• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Amish 365
  • About
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • Amish Marketplace
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Amish Recipes
    • Amish Culture
    • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » Plain Culture

    Amish Smoking: Do the Amish Smoke Cigs?

    Published: Dec 17, 2014 · Updated: Dec 17, 2014 by Kevin Williams | 7 Comments

    Smoking Amish

    An Amish buggy parked outside of a "smokes" shop in Berne, Indiana

    By Kevin Williams

    AMISH SMOKING: I've written about this topic before, but I stumbled upon a scene last week in Berne, Indiana that illustrated it well.   Note this horse-drawn buggy parked outside of a "smokes" shop on US 27.  This is about as close as I was able to get from an awkward vantagepoint in a parking lot across the street.

    In my over two decades of visiting Amish settlements all over the USA and Canada I’ve only seen an Amish person smoking once, and that was a young Amish man in Geauga County, Ohio.  Seeing a youth smoking almost doesn't count since they aren't often bound by church rules in the same way adults are. Tobacco seems to be a habit that is either very private or very localized to certain Amish communities. One friend of mine attended an Amish wedding in Pennsylvania several years ago and wrote to me afterwards about how “some of the men sat in chairs outside under the trees talking and smoking” after the wedding, behavior that she described as “typical.”  Yet I have never seen anything like that.  It's one thing to smoke privately, but socially like that is something I've never seen.

    There are some Amish in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Kentucky that grow tobacco and in some church districts smoking is permitted.

    I have also heard of Amish in - this is a surprise - ultra-conservative Swartzentruber Amish settlements smoking cigars.

    By the way, one of the biggest arguments against Amish smoking isn't health impacts (although that surely has contributed to a decline in the habit), but economic.  It's simply seen has generally too expensive of a habit to maintain and a frivolous waste of money for the traditionally frugal Amish.  Here is an interesting, more indepth, treatment of the topic.

     

    « Faceless Doll: Amish and Islamic
    Homemade Baby Ruth Bars »

    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Dennis

      December 17, 2014 at 12:58 pm

      Some Amish groups allow smoking, but only allow brown cigarettes. No worldly white papered fags like the English smoke.

      Reply
      • Kevin

        December 17, 2014 at 1:16 pm

        Interesting, Dennis, thanks for checking in! Have you seen amish smoking? If so, where?

        Reply
        • Dennis

          December 17, 2014 at 1:28 pm

          Ohio. The Schwartzentrubers in Peoli

        • Kevin

          December 17, 2014 at 4:08 pm

          Neat, I don't know anyone in that settlement, do you have friends there?

        • Dennis

          December 17, 2014 at 4:29 pm

          I have friends who have friends there. We have also had a couple groups move into the Freeport Ohio area in the past few years. Not sure which group they are with. Pretty sure not Scwartzentruber, though. I have many, many Beachy friends, though. Attend church with them.

    2. Tom The Backroads Traveller

      December 17, 2014 at 5:28 pm

      OK Kevin, I need to take you to Conewango or the communities that have been started by folks from Conewango. Do men smoke? YES! and they chew! They smoke pipes and those small cigars with the brown wrappers (they're really cigarettes). The economic situation is a point, but Conewango is located near an Indian reservation where untaxed tobacco is sold. Some families are big tobacco users and other don't touch it. Tom The Backroads Traveller

      Reply
      • Kevin

        December 18, 2014 at 8:35 am

        Interesting, Tom. Just not something I have seen before in the Amish settlements I have visited, but good point about the proximity to the reservations!

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

    More about me →

    Latest Amish Recipes

    • Amish Frolic Casserole
    • The Amish Cook: Best-Ever Zucchini Patties
    • Trending Amish Recipes & Favorite Photos, Week of June 26, 2022: Best Strawberry Coffeecake, Amish Corn Bake, and More!
    • Refreshing Summer Carrot Pie
    dutchcrafters

    Download The "Almost Amish" Ebook

    Footer

    Footer

    About

    • About The Amish Editor
    • Download "Almost Amish" Ebook
    • Amish Communities
    • Amish Marketplace

    Contact

    • Work With Us
    • Contact

    *As a member of various affiliate programs I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2000 - 2020 Amish 365 | Powered by Touch The Road