Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 4 : Spring 2010 | Page 38

Moving to the County

During the spring and summer of 2005 as more and more
Amish families moved from other states to our community in Heuvelton,
New York, until we had nearly 200 families, several of us started making
plans to relocate and start a new community.

At the time the first Amish settlers arrived in St. Lawrence
County area, there were many farms going out of production, many
old and falling down buildings. The soil was badly depleted and many
fields growing up in brush. It took many years of hard work to get
many of the farms so they would grow good crops again. Now 33 years
later this well established community became an attractive place for
more Amish families to live and continue their farming.

But for some of us, it was time to move on and start a new
community.

I gathered as much information as I could find about the
State of Maine. We also looked at the northern parts of Vermont and
New Hampshire before we actually saw Fort Fairfield. Based on all the
information we could gather, before we traveled to any of these states,
we picked Presque Isle and and the surrounding area, as the place we
would be most likely to find the type of land and community, where we
could continue with our traditional lifestyle.

On July 4th, 2005, Joe Swartzentruber and I started by bus
“Trailways” on what was our first trip East of New York State. We
traveled to Oakfield, Maine where we met Milo Hilty and his family.
I had contacted Milo by mail and told him of our mission. He agreed
to be our tour guide. After introductions and the warm welcome we
received, we bombarded them with questions about farming in Maine,
until late that evening.

By the next morning we decided to head South, where Milo
suggested we would find more and closer markets for our products,

instead of continuing North to Presque Isle as our original plans were.

After traveling many back roads in Central Maine, our new
place of interest was the Skowhegan area. We spent more than a year
trying to find a suitable location in Central Maine, but the high land
prices there would not allow us to make a move to that area.

In late 2006 we made our final trip to Central Maine only to
go home and admit defeat. We all but scrapped our plans to start a new
community. We decided to stay where we were and just forget about
moving.

In February of 2007 Harvey Miller and I decided we simply
had to see more of Aroostook County, even though, most everyone was
willing to offer advice against going to a place so far away, and some
said, hardly gets any summer.

Milo was once again our guide as we traveled around Easton,
Fort Fairfield and on up North to Madawaska. We found the February
weather much the same as back home in Heuvelton, New York . While
we met many good, friendly people in our search for land, we were
impressed with the friendly, helpful attitude of the people here in
Central Aroostook County. After that trip we were all once again in
a moving mode. The other two families also came to see the area soon
after Harvey and I were here. Fort Fairfield and Easton were the choice
location after studying the area, maps, business locations, etc. etc..

As we traveled through areas that people have not seen Amish
before we saw some interesting reactions. One evening
while we were traveling, and had checked into a motel, we
decided to walk down the street to a Walmart store to pass
some time. This evening happened to be Halloween, so
many folks were out and about dressed in costumes.

As the four of us walked into Walmart the

OMS artwork based off of a photo by Gary Thomas - Chesterland, Ohio