Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jakob Ammann led the faction that demanded strict shunning of excommunicated members and formed the group called Amish. This split occurred during a disagreement over church discipline within the Swiss Brethren.
The Northkill settlement in Berks County became the first identifiable Amish community in the New World in 1740. Approximately 500 Amish families migrated to Pennsylvania between 1717 and 1750 seeking religious freedom and affordable land.
In 2025 the total Amish population stood at 404,575 up from 308,000 in 2016. Settlement numbers grew from 509 to 684 while district counts rose from 2,259 to 3,114 during this period.
By 2015 just 16 percent of male family heads listed farming as their occupation while others pursued alternative careers such as roofing carpentry construction metalworking and small-scale manufacturing. The ratio of farmers to non-farmers declined from 2.41 to 0.61 during these decades.
Most Amish reject preventive genetic testing before marriage or prenatal screening due to religious convictions that accept outcomes as God's will. They participate in medical research studies instead and assign children with disorders chores matching their abilities.