Amish Guide Amish Guide
APRIL 25-26, 2024
Catt. Co. Community Source / Allegany Co. Community Source
Visit Amish Country where life is simple
Conewango Valley is the oldest and one of the two largest Amish settlements in New York state today. Founded in 1949 by Amish families from Holmes and Wayne counties in Ohio and Enon Valley, in Pennsylvania, they came to this area seeking cheaper farmland and greater freedom to practice certain rules and regulations of the Amish church. Nearly 3,000 Old Order Amish reside mostly in the western part of
Cattaraugus County in the towns of Conewango and Leon.
The Cattaraugus County Office of Economic Development, Planning and Tourism offers an Amish Trail brochure that lists more than 200 Amish and English businesses marked on a tear-out map, as well as GPS numbers for most sites.
The brochure can be downloaded and viewed online at amishtrail.com, or mailed to individuals
upon request. Amish Trail brochures are also available at Randolph’s Amish Trail Welcome Center, located in the front foyer of the municipal building at 72 Main St.
Personalized tours are available by reservation only through The Leon Historical Society Museum. Call Pat Bromley at (716) 296-5709 or Klayton Peterson at (716) 5749883 to schedule a tour.
A woman’s work is never done, and the saying holds true for this hardworking Amish woman dragging a plowed field in the town of Conewango.
Photo by Deb Everts
Tour Amish Country with the Leon Historical Society
By Deb Everts
Spend a day in Amish country where life is simple with a guided tour through the local community and discover their unique culture.
Experience the Amish way of life up close on a personalized tour offered by a guide from the Leon Historical Society Museum. Historian Pat Bromley or Klayton Peterson, historical society president, will ride along with visitors in their vehicle to share their knowledge of the area’s Old Order Amish. Along Cattaraugus County’s Amish Trail, visitors can see horse-drawn Amish buggies on the road and farm machinery working in the fields. On a warm, sunny day, long clotheslines loaded with clothes drying in the breeze can be seen and children walking to or from a nearby one-room schoolhouse are everyday sights along the trail.
Many visitors come to Cattaraugus County solely to experience the leisurely drive through Amish country, while others come to buy quilts or order furniture. A wide variety of Amishmade goods are available around every corner. The guides will take visitors to their destinations of interest where they will have the
opportunity to talk with the Amish people and ask questions.
Bromley has a home among the Amish farms, in the town of Leon, where the population is 75% Amish. She has lived in Leon for years and knows many Amish shopkeepers along the backroads of Amish country.
A few unique highlights of the tour include a visit to the one-room schoolhouse on Flatiron Road, a toy shop on Pope Road, a quilt shop on Frank Road and a bake shop along Route 62 in Conewango.
Bromley said visitors on the tour have the opportunity to go inside the schoolhouse to see how Amish learn reading, writing and arithmetic through the eighth grade. She said the schoolhouses are located every two miles throughout the Amish community.
“Today’s Amish have accepted that tourism has really helped their businesses,” she said. “I think the quilt shop on Frank Road got orders for five quilts one day, and one was sent to Florida.”
Bromley said she has learned a lot about her Amish neighbors and their ways. She said the Amish want a simple life and re-
spect. They do not want pictures taken of themselves, but they don’t mind people taking pictures of the products they make as long as they aren’t in them.
“They have a hard life, but it’s a good life,” she said. The local Amish community has been a part of Cattaraugus County’s history since 1949 when the first families arrived from Holmes and Wayne counties, in Ohio, and Enon Valley, in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 Old Order Amish reside mostly in the western part of the county in the towns of Conewango and Leon.
Bromley said the rough back roads of the county make it difficult for buses, so car and van tours are recommended. In addition, she said their shops are small and cannot accommodate a busload of people. The smaller car tours offer visitors more time to mingle and interact with the Amish merchants.
Personalized tours are available by reservation only through The Leon Historical Society Museum. The suggested donation is $50 per vehicle for a two-hour tour. To schedule a tour, call Bromley at (716) 296-5709 or Peterson (716) 574-9883.
Photo by Deb Everts
Photo by Deb Everts
Cattaraugus County sees rise in Amish population
More and more Amish families have located in recent years in Cattaraugus County, as horse drawn buggies on roads, Amish farms and workplaces and Amish workmen repairing roofs and constructing buildings are more evident. There has been a strong Amish presence for many years in neighboring New York state, but McKean County Commissioner Cliff Lane, who lives in Annin Township, told The Bradford Era in 2021 that he and his family have seen an influx of Amish families in the the Port Allegany, Turtle point, Eldred and Smethport areas. “When we go by them in our vehicles they always wave and when they are out on the road, they try to stay to the right as much as possible so people can easily pass,”
Lane said. “But they do realize they have a right to be on the road.”
Lane said he began noticing Amish families in 2019 and had learned that many of them had moved from the Smicksburg community in Indiana County, east of Pittsburgh. A number of the families now live on farms that had been sold by the local owners, Lane said. While he wasn’t sure how many families have moved to the area, Lane has seen gatherings of that population at homesteads and knows of Amish schools in the communities.
“I know there are at least three schools that are active,” he said. While passing a home hosting a Sunday meeting, Lane also had seen as many as 50 buggies parked on the property.
In addition to being good neighbors and farmers, Lane said the Amish maintain and pay taxes on the homesteads. A number of them also sell their produce and baked goods from their properties or at farm stands in the area. Many of the men also work in construction, repairing roofs
or building structures.
State Rep. Marty Causer, R - Turtlepoint, said the community has noticed the largest influx of Amish. “I think it’s a great thing, I actually met with them and welcomed them to the area,” Causer recalled. “I met with them to talk about some school
transportation issues.” He noted Amish children are transported by the school districts to their smaller schools, either in separate buses or with other children from their district. That aside, Causer said he believes it’s good that the Amish are moving into the area and buying old homesteads that might otherwise sit empty, unfarmed and off the tax rolls.
“They’re building houses and add-
ing additions onto existing houses,” he continued. “So I think it’s a great thing.” He also believes there are more Amish families that plan to move to the area.
At Carlson’s Store in Turtlepoint, longtime employee Barb Wright said she, too, had noticed her new Amish neighbors in the area a couple of years ago. Many are regular shoppers. Wright admitted that she was surprised the
first time a horse and buggy pulled up to the store, with the shoppers mentioning they were originally from Smicksburg.
At Worth W. Smith Hardware on Main Street in Eldred, Cindy Smith said the business has hosted an Amish stand in front of the store the past couple of years. “I have a mother and daughter (from Turtlepoint) who come in every Saturday morning,” Smith said. “They
sell produce, baked goods and flowers. People look forward to them being there because they’re very constant.” Smith said the farm she grew up on along the West Eldred Road was sold to an Amish family as well.
“This is a beautiful, be autiful piece of property, and now it’s going to be Amish,” Smith said, adding she is sure it will be well operated.
Take A Hike in Allegany County
By Kathryn Ross
Described as a “tunnel of green” the Greenway Trail State Park enters the county at Rossburg and exits the county just west of the village of Cuba. It is Allegany County’s only state park.
It is a public, multi-use trail that is straight, and level and consists of surfaces that are cinders, gravel and mowed grass as it passes through woodlands, wet-
lands, river and stream valleys farmland, steep gorges and through villages and towns. It can be used for biking, horseback riding, fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing and snowmobiling in designated areas.
There are no fees to enter this state park, but along its 30 plus mile course within the county there are restaurants, facilities for camping and lodging, histor-
ical sites and plenty of flora and fauna and wildlife. The entire trail is described on state websites as a 90-mile open space corridor that follows the route of the old Genesee Valley Barge Canal and the Pennsylvania Railroad Rochester branch from the Erie Canalway Trail in Rochester’s Genesee Valley Park to the Village of Cuba.
Markers along the trail within the county designate
historical sites such as the Belfast Barge Canal Warehouse, locks and a Barge Canal culvert in Black Creek.
On the trail visitors will see more than 40 species of trees, shrubs and vines including spruce, pine, cedar, tulip tree, cucumber tree, spice bush, sassafras, moonseed, sycamore, witch hazel, hackberry, elm, hickory, beech, oak, alder, birch, hornbeam, basswood,
cottonwood, aspen, willow, shad, hawthorn, cherry, rose, ash, locust, autumn olive, dogwood,
buckthorn, creeper grape, butternut, maple, sumac, ivy, honeysuckle, elderberry and viburnum.
They may also catch sight of a variety of wildlife from squirrels, chipmunks and woodchuck to
fox and deer.
Birdwatchers may see woodpeckers, flycatchers, jays, crows, titmice, nuthatches, wrens, thrushes, catbirds, waxwings, warblers, tanagers cardinals, buntings, towhees and more. The Greenway Trail State Park connects to the Genesee River Trail, Finger Lakes Trail, Erie Canal Recreation Way, the Erie Attica Trail and the Lehigh Valley Trail. Gateways to the trail can be found on state route 19. For more information go to https://parks. ny.gov/parks
Country Road Sheds & Cabins
AMISH CUSTOM BUILT
Photo by Deb Everts
Photo by Deb Everts
Amish find affordable land, space in New York
By KATHRYN ROSS
“Amish America” states New York state is home to more than two dozen Amish settlements with Western New York, making it one of the fastest growing populations in the state.
Throughout the state, the Amish population grew from a little over 4,000 in 1992 to more than 22,500 and 2022. Statistics compiled in 2022 by Edsel Burdgee of the Young Center for
Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabeth College near Geneva show that there are more than 1,500 Amish living in Allegany County, with most making their homes in the towns of Angelica, Belfast and Friendship.
About one quarter of the Amish population lives in the towns of Wellsville, Willing and Whitesville.
The Amish in this area are the Old Order, a very conserv-
ative and traditional community living without electricity, phones, or cars and driving horse and buggies for transportation. They make their living using old-fashioned farming practices and techniques and using horse-drawn equipment to plow and plant their fields and harvest their crops, which does not include the use of chemicals and pesticides. They make handcrafted items to sell along with baked
goods, jams and jellies, canned vegetables and flowers and plants.
The Amish, although friendly and willing to work, keep mostly to themselves and have little contact with their non-Amish neighbors. They are contributing residents to the local economy and like their “English” neighbors they pay property taxes, school taxes, and they pay for hunting and fishing licenses.
Footwear &
Increased Amish traffic spurs McKean County man to raise awareness, pursue signs
By SARA EDDY FURLONG
MOUNT JEWETT,
Pa. — Chuck Parr, a McKean County, man has been a long-haul truck driver for decades.
In the early 1990s, he was on a New York state headed toward Brockport.
“I came up over a hill and there were two buggies full of young Amish teenagers. I broke over that hill and there they were — three girls facing back.
“I can still picture their eyes and the look on their faces. I can still see them to this day. That was in 1993 or 1994.”
Paar swerved to the
left to avoid hitting the buggies and, luckily, there were no other vehicles coming the other way.
“If there had been anybody coming southbound there would have been a tragedy. I quit taking that route.”
It’s understandable, then, that Parr, also a longtime Mount Jewett Borough councilman, would advocate for the safety of an increasing number of Amish families residing there and in McKean and Elk counties overall.
He explained earlier this years that, as a councilman and
over the hill and his driveway is right there. A motorized car pulling out of that driveway better gouge on it because if somebody pops over that hill coming from Mount Jewett, you’re a sitting duck.”
frequent traveler, he has encountered buggies and Amish residences locally more and more, especially on routes 155, 46 and 446 and Barnum Road. One in particular caught Paar’s attention, that of Raymond and Elizabeth Coblentz, who recently purchased the former Danielson farm just inside the borough line.
“As soon as the family moved in I stopped and introduced myself,” Paar said. “I said ‘I’m very concerned for your safety coming out of your driveway.’
“Coming east to west you break
Paar said he recommended Coblentz create a path through his field for some extra distance entering the roadway. Paar proceeded to put a sign in his own yard and pursue appropriate traffic signs from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for Route 6 in the borough and in Hamlin Township as well as Route 219 toward Wilcox and Rasselas.
PennDOT agreed the signs were appropriate and procured them for the area.
Just as well, Paar simply wanted area motorists to be aware of the increasing possibility of encountering a horse and buggy in the region, at any time of day.
“I’ve passed (Coblentz) on a Sunday morning going to visit relatives in Rasselas and at 9:45 on a Monday night in the middle of winter,” Paar said. “I’ve run across this many, many, many times over the last 50some years but, for example, on U.S. 20 across Indiana the shoulders are wide enough that the buggies can run on the shoulders without having to be on the road.”
That is not usually the case on the narrow, rural, twolane roads most often found in this area.
Paar said, “Mr. Coblentz told me he moved up here because he has family in Rasselas and Wilcox, and he expects more of his friends and relatives to move up from down around
Indiana, Pa., because of the availability of land and the cost of living and doing business. “Mr. Coblentz told me that while he had been here to see the property when he was negotiating to buy it, he sorely underestimated the volume of traffic on Route 6.”
He said Coblentz has static and blinking red lights, an amber strobe light and two front-facing white lights. “He’s got it all lighted up, he’s done everything he can on his part,” Paar said.
Both the volume and speed of traffic are what concern Paar relative to the increasing numbers of horses and buggies.
“Route 219, they (motorists) fly up and down that,” Paar stated. “A
horse and buggy, even at a trot, isn’t going very fast.”
In addition to the triangular, reflective slow-moving-vehicle (SMV) placard, state laws mandate particular lighting and marking practices — in alignment with Anabaptist cultures — in effort to reduce the number of buggy and vehicle collisions.
According to the Penn State Extension website, “By the time a motor vehicle operator realizes that a
buggy is in front of them, the vehicle’s braking time has been significantly decreased.”
The site explains that a vehicle traveling 55 mph on a dry road surface will typically need approximately 400 feet to stop. A vehicle driving 55 mph would overtake a buggy traveling at 5 mph in just 6 ½ seconds.
Parr said, “A motorized vehicle and a horse-and-buggy collision rarely ends up anything but a tragedy.”
Great Upstate NY places to buy Amish foods, products
syracuse.com/TNS
As more and more Amish and Mennonite families move into Upstate New York, it is getting a lot easier to find their homemade products. There are now more than 12,000 of these families in Upstate New York, living in 89 designated “church districts.” The Empire State has the fastest growing Amish population and ranks 5th overall in the U.S. Here is a list of a dozen places where you can find Amish meats, produce, dairy items, bulk foods, furniture, crafts and (of course) their fantastic baked goods. (NOTE: Few of the Amish businesses use computers and have a web site.)
BAINBRIDGE, CHENANGO COUNTY
The Pine Ridge Grocery is one of Chenango County’s most popular fixed Amish grocery stores. Many aisles of bulk foods, an ex-
tensive meat cooler, a Lancaster-Dutch deli center, nice selection of produce and baked goods and a dazzling display (mostly outdoors) of Amishmade craft items. After 25 years, the owners still dedicate their business “to the glory of God and to provide quality, values and savings through a unique old-fashioned shopping experience.
4086 State Highway 206, Bainbridge BELLEVILLE, JEFFERSON COUNTY
Founded in 1992 by Joseph and Martha Sharp, the Sharp’s Market is just off Interstate 81 in Jefferson County. They moved to Belleville with 17 other families of the Beachey Amish Mennonite sect. Believe it or not, they came to Belleville from Belleville, Pennsylvania! They have a large bulk food section, a deli, aged cheeses, bulk candies, maple syrup, meats (they slice
almost 200 pounds of smoked bacon a day), vegetables, and more. They also sell coal, wood and pellet stoves.
8220 State Rt. 289, Belleville CAZENOVIA,
MADISON COUNTY
Troyer’s Country Store is an old-fashioned type of place one might find on Walton’s Mountain. Here you will find everything from bulk food to cheese curds, to beef jerky to spelt bread (Amish bread made using spelt flour). Classic old-timey feel here; notice the Amish gas-powered lights on the ceiling!
5518 Nelson Road, Cazenovia
DUNDEE, YATES COUNTY
Shirk’s Meats is a well-known family butcher shop and meat store. Owned by Naomi and Luke Shirk (and daughter Emma), they source local meat from animals that have been raised without hormones or antibiotics. There are poultry, beef,
cheese, eggs, beef and spices. They are a registered Mennonite slaughterhouse. Known for their smoked hot dogs.
Shirk’s, 4342 John Green Road, Dundee MADISON, MADISON COUNTY
Kountry Kupboard II is a full-service Mennonite market. Although they are fully stocked with deli meats, cheeses, candies, gift items, bulk foods and more, it is always about the baked goods here. Always baked fresh and a delicious variety to choose from.
MORRIS, OTSEGO COUNTY
Daniel Weaver belongs to the New Order Amish Church. His Weaver’s Market is the newest on this list, having been opened only a year. It covers over 4,000 square feet, erected by an Amish crew from Lancaster County, Pa. They will sell fresh fruits and vegetables grown at the Weaver family farm, plus meats,
cheeses and homemade Amish baked goods.
1273 East Side Road, Morris
PENN YAN, YATES COUNTY
The Windmill Farm and Craft Market is one of the Finger Lakes’ major tourist destinations. More than 100,000 visitors come to the market each year. Over 175 vendors sell everything from clothing to antiques, to crafty yard art to homemade foods and more. Many places to pick up some delicious Amish and Mennonite homemade baked goods, sweets, and crafts. Check out the onsite wineries, breweries and distillery.
3900 Route 14A,
home baked goods on premise.
12 Park Ave., Salamanca
SENECA FALLS, SENECA COUNTY
Penn Yan
Oak Hill Bulk Foods is another fine place for Amish goods around Penn Yan. Opened in 1983, the store is a specialty market carrying bulk food, candies, grocery needs, pretzels, and a wide variety of Ohio-made Amish cheeses. Try their delicious Amish fry pies (a pie you can hold) with over a dozen flavors.
3173 Route 14A, Penn Yan
PHILADELPHIA, JEFFERSON COUNTY
Open for more than 25 years, the North Country Store always has something new and creative (dill pickle bread). Known for the deli and sub
platters which are very popular, it has many familiar product brands carried here, such as King Arthur Flour, Amish Wedding Brand, Dutch Country Soft Pretzels, Jake and Amos’ Jarred Goods, Croghan Bologna and Food For Life Ezekial Breads.
32672 U.S. Route 11, Philadelphia
SALAMANCA, CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
This farmers market has been a onestop shopping source for more than a quarter of a century. The Salamanca Farmers Market offers dozens of vendors selling foods, crafts, plants, meats, vegetables and more. Look for a variety of Amish
Many think Sauder’s Market here is the best Amish market in Upstate. And one of the oldest. Mennonite families moved to the Finger Lakes region from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to start this business. Lots of Mennonite baked goods, candies and bulk foods sold here. Fantastic variety of Amish quilts, crafts, toys, books, furniture, baskets and more. Now a destination for motor coach visitors.
2146 River Road, Seneca Falls
WESTFIELD,
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY
The Westfield Farmers and Artisans Market is held in historic Moore Park in the center of the village. Wide variety of Amish goods, from baked sweet treats to homemade baskets. Once voted the 15th best farmers market in the whole country.
Portage and Main streets (Routes 394 and 20), Westfield
