{"id":12341,"date":"2026-05-13T13:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=12341"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:29:15","slug":"susans-somerset-county-pa-amish","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=12341","title":{"rendered":"Susan’s Somerset County, PA, Amish"},"content":{"rendered":"

by
\nLarry Pearce, Husband & Editor
\nWith credit to Erik Wesner, AmishAmerica.com
\n5\/13\/26\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My E-gen site has referred to my wife\u2019s Amish Grandmother Annie Lee Krause<\/a> several times, and often with information published by Erik Wesner<\/a> on his site AmishAmerica.com<\/a> . In this piece I\u2019d like to forward your attention to three more of his wonderful articles, after my brief introductions of course:<\/p>\n

How the Amish celebrate Easter in Somerset County<\/strong><\/em>,
\nThe Oldest Amish Communities in the United States<\/strong><\/em>, and
\nSeveral Interesting Amish Stores in Somerset County\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

First, Erik relates the common holiday practices of four communities in the U.S., including Somerset County, PA, the second oldest Amish settlement still in existence in our country, and Holmes County, OH, next to Pennsylvania, the largest congregation of plain folk, to where many migrated from Somerset beginning in 1808, now standing at over 40,000.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wesner refers us to a blogger Mary Ann Kinsinger, raised Amish, to give us an overview of the Easter season in Somerset County<\/a>. I\u2019ll let you click on this link for the full story.\u00a0A video is available on YouTube also.<\/p>\n

As for our relatives in Holmes County, Ohio<\/a>, there\u2019s fasting on Good Friday morning followed by socializing and big meals. Of course the children color and hide Easter eggs, which when found, are eaten at the family meals. Most interesting to me is the practice of caroling, farm to farm, by the young folks, sometimes on bicycles. We assume that some of these practices are still enjoyed by our Somerset County Amish. Wesner\u2019s full article is at this link.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I was surprised to see our Somerset County Amish make the Top Ten List of the oldest settlements in the country. Of course Lancaster County (c. 1760) is the oldest, best-known, and largest of all existing communities now, but it emerged from nearby Berks County from where some of Susan\u2019s first immigrants came.<\/p>\n

The second oldest Somerset County (c. 1772) settlement includes some just-over-the-Maryland line addresses, and that also involves a wonderful Amish store which we\u2019ll mention in the next introduction. Be sure to see Wesner\u2019s 25 photos of our Somerset relatives.<\/a><\/p>\n

We mentioned Holmes County, OH, above as the fourth oldest Amish community in America, but in three states to the west is Kalona, Iowa, where other Somerset Amish have resettled over the years. This is not unlike my wife\u2019s main-stream Protestant great-uncles with the surname Miller who many years ago picked up stakes here in PA and took advantage of the cheaper farm land and rich harvests. We visited their families several years ago and even went to an Amish auction where the folks looked and sounded just like Susan\u2019s Annie Lee Krause family back here. They still speak \u201cPennsylvania Dutch.\u201d<\/p>\n

To finish the second introduction to our oldest Amish settlements, Wesner lists New Wilmington, PA<\/a>. That’s presents a community not far from where my late Uncle Dale supervised the Grove City Schools, and the town itself is home to the Presbyterian Westminster College<\/a>, where my cousin Dr. David Gray taught for many years. Though the little borough was founded in 1824, the Amish didn\u2019t move nearby until 1847. Again, Google what you want for more information. \u00a0It’s hard to escape \u00a0the \u00a0terrific \u00a0culture \u00a0of \u00a0my wife’s Amish ancestors in the part of America, but who would want to?\"\"<\/a>
\nFinally, is an AmishAmerica.com link to some interesting Amish stores in Somerset County, or just over the border in Maryland. Wesner calls it \u201cA Little Back-Road Food Stand Worth Pulling Over For\u201d<\/a> and includes 24 photos. The sign along 7880 National Pike says, \u201cCountry Corners – Fresh Home-Grown Produce. I\u2019ll let the link speak for itself.<\/p>\n

The actual Somerset County Amish establishment is Peachey\u2019s Country Store<\/a>. The busy sign out front includes \u201cHome-Made Chocolate Candy\u201d and \u201cBaked Goods,\u201d all for Easter in case you haven\u2019t shopped yet. The link mentions other \u201cEnglish\u201d (non-Amish) stores nearby, like The Springs Farmers’ Market, begun in 1896, and Yoder\u2019s Amish Store in nearby Meyersdale. Enjoy the 28 photos taken by Mr. Wesner .<\/p>\n

We hope you have enjoyed this tour of Susan’s rich Amish heritage and will visit some of these locations soon. There’s something for the whole family. Be sure to use the \u201cSearch\u201d box to the top right of this page for earlier articles on the \u00a0subject of our Amish, and look for future postings by date just below that.<\/p>\n

Revised 5\/13\/26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Larry Pearce, Husband & Editor With credit to Erik Wesner, AmishAmerica.com 5\/13\/26 My E-gen site has referred to my wife\u2019s Amish Grandmother Annie Lee Krause several times, and often with information published by Erik Wesner on his site AmishAmerica.com … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":95,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12341","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12341"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12349,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12341\/revisions\/12349"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}