All Stories
Amish rub shoulders with 'English' at Otto Center in Arthur
Thursday, May 08, 2008
If Arthur had a convention center, this would be it.
The cavernous Otto Center, about a half-mile south of the touristy town that straddles Moultrie and Douglas counties, hosts everything from benefits to reunions to trade shows. And because the events are so varied, it's commonplace to find Buicks parked next to buggies in the parking lot and throngs of Amish rubbing elbows with the "English" inside.
The Amish of Illinois' Heartland
Thursday, January 10, 2008
It's Christmas season, but there are no Christmas trees, no electric-colored lights, no Santa Clauses nor Rudolphs running across the rooftops in this section of Moultrie-Douglas counties known as Amish land.
And though the people of Amish faith do celebrate and treat Christmas as a very special day, the emphasis is not on elegantly wrapped gifts, lavish parties or green-and-red twinkling decor.
'Blest be the tie that binds'
Thursday, January 10, 2008
This book opened with the story of Lizzie Otto's death. This is the story of her life. Not because she achieved any distinction, fame or elevated status in her Amish community near Arthur and Arcola. But precisely because she didn't. Her life's experiences as a wife and mother were not much different from any other devout Amish woman born early in the last century.
Lizzie spent all but three of her 96 years in Illinois, having been born the oldest of eight children to Amish parents who left the chinch bugs and droughts in Kansas behind for the promise of better land near Arthur. Lizzie grew up attending the one-room country schools. She wrote in her family history that her parents needed extra help with the farm and caring for her younger brothers and sisters, so she stayed home after seventh grade. She never graduated eighth grade, but she said she learned more math by raising and selling broilers and eggs.
'Pray every day, falling upon your knees'
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Early in the dark of morning, long before dawn, Ben and Betty Graber gather five of their children together in the basement kitchen of their farmhouse.
The light from the propane gas lamp overhead casts stark shadows as they gather and kneel and, speaking in Pennsylvania Dutch, say a prayer of worship and thanksgiving to God.
Ben's voice then leads them in a slow German hymn, and this day Ben follows it by reading a sad story about a child who had been mocked and teased at school.
'Train a child in the way he should go...'
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The bell in the belfry over the front door of Meadowlark School rings. It's 8:15 on a clear, sunny October morning. Twenty or so Amish children, playing ball in a big, grassy lot behind the school, come running. The children have already put their ponies in the schoolyard barn and parked the pony carts in a neat row outside. Some children have trekked alongside the country roads to get there. Some days, a few even rollerblade on the oil-chip roads.
Meadowlark School is one of 17 Amish parochial schools in the Arthur community. With its white siding and bell tower, it looks true to Amish tradition – quaint, practical and simple. It has one large classroom for the 24 students and an outer room that is about the size of a double-car garage. The outer room is where the children can have recess when the weather's bad. It's lined with cubbies for the jackets, the girls' black bonnets, the boys' straw hats and their lunch totes.
Just the kids
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Ten observations about Amish children from author Rebecca Mabry:
Just the facts
Thursday, January 10, 2008
A few observations about the Amish way of life from author Rebecca Mabry:
Baking with the expert
Thursday, January 10, 2008
My family considers me an excellent cook, but pies are not my forte. So I asked Annie Ellen Otto, who has been making pies for more than 40 years, to teach me the fine art in her rural home west of Arthur.
Anyone would be hard-pressed to walk into Annie's lovely spacious kitchen lined with modern wall cabinets and figure out that she has no electricity. Of course there's no dishwasher or microwave or toaster on the counter, but she has hot running water, a gas-powered refrigerator/ freezer, a gas stove and all the normal tools one would find in the kitchen of a woman who cooks three meals a day, seven days a week. She also has a small, separate canning kitchen – a luxury, she admits, that many Amish homemakers allow themselves.
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