Amish Leben

Amish Life

Don Kraybill Author of ‘The Amish’

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Don Kraybill, author of a new book released earlier this year, “The Amish”, was at The Gospel Bookstore in Berlin, Ohio today signing copies of his book from 9am to noon. Don worked with a couple of other authors on this book, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt. Don is senior fellow at the Young Center of Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa. Among his many publications, he has authored, coauthored, or edited eight books on Amish society.

In addition to his appearance at the bookstore, Don spoke last night to a group of around a hundred people at Behalt – The Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center, and again this morning at the Farmstead Restaurant. I had the opportunity of attending both meetings. [Read more…]

If These Walls Could Talk – Inside a 100 Year Old Amish Home

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This coming Saturday is the annual Erb reunion. My mother’s maiden name is Marie Erb. Her father was was Michael P. Erb (my grandpa). His father was Peter Erb (my great grandpa). It’s amazing how many people have lots and lots of relatives in the Amish and Mennonite cultures. Reunions are common all summer long. This one is going to be a little different. After lunch on Saturday anyone who wants to is going to be able to visit the home built by my great grandpa Peter Erb back in the early 1900’s, near Saltillo, Ohio. My mom told me approximately where the house is located, so yesterday when I was out that way, I thought I would see if I could find it.

I picked one of the houses along CR 68 where I thought it was. I drove in the lane and saw an Amish man sitting on the porch. I parked my vehicle and walked up to where he was sitting and told him I was looking for the Peter Erb home. He smiled a bit and confirmed that I had found the right place. Turns out that he, Dan Raber, had just purchased the home and property earlier this year from his father, Henry Raber. Dan and I chatted for a while and then, at my request to write a story, he took me inside the house, and throughout the property, and gave me the lowdown on the history of the place. Dan introduced me to his wife, Barbara. I was delighted at their friendliness and the warm welcome they gave me. They made me feel right at home. No, the walls couldn’t talk, but I was glad Dan could. [Read more…]

Author Lester Beachy – “Our Amish Values”

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Saturday morning I headed up to the Berlin Community Park, in Berlin, Ohio, to set up our Amish Country Pics booth at the Berlin Bluegrass and Arts/Crafts festival. After I finished setting up, I proceeded over to the German Village IGA to pick up a gift card at The Gospel Bookstore. As soon as I got inside, I ran into the “mayor of Berlin”, Eli (Small) Hochstetler, also the owner of The Gospel Bookstore. Small was having another one of his book signings at the store. Lester Beachy was on hand to sign his just-released book, “Our Amish Values – Who we are and what we believe”. Small introduced me to Lester and we started “sharing stories”. Lester grew up in “Limpytown”, a place near Walnut Creek, barely large enough to be called a town. My mom, Marie Erb (Schrock), lived in Limpytown for a while when she was a young Amish girl. Lester knew my Grandpa Erb and had at one time rented an apartment in Berlin from my Uncle Dan Erb. We also discovered we had a cousin in common, Floyd Mullet, of Sugarcreek. I was related to Floyd on “one side” of the family and Lester was related on the “other side”. Learning these family and community connections happens all the time in Holmes County. There are so many connections, you just keep “learning” new ones. [Read more…]

Unser Leit – A Review by Gerald J. Mast

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Unser Leit…The Story of the Amish. Volumes I and II. By Leroy Beachy. Millersburg, Oh: Goodly Heritage Books, 2011.

In April 2011, I published a short article about Leroy Beachy’s just released book, Unser Leit. Gerald J. Mast, a Professor of Communication at Bluffton University, recently wrote an excellent, detailed review of Leroy’s book, which I have published here. Gerald is the author of Go to Church, Change the World: Christian Community as Calling. He grew up in Holmes County Ohio and received degrees from Malone University and the University of Pittsburgh.

This review by Gerald first appeared in The Mennonite Quarterly Review 86 (April, 2012), 265-269 and is reprinted here with permission. This MQR journal was founded by Harold S. Bender and the Mennonite Historical Society and has been published continually since 1927. The website for the journal is: www.goshen.edu/mqr

This two-volume history of the Amish by Leroy Beachy, a genealogist from Holmes County, Ohio is a remarkable achievement, generously fulfilling a vision for family history as church history described by Ernst Correll in the January 1928 issue of this journal. Correll called for genealogical research that goes beyond names and dates to recall the “immediate setting of the generations in their cultural backgrounds.” Correll believed that “Mennonite families were the crux and core of the history of the Mennonite Church,” a view clearly shared by Leroy Beachy. In Unser Leit…The Story of the Amish, Beachy provides an account of Amish families that places their traumas and triumphs at the center of Amish-Mennonite history. In so doing, Beachy’s work contributes significantly to Amish and Anabaptist studies in at least five distinctive ways, although some of these contributions will no doubt be contested.

[Read more…]

Unser Leit – The story of the Amish – by Leroy Beachy

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I had a very special opportunity last week to discover a treasure that has been in the making for well over 20 years. In the process of contacting quite a few store owners in the Berlin area I was led to Eli (Small) Hochstetler, owner and operator of the Gospel Bookstore in Berlin, Ohio. Small and his wife, Vesta, and I go back quite a few years. They are both interesting people and I enjoy talking with them now and then when we connect somewhere. In the process of one of our interesting conversations, Small starts telling me about a new book that has been written about the Amish and that the author is none other than Leroy Beachy. [Read more…]