News
A Year After Attacks, an Amish Community Grapples With Its Future
| January 9, 2013Bergholz OH, More than a year before the violent beard-cutting assaults spread terror among the Amish of eastern Ohio, several followers of Samuel Mullet Sr., the leader of an insular settlement in Bergholz, used similar practices on each other. Left, a barn on the Mullet family compound is being renovated.
For fast-growing Amish, a changing life
| January 1, 2013MILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His isMILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His is the life of an Amish farmer, in which family, work and faith intertwine on one plot of Ohio land.
Newtown could look to Amish, Bentzel for healing help
| December 17, 2012York PA -- As those touched by the tragedy journey toward healing, they could look to our community in south-central Pennsylvania for help.
The obvious place to start is in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, where a young man shot 10 innocent Amish school children, killing five. The forgiveness shown by that religious community was astonishing in its immediacy.
Suspect held in torture of three elderly Mennonite women
| December 14, 2012Lancaster PA -- An intruder with a "rage" against the Mennonite religion invaded a rural Clay Township home and assaulted and tied up three elderly women on Friday, police said.
The women, all between 84 and 90 years old, remained hospitalized Saturday after the incident in the 300 block of Indiantown Road.
Amish Mafia is a shameful, unrealistic portrayal of plain people
| December 13, 2012If anyone thinks that the Discovery Channel is about actual discovery of, say, science, history, space, or tech, as their Web site claims, think again. Or if you think that its sister company, The Learning Channel (TLC), is about learning new insight or information, you are mistaken.After TLC’s first run of the reality television show “Breaking Amish,” with paid persons assuming the roles of rebellious ex-Amish, the Discovery Channel has produced a more scripted “Amish Mafia,” admitting on their site that scenes are reenacted. The show, which airs in early December, brags a behind-the-scenes “first-ever look at the men who protect and maintain peace and order within the Amish.”
An Amish bishop behind bars
| December 4, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Sam Mullet, the renegade Amish bishop convicted on federal hate crime charges for his role in a series of beard-cutting attacks last year, has earned an unlikely nickname in prison.
Among his fellow inmates at Northern Ohio Correctional Center, the towering 67-year-old with wire-rimmed glasses, pudding-bowl haircut and retro facial hair is known simply as “O.G.”
Amish Man Sentenced For Fraud
| November 30, 2012In a two-day jury in October, Paul A. Graber, 46, was found guilty by a 12-member jury on two counts of fraud on a financial institution.
In Kosciusko County Circuit Court today, approximately 20 members of the Amish community were present for Graber’s sentencing. One man said loudly in the courtroom before the judge entered, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Jailed Amish can't attend wedding: Five convicted in beard and hair-cutting attacks can't leave jail
| November 23, 2012CLEVELAND — Defendants convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish lost a bid Wednesday to leave jail to attend a family wedding after prosecutors argued they might flee or commit similar attacks while on furlough.
U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster, who presided at the trial of 16 Amish convicted in the attacks, ruled against requests by five of the nine locked-up Amish, who are awaiting sentencing on Feb. 8. Seven other defendants remain free pending sentencing.
Man jailed for attempted robbery of Amish-owned store
| November 21, 2012A Kirkwood man will spend up to five years in prison for attempting to rob an Amish-owned grocery store last year — and leaving empty-handed. A female clerk at the Colerain Township store refused Matthew Larrabee's demands for cash but Larrabee is still headed to state prison, a judge ordered Monday.
I Will Always Miss You Dad And Mom
| November 19, 2012Samuel Girod was Amish for 30 years. He was in a business partnership with his dad and owned two properties. He had everything an Amish man could ever want; however, deep down he felt a void -- a void that would finally drive him to leave his family, community and all that he owned.
Amish sect moving on
| November 16, 2012After a 15-year stay in northwestern Cambria County, the Swartzentruber Amish are moving on.
We expect they will leave behind many friends they made in Barr and Blacklick townships. And hopefully they are taking with them more fond memories than those of conflict and confrontation with agencies and the county courts.
The ultraconservative sect of Anabaptists are migrating to what they hope will be greener pastures.
Garfield Heights man honors an Amish 'buddy' he never knew for Veterans Day
| November 10, 2012MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — Mike Prorock slowly walked through an Amish cemetery nestled in an area of Middlefield where "Share the road" buggy signs outnumbered political placards last month.
Clenched in his fist were small American flags, tokens of respect to be placed at the grave of a fellow World War II veteran.

In My Heart, I Was Crying Out For Help!
| November 10, 2012I grew up in an Old Order Amish setting where I still live, and I thought I had a fairly normal life. I am the oldest of eleven children, and I probably got more privileges because of that. Our family got along reasonably well, except for the fact that Dad struggled with controlling his temper. This resulted in much tension in the home. In spite of this, I took pride in the fact that I was able to handle it well. I was seldom irked or upset by anything, but I was never happy either even though it might have appeared like it to people around me because I did a lot of whistling.
Amish culture and breaking free
| November 2, 2012PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved. That community; the Amish. Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana. However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery.
Amish Breaking Free
| November 2, 2012PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved. That community; the Amish. Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana. However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery. What you're about to see is a rare glimpse of Amish life from a family now excommunicated from the Amish order.
LETTER: Spanking data questionable
| November 1, 2012If spanking has all the negative effects that these researchers say that it does, why is it that the Amish people and the conservative Mennonites (those OK with automobiles and electricity) who spank their children without hesitation have a much lower rate of all those items such as aggression, violence and delinquency?
Amish man asks for safety upgrades to keep buggies safer
| November 1, 2012"...if he can help it, Emanuel doesn't want want to go heaven by Highway 38. "They've come up on us around the curve and they're up on us. You can hear the tires squeal sometimes," says Emanuel."

To Our Dearest Lost Brother
| October 31, 2012I will try to write a few lines with a very sad breaking heart. John we still can’t believe that you have left us and most of all have let yourself down that far that you had to choose this very dangerous path. Never did we think or believe that you would choose that dangerous path in these last trying times.
Amish community remains close, yet fearful after Samuel Mullett and others were convicted of hate crimes
| October 22, 2012BERGHOLZ, Ohio -- Inside a one-room schoolhouse, Lizzie Mullet pulls her attention away from her students and focuses on the biggest issue facing them: their families. "We're doing the best we can to keep our spirits up, but we're worried about what will happen next," Mullet said.
TN's rural areas provide fertile ground for the Amish
| October 12, 2012Ethridge TN -- Diann Pollack isn’t exactly sure when the Amish first came to Ethridge. Some locals say it 1942. Others say 1944. “When I give a tour, I just say it was in the mid-1940s,” said Pollack, manager of the Amish Welcome Center along Highway 43 in Ethridge.
Marie Byler
| October 11, 2012I was born and raised Amish. I was raised on a dairy farm in Mesopotamia, OH. I am in the middle of six boys, three older and three younger. My sister is the oldest and I was very sheltered. I don’t remember seeing a television until I was about sixteen or seventeen.
When I was seventeen, I was allowed to date. That meant that I was allowed to go out all weekend and did not have to report to my parents. It was scary having been so sheltered my whole childhood and then suddenly be able to have the freedom to go out all weekend and not have to come home until early Monday morning.
What do the Amish think of a Mormon presidential candidate?
| October 9, 2012Mr Romney, who is trailing in the polls in Pennsylvania, should not pin too much hope on the Amish vote, though. Perhaps a thousand are registered to vote, I was told.
Growing Up Gay and Amish
| October 6, 2012James Schwartz was raised in an Amish community in Michigan. In a segment on HuffPost Live, he shared his struggle to fit into this group when he realized he was gay.
"If an Amish youth comes out to his parents and says 'I'm gay', then they really don't have any choice," he said. "They're going to have to leave. Unless they choose, of course, to stay in the closet."
Seven of nine Amish can remain free before sentencing
| October 2, 2012An attorney for another woman, Lovina Miller, said she has eight children she works hard to support and wasn’t a flight risk because she travels by horse and buggy and has strong beliefs against air travel.
Schrock and Lovina Miller were among the seven defendants the judge allowed to remain free.
Dozens Of Dogs Pulled From Amish Farm In Pickaway County
| October 2, 2012CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio - Dozens of dogs were pulled from what investigators called deplorable conditions on Monday.
Ohio SPCA members from across the state gathered at an Amish farm in Pickaway County, where deputies said as many as 50 dogs were being neglected.
Investigators arrived late Monday morning to serve a search warrant to the property owner.
Breaking Amish' called ‘fake' by Jeremiah Raber's ex-wife Naomi Stutzman
| September 27, 2012On Tuesday, the ex-wife of Jeremiah Raber, one of the stars of TLC’s ‘Breaking Amish,’ spoke out about the new show calling it “fake.
Amish Farm Shut Down For Selling Milk
| September 27, 2012A yearlong sting operation and a 5 a.m. armed SWAT team raid on an Amish farm in Pennsylvania may seem surprising to some, but the federal government deemed it necessary in order to stop the selling of illegal contraband to willing Washington, D.C. residents. The contraband: unpasteurized milk.
4 charged in attacks on Amish
| September 21, 2012They needed money for a move to the city and drugs. So they donned gas masks, carried baseball bats and cruised through the rural roads of Berne in a faded-green Chevy Malibu looking to target horse-drawn buggies. On Monday, they hit up four of them.
Amish man jailed for firing deadly shot into air
| September 12, 2012COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio Amish man who fired a shot into the air that killed a 15-year-old girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away will go to jail for 30 days, a prosecutor said Wednesday. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Marion Yoder, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of negligent homicide, said Steve Knowling, the prosecutor for Holmes County in northern Ohio.
Former Amish Faith Healer keeps the faith at 74
| September 10, 2012Content with life, practice nearly 30 years after trial --- Solomon Wickey doesn’t remember much about his trial. At least, that’s what he says.
Wickey puts his fingers to his lips and gazes down. His hair, in a traditional bowl cut, is a deep white now and his beard gray. He sits in a small chair in his office wearing a blue shirt and black pants that note his Amish heritage.