amish education, graduating after the eighth-grade. Despite this, Schlabach recognizes a need for increased technology and computer training in his community, a counterintuitive notion given the belief structures of the culture he was born into.

Richland, Ohio - A 6-year-old Amish boy was killed Friday afternoon when he was hit by a car as he reached for a hat that blew onto a road. Police said Ronald S. Smith, 50, of Richland, was driving his 2002 Dodge Durango on Oswego County Route 2 in the town of Richland about 12:40 p.m. when Jonathan L. Swartzentruber entered the road going for the hat, which police said had blown off his head.

Middlefield, Ohio - Another teen has admitted helping to commit organized attacks on the Amish in Middlefield Township. Gerald Wise, 19, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty Jan. 8 in Geauga County Common Pleas Court to two counts of attempted felonious assault, one count of complicity to commit robbery and four counts of complicity to commit breaking and entering.

With the new year, Illinois' Amish population can apply for state ID cards that don’t require a photo. State Representative Adam Brown (R-Champaign) says it’s taken a while to find a way to satisfy concerns of the Secretary of State and State Police, as well as abide by Amish religious beliefs against having their picture taken.

The hype around Y2K had some engaging effects on commerce. Take for example, a Amish village in Kidron, Ohio where many people evade complicated conveniences. As CBS News match Richard Schlesinger reported, a town’s hardware store, Lehman’s, had the right things during a right time. Everything Lehman’s sold was non-electrical and during a time many of a business were non-Amish.

Narvon, Pennsylvania - A horse and buggy ran away with no driver, eventually flipping onto its side Wednesday morning with three young children inside the carriage. Caernarvon Fire Company Deputy Chief Lennie Martin said the children, ranging in age from 2 months to 5 years old, suffered only minor injuries.

Clare County, MI - Five members of an Amish family that suffered serious injuries when the buggy they were in was struck by a vehicle Sunday remain in critical condition.

Preston, Minnesota - A trial date has been set for a Fillmore County Amish couple who said their beliefs were violated. During a pre-trial hearing for Ammon and Sarah Swartzentruber on Wednesday, a judge went over conditions for the trial scheduled January 8 in Fillmore County District Court.

Cleveland, Ohio – A federal judge today scheduled a hearing for Feb. 24 to resentence Amish bishop Sam Mullet and 15 followers who were convicted in 2012 for hate crimes in connection with a series of beard- and hair-cutting attacks. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Mullet and his breakaway Amish group from Jefferson County, which could have allowed prosecutors to retry the case.

Fairchild, Wisconsin - Piles of horse manure dotting the winding roads of eastern Eau Claire County, evidence of the community’s Amish population, have gotten to be too much for Doug Farmer and some other town of Fairchild residents. Farmer said the number of horse droppings along town roads has grown and is not only a messy eyesore but poses dangers to bicycle riders and motorized vehicle drivers.

Columbus, Ohio - A federal appeals court in Ohio has declined to hold a hearing by the full court on overturned hate crimes convictions involving beard- and hair-cutting attacks targeting Amish. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Thursday notified prosecutors and attorneys in the case that it has denied the federal government’s request for a hearing before the full court on a three-judge panel’s decision. The panel split 2-1 in August in favor of throwing out the hate crime convictions.

Fillmmore County, Minnesota - An Amish couple from southeastern Minnesota will try next month to settle their zoning law dispute with Fillmore County. Ammon J. and Sarah J. Swartzentruber of Harmony have been cited for failing to get a permit for the home they're building. The couple refused because they say it meant they would have to install a septic system, a modern convenience not permitted by their religious beliefs. The couple appeared at a hearing Wednesday to answer to three misdemeanor charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Salisbury Township, Pennsylvania - Police allege a Philadelphia trucker caused a crash last year in Salisbury Township that killed a young Amish woman. Levi F. Graham, 52, is charged with vehicular homicide regarding the Nov. 3, 2013, crash on Route 30 near Hoover Road, court documents show. Barbara King, 21, died a day after the nighttime crash.

Third-world people groups aren’t the only ones that need God’s Word. As Hank and Ruth Hershberger of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA can attest, the Amish need Scripture, too. Hank says he became aware of this fact while serving the Lord in Australia. The Hershbergers spent a quarter-century in the Land Down Under with Wycliffe USA, translating the New Testament for the Gugu-Yalanji Aboriginal people. “The Lord seemed to tell me, ‘Your own folks don’t have the Scriptures in their own language.’ And more and more, I was convicted that following our translation work in Australia, we should come home and do a translation in my own language,” he states.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania - Calling the crime a "straight-up fraud," a federal judge Wednesday sentenced a midstate man to 37 months in prison for a $1.65 million investment scam that targeted the Amish and Mennonite communities. U.S. Middle District Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner imposed that penalty after Christopher Burhans begged for a sentence of house arrest.

Lower Chanceford Township - A fatal crash Monday afternoon in Lower Chanceford Township led to the deaths of four family members, officials with the York County coroner's office announced. The crash killed Emmanuel Esh, 73, and Melvin Esh, 66, as well as Elizabeth Esh, 22, and her unborn child. The child was stillborn at York Hospital following the crash. Elizabeth Esh, who had an address listed in the Brogue area, was pronounced dead there at 4:12 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.

Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania - Ironically, the first group convicted for religiously motivated violence under the U.S. Hate Crime Prevention Act was Amish. Or claimed to be. “This is a sad, sad bizarre story,” Amish scholar Donald Kraybill told hundreds of listeners who gathered Oct. 21 at Elizabethtown College. “While the ‘good Amish’ in Nickel Mines readily forgave the shooter and his family, the ‘bad Amish’ of Bergholz showered vengeance on their own people,” writes Kraybill in his new book, Renegade Amish.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - Police are investigating bizarre incidents reported at Amish homes in eastern Lancaster County. In at least two cases since late July, a man entered a home and touched young females as they slept. The man spoke to the females, then fled the homes. Two members of the community said they heard of at least two additional similar incidents that might not have been reported.

Strasburg, Pennsylvania - People in Amish communities do not drive cars. They drive horses and buggies. They do not use electric lights. They use gas lamps and candles. Even though they live in communities all over the United States, they do not marry outsiders. Along with the Mennonites, Amish Americans have been living a traditional way of life for centuries.

​Geauga County, Ohio - A teen who drove the car used to commit organized attacks on the Amish was sentenced Oct. 27 to 8 1/2 years in prison in Geauga County Common Pleas Court. Chase Kontur, 19, whose last known address was in Middlefield Township, previously admitted helping attack the Amish for money because he thought they were easy targets and would not report the crime. “I regret what I did,” Kontur said. “I want to get out and get a fresh start and work for a living.”