Amish In Ohio
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The Ohio Amish Country, also known simply as the Amish Country, is the second-largest community of
Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches ...
(a Plain Dutch group) in the world, with in 2021 an estimated 80,240 members according to the
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies Elizabethtown College (informally E-town) is a private college in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. History Founding and early years Founded in 1899, Elizabethtown College is one of many higher learning institutions founded in the 19th century by c ...
at Elizabethtown College. Ohio's largest Amish settlement is centered around Holmes County and in 2021 included an estimated 37,770 children and adults, the second largest in the world and the highest concentration of Amish in any US county; the Amish make up half the population of Holmes County. The second largest community in Ohio is centered around
Geauga County Geauga County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,397. The county seat is Chardon. The county is named for an Onondaga or Seneca language word meaning 'raccoon', originally the name of the ...
. Ohio's Amish Country in and around Holmes County is one of the state's primary tourist attractions and a major driver of the area's economy.


History

The Holmes County community was founded in 1808 and the Geauga County community in 1886. At the time of the Holmes County settlement's founding there was at least one sizable village of Native Americans on the northern edge of what would become Holmes County, near the Killbuck river. Jacob Miller and his sons, Henry and Jacob, travelled in 1808 from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and built a cabin northeast of the current village of Sugarcreek in Tuscarawas County. Henry overwintered on the claim, and the other two returned to Pennsylvania for the winter. The rest of the family, including Miller's nephew Jonas Stutzman, returned the next year in a Conestoga pulled by a team of six, a trip that took a month. The Millers settled in Tuscarawas, and Stutzman continued on to the area of the current village of
Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...
, about five miles west, and built a cabin on the creek. In 1810 six families and in 1811 two more families from Somerset County joined the Walnut Creek settlement. In 1818 the government decreased the land prices from $2 per acre to $1.25 and by 1835, the Holmes County settlement included two hundred and fifty families. Beginning in the 1860s, a schism between conservative Amish, centered in Holmes County but occurring throughout North American Amish communities, separated the Amish into the Old Order Amish and the Amish Mennonites, most of whom merged into Mennonite communities. During the 1900s, the Holmes County community experienced multiple schisms into over thirty different groups, birthing several new orders and some that eventually became non-Amish. The Schwartzentruber Amish, considered the most conservative of Amish orders, split off in the 1910s. The Andy Weaver order split off in the 1950s. The
New Order Amish The New Order Amish are a subgroup of Amish that split away from the Old Order Amish in the 1960s for a variety of reasons, which included a desire for "clean" youth courting standards, meaning they do not condone the practice of bundling, or non ...
, considered the most technologically liberal, split off in the 1960s. As of 2010 there were over fifty Amish settlements in Ohio and 418 congregations, more than any other state. Ohio's rural counties are attractive to Old Order Amish because travel by horse-and-buggy requires essential services such as shopping, banks and medical care to be within a distance manageable by that method of transportation, which limits travel to about 10 to 35 miles per day depending on various factors.
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
researcher Joseph Donnermeyer called Ohio "the perfect mix", saying, "You can't be too rural. You have to be close enough to a town with the basic necessities."


Population

Holmes County has the highest concentration in the world, with the Amish in 2010 making up approximately half the population, and the largest population of Amish of all orders. Including all communities, Ohio has the second-largest population of
Old Order Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite church ...
in the world, with in 2021 an estimated 80,240 members, second to Pennsylvania with approximately 84,000, according to the
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies Elizabethtown College (informally E-town) is a private college in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. History Founding and early years Founded in 1899, Elizabethtown College is one of many higher learning institutions founded in the 19th century by c ...
at Elizabethtown College.


Holmes County

Ohio's largest settlement is centered around Holmes County and in 2021 included an estimated 37,770 children and adults, the second largest in the world after the population of 41,000 centered around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Holmes County community includes multiple affiliations or orders and is the most highly-concentrated, diverse and complex of Amish settlements worldwide. The settlement includes eleven separate Amish affiliations. Four affiliations, the New Order Amish, Old Order Amish, Andy Weaver, and Swartzentruber, as of 2010 made up about 97% of church districts in the settlement, with the Old Order Amish the largest portion. The Swartzentruber Amish include three separate groups, the Swartzentruber-Andy Weaver (which is unrelated to the Andy Weaver group), Swartzentruber-Mose Miller, and Swartzentruber-Joe Troyer, each of which considers itself the true Swartzentruber. Other Amish groups include Stutzman-Troyer, Roman, Old Order Tobe, New Order Tobe, and New Order Christian Fellowship. There are multiple other populations of Anabaptists in the area, including
Beachy Amish The Beachy Amish Mennonites, also known as the Beachy Mennonites, are an Anabaptist group of churches in the Conservative Mennonite tradition that have Amish roots. Although they have retained the name "Amish" they are quite different from the O ...
, Brethren, and
Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
. The settlement stretches into the adjacent Ashland, Coshocton, Stark, Tuscarawas, and Wayne Counties. Holmes County itself has the highest concentration of Amish in any US county; the Amish make up half the county's population. In contrast, in Lancaster County the Amish represent about 7% of the county's population.The 12 Largest Amish Communities (2017).
at Amish America
Holmes County has been projected to become the first in the US with a majority-Amish population. Amish in general have high birth rates; as of 2012 in Holmes County, the most conservative groups had both the highest birth rates and the highest retention rates of young adults deciding to be baptized into the order.


Geauga County

Ohio's second largest settlement is centered around
Geauga County Geauga County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,397. The county seat is Chardon. The county is named for an Onondaga or Seneca language word meaning 'raccoon', originally the name of the ...
with in 2021 an estimated 19,420 members, the fourth-largest in the world.


Congregations

In Ohio in 1998 the typical congregation consisted of 25 families and met every other week at a different family's home. A meal is served following the service, which last approximately 4 hours. Hymns are sung from the ''
Ausbund The ''Ausbund'' ("Paragon" in German) is the oldest Anabaptist hymnal and one of the oldest Christian song books in continuous use. It is used today by North American Amish congregations. History The core of the ''Ausbund'' is based on fifty- ...
'', the oldest hymnal in continuous use.


Economy

A traditional source of income for most Ohio Amish is farming, and traditional farm life is central to the lives of most Amish. In the southeastern areas of the Holmes County community, logging had been a traditional source of income. As of 2010 approximately 17 percent of Amish heads of household in Holmes County and 7 percent in Geauga County reported their primary occupation as farming. In 2003 a group of Holmes County Amish leaders established Green Field Farms, a cooperative wholesaler of organic agricultural products whose membership is limited to those who use horse-and-buggy transportation. From the early 2010s, sheep farming has become increasingly common as the land in much of the Holmes County area is better for foraging than for farming, and sheep are good foragers that do not need as much expensive feed as cows. Sheep can also be more profitable on smaller acreage than larger livestock. As early as the 1990s Amish farmers adopted organic farming methods; there were no certified organic dairies in Ohio in 1997, but within a few years there were more than one hundred, 90% of which were either Old Order Mennonite- or Amish-owned. Many Amish supplement farming income with sales of hand-made goods such as brooms, baskets, quilts, leather goods, woodworking, and other artisan products sold from homes or in local shops. Some own or work in area businesses surrounding the use of wood, such as carpentry, woodworking, furniture production, pallet production, or lumber wholesale or retail businesses. As of 2010 three of the largest non-Amish employers of Amish were garage-door manufacturer Wayne-Dalton, Keim Lumber, and Weaver Leather. On April 1, 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
protective gear shortages, members of the Holmes County settlement were asked by the
Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...
to sew masks for its employees and visitors. Local businessmen John Miller and Abe Troyer organized a sewing "frolic", a term used by the Amish to mean put together a group effort. Many Amish seamstresses had been idled by the pandemic's shutdowns, and Amish do not apply for social benefits, so the work helped sustain their families. Other local businesses pivoted to creating face shields, dividers for field hospitals, fluid-resistant gowns, shoe coverings, and other items. By April 9 the Cleveland Clinic was receiving 10,000 masks a day and one local business was producing 100,000 face shields per day.


Tourism

Efforts to promote the Holmes County community as a tourist destination began in the 1950s. Approximately four million tourists visit Holmes County each year as of 2012; the direct economic impact at the time was estimated at $154 million annually. Amish
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
is a major part of the economy of Holmes County. Interest in the Amish was increased by the 1955 Broadway musical ''
Plain and Fancy ''Plain and Fancy'' is a musical comedy with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, lyrics by Arnold Horwitt, and music by Albert Hague. One of the first depictions of an Amish community in American pop culture, it includes a traditional barn r ...
''. By the 1960s bus tours of Holmes County were available. The towns of Millersburg (the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
),
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...
, and
Charm Charm may refer to: Social science * Charisma, a person or thing's pronounced ability to attract others * Superficial charm, flattery, telling people what they want to hear Science and technology * Charm quark, a type of elementary particle * Ch ...
in Holmes County, and Sugarcreek just across the
county line Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
in
Tuscarawas County Tuscarawas County ( ) is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 93,263. Its county seat is New Philadelphia. Its name is a Delaware Indian word variously translated as "ol ...
, have a large tourism industry. In 2017, Holmes County was the second most popular tourist destination in Ohio.


Tourism centers

Ohio's Amish tourism centers around the towns of
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...
in Holmes County, and in Sugarcreek, just across the border in Tuscarawas County, all of which are situated along
US Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...
. Beginning in the 1990s business leaders have developed Walnut Creek into an American-Victorian themed town, which the University of Dayton's Susan Trollinger calls "puzzling" because of the stark contrast between Victorian overdecorating and the Amish plainness. Tourist-oriented businesses typically include "resting places" such as parlors in hotels or wrapround porches lined with rocking chairs or other seating on retail shops, which emphasizes a sense of having plentiful time. Her conclusion is that the Victorian theme and emphasis on resting places is capitalizing on the attraction of nostalgia for a simpler life with plentiful time, which it has in common with the Amish. Large parking lots and sidewalks connect the business district, which is condensed into six square blocks and connected by wide sidewalks, further encouraging a feeling of a slower-pace and life lived on foot. American flags and other patriotic-themed decor are commonly displayed in both exterior and interior spaces, which Trollinger again finds interesting when contrasted to the Amish, who refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and do not fly flags at their schools and homes. More tourists visit Berlin, permanent population 685, than any other town in Ohio Amish Country. Berlin was the first town in Ohio to market the Amish to tourists. Berlin's business district is large, with as of 2012 more than 40 shops, 10 hotels, and multiple restaurants large and small. Trollinger calls its architecture and offerings "eclectic" but dominated by the
American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
and the
1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...
and points out that like Walnut Creek, all call back to the past. Trollinger argues that the frontier theme in Berlin presents a story of peaceful people leaving crowded cities behind in order to make a better life for themselves and their families. Sugarcreek's historical beginnings were rooted in cheese production. Swiss immigrants arrived in the early 1830s and used the milk from Amish dairy farms to produce their cheese and in the 1950s created an annual Ohio Swiss Festival; the success of early festivals as an attraction for tourists resulted in local business leaders transforming the town into a Swiss village starting in 1965. By the early 70s the first tourist-oriented businesses were opening, and the tourism industry in Sugarcreek was centered not only around the Amish but also around a steam engine passenger train operated by the Ohio Central Railroad which ran between Sugarcreek and
Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
until 2004. Since the train stopped running, tourism in Sugarcreek has decreased. Trollinger theorizes that unlike Walnut Creek and Berlin, which support a nostalgia that reassures tourists that what they are nostalgic for still exists in America, and is therefore a nostalgia of hope, the Swiss theme of Sugarcreek inspires a nostalgia for something that is forever gone—that is, a period in which the United States was a white-majority country—and so does not reassure.


Tourists and the tourist experience

According to Trollinger the Amish tourist experience is targeted very strategically to attract a specific audience. She describes typical Amish Country tourists as a "relatively homogeneous group": white, working or middle-class, middle-aged to retirement-aged Americans visiting with their spouse and another married couple who arrive in late-model American-made SUVs or minivans and often wearing shirts with American flags, sports team logos, or Harley Davidson logos. Trollinger concludes that the average tourist is of "moderate income, average education, and moderately conservative views." Trollinger theorizes that Amish Country tourism reassures visitors that a form of traditional American life still exists even during and after periods of rapid societal change. She notes that the largest of the tourist-oriented restaurants serves scratch-cooked meals "family style", serving all food in common serving dishes from which each person serves themself, serving dishes are refilled until all are satisfied, and nothing on the table is a convenience item, which she says "recreat(es) a cultural memory of family" and the sharing of a homecooked meal. The most visible Amish in Amish country are typically young women making, serving, or selling food or shopping with multiple young children in tow, or men doing woodwork or farming or driving buggies. Taken all together, Trollinger argues, the tourism experience in Amish Country, and especially in Walnut Creek and Berlin, reassures the tourist that "it is still possible to live at a leisurely pace, to have clarity about what it means to be a man or a woman, to feel patriotic". According to Trollinger, some Amish view tourists as an opportunity to "shar(e) their Christian witness through their visibly different common life and daily practices." Some "expressed compassion" for the tourists, whose daily lives were filled with pressure and who were charmed by the slower paced and simpler life of the Amish.


Amish Country Byway

The Amish Country Byway is an
Ohio Scenic Byway A scenic Byway in Ohio can be any interstate, national highway, state highway, County road, municipal street, or Township road in the State of Ohio as designated by the director of transportation. Byways References External links Ohio Scen ...
, designated in 1998, that runs through many Amish communities in Holmes County. The byway focuses on backroads with views of rolling farmland and concentrations of Amish homes, farms, and home businesses.


Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center

The Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center is a museum in eastern Holmes County, in Berlin, Ohio. It opened in 1981 as the Mennonite Information Center. By 1989 it had moved to the current structure which was finished to include the Behalt Cyclorama as well as a bookstore. The center was renamed in 2002 to reflect its mission as a cultural center.


''Behalt''

''Behalt'', meaning "to keep or to remember", is a
cyclorama A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make vie ...
by Heinz Gaugel located in the museum. According to the ''Columbus Dispatch'' it has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the Amish and Mennonites”. Anabaptist scholar Susan Biesecker-Mast calls it "an effort to exceed the tourist economy of Holmes County by offering a transformative rhetoric for its visitors". The painting was created over 14 years and completed in 1992. It is one of four existing cycloramas in the US and one of only 16 in the world; ''Behalt'' is the only existing cyclorama painted by a single artist. It follows the development of Anabaptism from the time of Jesus through the 1990s and portrays approximately 1200 biblical and historical figures.


Medical care

The Amish do not reject medical care, but an increasing number reject vaccination; in the early 2010s, 14% of the Amish in Ohio reported their children were unvaccinated, while in 2021 59% reported not vaccinating children. In 2014 Holmes and Knox Counties experienced a measles outbreak after men from the community returned from a mission trip building houses in the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
. Holmes County has the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the state, and fewer than 1% of Amish had been vaccinated by April 2021. When vaccines became available for COVID-19, the county posted the lowest vaccination rates of Ohio's 88 counties and among the lowest in the country. As of February 13, 2022, fewer than 20% of county residents had been vaccinated as compared to approximately 60% statewide. Holmes County is the least-insured county in Ohio, as the Amish typically do not use commercial health insurance but instead contribute to a community fund.


Politics

The Amish tend to be conservative and to vote that way. Voting outcomes in Holmes County on issues that are important to the Amish, such as those concerning the schools and alcohol sales, tend to be affected by the Amish vote. In some Holmes County townships all businesses except gas stations are closed on Sundays. Many of Holmes County's townships are dry.


Housing

The Amish in Ohio typically build spacious two-story houses. Styles include the
I-house The I-house is a vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a specialist in folk archit ...
, which is side-gabled and typically a single room deep, typically symmetrical on all sides, and includes full-length porches on the front and back sides. Sometimes the I-house will add a wing in the back. A second form is a one-and-a-half or two story gable front house. Roof pitches are moderate and houses are typically wood-clad and painted white.


Schools

In 1914 the first clash over state-regulated mandatory school attendance until 16 occurred in Geauga County when three Amish fathers received fines when they did not send their children to school for 9th grade. In the 1920s and 1930s there were similar clashes in other states, resulting in a rise in Amish parochial schools and a case before the Supreme Court which found that mandatory school attendance until 16 interfered with free exercise of religion among the Amish. Many Amish schools are former one-room public schoolhouses that the local Amish church districts purchased when public schools consolidated into multi-classroom campuses. As of 2010 the Flat Ridge Elementary School, a public school in the East Holmes Local Schools district, had a student body that was 100% Amish. Holmes County as of 2009 had over 200 Amish parochial schools; approximately half the Amish students in the county were enrolled in public schools. The Amish celebrate January 6, or
Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
, as "Old Christmas"; the public schools remain open but Amish students are excused, which means some classrooms, or in the case of Flat Ridge Elementary entire schools, are empty.


Curriculum

Amish schools are regulated by the ''Minimum Standards for the Amish Private Elementary Schools of the State of Ohio'' (Ohio Minimum Standards), which requires certain subjects be taught, including English, mathematics, geography, history, health, German, vocal music. Classes are required to be taught in English, still the second language for most Amish, except in German classes. In practice, each school sets its own curriculum, and according to Karen Johnson-Weiner, despite the Ohio Minimum Standards, certain subjects -- typically geography, history, and health -- are sometimes not taught because of objections from teachers or parents. Some Old Order Amish parents object to teaching history because "there is too much glorification of war". Johnson-Weiner reported in 2007 that students at a school taught by a Swartzentruber member didn't study geography or health because of the teacher's objection to teaching those subjects.


Textbooks

Texts are typically chosen from those offered by several publishers, including Pathway Publishing Company, Gordonville Printing Company, and Study Time, which are Old Order Amish presses, or the Schoolaid Publishing Company or Rod and Staff, which are Mennonite presses. Some, such as Gordonville, reprint texts such as ''Essentials of English Spelling'', first published in 1919, for very conservative schools. Some supply reprints of early editions of ''
McGuffey Readers The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded reader, graded primer (textbook), primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th centur ...
'' to Swartzentruber schools. The ''Dick and Jane'' series from the 1950s are valued by some schools for presenting a non-Amish world but one that "does not expose (students) to the dangers of modern society". The ''Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetics Series'', first published in the 1920s, similarly uses story problems that do not represent modern life. The texts are also valued for their emphasis on rote learning, mastery of basics, and respect for authority and for relative lack of emphasis on discussion-based learning. Many conservative Old Order Amish also avoid carrying religion into the schools, as they believe parents and religious leaders, rather than schoolteachers, should be teaching religion; these older texts tend to be "moralistic...but religiously neutral". The older texts are also valued for the continuity they provide; children are learning from the same textbooks as their parents and grandparents. Other publishers, such as Pathway, created texts specifically designed for use in Old Order Amish schools using a combination of curated stories and essays originally published elsewhere and those written for the purpose. The eight-grade Pathway Reader, ''Our Heritage'', contains poetry by
Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
and Whitman as well as the stories of
Dirk Willems Dirk Willems (died 16 May 1569; also spelled Durk Willems) was a Dutch martyred Anabaptist who is most famous for escaping from prison but then turning back to rescue his pursuer—who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems—to then ...
and the Hochstetler Massacre. Illustrations in the series contain no images of people. Some conservative communities have rejected the Pathway Readers as too progressive in its approach and too implicitly religious, . Pathway Readers, the first of which were published in 1968, have not been revised. School Aid and Study Time also publish purpose-created textbooks along with teaching materials, and periodically updates texts with input from teachers and new
pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...
. Some teachers, especially in Swartzentruber schools, create their own teaching materials, making multiple copies for student use with homemade hectographs.


Teachers

According to Johnson-Weiner writing in 2007, teachers are typically not chosen from a pool of applicants but instead recruited by school board members. Ohio Minimum Standards does not require teachers to have more than an eighth-grade education but does encourage "a self-imposed research into the school's accepted subjects".


Media

'' The Budget'', a weekly Amish and
Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
correspondence newspaper distributed in various Amish communities throughout the US and in other countries, is produced in Sugarcreek, which is part of the Holmes County settlement. Issues contain letters from "scribes", usually women, reporting what has been happening in their church district. The paper is published in English; while the first language most Old Order Amish learn is
Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...
, a dialect of German, many older Amish did not learn to read or write it. William Schreiber notes the tendency for German phrasing and the occasional German word in many contributions. ''The Budget'' started in 1890 as a local newspaper for the town of Sugarcreek. The first 14-page issue was published May 15, 1890, by John C. Miller, known as "Budget John". By the 1920s most of the letter correspondents were Mennonite, but by the late 1930s were mostly Old Order Amish. By 1959 the paper was delivered to 42 states and 10 foreign countries. As of 2008 the paper published approximately 300 letters each week and had a subscription of 10,000. As of 2010 an edition ran to 50 pages, primarily containing letters from Amish communities throughout the world, and sold for $1. Scribes are unpaid but receive envelopes and stamps; handwritten letters arrive to the office of the newspaper via mail and fax. Steven Nolt called ''The Budget'', along with another Amish correspondence newspaper ''Die Botschaft'', important vehicles for creating a sense of community. The ''Gemeinde Register'' is a biweekly newsletter published in
Baltic, Ohio Baltic is a village in Coshocton, Holmes, and Tuscarawas counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 795 at the 2010 census. The Raber's Almanac for the Amish community is published here. Baltic is also home to the garage door opene ...
, that serves the Ohio Amish community. Carlisle Printing near Walnut Creek publishes the ''Ohio Amish Directory'' once every five years; as of 2010 it had grown to 900 pages and includes births, deaths, marriages, and occupations for all Amish except the Swartzentrubers.


Amish Helping Fund

In 1995 several Old Order Amish leaders created a nonprofit to assist young couples in purchasing their first home. As of 2010 the fund held $80 million and had never had a foreclosure; loans are restricted to purchasing property for earning a livelihood and not for hunting.


See also

*
Bergholz Community The Bergholz Community, also called Bergholz Clan or Bergholz Amish, is a religious group of former Amish under the leadership of Sam Mullet, formed in 1995 and located at Bergholz, Ohio, that became known for a series of "beard cutting" attacks on ...
, an offshoot of the Holmes County Amish community


References

{{Amish Anabaptists Christian organizations established in the 17th century German-American culture German-American history German diaspora Ohio culture Peace churches Protestantism in Ohio Anabaptism in Pennsylvania Protestantism in Wisconsin Religious organizations established in 1693 Simple living Swiss-American culture Ethnoreligious groups 1693 establishments in Europe 17th-century establishments in Switzerland European diaspora in North America