Fort Fairfield and Easton Welcome Amish

Families to Their Communities

By: David Deschesne

Five Amish families from upstate New York have chosen central Aroostook County as their new place of abode.

The Yoder and Miller families have already located to Fort Fairfield, with Noah Yoder purchasing the Johnson Farm on Forest Avenue and Millers planning to construct on their newly acquired Turner farm, down the road in Easton.

“We decided to move for a change of scenery,” said Noah Yoder. “We’ve been reading the writings of Milo Hilty in the Amish/Mennonite newspaper The Budget. Milo is from Smyrna Mills and we thought Maine might be a nice place to live.”

For the past two years, Yoder had been traveling throughout Maine looking for the ideal place to move his family.

“What drew us to the area was the beautiful scenery, availability of farmland and some of the nicest people we’ve ever met. We’ve been well-accepted here and appreciate that.”

The Yoders and Millers moved from an Amish community of 180 families from the Potsdam/Watertown, New York area.

The Amish people trace their roots back to the Anabaptist movement of the Protestant Reformation. At that time, a Protestant church, with ties to the Pope severed, looked to local governments and city councils as heads of their local churches, causing all citizens to be church members by default and requiring “government-ordained” baptism at youth. The Anabaptists, while followers of Christ, believed the church should be governed by God, not secular government and that infant baptisms were useless, since the baby was unable to make a conscious choice to follow Christ. Hence, they started the practice of adult baptism into their own church system, causing them to be baptized a second time, which is the literal meaning of “Anabaptist.” Later, Anabaptists then Amish and Mennonites began to separate from society by “being in the world, but not of the world.”

The Yoder family adheres to the strict Amish/Mennonite tradition of using no electricity, power equipment or motorized vehicles in their daily life, which would be the modern day manifestation of that separation doctrine.

“We have found that with every new convenience, there’s a little more stress,” said Yoder. “The Bible doesn’t tell us not use a car or not to use electricity or a phone; the reason we stay away from those things is to keep us focused and united as a family with as few distractions as possible. Our focus is the family that works together stays together. When we live more simply and maintain our family life, that helps us to follow the Bible.” He describes being Amish not so much as religion, but as “a way of life.”

The Amish are a Christian community who have their own leaders but everyone helps in making decisions to help them “stay focused on the family.”

While they don’t own or drive motorized automobiles, the Yoders don’t shun motorized transportation altogether. “We came to Northern Maine by bus and had Merlon Cronkite arrange the trucking to move our stuff here, too,” said Yoder. “It’s a little harder and takes a little longer to use a horse and buggy to get around, but we plan our trips ahead of time and the bonus is; while we’re traveling, the pace is much slower so we have more time to spend together, to talk, reflect and bond as a family without all the distractions of modern life.”

Such conversation and bonding among families is virtually non-existent in today’s high-paced world where everyone seems to be all “jacked up” and in a hurry to get to work, go home, run errands and drive just as fast as possible from one point to another.

The Yoders plan to grow their own food, raise their own livestock and sell the surplus to the community. “We’re hoping to make a living off the land. We also raise cattle and grass-fed pork.”

He also plans to raise potatoes, sweet corn, squash, pumpkins, blueberries and strawberries. “We’re going to try raising melons and have plans for a green house in the future.”

Throughout the long winter months, Mr. Yoder plans to build furniture as a sideline business to pass the time and make those items available for sale at a later time.

The Amish homeschool their own children and the Yoders are no exception. “We will be homeschooling our children this year. Next year, three more (Amish) families are moving here and we’ll likely convert one of our existing structures into a school house. We brought our own desks and black boards with us.”

The additional families will be moving onto the Ladner Road and Page Road in Easton. Yoder’s family will be the only Amish family in Fort Fairfield for now.

Since they provide their own food, they don’t need to make too many trips into town. “We go into town a lot more than we used to, at least two times a month. We do use some food from the stores and shop local as much as possible for the hardware and tools we may need.”

The Yoders are a welcome addition to the communities of Easton and Fort Fairfield and could perhaps show us all how we could live our lives a little more simply.