Dan Order Amish

Lots of Windmills to pump water in Amish country

In my continuing explorations of the Amish, we will discus the Dan Amish.  The Dan Amish are between the Swartzentrubers and Old Order as far as rules go.  How would you know the difference? The Dan Amish look like the old order in appearance.  They will use knits in their clothing and their homes are very similar in appearance to the old order.

Horses grazing on Dan order farm

 The Dan Amish do put cloth diapers or pampers on their babies, but they keep dresses on their little ones, whether they be boys or girls until they  are potty trained.  They have indoor plumbing.  Their houses are lovely with many wall decorations and nature pictures.  The biggest thing, in my opinion, is that they are not allowed to have a refrigerator.  They have ice boxes or just a cold room pantry with windows open for cooling purposes.  This makes food storage much more challenging!

Amish hang clothes out all year long, no matter what the weather!

  The men have the same haircuts as the old order, not the pageboys of the Swartzentrubers.  All 3 groups have untrimmed beards.  The women have slightly different style of cap that they wear.  You would be hard pressed most of the time to tell Dan Amish from the Old order Amish from the appearance of the older children or adults.  The Dan Amish do have books other than their German Bibles and prayer books.  You will find children's books, like landmarks, Little House and other books like I would have in my library.

Dan Amish school yard.

The out buildings of the Dan Amish are white not red like the Swartzies.  All the groups other than the new order are not allowed to have paved driveways.  They are all gravel, maybe.  Plenty of deep ruts for English drivers to get stuck in.  I have had to have my van pulled out of some of their muddy lanes by their teams of horses.  The Dan Amish do not use battery powered appliances.  They use only the gas lights.  The Dan do not use bicycles either.  Many of them still use wood stoves to cook on in the kitchen.  Some are starting to use natural gas.

Dan Amish do use the red safety triangle on the back of their buggies, like the Old Order.  This makes them so much easier to see at night!  However, like the Swartzentrubers they are not allowed to use glass on the front of their buggies.  This makes for a very cold ride in the winter.

The different amish groups have their own rules and differ from place to place.  The individual church rules are made by the ruling bishops. Their have been many Amish church splits through the years on whether porch swings should be allowed or not.  They are human just like everybody else.

Amish Ingenuity- Filling the Ice House the Easy Way!

This is an Old Order Amish Farm that I have spent a lot of time at over the last 12 years or so.  They are a great family with eight children.  The oldest two boys are now adults and so there are less hands to help out on the farm.  One characteristic of most Amish is they get a job done as efficiently as possible, within the limitations of their religion.

The 'Pond' where they cut the ice from.  This is after they took the ice out.

This particular farmer is a dairy farmer.  He also makes cheese and is government certified to make organic raw cheese.  This requires him to have a refrigerated area in the cheese house.  He is not allowed to have an electric refrigeration unit and there aren't any natural gas ones of this size (which they are allowed to use) and so he has an old fashioned ice house that is built into an old refrigerated truck.  This provides an insulated area and he built this into the building with a drain out the back.  This set up requires a lot of ice.  He used to go out with his team of horses to the pond in the back and cut the ice.  This was a huge job and somewhat dangerous as all the children were needed to help.  About 5 years ago Arlie came up with this plan.  He puts in a huge (50' x250'x2.5' deep) box up the hill and lines it with heavy gauge plastic.  The autumn rains fill it with water and then they wait until it freezes.  Once it freezes, they enjoy it as a skating rink for awhile.  (Old Order are allowed to go skating, Swartzentrubers are not).  When they have a free day they take a saw up and cut the ice up in the box and send it down the slide.

The slide down to the ice house

 They have built their  aluminum slide down the hill, right to the ice house door.  Here you see it with the last section removed  that went across the gravel driveway.  They then only have to carry it into the ice house and pack sawdust around it.  This is so much easier than taking a wagon out to a distant pond and cutting it and dragging it back.  A block of ice weighs about 100#.  This is a big labor saver.

They make sure to leave about 4" of water in the frame so that they can continue skating the rest of the winter.  They will take up the wood frame and fold the plastic, in the spring  and put it into storage until next fall.

Amish Ingenuity at its finest.

Swartzentruber Amish Pt. 3 - Christmas and shunning

I have always seen quite a few Swartzentruber Amish in my home office.  They would hire a driver and come up to our home.  It would be about an hour and a quarter each way.  Needless to say, they weren't very good about coming for many visits.  The drivers were just too expensive.  Now I am at least 30 minutes closer.  Close enough that some could even make a day trip in a buggy for their appointment.  They seem to be happy about our move.  On Monday,  four different families came up.  It was a busy day.

Baby is unwrapped as our house was warm.  They only use a carseat if the driver insists on it.  This driver did.  Baby has a cap on and a scarf over it. Everything is pinned on and together.  The pacifier is part of the uniform.

The interesting thing was that I also had a patient come who had left the Swartzentruber Amish.  Since Shunning is still practiced a lot in this group I wasn't sure how the encounter would go.  I didn't want anyone to be uncomfortable, so I brought the Amish lady in the house (She had to wait two hours for her driver to come back) while the other person had left.  It turned out it would have been OK as they were related and there weren't any other amish around so they could talk.  If other amish had been around, they would have turned their back to her and her children and not talked to them.  This is called shunning.  They are not allowed to talk, eat with or ride with someone who has left their group. So awkward.  But it did work out.  They each asked about the other and wanted to know how things were going.  They were friends before and still cared about each other.

Adult Swartzentruber Woman's going out covering to go over her cap and cape, made from a wool blanket that would be safety pinned on.

I ask a lot of questions while I am giving adjustments.  I learned there are three different types of Swartzentrubers in our area.  The lowest level are called"Weavers", because their bishops are from the Weaver family.  It was interesting to  me that the other swartzentrubers look down on them for being dirty and disrespectful to the English, because they won't put a disposable diaper on their babies/children when in English homes, offices with carpeting or padded furniture.  Frequently, when I adjust their little ones, I do end up with a wet lap.  These levels of legalism also carry over to their education.  The more legalistic the group, the lower the educational standards.  All amish do stop formal education after eighth grade.  They do not spend much time learning history or science.  They have very little knowledge of the outside world as they do not read regular newspapers, only their little amish papers.  The men do buy the newspapers to  learn of sales, and they then will peruse the rest.  I get lots of questions from them about different current events.

Swartzentruber lady's bag.  It serves as both a purse, diaper bag, and snack bag.  They all look the same so all of them have the owner's name on the inside. 

Amish do celebrate Christmas.  But they don't do any decorating, and they definitely don't have a Christmas tree.  The children will do a gift exchange at school.   Parents will make or buy gifts for the children.  Cousin's will often do gift exchanges as well. They may sing carols, but not with any instruments.  It is a quiet day and they will have a big meal.  Something special.  One of the families was going to have 'Haystack' for Christmas dinner.  That is a favorite amish meal.  They often serve it at big gatherings.  Someone will make a big pot of rice and then all the guests bring toppings.  When I have had it, it was almost like a taco dish.  Cheese and meat and tomatoes and onions and veggies and whatever else.  It is tasty.  During the holiday season, there is much visiting back and forth in the evenings.  They can prolong it from Thanksgiving until the middle of January.  It is a great way to break up the winter doldrums.

Swartzentruber baby dressed to go out.  This is not seasonal.  This is how they go out summer and winter.

A Swartzentruber woman's life is very hard.  They are not allowed to use even a wringer washing machine, like the old order do.  They will heat the water outside and boil their clothes.  They have to hang them to dry.  This takes a long time in the winter or in the summer humidity.  The large porches on their houses gives them a place to hang their clothes when there is bad weather.  Some people will leave their clothes hanging for several days, but the neighbors start to gossip and talk if you do it too often.  All cooking is done on a wood or coal stove.  It is so hot in the summer!  There is no refrigeration so anything you want to store long term must be canned.  There are no freezers either so meat has to all be canned too or kept cold in the winter.  They use a lot of traditional methods of food storage that don't require cold.  All the gardening, milking and food storage and preparation falls on the women.  There are no electric kitchen devices, mixing, blending and shredding all have to be done by hand.  Amish men (almost never) help with 'women's work'.

Amish Church is held in people's homes rather than in a specific building.  Every family has to take their turn at hosting church once or twice a year.  They are also responsible to provide a meal for after church.  Your house has to be spotlessly clean for church.  The US Navy's white glove inspection has nothing on the Amish.  Women have to clean for weeks to get ready for church. Ceilings, walls, floors, and everything in between have to be impeccably clean. Families will often get together to help each other get ready.  The meeting may be held in the house or the 'shop'.

Blackberry Pie gifted to me from an Swartzentruber patient

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Thanks for reading my blog!  Feel free to leave a message.

Swartzentruber Amish Pt. 2

Probably, the easiest way to tell a Swartzentruber Amish person, is by their appearance.  The men all have untrimmed beards and a 'dutchboy' haircut.  That is essentially a long 'bowl haircut' with the face cut out and bangs.  Swartzentruber men only wear royal blue long sleeve shirts for everyday and white for dress.  They usually wear a jean vest also.  Swartzentrubers only use straight weave cotton cloth, no knits or polyester for clothing.  They also don't use any elastic in their clothing.   This eliminates many things that the rest of us consider essential.  They always wear black boots, but  they don't always buy black boots.  If another color boot is on sale they will purchase that color and black leather dye and voila you have black boots.  Thriftiness is such a big part of their culture.  They wear amish cut jeans with triple weave material, unless they are going to a wedding, funeral, or church and then they wear black.  The Swartzentruber  men wear broader brimmed hats than other amish men, but this is a pretty subtle distinction unless you are around the amish a lot.

Swartzentruber ladies wear dark color dresses, either navy, forest green, deep maroon, or black.  They wear black high topped boots and knee socks.  Their cap has many tiny pleats.  They put them in with starch.  They have to redo it every time they wash them, I have watched them and it is a very tedious chore.  The women all use royal blue strings that they make to put up their hair.  It is amazing to watch them do it.  They tie it up rather than using lots of pins.  They wear black capes rather than coats in the winter.  When they are out in public, they wear a hard black shell cap over their white cap.  It has deep sides so that you can hardly see their face.  They carry black bags with handles that they make themselves.  They usually have baby stuff and snacks in there.

Swartzentruber field

Swartzentruber children dress very much like like their parents.  They wear black high top shoes and outfits like Mom or Dad.  The girls dresses are simpler than their mom's.  They are like little gowns.  Boys have suspender straps on their pants.  The Swartzentruber's (children and adults) go barefoot most of the year, unless it is cold and they are outside.  ALL Swartzentruber babies wear dresses, whether they are boys or girls.  Little boys don't move into pants until they are potty-trained.  So don't assume the little one toddling around in a dress is a little girl.  Swartzentruber children spend most of their time helping their parents with work around the farm.  Little boys follow after Dad and little girls help their mother.  They are not allowed to have bicycles or other riding toys with wheels.

Swartzentruber house

Swartzentruber Mom's keep their babies well swaddled.  They make all their own baby clothes.  The little ones wear long sleeve t-shirts, and a dress.  They are not allowed to put pampers or pre-folded cloth diapers on their baby unless they are going to a doctor's appointment or to an english house.  At home they wear a flannel single layer diaper without any plastic covering.  When a child wets the diaper it does run through on whoever is holding them or on the floor.  Diapers do get changed frequently!  When they are going out with their new babies they wrap them in a thick black wrap and put a black hard shell bonnet on them, with a black gauze over their face.  They almost always will have a pacifier pinned to their babies outfit.  All the baby clothes are also made of straight weave material.  No soft cotton knits allowed. For a baby toy, they string little plastic beads on an elastic string shaped like a necklace.  This is a common baby gift.

NOT Swartzentruber Horses

Now, you should be able to look at an Amish family and tell whether they are Swartzentruber or not.  Amish, except for the new, new order, don't want pictures taken of themselves.  I try to respect that,  so I am not able to show you photos of them.  I hope you are able to picture in your mind what I am talking about.

Swartzentruber Amish

Lane in Amish country

As one drives down back lanes in amish country and see the farms and fields, many wonder what it is like to be amish and what their lives are really like.  As I drive around making house calls, I get the opportunity to be in their homes and get to know the amish personally.

Swartzentruber fields

The Swartzentruber Amish are the least modern of any of the amish.  They still live the life of "Little House".  They resist using any modern or manmade products.  You will not see generators or motorized machinery on their farms.  They still use reel mowers to cut the grass.  They try to live as people have lived up until the late 1800s.

Swartzentruber Farm

If you are driving you can pick out the Swartentruber farms as they are the ones with brick red barns.  You will also see many of them with houses linked to houses.  They look like small compounds.  With everything having to be done by hand, it takes many hands!  Most farms have a "Dawdy Haus", a house where the grandparents live or if they are not around, they will let a young couple live there.  It is common to find several related families on the same farm.  The farms tend to be self-sustaining.  They will raise everything they can that they eat.  They will have their own dairy cows, chickens, fruit trees, and gardens. They have to milk the cows by hand which limits the number of cows they can manage.

Swartzentruber field with machinery

The Swartzentrubers still do not use any indoor plumbing or have any kinds of refrigeration other than ice houses.  If you go into their homes, you will find a dry sink and maybe a hand pump in the back hall.  They heat their homes with wood or coal stoves in the living room.  They keep their homes very warm!  They laugh at me when I come and complain about how hot it is.  They will sometimes wait until I leave to stoke the fires, or they will open a window.  I am not used to temps over 75 degrees in the winter.

Swartzentruber Barn

The houses have minimal decorating.  The houses are painted according to their churches regulations. I have seen either all white walls or  gray on the bottom like wainscoting and gray trim with white walls.  They are not allowed to have pictures on the wall or books other than the Bible, Prayer books, and a Hymnal.  The only thing they can have on the wall is a calendar. Most have wood floors or occasionally I have seen a few with linoleum.  I have heard that there are still some houses that have dirt floors, but I have not seen them.  They do take out the big stove in the summer as it takes so much room.  They do not have any 'stuffed' furniture.  They just have wood benches around the walls and usually two rockers in a central place.  This is where the parents sit in the evenings or where a Mom will sit to nurse the baby.  They will also have a twin bed in the living room.  This is where the babies nap during the day or someone might lay down to take a nap.  They will have a desk in the living room where they store their important papers (checkbook) and a dresser or two.  They hang their clothes on pegs.  Their wood furniture is always beautiful as it is the girl's job to give it a coat of varnish every year.  They paint their walls every year or two.

Swartzentruber farmer 

The kitchen has a wood or coal stove to cook on.  I have seen one house that had a stove with propane tanks, but that was unusual.  The kitchens get VERY hot in the summer.  You may see a small ice box in the kitchen but never a refrigerator.  There are no faucets and not every home has a hand pump in the kitchen.  They wash their dishes in a dry sink.  You will see the girls working on dishes from a very young age.  The boys do the chore work in the barn, and everybody helps with the milking.  If they want to bathe, they have to haul their water in and  heat it on the stove and take a bath in a large metal tub.  They have a looser standard of personal hygiene because of the work involved.

Took this picture in front of our farm. This was a Swartzentruber buggy.

You can tell a Swartzentruber buggy in Ohio as it won't have an orange triangle on the back. They line the outside of the back of the buggy in gray reflective tape.  They are very difficult to see.  They do hang a small kerosene lantern on the side at night, but it doesn't give much light.  It is dangerous!  They also don't have any windshield in their buggies.  The front is wide open.  They are very cold in the winter. If you see a buggy with two horses that is also probably a Swartzentruber family.  The Swartzentrubers are well known for using their buggies to go long distances compared to other amish.  They will only hire a driver to go to the doctor or hospital, usually.  Their world is pretty small.

I will continue talking about the Swartzentrubers in another post.

Our Day in Amish Country

Many of you may not know that I am a  chiropractor and nutritionist.  I also do a lot of work with neurologically injured children.  The injuries can be from birth or genetics or trauma.  I also work a lot with pregnant mom's.  One part of my job is to make house calls in the local area with lots of Amish.

I usually go on Fridays and try to leave early.  We take the Big Red Beast and pick up groceries along the way plus whatever else we need.  I get most of my things direct from the farm.

I always take at least one of the older children along.  When they were younger I used to take all of them along.  That is where we got our first interest in farming and learned a lot of basic skills.  The kids have gotten to help butcher, gather sap from maple trees, cut ice from the pond,  milk both goats and cows and many other things.  Now they have other things they would rather do than ride around in a car most of the day.  I don't really blame them.  I have gotten a lot busier through the years and many of the stops don't have anything for them to do.

Amish farm- Old order

I have gotten to know many amish families well as well as having gotten to know their culture and even a bit of their language.  Amish children don't learn much english until they go to school.  If I want to talk to them I had better learn a little 'Dutch'.  I work primarily with children down there.  There are a lot of genetic problems because of the small gene pool that they marry from.

Amish School house

I find that many people are fascinated by the amish and their lifestyles.  I have opportunities to be in their homes and on their farms. I have gotten to know a lot about them. I thought I would do some blog posts on the different kinds of amish and how it impacts their life.  In our area of Ohio there are five different types if amish.  Starting from the most conservative they are the Swartzentrubers, Dan, Old Order, New Order, and New New Order.  Some people call the Newer Orders the "tractor Amish".  If you read through this series, you will be able to go to Amish country in Ohio and meet an Amish person or look at a farm and know what kind of Amish they are.

Old Order Barn and "Buggy Port"

If you want to know anything specific, just leave a comment and I will try and answer it.  The largest group of Amish in Ohio are the Old Order.  They are the group that many people think of when they think of Amish.

Amish Old Order Farmhouse

The Amish lifestyles are very varied.  Many of them no longer live on farms and farm.  They have wood shops, do cement work, and any kind of carpentry.  They run shops and are always very thrifty.  Forgive me the stereotype, it doesn't cast any of the groups in a negative light,  Q: Do you know the definition of an 'Amish Man'?

Two Swans with their cygnet (aka 'the Ugly duckling')
Can you see all three?
Picture taken on an amish farm.

A: He buys from a Jew and sells to a Scot and makes a profit.

There are huge differences in the lifestyles of the different amish groups. They range from the Swartzentrubers who still live like the days of "Little House" to the New New Order who live just like you, except they still drive a horse and buggy. We will look at some of the distinctions in future posts.

Amish Culture

I have interacted with the Amish culture since I was 16. I once got into a disagreement with a relative about whether I had any cross-cultural experience. I told this person that I did as I had spent much time with the Amish. She thought that since they lived in our state, that they were the same culturally as us. I tried to explain that they spoke a different language and certainly were very different in many other aspects.
I think today may demonstrate my point:
On Wednesday night, our phone rang at 10:10 PM, it was an Amish friend. She told me that she was planning to meet two of her brothers and their families, who live out of state, at the zoo. I have spent a lot of time at their house and had often invited their family to come up and visit us and see how we live. Well, when she called she asked if they could come by on Friday after the zoo and heat up their pizza in our oven and eat in our back yard. I said sure, but that I wouldn't be here. I said I would leave the older girls at home, but that I was going to be down in Amish country myself that day seeing patients. I was disappointed that I was going to miss their visit.

Honestly, I thought there might be as many as 18 people coming. They showed up with their closest relatives and neighbors. In all there was 31. They had never been here before or had any idea of how small some houses and lots are in the city. Fortunately, we have a larger house. There was room enough to accommodate them. They made themselves at home. Many went up to the family room and enjoyed the AC and read books from our large library. Others went to the basement and stretched out for a quiet rest there. The temperatures had been in the mid-90's today so they were pretty well scorched.
They did bring their own food. They brought pizza topped with hamburger, peas, pepperoni, hot peppers and their homemade Colby cheese. You can't get that at Papa John's! There was alot of fresh garden veggies along side. Joan, and Michelle played hostess. The girls put out the food we had planned for our dinner. It was a big party!
I think this shows a huge cultural difference. Would you show up at someone's house with 30 people without telling the hostess how many people you were bringing? They had invited others, but they weren't able to come. They felt comfortable inviting themselves to our home and brought their own food. What a hoot!! I still can't believe that they showed up here with 30 people! I will probably never know who all came. We forgot to have them sign the guest book. I wonder what the neighbors thought? All those Amish unloading from 2 vehicles in our driveway. I love it!
~Mom