This is America’s first Amish museum established in 1956. It’s east of Lancaster deep in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. The region also has Quaker and Mennonite families. There are now 43,000 Amish people in Lancaster County, out of 370,000 in the world. Over 40% of the state’s revenue comes from dairy providing milk to companies like Hershey.
They came from German-speaking Europe after they split from the Mennonites when a guy called Joseph Amen thought they weren’t strict enough. The Amish, who took Amen’s name, were persecuted by the Catholics and Lutherans, so they fled to Pennsylvania, a state founded by Quaker William Penn on the basis of religious freedom.
Nowadays, they are allowed simple black box mobile phones that only connect to voice calls for business use as long as they don’t bring it into the home. The refrigerator and lamps are either propane or battery powered, charged with solar or wind power. While the Mennonites have buttons and embroidery on their clothes, Amish women are only allowed straight pins to fasten clothes and plain colours. However, men are allowed buttons and everyone can wear any shoes they like—Nike, Adidas, Crocs—anything as long as it’s black on Sunday.
They remember German soldiers having mustaches and German women having gold jewelry, so men aren’t allowed mustaches (but allowed beards) and women can’t wear buttons at all (but allowed snap-ons for work wear). Everyone female wears a veil over her head age over 16 as a symbol that there is a father or husband as an authority over her.
The windmill on a tower is an Amish icon. It provides power to the water pump but is powered by diesel during calm days and retarded on windy days to prevent machine damage. Each community has their own blacksmith to fix tools and buggies but they have to buy their coffins from the outside world.
They like to have fun, like rollerblading and pressing tobacco. Kids do puzzles at home and adults sometimes even race scooters. Children as young as six start driving buggies with their little siblings in tow as there are no age limits for horse-drawn vehicles. It only takes a couple of minutes to get the hang of an Amish scooter with wheels that only have solid rubber tires. It’s super fun.
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