Peter Leibert's Page

WHO ARE THE AMISH?

A curious tourist likely will be able to spot an Amish family because they are riding in a rural area on their horse-drawn buggy. Another easy giveaway is the family is wearing a different type of clothing - plain colored clothing. Often the Amish families live on a farm, so their men wear bib-type farmer overalls for their daily routines.

The Amish are a private people. Most of them do not appreciate having a tourist take their picture as if the way they were dressed makes them odd in some way. They really just want to be left alone. Yes, they even will take steps to avoid contact with strangers who might attempt to educate them to the ways of the outside world.

The Amish Religion all began during the early 1500s in Switzerland. A group of people there wanted to return to the old ways of religion during a time when people were baptized as adults (Anabaptists), and many other religion-oriented traditions. This did not set too well with the BIG European religions of that time, and soon these Traditionalists found that they had become targets for treats or even death. So in the 1680s when the new owner of the Pennsylvania, William Penn, started offering religious freedom to any emigrants, the Amish leaders jumped at the chance to live where this might occur.

Today, there are approximately 150,000 of the Amish faith that live in North America. The largest group of them is located in Holmes County, Ohio which is quite near where we will be visiting during this summer. In Ohio, the Amish are primarily farmers. There are also carpenters and cabinet makers, blacksmiths, buggy and harness makers, but most have geared there careers toward supporting the Amish lifestyle.

Homes and businesses are usually without electricity nor telephones. Heating stoves are still being fueled by wood or coal. Some cooking stoves are powered by kerosene or propane. Kerosene is often the fuel of choice for lighting their homes. If we have the opportunity, you might even get to see an old-fashioned hand pump still being used to provide water.

As we prepare to visit the Amish Country, we should also prepare ourselves for the sounds, sights and smells from the simple roadside stands set up by the Amish to sell excess farm produce. In the nearby towns there will be shops which sell Amish-Made goods.

We earlier had talked about horse-drawn buggies. Keep an eye out for: The Market Wagons - one that has a rear panel that lifts (a station wagon); The Spring wagon which is equivalent to a today’s pick-up. If you see a buggy with a gray top - it belongs to an Amish. If the buggy top is black - that owner is likely to be an Old Order Mennonite.