WITNESS

10 June 2013: Day 27 of 43 – Millersburg & Walnut Creek OHIO (State 15). 
Overnight in Millersburg OHIO. 
Period 681km, Total 10,630km. 

If you have seen the movie “Witness”, starring Harrison Ford, then let me tell you that the Amish territory that we visited around Millersburg OHIO was identical to that of the movie. It took us 6.5hrs to drive here from Waynesboro VIRGINIA the day before, passing through the state of West Virginia (State 14). It was raining the whole way but the scenery was spectacular – crossing to the other side of the Appalachians with low dark cloud, mist and green everywhere created an impressive picture. Lucky for us it stopped raining when we arrived at

“Yoder’s Amish House and Farm” in a little place called Walnut Creek OHIO, 17miles (27km) from Millersburg OHIO, the largest Amish town in the USA (pop 5,000) and where we were staying overnight. We spent 90min here touring the 1886 home, barn and taking an Amish horse-drawn “buggy” (carriage) ride around the farm. The farmland here and around another small town called Berlin is idyllic. Super green hills, corn and soya beans everywhere and cute little wooden homes and barns. Add the old guys with beards and bowler hats driving buggies on the roads and the Amish stereotype is complete!The word “Amish” comes from Swiss German Jakob Ammann, an Alstian Anabaptist (offshoot from the Protestant Church) who split off and formed his own faith arguing that the Anabaptists had lost their way, becoming too “modern” and becoming entrapped with the pleasures of life at the cost of their faith.

For this reason, he created the Amish faith in 1693 in Holland and Switzerland and then in the early 1800s emigrated to Pennsylvania USA and Canada to avoid persecution in Europe. The Amish faith is based on two major factors: simplicity and pacifism.For this reason, the Amish do not use electricity or plumbing or telephones. They do not smoke, drink or dance. There are no cars or machinery of any kind. Everything is manual. They carry water from wells or streams.

They plough the fields with horses. They are completely self-sufficient famers and also eat beef, pork and chicken. They even have their own schools and their own language, a derivative of German known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch. All kids are taught English, German and Pennsylvania German.The Amish hold church services in their own homes with their immediate neighbours on a rotating basis. Services are in “High German”, a very formal version of Pennsylvania German.They have managed to live this way since the early 1800s and their population as increased to 250,000 in the USA and about 10,000 in Canada. This however has come at a slight cost.Many of the original Amish felt that their practices since World War II have been too strict so returned to another offshoot of Anabaptism known as the Mennonites, who use generators, gas, some fuel-driven farming tools and also build separate church buildings. The majority of Amish live around Millersburg OHIO, 80miles (129km) south of Cleveland. There are 175 schools, 350 teachers and 5,000 students in the Ohio area alone. The Amish have almost translated the Old and New Testaments into Pennsylvanian German. Baptism is optional and starts at 18yrs old.

Amish must only marry Amish. Once married, the man grows a beard to indicate that he is married. The Mennonites still practice infant baptism and growing a beard is optional. The Amish do not take out insurance or use social security. Instead they support each other. A new husband will typically move into his parent’s home and build a smaller dwelling for them on the farm. A Bishop governs approx. 30 homes and the Amish comply with all federal laws, except the military. They are completely opposed to war, conflict and violence. They will not even grow moustaches since they associate them with the military. A 16yr old called Bethany explained how Amish schooling works and 22yr old Scott took us through two Amish homes – an older style built in 1886 and a more modern one built in 1940. Elderly, Levi took us on a buggy ride around the farm. We even saw a variety of farm animals including goats! The Amish are not allowed to pose for photos so I had to engineer my filming and photos to have them “in the background”. We ended the visit by munching on a freshly made Oatmeal Cookie and headed into town to bunker down for the night. My run that afternoon clocked up Ohio as my 20^th US state for running over all my trips to the USA – another excuse for a liquid celebration that night. Our hotel on this occasion is worth mentioning – it was the best one to date – dates back to the mid-1800s and even President Grover Cleveland stayed there. Amazing period furniture, chandeliers, carpets and ornate cornices and clocks in every room. It was very olde worlde and so charming that we decided to have dinner at the hotel which was also a great experience except for the cheap magnum of red from Griffith Australia – it was the only one they had!