Retrospect: Amish families were leaving Jay

Sixty years ago this week, The Commercial Review published a story about the six remaining Amish families in the county leaving the area and migrating south. 

About 20 families from Ohio, Iowa and other parts of Indiana settled in Jay County prior to World War II in 1937. 

The Amish community began moving out in the 1950s when Indiana’s compulsory education law required a licensed teacher for the Amish school. That came at a high price for families.

Also, land was becoming unavailable or too high-priced, causing the Amish community to diminish.

“But those are not the main reasons,” said a spokesperson for the Amish community. “We just want to go where more of our people are and where land is more plentiful.”

The six remaining families, involving “40 Amish folk,” were going to migrate to Orange County, Indiana, and Missouri.

The heads of the households were Simon Gingerish, John Burkholder and Henry Miller, all moving to Orange County, and Eli Schrock, Mose Burkholder and Sam Burkholder, who were headed to Missouri.

“The settlement is so small now,” said the spokesman, “and we want to go where we can commune with our own people. We want our young people to have companions of their own faith.”

Lucille Thomas of The CR reported that within the next few months, the entire Amish community — “whose kindly faces, beards, severe clothing, ‘old-fashion’ equipment and friendly attitude toward other county residents” — would become non-existent in the “Jay County scene.”