AMISH REPOPULATING NEBRASKA’S SANDHILLS
“Let every nation know...
whether it wishes us well or ill... that we shall pay any price, bear any
burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the
survival and the success of liberty.” - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural
Address (20 January 1961). PHOTO CAPTION: Houses
being built by the Amish in Kilgore, Nebraska [PHOTO SOURCE: https://panhandle.newschannelnebraska.com/story/52315148/inside-the-growing-amish-community-in-nebraskas-sandhills]
The Amish population in North America has more than doubled since 2000 to 2024, due to their 85% to 90% retention rate and their high fertility rate. A group of Amish families, including the Kilgore family, purchased a large land parcel along the Niobrara River, Nebraska and have established businesses like saw sharpening and log-home kits. The community is growing, with new homes and a school, and is part of a larger trend of Amish settlements expanding into western states like Nebraska.
I believe in Year 2030, the Amish population (including other anabaptist groups like Mennonites and Hutterites), will outgrow and repopulate ghost towns. I will post 2 articles of the Amish growth in Nebraska with quotes and photos of farms being built and horse and buggies, before I give my thoughts on another blog post.
Unlike some Amish
communities, tractors are allowed at the Kilgore settlement, but only for
transporting farm supplies, not people. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
Amish finding a home well off the beaten path in Nebraska’s Sandhills
Plans for 15-20 families would make Kilgore settlement one of the largest communities in Cherry County
By: Paul Hammel - November 22, 2023 5:45 am
KILGORE — Turn south onto the blacktop out of this Cherry County ranch town, and the Sandhills seem to roll on for an eternity.
“Wide-open spaces” aptly describes the endless prairie, where cowboys still work cattle on horseback and stargazers come to get away from city lights.
You’re lucky to encounter another vehicle on the lonely, one-lane road lined by yuccas and little bluestem.
But 15 miles down the narrow route, where the road descends into the Niobrara River valley, a group of Amish newcomers from Michigan and Kentucky are setting down roots.
“Itchy feet’
This isn’t traditional Amish country – that’s the eastern U.S., home to smaller farms, dairies, lush green pastures and castle-like barns, not the dusty Sandhills dotted with black beef cattle.
The Kilgore Amish have established a few businesses, including selling kits to assemble log homes, sharpening sawmill blades, pouring concrete and doing carpentry work. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
The bishop of the small-but-growing settlement south of Kilgore says his band is getting used to the omnipresent cockleburs and deer flies, the sandier soil and the dearth of nearby “Amish taxi” drivers who can give his people a lift to stores in Valentine, a 40-mile drive away.
“Community
is like an old coat you aren’t aware of it until it is taken away.” – Amish Proverb [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10229019066802383&set=gm.3974585226155026&idorvanity=1635462500067322] BLOG:
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html
Reuben Miller, the 46-year-old bishop of the Kilgore Amish community, said their draft horses aren’t quite acclimated yet to the drier grasses of the Sandhills, but they’re getting there.
“I’ve had itchy feet for a long time, and I like the West,” Miller said. “I wanted to get away from people.”
Dressed in the traditional, homemade trousers, suspenders and straw hat favored by the Amish, Miller described how he and his brothers sold a 160-acre farm on a busy corner near Holton, Michigan, and moved earlier this year to a 5,038-acre ranch along the Niobrara River south of Kilgore.
The settlement, which includes Miller’s family of 13, may eventually grow to 15 to 20 families. That would be enough to rival the second-largest community in Cherry County: Cody, population 167.
Miller said he was seeking a place with plenty of water and a place that wasn’t flat. He joked that a related Amish settlement in Lewiston, Montana, is so flat “you can watch a dog run for two days, and if you stand up on a bucket, for another three days….”
He said his group has been “blessed and pleased” by the friendly reception they’ve gotten from the local community. In Montana, it wasn’t so pleasant, Miller said.
Amish
men building a house [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1066228262206016&set=a.613847060777474]
Concerned about being ‘interlopers’
“That’s one of the concerns we had,” he said. “In a way, we’re interlopers – we’re bringing 15 to 20 families, and it’s going to change the landscape.”
Erik Wesner, who writes about Amish settlement and customs via the Amish America.com website, said such communities are spreading and expanding across the country, even into remote locations like Nebraska’s Sandhills.
The traditional Amish homelands in Pennsylvania and Ohio are becoming too crowded, Wesner said, and fatal accidents involving Amish horse-drawn buggies are becoming too commonplace.
Miller said an accident that injured one of his sons played a role in his group’s move.
Wesner said Amish settlements are now in 32 states, totaling an estimated 367,000 people.
At least six Amish groups are in Nebraska, he said, with settlements in Dawes and Frontier Counties among the newest, established in 2020.
Attempts by the Amish to make a home in the Cornhusker State date back to the 1880s, when a group settled near Bertrand in south-central Nebraska. But that community eventually was abandoned.
The Amish returned in 1977, establishing a community near Pawnee City, but that group also eventually left to avoid a court battle over its home schooling practices.
“It takes more than one
strand to make a rope, in life and in education.” ~ Amish Proverb A large Amish buggy with
two draft horses [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1167285132067110&set=a.538291671633129]
Pawnee City, Verdigre areas
But since 2003, Amish groups have set down roots near Verdigre, again in Pawnee City and in the Ewing/Orchard areas. Signs alerting motorists to watch out for Amish buggies have gone up there, as well as along roads in Dawes County.
All told, Wesner estimates that nearly 450 Amish call Nebraska home. They vary in adhering to the old ways. Some conservative Amish avoid almost all modern conveniences and even taking rides in vehicles, while “new order” Amish are OK with using power tools and tractors.
“There are a lot of types and flavors of Amish that you put under this horse and buggy umbrella,” he said.
The new Kilgore settlement, Wesner said, is part of the “Michigan Amish Fellowship” or “Michigan Circle,” a “reformist” network of 33 settlements that has expanded across Michigan, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana and Wyoming.
Their practices include allowing a telephone in their homes. Some also worship in a community hall, while other Amish groups hold church services in their homes.
“Spread love everywhere
you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” st.teresa Buggy
und Amisch Kinder [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1175669727895317&set=a.538291671633129]
At
the Kilgore settlement, tractors sit parked outside the bishop’s home — a
former ranch headquarters a few yards from the Niobrara — along with a fat-tire
bike that Miller uses to navigate the soft, sandy roads.
Miller said the tractors cannot be used to pull planters and other farm implements — that’s job for draft horses. The tractors are used for lifting heavy loads.
The bishop has a landline phone in his home, along with a fax machine that can translate faxes into emails. The settlement allows the use of power tools, but only if they are battery-powered. There’s also a solar panel on the barn near Miller’s home.
Nearby sits a hay baler (Miller says it’s the group’s only brand-new implement) and a rusty horse trailer that he says will earn a tidy profit once his group has it repaired and refurbished.
“We’re all about spending our money wisely,” he said.
“Lots of people know how
to make a living but few know how to live.” ~ Amish Proverb [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1183364170459206&set=a.538291671633129]
No spending on vacations
The Amish eat food they grow and can from their own gardens and make their own clothes, which are washed by hand and dried on clotheslines.
There are no lavish vacations, Miller said.
“We don’t do stuff like going to the Bahamas — you’re not going to see us there,” he said.
“Same with that place in Nevada,” he added, referring to Las Vegas.
This combination barn and home is one of a handful of structures built at a new Amish settlement south of Kilgore. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
The group is not without money — they paid $9.65 million for the 5,038 acres of land they purchased along the Niobrara River, according to Cherry County records.
Wesner, who documents Amish life, said some Amish are quite wealthy, via regular saving and regular work. And the Kilgore group likely got a high price for its land in Michigan, where farmland prices average about $6,400 an acre.
Added Miller, “We go to work every day.”
The Kilgore Amish have established two businesses so far, one for saw sharpening and another for producing log-home kits. Brand-new sheds sit along the gravel road for one business, and on a high hill, workers prepare a log home for shipment.
A Family that Work
Together, Grows Together. – Amish proverb An Amish family on an
open buggy [PHOTO SOURCE: https://images.app.goo.gl/BSPuadNzT5X2PW8m6
...... https://amish-buggy.com/#amish] https://www.plainandfancyfarm.com/onsite-activities/buggy-rides/ https://www.plainandfancyfarm.com/ https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/05/family-value-quotes.html
Miller said his group has had to travel long distances for some jobs, but their ultimate goal is to provide jobs at the settlement, so they can be close to their families.
That is the ultimate goal for the Amish, according to Wesner — to be home, with their children.
“The Amish want their kids to have land and a farm,” he added.
That often translates, Wesner said, into purchases of land in scenic areas, like along the Niobrara, and in areas that provide good hunting.
A happy home is more
than a roof over your head, it’s a foundation under your feet. – Amish proverb An Amish family on an
open buggy [PHOTO SOURCE: https://amishrules.com/amish-values/]
Radio chatter is ‘annoying’
Miller said that the Amish are opposed to “modernism” and that living a simple life is part of their culture.
There are no televisions at the settlement, and he finds radio — which he hears while catching rides from local drivers — “annoying.”
“The less I hear about (the outside world), the better off I am,” Miller said, though he added that the Amish “are not opposed to society.”
“We need them,” he said, holding a battery-operated drill as he spoke.
A century ago, Miller said the Amish and the rest of society used about the same technology, but when steam engines and other modern advancements arrived, the Amish stuck with traditional ways.
“Look what has happened to family, what has happened to integrity,” he said of modern conveniences.
The need for connection
and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food.
—Dean Ornish An Amish family on an
open buggy [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225882729246975&set=gm.3965357390411143&idorvanity=1635462500067322] https://www.plainandfancyfarm.com/onsite-activities/buggy-rides/
Nearby residents said the Amish have been a welcome addition to the area, particularly due to their willingness and skill to do construction work.
They’ve poured concrete and built additions in an area that is short of such contractors, neighbors said. A local fencing crew recently hired an Amish worker, and the settlement recently got a job moving a barn in Stapleton, 140 miles away.
“They’ll do anything,” said George Johnson of Cody, one of a handful of local residents serving as drivers for Amish work crews.
“I like all of them that I’ve met. They’re good people,” said neighbor David Galloway.
Last updated 6:18 p.m., Nov. 27, 2023
INTERNET SOURCE: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/11/22/amish-finding-a-home-well-off-the-beaten-path-in-nebraskas-sandhills/
Tractor next to Amish
buggies in Kilgore, Nebraska [PHOTO SOURCE: https://amishamerica.com/amish-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-one-year-later/]
Inside the growing Amish community in Nebraska’s Sandhills
While the average family size in the United States has been shrinking for decades, the Amish population continues to grow—doubling approximately every 20 years.
Tuesday, February 4th 2025, 11:16 AM MST
By Casey Wonnenberg
KILGORE, Neb. - While the average family size in the United States has been shrinking for decades, the Amish population continues to grow—doubling approximately every 20 years. In Nebraska, the Amish population has surged by 65% from 2020 to 2024, according to research from Elizabethtown College.
One of the state’s newest Amish communities is taking root near the Niobrara River, south of Kilgore.
“We kind of like the West, so that’s why we came back out here,” said James Yoder, who moved to the area a year and a half ago after living in Michigan and Indiana.
Log house being built by
the Amish in Kilgore, Nebraska
The Amish are known for establishing new communities as their population expands. Yoder said that’s exactly what’s happening here. So far, nine families have settled in the area, but that number is expected to grow. He anticipates the community will reach a maximum of 20 families.
“If that gets full, we’re going to have to spread out to a new area and do that again. That’s probably what will happen,” Yoder explained.
LANCASTER PA AMISH
FAMILY RIDING IN HORSE BUGGY WINTER [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-lancaster-pa-amish-family-riding-in-horse-buggy-winter-12659640.html
While states like Pennsylvania and Ohio have historically been home to large Amish populations, Nebraska and other western states are seeing an increase in Amish settlements.
“The West is getting more populated with Amish communities,” Yoder said.
" Community is like
an old coat, you aren't aware of it until it is taken away." – Amish
Proverb The Amish Four Core
Values – Faith, Family, Community and Simple Living A large Amish buggy with
two draft horses [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=896676189128007&set=a.538291671633129] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html
Like many Amish communities, this one is built on a foundation of faith, family, and hard work. Yoder owns Canyon Country Cabins, while other families operate cabinetry shops and saw-sharpening businesses. Farming and ranching also play a significant role in their livelihood. Though some modern equipment, such as tractors, is used, horses and buggies remain a common sight.
“There’s some general construction work and, of course, ranching. There’s a lot of interest in ranching,” Yoder said.
The McCallums head into town in their buggy, pulled by one of their
horses, Terry. Credit: Meredith O'Shea The family that works
together, eats together, and prays together, stays together. – Amish Proverb Meet the McCallums, one of Australia's few Amish families Ever wanted to not just slow down, but jump off the grid? A family
leaves behind the trappings of the 21st century to lead a simple, pious life in
rural Tasmania. Springfield Farm Fresh
Produce - McCallum Family [PHOTO SOURCE: https://maps.app.goo.gl/r9BLz6rNjPR59YG99] BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html
The community is steadily growing, with new homes and a school where children attend classes until the eighth grade, in keeping with Amish tradition.
“We’re very community-oriented,” Yoder said.
As Nebraska’s Amish population continues to rise, settlements like this one highlight a way of life deeply rooted in tradition yet constantly expanding into new frontiers.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://panhandle.newschannelnebraska.com/story/52315148/inside-the-growing-amish-community-in-nebraskas-sandhills
Schwarzwälder
Kaltblut in front of Rommelehof
Schwarzwälder
Kaltblut in Todtmoos,
Germany Schwarzwaldhaus Kathi 4.5 stars out of 5 Alte Dorfstr. 18, Alte
Dorfstrasse, Todtmoos, Germany, 79682 - See map Conveniently situated in
the Alte Dorfstrasse part of Todtmoos, this property puts you close to
attractions and interesting dining options. This 4-star property is packed with
in-house facilities to improve the quality and joy of your stay. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.agoda.com/en-ie/schwarzwaldhaus-marion/hotel/todtmoos-de.html?cid=1844104&ds=giIJW0RIZIT2fl6I]
RELATED LINKS:
https://amishamerica.com/amish-start-community-in-middle-of-nowhere/
https://amishamerica.com/amish-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-one-year-later/
“We must live in community because we are stimulated by the same creative Spirit of unity who calls nature to unity and through whom work and culture shall become community in God.” — Eberhard Arnold
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html
Children are like tiny
flowers: They are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and
glorious when seen in the community of peers. - Friedrich Frobel [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/CwfbQ4Gvv8k/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link] [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/learnngrowstem/p/CwfbQ4Gvv8k/] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/10/amish-baby-boom-part-1-proverbs-about.html
“Our children are the only treasures we can take to heaven.”
I believe the Amish (even Beachy Amish Mennonites, Conservative Mennonites and Hutterites) will outgrow us despite low global fertility issue. In 2022, In its annual Amish population study, the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College estimates that 1,450 Amish babies were born in Lancaster County last year. Only 145 Amish of all ages died. That population increase of 1,305 brought the total number of Amish living here to 44,315. There were more Amish births than deaths in that state.
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/10/amish-baby-boom-part-1-proverbs-about.html
Zelt Erweckung - Amish Mennonite Tent Meeting Revival at Sequoia Bible Fellowship
Coblentz Tent Meetings with Gospel Preaching! Evangelist Andy Coblentz - An Amish
Mennonite Brother from Kentucky Held at Squaw Valley Rodeo Grounds, May 28,
2012 VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaIjRfB2XJ4 PHOTO SOURCE: https://images.app.goo.gl/jUDXmsR8Qkh3z8kW6 https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/sermons-on-hebrews-10-verse-24-to-25.html
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/sermons-on-hebrews-10-verse-24-to-25.html
OTHER LINKS:
https://amishamerica.com/our-heart-just-felt-drawn-to-come-help-amish-rebuild-in-nc/
https://amishamerica.com/bravo-amish-still-helping-rebuild-western-nc/
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The Yoder family...Gloria in the background, with Daniel and then the children from left, Julia, Austin, Elijah, Jesse, and Rayni...baby Joshua had not arrived yet! [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.amish365.com/remembering-daniel-yoder/] |
https://amishamerica.com/gloria-yoder-why-am-i-amish/
https://amishamerica.com/5-things-i-like-about-being-amish-amish-cook-gloria-yoder/
https://www.amish365.com/category/the-amish-cook-column/
https://amishamerica.com/gloria-yoder-writes-on-loss-of-husband-daniel/
https://www.wnewsj.com/2022/04/06/daniel-yoder-1988-2022-a-good-and-faithful-servant/
https://www.amish365.com/remembering-daniel-yoder/
Joseph Yoder is an
Amishman who works in the furniture industry in the community at Arthur, Illinois. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://amishamerica.com/on-camera-interview-with-amishman-joseph-yoder-part-1/] https://amishamerica.com/on-camera-interview-amishman-joseph-yoder-part-2/
https://amishamerica.com/what-do-the-amish-believe-20-faith-statements/
https://amishamerica.com/in-meiner-jugend-devotional-reader-german-english/
https://amishamerica.com/is-amish-life-hard/
https://amishamerica.com/on-camera-interview-with-amishman-joseph-yoder-part-1/
https://amishamerica.com/on-camera-interview-amishman-joseph-yoder-part-2/
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