Sarah Nussbaum| The Daily Record
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him." " I John 2:15
Taken from the Bible, these words explain why the Amish choose to live the way they do " simply and without fanfare.
A curiosity to some, an attraction to others, the Amish community of North Central Ohio is centered in Holmes County and extends into portions of Wayne, Tuscarawas, Stark, Knox, Ashland and Coshocton counties among others.
Horse-drawn buggies share the roads with modern vehicles, while Amish farms and shops dot the landscape, giving the area a quaint feel of yesteryear.
Holmes County is home to the largest concentration of Amish in the world, the majority of whom are located in the eastern half of the county.
Generally, the Amish live in homes without electricity, wear very plain clothing and do not drive motor-powered vehicles. They hold church services in a yard or barn during the summer and in homes during the winter.
Like the Pilgrims and Puritans, the Amish migrated to America in search of religious freedom. But unlike other religious denomination, the Amish have retained the ways of their ancestors. Their set of rules, the Ordnung, governs the use of machinery, styles of clothing and other facets of everyday life.
The Amish are an outgrowth of the Anabaptist movement that occurred in 16th-century Europe. They were looked upon as radicals in the days of Swiss Protestant Reformation, earning the name Anabaptists because they rejected infant baptism.
The name "Amish" was derived from the surname of Jacob Ammann (several different spellings of this name are recorded), a bishop who believed some Anabaptists were becoming too worldly and were not strictly following the principles of excommunication and shunning that were part of the Anabaptist movement. He and his followers split from the rest of the Anabaptist movement in the 1600s. A century later, between 50 and 100 Amish families arrived in America. Numerous others followed in the 19th century, creating major settlements in Pennsylvania. Various "orders" of Amish continued to be created over the decades, slowly spreading into Ohio.
The Amish who live in Holmes County and the surrounding counties share specific beliefs and values. These include the general eschewing of modern or "worldly" amenities (such as automobiles and electricity); education only to the eighth grade; religious services held in homes rather than in church buildings; plain dress; and the use of High German in church services and Low German (Pennsylvania Dutch) in the home.
There are several branches of the Amish church represented in Holmes County. Some of these are the Swartzentruber branch of the Old order Amish, the New Order Amish and the Beachy Amish.
While the Amish are united by these core values " in essence, beliefs put into action " the Amish community of this region is actually made up of many smaller groups, called orders.
A recent assessment places approximately 32,000 persons in Wayne and Holmes counties and the surrounding area. This makes it the largest Amish settlement in the world, with Lancaster County, Pennsylvania being second largest.
By some estimates, there are as many as seven orders within this group, but four major groups dominate the numbers. These are the Old order, the New Order, the Andy Weaver Amish and the Swartzentruber Amish. While all ascribe to the beliefs and lifestyle discussed earlier, each has subtle, yet vital, distinctions that, to the trained eye, make it possible to spot the differences.
The Old Order Amish are the largest group, with around 19,000 people. Next are the Swartzentruber Amish, the most conservative and actually an offshoot of the Old Order. There are approximately 6,000 Swartzentruber Amish in this region. The Andy Weaver Amish group has around 3,000 persons, and the New Order Amish, who split from the Old Order in the 1960s, also numbers around 3,000 members.
The implications of one's order are far-reaching. For an Amish person, the order may dictate almost every aspect of one's lifestyle, from dress, to buggy style, to farming techniques, even prescribed length of a man's hair or a woman's skirt.
A good example of how a certain order affects life is the variety of buggy styles. Amish buggies in this area of Ohio are almost always black, but they will have some variation depending upon the order of the family. For the most part, Swartzentruber buggies generally will not have windshields or a "slow-moving vehicle" symbol on the back. They also may not have lights for night driving, but may use only a kerosene lantern hung on the buggy, a fact which is important for visitors to note.
Old Order and New Order buggies have windshields, lights, side doors, and may even have battery-powered blinker systems. They usually hang the orange, triangle-shaped "slow-moving" symbol on the backs of the buggies as well.
The Amish community of Ohio traces its history in this region back to Jonas Stutzman, believed to be the first Amish settler in the Holmes and Wayne County area. Stutzman " who came to Ohio from Somerset County, Pennsylvania " built a cabin near the fertile Walnut Creek valley in 1809; the next year, four Amish families joined him.
After 1810, the region soon-to-become the Amish Heartland welcomed families bearing the names which are now so familiar in the Amish (and Mennonite) community: the Millers, Yoders, Troyers, Masts, Hershbergers, Beachys, Weavers, Schrocks, Zooks, Schlabachs and many others.
This population continued to increase steadily, but around the turn of the 20th century, a serious rift occurred. A growing group began to dress fashionably, shave their beards and adopt what were considered "liberal" attitudes and lifestyles. This group eventually adopted the Mennonite faith; a large Mennonite population exists alongside the Amish today.
It must be said with a chuckle, even people who grew up in the area sometimes find all the groups difficult to distinguish! Indeed, even these divisions have further divisions " in Wayne and Holmes counties alone, there are more than 140 different church districts, each ascribing to the Amish lifestyle in a slightly different way. But within the Amish community, the different factions are easily recognizable.
The Amish take each word in the bible literally. They try to live in 21st-century America as their predecessors lived in 16th-century Europe.
The family plays an integral role in the Amish way of life. Children work with their parents at a young age; many attend one-room parochial schools (only through the eighth grade) which are regulated by each community of Amish. Elderly Amish people live actively with the family, usually in a house connected to the main house (Dawdy Haus).
The Amish culture is based on agriculture, although many Amish have undertaken other occupations in recent years. Many are fine craftsmen skilled in woodworking, carpentry and cabinetmaking, while others run their own businesses, including blacksmith, engine-repair and buggy-repair shops and furniture stores. Still others run or work in shops and restaurants that are popular among tourists.
And ultimately, all groups are united by one vital similarity: an unfailing devotion to faith, family and a lifestyle that sets them apart.
