The History of the Amish - Part 2  

Branch County has had four Amish settlements through the years – Kinderhook, California, Quincy, and Bronson.  The smallest and newest settlement is Kinderhook, settled by Amish from Camden and Reading in 2004.  The Kinderhook settlement resembles its parent settlements in Hillsdale County with large white homes, distinctively Swiss gray-colored barns, dairy cows, sawmills, and carpentry shops.  Kinderhook also maintains relations with California, its Amish neighbors to the east.  However, there are some important differences between these two settlements. 

The California Amish settlement, which occupies the expansive farmland in Algansee and California Townships (just west of Hillsdale’s village of Montgomery), was founded in 1960 by Swiss Amish from Adams County, Indiana, Bowling Green, Missouri, and the Camden settlement.  Bishops Reuben S. Girod and Samuel A. Girod from Bowling Green led the founding effort.  California is far and away the largest settlement in southeastern Michigan, consisting of around 1,520 members and eight districts – nearly three times larger than the second largest settlement in the region, Quincy.  Families in California tend to be larger, and young people often choose to marry within the settlement.  

California is one of the most conservative settlements in Michigan.  Their buggies are open-top, and, until several years ago, their buggies were only allowed a lantern for night travel.  Now, in addition to lanterns, buggies are allowed one flashing red light on the back of the left side.  The front has two small non-flashing yellow lights.  Changes like this occur during an Amish settlement’s Ordnungs Gmae (“ordinance church”) when members deliberate about community guidelines prior to church communion.  Different settlements handle these meetings in different ways.  In some more progressive settlements, the process is democratic, and members have latitude to vote on the changes they desire.  In California, the members seem to place greater authority on their bishops to alter the Ordnung. 

The California Amish are permitted to drink alcohol and use tobacco.  We might suppose such a conservative sect of Christianity would oppose all consumption of alcohol and tobacco.  However, the opposite is true.  Why?  History provides us with an explanation:  America’s 20th century temperance movement was championed by the era’s progressives.  Conservatives were largely opposed to Prohibition.  Progressives included revivalist denominations, such as the Methodists and Baptists, and more liberal denominations, like Congregationalists and Quakers – both of whom the Amish viewed with distrust.  Conservative Amish, such as the Swartzentrubers and Swiss, saw no reason to forbid alcohol and tobacco, which they considered – in moderation – to be normal practices.  After all, alcohol was consumed for health reasons by early settlers, water being often too contaminated to drink safely.

California’s homes are very plain, and their farms tend to be smaller.  Most Amish settlements allow farmers to use stationary gasoline or diesel engines to power water pumps, silage choppers, hay balers, pneumatic tools, and other machinery.  Many people consider these engines as indispensable to a working farm.  They also help around the home, powering washing machines and other labor-saving devices.  California’s Ordnung, however, prohibits engines of any kind.  Therefore, it is more difficult for an Amish farmer in California to cultivate large amounts of land or own small businesses.  As a result, families there typically own smaller farms of one to five acres.  The Ordnung also prohibits members from traveling in a company vehicle to work; therefore, construction and factory work is often not an option.  Inside the home, floors are made from unfinished wood, and members are prohibited from using Styrofoam to build ice houses for refrigeration.  Lighting is accomplished only by wick and kerosene – no propane or pressurized gas lamps.  The plainness of their homes, in addition to economic factors, have led many people to observe that California is less prosperous than other settlements.  

Lenawee’s sole Amish settlement – Morenci – is also Swiss, very conservative, and closely aligned with California.  It was founded by Bishop Henry Delagrange and others from Camden.  The staunch plainness of Morenci’s Ordnung came up against Lenawee County’s health codes two years ago.  The Morenci Amish do not permit flush toilets or indoor plumbing but, instead, treat their sewage with lime and spread it on their fields.  In January 2020, Lenawee County officials threatened 15 families with having their homes demolished if they did not follow their health codes.  Now three years later, the dispute has gone before a judge, and a decision should be made soon

By contrast, Quincy’s settlement is visibly more progressive.  Quincy was founded in 1977 by Amish from Allen County, Indiana.  The settlement has four districts but has been affected by a schism.  The two southern districts in Quincy are currently not in communion with the northern districts in Quincy.  If a settlement cannot agree on certain important points during the Ordnungs Gmae, they will not hold communion services between the districts.  South Quincy has preserved strong ties with their parent settlement in Allen County, Indiana, which, according to many, has drifted considerably over the years, becoming more liberal and technologically advanced.  Although Quincy’s southern districts has remained relatively conservative, their close relationship with Allen County has caused tension.  In south Quincy, Amish farmers are allowed Bobcat skid-steers, PTO wagons, rubber tires, and other technologies.  They also have phones at their homes and typically more lights on their buggies.  The buggies remain open-top, however.  Unlike California’s Ordnung, the Quincy settlement allows its men to join work crews and travel outside of the settlement for better wages.

The year following Quincy’s founding, Michigan suffered one of the greatest snowstorms in memory.  In her history of Quincy, Mrs. LaVern Steury, wife of Quincy’s first minister, recalls the Great Blizzard of 1978 and the settlement’s first death.  William Zehr passed away in January 1978, but his body could not be taken into town by horse-drawn sled because of the tremendous snowfall.  The ministers held a funeral in the snowbound house, and Zehr was eventually interred at the Homer settlement’s cemetery because Quincy had not yet established a cemetery.  Interestingly, because the Swiss Amish mark their graves with a wooden stake, Zehr’s grave marker from 1978 is the only wooden marker at the small cemetery in Homer, which is primarily a Pennsylvania Dutch settlement.  

Finally, we come to Bronson, an extinct settlement just west of Coldwater.  It was settled in 1971 by Ora Graber from Ontario, Canada.  Bronson attracted new members from Missouri and Wisconsin and had strong ties with Centreville, Michigan, and Elkhart-LaGrange, Indiana.  The settlers were Pennsylvania Dutch, linguistically and culturally – (for the differences between Swiss and Pennsylvania Amish, see Part 1 in this series).

The settlement in Bronson was relatively progressive.  When dairy regulations became restrictive in the early 2000s, Bronson changed its ordinances to allow for bulk milk refrigeration and other technology, in hopes of retaining members and keeping more young men on the farms.  Their farms were successful, and they were known for growing vegetables and gladiolus bulbs.  However, in 1988 Bronson’s bishop invited a controversial bishop from Centreville to have oversight in Bronson.  How far this bishop’s authority extended in Bronson is unknown, but it caused many people there to leave for places like Homer.  The settlement declined steadily.  Then, in the late 1990s, several Bronson families joined the Charity Christian Fellowship, a denomination founded in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, similar to conservative Mennonites in their dress, beliefs, and ownership of cars.  All-in-all, almost a dozen families converted away from the Amish during that period, some remaining in their Bronson homes but purchasing cars.  In 2010, the settlement only had 18 families.  Today, it is extinct.    

Morgan Morrison

January 2023

CLICK HERE to see Amish - Part 1

Morgan Morrison is currently writing a book called Unto Children's Children: Amish History and the Story of Southern Michigan. He hopes to finish the book in the next couple of years and would enjoy speaking with anyone with personal knowledge about the history of the Amish in Hillsdale County, such as the Camden school legal battle. Morgan can be reached by contacting the Historical Society.