Uncle Denver S. Yoder, Sr., passed away after 88 years of life and was buried in a traditional Mennonite manner at the Calvary Bible Fellowship, Mt. Perry, Ohio, June 16, 2015. Denver was married to Emma for years, with 11 children, 64 grandchildren, and 136 great-grandchildren. The family gathered around and filled in the grave with dirt, shoveling by hand. Relatives who wanted to help were invited to participate. Denver S. Yoder, Sr., was a godly man and lived a good life.
An Eastern Mennonite High School exchange student from Paraguay read Psalm 23 in German from Simon L. Yoder’s German-English Bible, March, 2014. Beachy Amish Minister Simon L. Yoder, the Historian’s grandfather, lived 1902-1993, and the German Bible was given to Simon’s grandson. The student was enrolled in the Historian’s Global Christianity class.
The Historian attended a workshop on DACS, an archival content standard for archives and libraries, at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, March, 2014. Traffic on the busy Lincoln Highway rushes past important historic records in the nearby archives that remind one of an earlier era, before tour buses, harried shoppers, and commercialism changed the idyllic Lancaster farmland.
An Amish buggy clips along on Hobson Road, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, March 8, 2014. The triangle caution sign on the rear of the buggy warns automobile drivers of a slow-moving vehicle ahead.
This Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, hosts children from the Amish families in the surrounding community. The outdoor toilets, fences that reveal the boundaries with the fields nearby, and the bell atop the school are indicative of an earlier era of education. The teacher and children come on foot, sled, or sleigh, and are rarely stopped by snow or inclement conditions. Most will finish their education around the 8th grade.
In the late 17th century Amish began migrating from Europe to Philadelphia, PA, and eventually moved west to Lancaster County, PA. From there they migrated west to Ohio and other states. In Lancaster County, the Amish maintain their agricultural way of of life, in spite of rapid urbanization and modernity all around them. They are the fastest growing religious group in North America. This Amish farm is in Smoketown, Lancaster County, PA.
