Millersburg, Ohio

Millersburg Day 1 August 5, 2021

We left our family in Vermont yesterday and drove to the Buffalo New York area to spend one night.

We awakened this morning and drove 260 plus miles to Millersburg, Ohio.

The Budget, A Visitor’s Guide to Amish Country. Editor Beverly Keller said:

“…I look for the blessings big and small. Sometimes you have to slow down and smell the wildflowers.”

Our first day visiting our Amish friends in Millersburg, Ohio was just that. 

We settled into our hotel for what will be a wonderful 4 night visit. Elizabeth walked up and down Millersburg’s Jackson Street, the main “drag” so to speak, popping into antique shops and enjoying the historical building’s architecture. 

We met our mid 20 year old friends and their 2 1/2 year old daughter on their farm. Our first stop, after hugs all around, was into the barn. We had Rangeley on a lead to introduce him to the three buggy horses (and a young colt) each in a stall. One is pregnant, another pregnant and has a colt from this spring the third is a young male. Dennis is training the young horses (not the colt yet) to pull buggies and will sell them as they become experienced. They have seven 4-week-old standard AKC poodle pups in a stall with their butterscotch colored mom and 12, one-week old chicks with their mother hen. Walking through the barn and out the back is their grey donkey and a second smaller donkey named Eeyore. 

After the horses were washed down, fed and let out to pasture, dogs feed, chicken feed scattered around and checking on their beef cow for next spring’s meals, we helped Lorianne carry out the food for a cookout picnic out back. 

The grilled chicken, fresh green salad and roasted potatoes were great and for dessert we had her homemade peach and blackberry pies, very yummy!

Dennis and Gary hooked up the brand new four-seater open buggy Dennis borrowed from his dad so we all could go for an evening ride. Lorianne, Charity and Dennis in front. Elizabeth, Gary and Rangeley on the back bench. On the way home from an hour’s ride down the rails to trails mostly paved path, we stopped at a park so Rangeley could run in the grass and little Charity could go down the big slides and swing for a spell. The ride back to the 9-acre farm was under a gorgeous setting sun. 

The above editor of The Budget magazine writes: ” May your trails be fruitful and your adventures be just what your heart needs”. The perfect description of our experiences today.

Millersburg Day 2 August 6, 2021

Millersburg in our eyes:

Annual Steamy Days (steam tractor demos and displays) with horse drawn tractor pulls in Mt. Hope (neighboring town to Millersburg); homemade pies, canned pickles, jams & fruits (think glass jars) for sale in every town around Millersburg; summer auctioneer contests and buggy parking at the IGA and Walmart near our hotel.

Sign on a semi-tractor trailer truck on our way to Ohio:

Don’t like trucks?

Stop buying stuff.

Problem solved!  

Funny and clever signs that we saw in town (See pictures below).

We wrote about our previous visit in Millersburg, fall of 2020, under ‘National Parks’ if you want to read that journal as well.

Millersburg, in Holmes County Ohio, is the County Seat. The Holmes County Courthouse in Millersburg was completed in 1889. It was built with locally sourced sandstone and has a copper upper portion which was restored this year. It is the third courthouse on that same location. The first (1825) burned 9 years later and the second lasted 50 years until 1884 and was torn down to build the current one, now 132 years strong. Millersburg has roughly 3,100 people. 70% of the residents are religious, with 60% being Mennonite or Amish. Holmes County has 37,000 Amish.

We picked up our Amish friends and went for breakfast at their local IGA grocery store…yup…you read that right, they have a café in the store and man! the homemade meal was really good. The café is quite popular with the older crowd and families. It is very reasonably priced. We then all hopped in our van for a fun drive and errand running.

Rangeley was on the floor and Charity in her car seat. The family takes taxi’s, local people who drive the Amish to stores, family gathering etc. if it’s more than 4 or so miles from their house or if the items they need to purchase are too heavy, too large or to many for their horse drawn transportation. They do not own a car or drive themselves, per their church’s order. We drove about 30 minutes to Berlin, Ohio. We stopped at the Berlin Fabrics store so Lorianne could get some material for her and 2 ½ yr. old daughter’s handmade dresses and white ribbon for their bonnet strings. Dennis was successful getting a few supplies at Orme Hardware of Berlin. The van sure makes shopping easier for them.

We made a quick stop at the Berlin Pet Shoppe which is part of the Berlin Leather and Shoe store. Wow! Puppies for sale, pet supplies, cowboy boots, belts, chaps, hats and more, all under one roof!

We drove through Mt. Hope, Ohio not far away, enjoying the Amish farms, buggies and passing the Annual Steamy Days and auction grounds. By this time, Charity and Rangeley had had enough : ) We headed back to Millersburg.

After naps all around, we returned to our friend’s house (about 12 minutes from our hotel), picked up Lorianne’s parents (about 5 miles away) and headed out to eat on a back patio of the Hotel Millersburg with Rangeley, our treat. Gary and I had not met William and Mary and very much enjoyed getting to know them.

Her parents (in their early 50’s) had invited the group to their house for home made blueberry pie and ice cream after dinner. We toured William’s work shop and got to know the chickens, goats, horses and the dog – who, at first, did not like Rangeley being on her turf! Before parting, Mary handed me two bottles of homemade maple syrup made by her sister and William handed Gary a hand painted horse shoe as gifts. I very much enjoyed answering Mary’s many questions about where we lived, geography where we’ve traveled and they were happy to share explanations and descriptions of their simple Amish ways. They can travel, but only by bus, train or hired driver. It is very difficult, especially with young families, to leave a fully functioning farm, with many children, to travel. Mary loved Rangeley and all had a fun time being entertained by his chasing the ball and fast running up and down their driveway. William found a deer antler from the woods on his property, after hearing Rangeley chews them, and gave it to Rangeley. We were very taken by their hospitality and generosity. We look forward to more time with them on our next trip!

We drove Lorianne, Dennis and Charity home and reflected on a fabulous day.

Millersburg Day 3 Aug. 7, 2021

Lorianne’s family had a large family reunion (150 people) so they attended that for most of the day while Gary, Rangeley and I had our own schedule.

I walked the mile and a half into town for Millersburg’s Vintage in the Village. There were outdoor vendors selling homemade crafts and antiques. I love the brown jugs and barrels from the late 1800’s, awed at the reasonably priced, beautifully kept old furniture that I cannot take home and enjoyed seeing the antique tools, dishes and cradles. After walking the mile and half back towards the hotel, I stopped in and bought a few items at a great thrift store benefiting local religious groups and staffed by Amish high schoolers (it’s Saturday).

Gary did some work on his laptop; he babysat Rangeley while I was gone and we did our laundry.

We were invited back to Lorianne’s for dinner but when we arrived, Charity was not a happy girl. She had just awakened from a nap and did not want to leave her mom’s arms. Lorianne apologized that she had not started dinner yet and Dennis was in the shower. Luckily, Charity allowed me to take her and I got some unforgettable snuggling time in a rocking chair with this little bundle of joy! I sang some lullabies to her as she curled up in my lap for a good 20 minutes. Mom was very happy and Charity calmed down. Me? I was blessed with this adorable little girl.

Charity speaks Pennsylvania Dutch with her parents, extended family and other Amish friends. In early times of settlement in Pennsylvania, the English (those of us not Amish) mistook the Amish and Mennonite people saying they spoke German (Deutsch) for Dutch. Amish church services are in High German, an older more formal German. PA Dutch is a more conversational, casual German. Charity is learning English and understands quite a bit but her first language is PA Dutch. I try and decipher, through context, what she is saying and we do pretty well together. She is teaching me a few words too. Flowers are blumen (Charity says Blumys – pronounced bloom-ees) and horse is gaul in German. Charity says Gaulys (like horseys). Both parents speak fluent English which is taught in the schools but they too call PA Dutch their first language. Only PA Dutch is spoken at home when they are alone or with family. The majority of Amish are only in school through eighth grade. They go to an Amish only school, usually consisting of their church group and usually taught by the elders.

We had a lovely dinner outside and after dinner, Dennis used scrap wood from a jobsite he was on to start a fire in his backyard firepit. We enjoyed leftover homemade peach and blackberry pies and listened to the locus, frogs, crickets, the stream and wind blowing through the thick maple trees as Charity trotted around us with a gaul on a stick giggling. Another incredible day!

Millersburg Day 4 August 8, 2021

Today we had brunch at Dennis’ parent’s house. We drove to Dennis and Lorianne’s, parked the van, hopped into the four-seater buggy. Dennis, Lorianne and Charity were in the front seat of the open buggy and Gary, Rangeley and I in the back seat. A tight fit but sooooo much fun!

Betty and Jonas are so sweet. We met them last fall (2020) when we were in Millersburg. Jonas has a large selection of immaculate buggies. Some of which are his sons now. He has Dennis’ oldest brother and his family living on the property in a trailer behind the main house that Jonas and Betty still live in. The eldest brother, in most Amish families, takes on the family farm and move into the main farm house when the parents want to retire. The parents then move into a house, usually built by the eldest son, on the property and the eldest and his family then move into the main house. Jonas and Betty are our age (62) and they are looking to have that house built (called a dawty haus – pronounced a daw-dee house meaning Grandpa’s house) possibly, in the spring of next year (2022).

Betty, in traditional Amish fashion, put on a homemade, from the garden and from scratch spread! Potatoes with cheese and onion, sausage with BBQ sauce, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit, French toast sticks, rolls with jam, cinnamon rolls with icing, ice tea and coffee. When I say homemade I mean the tea and mint leaves, potatoes, onions etc.  are all from her garden. BBQ sauce from scratch. Berries for the jam from her yard, all breads kneaded and baked. After the meals we have been having, hiking and the gym look mighty good about now! It’s been fabulous to be part of all this incredible homemade food culture but I will need to be disciplined when I get home!

After brunch Betty filled a bucket with water and gave her son, Dennis the water “gun” and Charity laughed and giggled as the water soaker was sprayed up in to the large maple tree in the backyard and the water spray showered down on her… “Again Daddy!” she squealed in both English and PA Dutch.

Soon Dennis’ older brother, wife and three little ones came over. The eldest daughter is just 2, next daughter is a 1 year old and mom was holding their two-week-old son…and she’s in her mid-twenties! The children swung on their grandfather’s handmade swing set. The 1 yr. old staggered toward Rangeley, all smiles. Lorianne was holding baby Isiah and stood up to hand the new born to me. I do not have grandchildren yet and the last infant I remember holding was my own, 31 and 33 years ago. I was thrilled to be given the chance to hold this tiny 8 lbs of a miracle.

We hopped back into the buggy after several hours of fun, taking about a half hour to trot back the roughly 4 miles to Dennis and Lorianne’s. Rangeley stayed alert looking for deer, watching cats in the fields looking for mice and a bit nervous as the two-year-old horse Dennis is training twitched on occasion from inexperience. Charity fell fast asleep in mom’s arms and Gary and I appreciated but were saddened as we took in our last ride of the visit.

We said our goodbyes and returned to our hotel. Rangeley fell asleep almost instantly and Gary and I worked on the journal. We enjoyed a healthy dinner of salad and fruit but don’t say oh good for them too soon! We still have Lorianne’s homemade chocolate filled whoopie pie cookies in the freezer that might just make for an evening snack!

We leave for home tomorrow so this is our last Roaming Rangeley journal for a while.  We will take five days of driving 2,100 miles enjoying the Ohio to Arizona adventure.

Live simply, love well, breathe, appreciate life.