•September 14, 2016•

The oldest known Amish house in Illinois is about to be moved Tuesday, September 20 to a new home at the newly established Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center just west of Chesterville. The house was built by Moses Yoder shortly after his arrival in Illinois in 1865. Yoder, Daniel Miller and Daniel Otto and their families were the first Amish immigrants to settle near Arthur in that year.

Moses Yoder’s house along with a second house built in 1882 by later immigrant Daniel Schrock, were saved from demolition in 1999. They have been in storage behind Yoder’s Kitchen in Arthur ever since waiting for a new home.

The houses originally were going to be located in Rockome Gardens to become part of the Illinois Amish Museum located there. With the conversion of Rockome to a wildlife park, however, both the houses and the Amish Museum were left without a home until land was recently acquired one half mile west of Chesterville on Illinois Route 133.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.