On Tuesday this week two Old Amish Houses were moved from Arthur, Illinois to a site near Chesterville, Illinois.

The site will eventually become the Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center. You can learn more about the project by visiting their Facebook page: Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center

Photo from Tom Vance

The house in the forefront was built in 1865 and was the home of my 3rd Great Grandfather Moses Yoder. It is the oldest Amish house in Illinois.

Photo from Tom Vance

This house was built in 1882 and was the home of Daniel Schrock. He was a second cousin of Moses Yoder.

Daniel was also a second cousin to my 3rd Great Grandmother Rachel Yoder Kauffman. See: Amish in Oregon?

Photo from Tom Vance

The Moses Yoder house was first moved by a team of eight Belgian horses. These are Amish field horses and are definitely strong. They needed just a nudge from a truck behind the house to get it moving, but then moved the house on their own. After the ceremonial pull past Yoder’s Kitchen and out to the highway a moving truck took over for the trip to the new location.

You can find a video of the horses pulling the house at the Facebook site for the Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center

There are also many other pictures from the move at the Facebook site.

You can also visit a Go Fund Me page at IL Amish Museum & Heritage Center.

The center has lost some of their funding due to a State of Illinois budget impasse. They may eventually regain the funding, but need to get started on the restoration of the houses as soon as possible. The houses have deteriorated during their time in storage and need to be stabilized.

It was really cool to see pictures of this move. A little piece of my heritage has been saved and will help future generations learn more about the past.

Steven