The Amish: Who Are They?

The Amish are descendants of the Swiss Anabaptists who grew out of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Unlike the main Reformers – such as Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, the Anabaptists believed in the separation of church and state, and they were opposed to infant baptism. Because of those convictions, both the Catholics and the Reformers persecuted them. Many of them found refuge in the remote mountain valleys of Switzerland.  

The Amish People: Origin of Their Name

For a century or two, the people we know today as the Amish were known simply as Anabaptists or as the Swiss Brethren.  Sometimes they were called Mennonites, after Menno Simons, the leader of a group of Anabaptists in the Netherlands. However, in the late 1600s, there was a division among the Anabaptists in Switzerland. The division arose over the issue of shunning people who had been excommunicated from the church. Many of the Anabaptists in Switzerland, led by Jacob Amman, believed that former members should be totally shunned. Those who supported this position came to be known as the Amish. 

The Amish in America

Even in the 1700s (and well beyond), the Amish were still being persecuted by the Swiss governmental authorities. Because of this persecution, the vast majority of them came to Pennsylvania, where William Penn welcomed them and granted them freedom of religion. One of the first places the Amish settled was in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – where thousands of the Amish still live today.  As time passed, the Amish moved westward and southward from Lancaster County. As a result, the region with the most Amish families today is Holmes County, Ohio, where over 30,000 of the Amish live. 

Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Holmes County, Ohio, are often known as “Amish country” today. Nevertheless, Amish communities can be found in many other areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and much of the Midwest.