Notable people · Religion · Community Leader · Amish
Elmo Stoll
Stoll spent part of his childhood in Piketon, Ohio. He became an Amish bishop in 1984, then left the Amish church in 1990 and founded a set of Christian communities focused on plain living and English-language evangelism.
At a glance
- Born
- 1944-03-05
- Died
- 1998-09-02
- Known as
- Religion, Community Leader, Amish
- Organizations
- Christian Communities
Life story
Elmo Stoll was born March 5, 1944, in Litchfield, Michigan. His family moved several times in his childhood, first to Piketon, Ohio, and then to Aylmer, Ontario, in the early 1950s.
He became an Amish minister in 1971 and a bishop in 1984. As bishop he pushed his church toward plainer dress and stricter rules, including a ban on electronic calculators, and wrote regularly for the Amish magazine Family Life. His brother Joseph helped found Pathway Publishers.
In 1990 he left the Amish church and started intentional communities stressing communal living and spreading the faith in English. By the time he died of heart failure on September 2, 1998, there were five in Tennessee, Kentucky, Maine and New Brunswick.
After his death some communities closed and others joined Mennonite or Amish groups; the Caneyville Christian Community in Kentucky, founded in 2004, continues his ideas.
Timeline
- 1944-03-05: Born (Litchfield, MI) source
- 1950s: Family lives in Piketon, Ohio, before moving to Aylmer, Ontario (early 1950s) (Piketon, OH) source
- 1971: Becomes an Amish minister source
- 1984: Becomes an Amish bishop source
- 1990: Leaves the Amish church and founds Christian communities source
- 1998-09-02: Dies of heart failure source
What Elmo is known for
- Amish minister (1971) and bishop (1984)
- Founded the Christian Communities (from 1990)
- Wrote for the Amish magazine Family Life
- Articles in Family Life
- Christian Communities (five by 1998)
Family
- brother: Joseph Stoll (co-founder of Pathway Publishers)
- cousin: Ira Wagler (author)
Ohio places
Where Elmo Stoll was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.
- Lived: Piketon, Pike County ZIP 45661 · Piketon · Pike County
Further reading
Sources
Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.
- Wikipedia: Elmo Stoll birth in Michigan, family moves to Piketon then Ontario, bishop 1984, communities 1990, death 1998
