The Top 10 Amish States

[@Tall_Order]

I live near Brooksville in Florida, and when I look at the Amish homes in your videos they look oddly familiar even though I don't think the Amish live here. But a lot of our homes and farms look like that. It's relatively modern compared to what people would imagine when they think of the Amish. They seem to think time stopped for them when it really hasn't.

[@cassandra2685]

Oh my goodness This is such a great channel I’m so glad I stumbled upon it👍 I’ve always been fascinated by The Amish, I want to visit their community. We just moved near PA so now it’s finally time to take that special trip. I’d love to buy a piece of furniture made by the Amish, they are masters in building beautiful things. Thank you for sharing

[@AmishAmerica]

Glad you found it - enjoy the visit to PA and the pie!

[@johnwood7939]

Really been enjoying your videos. As a young kid I lived in Mercer County, PA around the Clark Mills and Sheakleyville areas that had a few good Amish communities there. Use to hang out with the kids in the community and learned about all the different orders of them. In my later teenage years moved to Cattaraugus County in Western NY around Randolph, Little Valley area which has a good size population in the area. Your photo at 5:26 is the Raber Family toy shop on Pope Rd. stop by there all the time when I'm in the area and alot of the other shops in community to get different things ( Live in East TN. now). If your ever up there stop at the Valley View Cheese Factory in Conewango Valley and get some of the fresh cheese curd always got the bring a few bags back with me. Had to laugh on how you pronounced Conewango.

[@AmishAmerica]

Glad to hear that John, that's a neat region for the Amish. The Raber toy shop photo was part of a guest post by a blog reader some years back, he also shared a lot of shots from inside. So you can probably tell I haven't been to Conewango yet ;) I also recently pronounced a Canadian town in a funny way but I love learning the correct local ways to say these names. Thanks for the idea for the cheese factory stop, that community is high on my list of "want-to-visits". Glad you found the channel.

[@WilliamWeicht]

When I lived in Parke County, IN I used to shop at the Amish store down the road from me. They ordered white birch beer for me. They said that after that all the other Amish would come and buy it too and they had a hard time keeping it on the shelf.

[@AmishAmerica]

I tried birch beer once, you see it a lot in Amish and "Amishesque" stores. I think I prefer the ginger beer, some Amish friends had a really good brand they shared with me once or twice, but I don't recall the name. Sounds like it is a hit with the Parke Co. people. Kutztown is one brand popular in PA, "Nix Besser" as they say

[@tedcorbin4638]

​@@AmishAmerica by by

[@donnaml8776]

Just wanted to start off with saying thank you for good sound. I appreciate hearing more about New York State Amish. I would love to learn more about them. Even though New York is one of the smallest states in the union, these areas are still hours of driving away from where I live, but hopefully in the future I’ll have an opportunity to get to go to some of these communities. Great video!

[@kencornelius9584]

My wife and I found your channel and subscribed. If we're not mistaken we have watched all of your videos and have not only learned a thing or two but also just plain enjoy them. We'd love to see a video on the Southern Lancaster County Amish, Pleasant Valley store, Drumore store, Barbara's Bake shop, Good's store in Quarryville to name a few. When we lived there that's where we did all our shopping. Friendly folks! Keep up the good work!

[@AmishAmerica]

Ken so neat to hear that, I am flattered. Glad you're enjoying and that they are informational. I am a bit more familiar with northern Lancaster County though I do get down to the other end from time to time. I visited BB's not too long ago in Quarryville. I will keep your idea in mind, maybe a video on north/south Lancaster Co.

[@shawncooper9999]

I am from the State of New York. In Yates county New York is all Amish from top of Yates county to small towns in Yates County. My Dad was the only mennonite living and working and volunteer fire chief in a small town in Yates county.

[@BureauKat]

I am very grateful that the Amish are moving to places like rural New York State. Many of these areas are near places left desolated by the fall of the rustbelt so having farming move in is a good thing. The growing season is a little short but the soil is glacial till and great for agriculture.

[@debbimeyersbrant5752]

I have never heard of Nebraska Amish could you speak more on this please, thank you blessings to you and yours

[@AmishAmerica]

Sure, that may make a good video topic actually. I'll put it on the list 👍

[@debbimeyersbrant5752]

@@AmishAmerica thank you

[@TheGhostOfLuciasClay]

I was expecting NY to be in the top three. I guess just because there is large communities in one area doesn't mean it the same across the state. I'm in NW PA, Erie/Crawford counties and there are communities scattered all over from New Wilmington/Atlantic area to Mill village/Spartanburg areas. Then into NY around the Clymer area seems just as populated, seems like every other farm is Amish. Seems to be a fairly progressive group there. The New Holland dealer had amish mechanics and even the service manager was amish and they used computers and worked on all aspects of equipment even electronics.

[@AmishAmerica]

It may be in the top 3 one day with all the communities that have sprung up there - 25+ since 2010. Clymer is fairly progressive, those are people from Geauga County, OH originally, started back in the 1970s. And I don't mention it in this video, but that would be the 3rd largest in the state. You are in a really neat part of the country where you have a ton of individual Amish settlements throughout several counties across the region - Crawford, Mercer Cos. in PA, etc. So I guess I'm a bit jealous you get to live in a neat area for the Amish! :)

[@karenenglish4900]

My hometown and most of my family are in Elkhart/Lagrange IN. I approach Amish whenever I can wherever in the USA I can. Most of the time they know my family from where they live.

[@michellealvermann1377]

We have tons of amish in my Wisconsin town

[@MoonShadowRayne]

I love living in Nappanee. I frequent the Amish stores as I can. It’s great right now with all the vegetable, flowers, eggs and small animals for sale at road side stands. But when in Amish communities, one must be respectful of their different transportation. It’s easy enough, one just has to slow down. It’s not worth it to fly by buggies and honk the horn. You could kill innocent lives.

[@AmishAmerica]

Well said on being careful. Not worth it to be careless anywhere, but Amish communities have different things to look out for. I just did a video on this actually. And my impression is that Nappanee is a friendly community, one of my favorite Amish friends lives there, nice to hear you love it there

[@ryanjsgrandma2009]

Just found ur channel and subscribed. Very enjoyable. I live in Tn and have Amish neighbors. I’m curious about the Amish and politics, are they involved with that or not. Also it would be interesting to know how they’ve handle this pandemic or are they untouched by it. These could be interesting topics for videos. Thank you sir.

[@AmishAmerica]

I'm happy you found it J W, the politics question comes up every 4 years and especially since OH and PA are "swing states", though the Amish generally vote in low numbers (ballpark of 10%?). There have been 1 or 2 studies on that including Amish participation in the 2004 election. I have that topic on my list for a video so good idea. amishamerica.com/do-amish-vote/ On covid they have gotten a lot of media attention, I actually wrote a whole paper on it last year and 35+ blog posts so I'm about tapped out on the topic :D But generally they are not "orthodox" in the sense of social distancing, masking, vaccinations, etc. In other words they tend to do all those things a lot less (generalizing here of course, Amish are different in different places). I touch on it a little bit in the very first video I did and here are the posts: amishamerica.com/category/covid-19-coronavirus/

[@MissouriCrookedBarnHomestead]

There is a new Amish community in Crook County (Hulett) Wyoming, however, I have seen them here in Cheyenne WY, so I suspect there are some smaller branches around this area. There is also a Mennonite community or few. It would make sense with as little population as there is in Wyoming. I'm originally from East Tennessee.

[@AmishAmerica]

Yes there is also a newer community in Weston County near Newcastle, started in just the past couple years, small settlement.

[@lendir1]

I had heard a few years back, Ohio, had a greater amount of Amish than Pennsylvania. I guess the population numbers swing back and forth as they move around. I am from Pennsylvania and my grandfather was Pennsylvania Dutch, from Lebanon.

[@Chad3400]

So he was a lebanese Amish man?

[@lendir1]

@@Chad3400 Lol, Lebanon Pa. heavy concentration of Amish, Mennenite and Pennsylvania Dutch in the area.

[@pamiperry3329]

Can you do a story on the Amish that use to live in Oregon State and why they moved?

[@zyairgentel1807]

As someone in Pennsylvania i see amiah every day

[@lorikennison8938]

Do you have any information about the small Amish community in Vermont?

[@AmishAmerica]

I've done about 4-5 website posts on that community based on news reports. So they moved there in 2015. Small community with about 100 people living there, Northeast Kingdom region (Brownington). Families were from PA originally. Here's one of the posts, if you site search "Vermont" you'll see the rest. I plan to do a little video on VT Amish but it will be a little while. amishamerica.com/vermont-amish-doing-well-3-years-later/

[@buckspa]

Nebraska Amish from Pennsylvania who moved to Ohio. That reminds me of a scene from a Naked Gun movie: Lt. Frank Drebin : Hector Savage. From Detroit. Ex-boxer. His real name was Joey Chicago. Ed Hocken : Oh, yeah. He fought under the name of Kid Minneapolis. Nordberg : I saw Kid Minneapolis fight once. In Cincinnati. Lt. Frank Drebin : No you're thinking of Kid New York. He fought out of Philly. Ed Hocken : He was killed in the ring in Houston. By Tex Colorado. You know, the Arizona Assassin. Nordberg : Yeah, from Dakota. I don't remember it was North or South. Lt. Frank Drebin : North. South Dakota was his brother. From West Virginia.

[@marylee7467]

I know you had messaged me once about the Amish in Virginia. Can you say whereabouts those communities are? I'm thinking they are down south more. Like Charlottesville I'm assuming. I laughed at you Bird In Hand sign. Pre Covid we went there often. And love The Bird In Hand Family Restaurant. They have renovated so there's room now but we used to get up at 4am to get there for an early breakfast. They have outrageously good scrapple and farm fresh eggs. Check it out if you're in the area.

[@AmishAmerica]

I've been in the BiH restaurant once or twice, nice spot, probably pre-renovation when I was there it sounds like. 4am! I am impressed but breakfast might be the best meal of the day. More of the communities in VA are south and west in the state, but there is a community in Northern Neck. Charlotte County has the largest - you can see the full list of 10 here: groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/files/2020/10/Amish_Pop_by_state_and_county_2020.pdf That's the 2020 list, the new one is coming out pretty soon, but should be about the same.

[@marylee7467]

@@AmishAmerica I know it's my favorite meal. 😊 Thank you for this information. I'm going to look through this now. Appreciate you sending it. Be blessed

[@MrsRen]

​@@AmishAmerica Hmm. "In Northern Neck" is a weird phrasing and threw me off a bit as to where you were talking about. I didn't realize that there was a community on the Northern Neck now. Do you know if they came over from Southern Maryland? I see your document says they established rather recently, so it could be that they just took advantage of some cheap land by coming to the better side of the Potomac...

[@gracie65girl21]

Are there any communities in Texas? I believe there are some mennonite communities in North Texas, but I didn’t know if we had any Amish.

[@AmishAmerica]

There is just one Amish community in Texas, in Bee County. Quite small, has been there since 1999. I'll be doing a video on it

[@Corgis175]

Lancaster is the only one I've been too.

[@notinside1]

My wife grew up in the amish area of Northern Indiana (Elkhart) now we live close to the amish in Wisconsin. Alot of the WI amish homes look like normal houses here. Not the traditional white 2 story's home. Also we feel the WI amish seem friendlier then in Indiana, we think that the amish are not A tourist attraction like in Indiana

[@parnellbeth]

There are only Mennonites in our county. We have become friends with a few. They told us that the church is very involved in suggesting communities where youth need to visit to find spouses. Because of inbreeding, they keep very detailed records. Interesting.

[@bradbahler]

I really disagree with your assessment of the Allen County, Indiana group as being less friendly or standoffish. I did business with people in this community for several years, as well as other settlements in Indiana and Michigan. I found them to be very friendly and enjoyable peopl

[@AmishAmerica]

I appreciate the disagreement Brad - it's always interesting to hear different perspectives. I have no doubt you knew some great people there! I actually met some quite warm ones too. I'm not sure if you saw my other vid on 5 friendliest communities, but I discuss my thoughts on Allen Co. in more depth there and what I based that view on. This was more about first impression, as someone coming in as an outsider with no connections, and it was quite a large sample size comparing quite a few communities (I was selling books and meeting 100s of families in different communities). Just curious how did you make their acquaintance in Allen Co? Thanks again for the comment and contrary view👍

[@bradbahler]

@@AmishAmerica I sold livestock feed over a period of several years. I had an Amish dealer there, who was the most joyful person I ever met. I also thought the Allen County people had a wonderful sense of humor. Many of the Daviess County people are from the same families

[@AmishAmerica]

Gotcha. I did meet some very nice families there too, though it sounds like you got to know them over an extended period of time, which is a bit different from what I was doing. I do think the broad character of this community, if you meet a few hundred Amishmen there completely "cold", is different than say Elkhart-LaGrange area or Daviess County. I base my impressions on hundreds of meetings in each of those communities. I was a pure outsider making acquaintances with zero prior connection, though over time I had mutually-known names that helped. So it's a bit different I think from what you describe, and I'll stand by my assessment. But - that's all okay - I don't expect people to be friendly to me when I meet them, it's just a nice plus when it happens :) And again, there were certainly friendly Amish folks in Allen County. Just across the board, it's a bit "tougher" for cold meetings than many of the larger communities. Nothing at all against them though

[@SealBreeze]

Where's California

[@karenenglish4900]

To all the folks that don't know Amish history, they immigrated originally to PA, then migrated to OH, and IN as our country expanded. That is my ancestry.