Each year I look forward to the release of new statistics on Amish Population from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.
This year they included a document that showed Amish settlements by county in each state. So, I have decided tonight to map out some of the states for a good visual representation. I will most likely map them all out over time and create a map of the complete country.
I started with Iowa since it is where I was born and my great grandparents had lived in the Amish settlement in Kalona.
Here is the map of counties in Iowa where the Amish have settlements.
The first settlement in Iowa was founded in Johnson County in 1846. The Kalona settlement is the largest settlement (1,935) in Iowa, but the Bloomfield settlement (1,640) is almost as large. The newest and smallest settlement in Iowa is near Montour in Tama County.
Note: Washington County is not in the data set, but is the center of the Kalona settlement and has been included.
Here is the map for Kansas. The oldest Amish settlements in Kansas were founded in 1888 in Hutchinson, Haven and Yoder in Reno, county.
Most of the Amish settlements in Kansas have been started in the last 15 years.
Here is the map for Nebraska. You can see that there are only three counties in Nebraska. There were some Amish settlements long ago in Nebraska, but these three were founded about 10-15 years ago.
The settlement in the south is close to one in Kansas, so I decided to check and see if the only South Dakota settlement was close to the ones in the north.
The only Amish settlement in South Dakota is near Tripp in Hutchinson County. It is not too far from the two settlements in the north part of Nebraska.
The next map that I will probably fill in will be Missouri. I had thought about including it here, but there are settlements in almost 40 counties in Missouri and it will take a little longer to complete.
Here is the beginning of my US map of Amish counties.
This will be an interesting map. Perhaps when I finish it I will map just the older settlements which would be more useful in Genealogy research.
Steven
I thought about why this was the case.
Perhaps it is because people have more time since they are staying home because many activities have been cancelled.
Perhaps people are just getting into the holiday spirit earlier since it has been a very rough year.
Perhaps it is because many more people will be celebrating Christmas at home instead of traveling.
Or, perhaps it is because Thanksgiving is almost as late as it can be this year.
Braman's Wanderings 