In March 1991, Jacob Miller had taken out a $15,000 loan from Charles Benton, a local businessman who operated what amounted to a private lending service targeting Amish farmers. The Amish, generally avoiding involvement with conventional banks due to religious principles about debt and modern financial systems, sometimes turned to private lenders within their community or sympathetic outsiders.
Benton, sixty-eight in 1991, had been lending money to Amish farmers for decades. On the surface, he appeared to be providing a service—offering loans without requiring the credit checks, Social Security numbers, and modern banking paperwork that made traditional lending incompatible with Amish practice.
But interviews with other Amish families who’d borrowed from Benton revealed a darker pattern.
