The History of the Hillsdale Amish - Part 1
Over 1,150 Amish people live in Hillsdale County. If we add to this population the nearly 3,000 Amish residents of Branch, Lenawee, and Calhoun counties, our southeastern region of Michigan has the greatest concentration of Amish in the entire Mitten State. This may come as no surprise. We see our local Amish neighbors shopping at the grocery store, visiting the doctor’s office, and driving along country roads in their horses and buggies. They are a group of German Anabaptist Christians who have chosen to dress plainly, practice pacifism, and forgo technology we take for granted, such as electricity, automobiles, and tractors.
Because the Amish remain unchanged by modern progress—a people seemingly “frozen in time”—some might think there is nothing to learn from their history. After all, the essence of history is change, and we historians try to understand how past changes have affected our present lives. If the Amish way of life has not changed since its origin in the early 1700s, what history is there to tell? In this short introduction to the Amish in Hillsdale County, you will find—contrary to common misconceptions—the Amish way of life has changed significantly over the years, and different groups have responded in different ways to the advances of modernity.
The first Amish arrived in Hillsdale County and established a settlement in 1945. But these were not the Amish of Camden, Reading, Osseo-Pittsford, or any of the large settlements that are alive and well today. The county’s very first Amish settlement was in Jerome, and it lasted just 10 years before it broke apart and dissolved. The Jerome settlement was founded by five families who left Daviess County, Indiana, lived briefly in Homer, Michigan, and ended up in Hillsdale because they were searching for an Amish church with reformed ordinances. They wanted “clean living”—no alcohol or tobacco—and a more lenient application of the Meidung, the name given to the traditional practice of shunning people who leave the Amish faith or persist in sin. The founding group of Jerome included the Wagler, Graber, and Stoll families. They purchased farmland along Sterling and Knowles roads, a few miles east of US-12, and their children attended the old “Grubby” Knowles Schoolhouse, which still stands today.
However, problems in the church arose when Jerome and North Adams were consolidated into one school district, and the Amish teenagers were forced to attend the new public high school in town. Some Amish parents believed the school was having bad effects on their children. According to several reports, some of the rowdier Amish youth would join “English” youth for Saturday baseball games where drinking and smoking occurred. One Amish youth even purchased a car. The church was divided over whether to open its own Amish school, causing some residents to move away and join more conservative settlements. In 1956, the remaining Amish decided to allow automobiles and form a Mennonite church. Perhaps most interestingly, parts of the Stoll family who decided to remain Amish moved to British Honduras in the 1960s and established the first South American Amish community, though it too eventually failed.
Elmo Stoll, born in Jerome, became a famous Amish author and publisher and founded the Christian Communities in Cookeville, Tennessee, in 1990. Stoll’s Christian Communities were similar to Amish settlements, except that he encouraged communal living (the sharing of goods) and converts from other faiths. Several interesting stories like these come to us from Jerome’s history. The only physical remnants of their settlement in Jerome are a small cemetery along Knowles Road, a large brick farmhouse, and a deteriorating buggy behind the barn. However, many descendants of the settlement, including Stolls and Waglers, still live in Hillsdale today.
On February 21, 1956, four families led by Bishop Levi R. Graber moved from Allen County, Indiana, to Camden in the southern part of Hillsdale County. They founded Hillsdale’s second oldest settlement. At present, the Camden Amish settlement is the largest in Hillsdale County with over 600 members and four districts—(each district has its own bishop, ministers, and deacon).
What makes Camden special among Amish groups in America is their Swiss heritage and dialect. Most Amish in America speak the Pennsylvania Dutch language; however, a little less than 10 percent of Amish speak a Swiss dialect. They are called Schweizer-Amisch or “Swiss Amish,” and they immigrated to America from Switzerland and the Alsace and Montbeliard regions of France in the 1830s, mainly settling in Allen and Adams counties, Indiana. Characteristics that make the Swiss Amish unique today include yodeling, allowing only open-top buggies, using wooden grave markers, and distinct last names, such as Graber, Girod, Delagrange, Lengacher, Schwartz, Schmucker, Eicher, and Wickey. Typically, the Swiss also have more conservative Ordnungs—the church “ordinances” that govern which technologies are allowed, how church decisions are made, and other aspects of life.
The Camden settlement grew quickly in its first years, gaining 11 new families from Indiana, Missouri, and Ontario. Land prices were astonishingly cheap. The Amish built two schools and received “limited approval” to hold classes from the State of Michigan. Later in 1962, the Hillsdale County School Board began to worry they would lose out on state funding because so many children in the district belonged to Amish families. Eventually, the Amish had their school approval rescinded by Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Lynn Bartlett. When the Amish refused to close their schools and send their children to the Camden-Frontier public school, warrants were signed for 11 Amish fathers on October 2, 1963, by Hillsdale Justice of the Peace Alfred Wagner.
The legal battle evolved over the next several years. Although criminal charges against the 11 fathers were dropped in June 1964, the issue did not end because the Amish remained unwilling to employ state-certified teachers at their schools. They believed state certification would disrupt the work of their teachers, mostly young unmarried women, and encroach upon the principle of separation between church and state. Some Camden Amish avoided the controversy by moving across the Michigan border to Steuben County, Indiana—a state which happily accommodated the Amish and their schools. But many Amish, in their ordinary humble way, refused to back down. According to newspapers, the Amish received support from a majority of county residents at the time. Local Hillsdale attorney Albert Dimmers and Jackson attorney Maxwell Badgley represented the Amish who stayed. These attorneys helped win state approval for the Amish schools again in 1965. The state education officials decided that because Amish teachers demonstrated aptitude on par with public school teachers, they were approved to teach without official certification. (In fact, the state found that Amish students consistently scored better than public school students in writing, reading, and arithmetic!) For their services, Dimmers and Badgley were paid one smoked ham each from the Amish farmers.
Just north of Camden lies the Reading Amish settlement, founded in 1979. Like Camden, Reading was founded by Swiss Amish from Allen County, and these neighborly settlements maintain strong ties with one another. The founders were originally motivated by the desire to create a more conservative Amish church, as the Allen County districts had become increasingly progressive over the years. Some members farm as their main occupations, while others work in construction, or the lumbering and pallet industries. In the past, a cheese processing plant on Dimmers Road purchased milk from the Amish dairy farmers. However, because Reading and Camden’s Ordnung does not allow bulk milk refrigeration—a stipulation enforced by the FDA for producing “Grade A” milk—the dairy farmers could not get high prices for their milk. This, along with the rising costs of feed and the closing of Hillsdale’s only cheese plant, has caused dairying operations to slowly disappear since the early 2000s.
North Adams is the youngest and third Swiss Amish settlement in Hillsdale. It was established in 2010 by Menno Graber of Quincy, Michigan, and the Delagrange and Eicher families from Camden. The settlement has ties with Lenawee County’s only settlement, Morenci. The Amish in North Adams farm grain and other crops, and it is known for its wonderful baked goods store, Hilltop Bakery. They do not have a bishop but receive oversight from Bishop Michael Delagrange in Quincy. Typically, an Amish settlement must reach 25 to 30 families before an outside bishop will ordain a bishop for the settlement. These ordination services are long, solemn, and often involve many tears falling from the newly ordained minister or bishop who is selected by random lot and burdened with spiritual responsibility for his settlement.
Most Swiss settlements drive black topless buggies and do not permit SMV “slow moving vehicle” signs—the reflective orange triangles one most often sees on tractors. Most Amish settlements in America have adopted SMV signs for the sake of safety, but the most conservative groups, such as the Swiss and Swartzentrubers, consider these signs too worldly. Instead, they have utilized battery-powered lights and reflective silver tape on their buggies. In response, the Hillsdale County Road Commission has been slow to install buggy warning signs along roads. One interesting aspect of the Swiss Amish open-top buggies is how they cope with bad weather. Many riders carry large umbrellas to block the wind and heavy down blankets with heated stones covering the body. Some more progressive districts allow “kid boxes”—enclosed compartments on the back of the buggy where children may ride.
Osseo-Pittsford is the final settlement in Hillsdale and the only Pennsylvania Dutch settlement in the county. In contrast to the Swiss, the Osseo-Pittsford Amish trace their ancestry to immigrants in the 1700s from the Palatinate region of what is now Germany. They bear typical Pennsylvania Dutch Amish names, such as Miller, Yoder, Weaver, Troyer, Beechy, Stoltzfus, Petersheim, and Hershberger. They also ride enclosed “Ohio”-style buggies. One way to tell the Pennsylvania Dutch apart from the Swiss is by their barns. The Swiss only allow white and gray colored barns (“plainer” colors), whereas the Pennsylvania Dutch mandate red barns (a more “traditional” color).
Amish first arrived in Osseo-Pittsford from Gladwin County (northern Michigan) in 1997. They were five families led by Bishop Ora Beechy. They moved to Hillsdale County for cheap farmland and an established dairy market. Like Camden and Reading, Osseo-Pittsford farmers suffered the dairy woes of the early 2000s and have largely transitioned to crops like organic corn and soy, market vegetables, and pigs, in addition to carpentry and shop work. When the first few families arrived and the church was being established, the Osseo-Pittsford Amish often fellowshipped with their Swiss neighbors, and a few courtships and marriages between Swiss and PA Dutch young people took place—a relatively rare event due to differences in culture and dialect.
In 2007, Osseo-Pittsford gained a second bishop, Joni Petersheim, and added a second district to their settlement. This provided the ministers a much-needed relief from traveling across the settlement each Sunday to preach. It also gave housewives a rest from hosting up to 40 families in their homes for church! (The Amish gather every other Sunday for worship, and they hold services in homes—not a church building.) In 2013, Petersheim moved along with others, and the settlement was reduced back down to one district.
Since the mid-20th century, the Amish have been an important part of Hillsdale County. Each of the four settlements has adapted in different ways to modern life (albeit at a slower pace than the rest of us), and their differences provide insight into how groups choose to face the changes of modernity. In the next edition of “Looking Backward,” I will write about the history of the Amish settlements of the wider region—Branch, Calhoun, Lenawee, and Jackson counties. Bis schpeeder!
—Morgan Morrison
Octorber 2022
CLICK HERE to see the Amish - Part 2
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.