Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2 (Autumn 2015)

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Issue DOI: https://doi.org/10.18061/1811/75344


Front Matter
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Regular Articles

Efforts to Improve Roadway Safety: A Collaborative Approach between Amish Communities and a Professional Engineering Society
Jepsen, S. Dee; Mann, Andrew J. pp. 151-174
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The Plain Mennonite Face of the World War One Conscientious Objector
Eberle, Donald pp. 175-201
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Research Notes

Online Mapping Tools for Geolocating Amish Settlements
Wilson, Andrew M; Lonabocker, Brian; Zagorski, Megan pp. 202-211
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Old Order Mennonites in New York: Cultural and Agricultural Growth
Reid, Judson pp. 212-221
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A Mid-Decade Update on Amish Settlement Growth
Donnermeyer, Joseph; Anderson, Cory pp. 222-235
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Book Reviews
Yoder, Marcus; Hawley, Jana; Peters, Shawn pp. 236-242
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Announcements
pp. 243-245
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    Front Matter (Volume 3, Issue 2, Autumn 2015)
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015)
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    Efforts to Improve Roadway Safety: A Collaborative Approach between Amish Communities and a Professional Engineering Society
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Jepsen, S. Dee; Mann, Andrew J.
    Lighting and marking recommendations for animal-drawn buggies and wagons were first established in 2001 through an American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Engineering Practice, EP576.1. Many Anabaptist communities who primarily rely on animal-drawn vehicles utilize this practice for marking their buggies and wagons; however they do not utilize the practice for their low-profile vehicles, such as pony carts. Visibility for pony carts on public roads is important to protect the operators, typically women and children. Following a series of tragic deaths in their community, the Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, Amish safety committee raised the concern of having a consistent lighting and marking scheme for these low-profile vehicles. They also called for an additional aerial device to boost the cart's visibility to the motoring public. This project took approximately two years to develop consensus among Anabaptist stakeholders and members of the professional engineering society. The result of this effort was a revised Engineering Practice, EP576.2, which enhanced the previous recommendations to include consistent lighting and marking of low-profile animal-drawn vehicles.
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    Online Mapping Tools for Geolocating Amish Settlements
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Wilson, Andrew M.; Lonabocker, Brian; Zagorski, Megan
    This technical note demonstrates the value of using online mapping tools as a method of geolocating Amish settlements. Primarily using freely available Bing and Google maps and published lists of the addresses of Amish ministers, we geolocated 1,362 Amish households in Ohio and 1,203 in Pennsylvania, representing about 10% of Amish households in those states. From these data we were able to derive a population density map of the Amish across Ohio and Pennsylvania. We caution that our map is merely a model and based on several assumptions, but the product is a finer resolution map of Amish distribution than has previously been published. We add that the locations of Amish schools provide another promising avenue for geolocation of Amish settlements, but we were not able to locate sufficiently comprehensive lists to include them in our analysis.
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    The Plain Mennonite Face of the World War One Conscientious Objector
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Eberle, Donald
    World War One was a difficult time for American Mennonites. conscription revealed profound differences between progressive Mennonites such as those from the General Conference and plain Mennonites such as those from the Mennonite Church. The General Conference endorsed non-combatant service and advised its draftees to "accept only service designed to support and to save life." The Mennonite Church, however, categorically rejected non-combatant service and declared that "under no circumstances can they consent to service, either combatant or noncombatant, under the military arm of the government." Military officers and government officials tended to view all Mennonites in a strictly adversarial fashion and usually failed to recognize or appreciate their differences or the sincerity of their efforts to reach some sort of mutually satisfactory compromise. Conscription defined a generation of young men and produced its fair share of martyrs. One hundred and thirty-eight Mennonites, most of them plain, were court-martialed for refusing to accept noncombatant service. But in a counterintuitive way, conscription also strengthened the Mennonite Church. The young Mennonite men realized the tension between their religious beliefs and the expectations of them as citizens of the United States. They almost invariably reported that whatever suffering they endured because of their nonresistant stand ultimately strengthened their faith.
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    Old Order Mennonites in New York: Cultural and Agricultural Growth
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Reid, Judson
    New York is experiencing dramatic population growth among horse-and-buggy driving populations. Farming is recognized as essential to the maintenance of these cultures. Nationally, these groups, particularly in larger settlements, struggle to stay active in farming. However, Old Order Mennonites run contrary to trends within the plain sects as well as agriculture at large. With over 570 households, a central New York settlement of Groffdale Conference Mennonites grew by 2,700% over the last three decades. They have one of the highest percentages of their population in agriculture, operating 99% of the dairy farms in the area, yet with a herd size of less than 50% of the state average. A Mennonite run produce auction grew by $185,000 annually for the last 12 years; and church members operate nearly 50 agricultural support businesses in the settlement. Youth activities, mission work, business growth, and internal social support systems (for both Mennonite and other Old Orders) are outward signs of the inner strength of the settlement. Potential constraints to growth include geography, commodity prices, and doctrinal issues.
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    Announcements
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015)
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    A Mid-Decade Update on Amish Settlement Growth
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Donnermeyer, Joseph F.; Anderson, Cory
    The rapid growth of the Amish population brings a concomitant growth of new settlements. This research note provides a mid-century report on new Amish settlement growth in North America, emphasizing that the vast percentage of today's extant settlements have been established in the very recent past. As settlements in-fill around decades-old settlements, spatially distinctive Amish regions are taking shape, both in states of historic settlement and neighboring states. The apparent recent success of geographically outlying settlements is also of note, given the unequivocal failure of such settlements in the more distant past.
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    Book Reviews
    (Ohio State University. Libraries, 2015) Yoder, Marcus; Hawley, Jana; Peters, Shawn