On Franklin County’s Western Border

This chapter analyzes how two of the more recent Amish settlements in New York—the Burke settlement in Franklin County and the nearby Swartzentruber settlement founded near Hopkinton in St. Lawrence County—demonstrate the diversity of the Amish world. The Burke settlers, representing one of the more progressive realizations of Amish identity, have come north from Marion, Kentucky, eager to begin farming on new land. The Hopkinton settlers, ultraconservative Swartzentruber Amish from the area around Holmes County, Ohio, also want land, but they seek a region where their young people will not be tempted as they were in the crowded diversity of their Ohio settlement. These two groups have encountered similar difficulties in finding farms, setting up schools, dealing with non-Amish neighbors and local governments, and creating markets for their wares.