Amesville, Ohio, is a village about 25 minutes northeast of Athens. Amesville is a small town in a region known for small towns - according to the US Census Bureau, the population has never broken 400, and only 171 people live in the village within the 0.23 square miles inside village limits currently. 

Members of the Amesville Grange recite the Pledge of Allegiance before opening their meeting April 4, 2023. The Grange was founded as a social group for families who worked in agriculture as a way to create bonding and solve problems in the community. 

Spare hats and jackets line the walls of the Ephraim Cutler House. The Cutler House was one of the first homes built during the settlement of the Ames Township area. Over time, the house passed through different hands, and additions were built into the house through out the 1800s. Today, the house stands on the property of Kick Wheel Acres, where owner Tim Burns uses for storage.

Members of the Ames-Bern Volunteer Fire Department wait for former Fire Chief Jim Dillie to arrive at the station in Amesville April 16. The Fire Department is a family-heavy tradition in Amesville, with multiple generations of individual families serving as firefighters together. 

Quillan Hulbert, (center right), 8, dribbles a basketball while playing with his brother Foster (center left) and classmates in Gifford Park March 25, 2023. The basketball court and park surrounding it used to be the old Ames-Bern Fire Department station and residential properties, respectively, but were destroyed in historic flooding. 

Alan Trout degreases a motorcycle engine in his driveway. March 27, 2023. Trout is an avid Enduro bike racing fan, and is involved in the Lost in Lodi enduro race based in nearby Shade, Ohio. 

Chase, 10, and his dog Bruce head to the Amesville Elementary School playground March 30, 2023. Because the elementary school is walking distance from most homes in Amesville, many children go to play there after school is let out. 

Foster Hulbert, 10, picks out snacks and a drink from a fridge at Coonskin Corner with his grandfather Mark, March 25, 2023. Coonskin Corner is the sole gas station and convenience store in Amesville, and often serves as a social spot for locals and for construction workers leaving for work in the morning. 

Toby Wertz reads an order in the kitchen at Park's Place in Amesville. Started in 2019 by fifth-generation Amesville resident Josh Vernon, Park's Place takes the place of Kasler's Country Kitchen as the sole restaurant in Amesville, and one of only a few businesses with a storefront in town. 

From left, Geoff Osterland, Jim Wachtel, Julia Farver, and Chris Ridgway of the Ames-Bern Ridge Runners rehearse at Farver and Ridgway’s home March 3, 2023. Four of the five members of the band work in public or private education, including drummer George Wood, who served as the superintendent of the Federal-Hocking School District. 

Courtney Allen, 20, laughs at a joke made over the phone by her boyfriend Kenton Stocker, 31, while hanging out after hours at Park’s Place. Employees, ex-employees, and friends of Vernon’s also hang out in the restaurant after closing, jokingly calling it “Park’s after dark.”

Spare room in the Ephraim Cutler House off SR-329. Tim Burns uses the home as a staging area for working on the cattle farm alongside his father-in-law Glenn Hazen. “I like coming out here,” said Burns, who lives in Athens. “It’s a good place to work up a sweat for a few hours and wind down with a beer afterwards.” 

Cows at Kick Wheel Acres eat quickly after being fed by Tim Burns April 5, 2023. Farming played a huge role in Amesville’s development as a pioneer town, with the floodplains serving as arable ground for early settlers to farm on. 

Children from the Bremen and Amesville Amish church districts play scatterball in between Sunday hymn-singing and fellowship supper on Joseph Yoder’s front lawn February 19th, 2023. The Amish of Amesville moved from Belle Center, Ohio, in 2019 after wanting a change in their community Ordnung, or standards. 

Math class at the Amesville Amish Parochial School of SR-329. Based in a converted home, the schoolroom is split between first through fourth and fifth through eighth grades, and lessons include Bible study, math, history, and English.

Dan Yoder, left, reads the Bible during Sunday Services while holding his two sleeping sons at his father Josephs church February 26, 2023. The Amish hold biweekly formal services and hymn-singing in Pennsylvania Dutch. As a New Order Amish group, the Amish of the Amesville district also practice Sunday school in the weekends between the formal services. 

Leon Troyer, left, and an Amish boy help with proceedings for the community pork processing at Lucas Gingrich’s home in Amesville, Ohio March 9, 2023. Once a year, the Amish community gathers to butcher whole pigs into various serving styles. An all day event, the younger children are allowed to play amongst the adults working, and the community celebrates the end of work by frying crackling and popcorn in the leftover lard.

Kick Wheel Acres owner Tim Burns claims through a ladder built into the grain silo at his farm in Amesville, Ohio April 4, 2023. The silo itself is one of only a few wooden silos still standing in the area, and Burns enlisted the help of the local Amish community to repair the silo when he was renovating the property after its purchase. 

Shane Oswald works on an old Chevrolet SUV in his front yard at the edge of Amesville’s village limits April 30, 2023. Oswald loves street racing and modifies his cars in order to practice it. “I bored the engine out and now it’s got about 1400 [horsepower],” Oswald said about his truck. “It’s a real sleeper build.” 

Stan Schaar attends Sunday services at the Amesville Presbyterian Church April 23, 2023. While Amesville draws larger attendance numbers around Easter and Christmas according to Schaar, attendees have dropped recently due to COVID-19, which also created physical distance between churchgoers. 

Fish caught by George Wood and Maksym, Ruvim, and Denis Kaparchuk at Homecoming Farm in Amesville. Wood, the former superintendent of Federal Hocking Schools, is part of a sponsor circle that aids the Kaparchuk family, who immigrated to Athens County to avoid the Russian war in Ukraine. 

Flooded farmland off of SR-329 as seen February 20, 2023. Amesville, located in the floodplains of the Federal and McDougal Branch Creeks is known for historic flooding, including one flood in 1998 that resulted in the demolition of a sizable number of homes on the southern part of the village. 

Members of the Amesville community dance and enjoy themselves at an Ames-Bern Ridge Runner concert at Village Productions, Amesville’s community center, March 10 2023. While small in number at 171 and tight-knit, Amesville’s residents, including longtime resident Samantha Gates, think that that tight-knit community is what keeps the town alive. “We choose our family here,” Gates said. “And I don’t mean family by blood.”