Amish in Michigan: 2024 Guide (50+ Communities)

Michigan is home to the sixth-largest Amish population. The state has a long history of Amish settlement, with the first Amish settling in the Great Lakes State in 1895. Today (2024) the Michigan Amish population numbers over 18,000 people.

Michigan’s 146 Amish church districts are scattered across 52 distinct settlements, from Hillsdale and Branch Counties in the south, to several locations in the Upper Peninsula.

Amish Communities in Michigan

• Centreville, St. Joseph County – The Centreville community is the oldest and largest in the state. Around 2,000 Amish live here.
• Quincy – Quincy is a Swiss Amish settlement of over 700 people.
• Osceola County – Six separate Amish communities lie within Osceola County’s borders.
• Branch County – Branch County is home to two of the state’s largest Amish communities.
• Hillsdale County – Home to several settlements, including at Camden.
• Clare (Clare County) – One of the state’s larger Amish communities.
• Mio, Oscoda County – Mio is today home to a small settlement, and once was home to a community that lasted 50 years.
• The “Michigan Circle” Amish Churches – This unique group of Reformist Amish churches was founded in Michigan.
• Upper Peninsula – Several Amish communities are found in Michigan’s U.P.
• Other Michigan Amish Communities – The Wolverine State is home to over 50 Amish settlements, including many small and relatively young communities.

The Centreville Amish settlement – Michigan’s oldest and largest

The Amish community at Centreville in St. Joseph County (founded 1910) is the oldest and largest in Michigan.

Consisting of 16 church districts (roughly 2,000 individuals), this settlement has existed for well over 100 years. The Centreville Amish community was founded by families from the Swiss Amish communities in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana.

The Swiss Amish, an Old Order ethnic subgroup, are distinct from Pennsylvania German-ethnicity Amish.

Swiss Amish speak a different German dialect, are typically more conservative when it comes to technology, and tend to marry only within Swiss circles. Many Swiss Amish also practice yodeling, permit only open-top carriages, and mark graves with wooden stakes rather than gravestones.

Later, these Swiss settlers to Centreville were joined by PA German-ethnicity Amish from Lagrange County to the south.  Today’s community is comprised of descendants from these two distinct Amish ethnic groups.

Centreville Amish Today

Today, Centreville has ties with the much larger Amish settlement at LaGrange and Elkhart Counties, just south of the border in Indiana.  Churches in the two communities are in fellowship with one another. Amishmen from the Centreville community travel daily to work in the region’s RV factories, returning home to Michigan at the end of their shifts.

With increasing ties to the world has also come increasing technological change. Karen Johnson-Weiner notes this change in Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Amish in the Centreville community have accepted phones to a greater degree, allowing them in phone booths and in some businesses.  Additionally, bicycles have been allowed in some church districts, as well as rubber tires on large wagons.

Johnson-Weiner notes further ties in education between the two communities, with female teachers from Centreville teaching and living in the Elkhart/LaGrange settlement, and returning home for the weekend.

Centreville Amish, in addition to working in the RV factories to the south, contribute to Michigan’s economy as well.  Some Centerville Amish operate dairy farms. Others run small businesses such as furniture, fabric, and vinyl shops (read more about Michigan Amish furniture businesses). As the largest Amish settlement in Michigan, Centreville also has a modest tourist industry.

Branch County: Home to Three Amish Settlements

Branch County in southern Michigan is home to three distinct Amish settlements, including two of the state’s largest, making it one of the most heavily-Amish-settled parts of Michigan. Amish communities can be found at Quincy (1977, 710 Amish), Bronson (1971, 1 district), Reading/Hillsdale (1979, 2 districts), Coldwater/Kinderhook (2004, 250 Amish),  and in California Township (1960, 1,600 Amish). The California Township group is the second-largest community in the state – a very plain settlement known as Swartzentruber Amish.

One of the settlements, that of Quincy, is a Swiss Amish settlement, founded by Amish from Norfolk, New York (with roots in the large Swiss Amish community in Allen County, Indiana).

Another nearby community lying in Hillsdale County in fact has some members in Branch County as well. Hillsdale County for its part has an additional three Amish communities, at Osseo and Pittsford (1997, 95 Amish), and the Swiss-roots settlement at Camden (1956, 655 Amish), and North Adams/Jerome (2010, 125 Amish).

Osceola County: More Amish Settlements Than Any Other Michigan County

Since 1989, Osceola County has attracted numerous Amish communities. The Amish must like something about this county, because a total of six separate Amish settlements exist there today. They can be found at:

1. Evart (1989, 130 Amish)
2. Marion (1995, 185 Amish)
3. LeRoy (2000, 170 Amish)
4. Hersey (2003, 70 Amish)
5. Tustin (2012, 115 Amish)
6. Reed City (2013, 85 Amish)

It is not uncommon for one area to attract multiple Amish groups over the years. If the initial group prospers, it shows other Amish people that the area may be a good one for settlement. This can be due to a number of factors – inexpensive farmland, good relations with non-Amish neighbors, viable markets for their products, and so on.

Clare County

Clare County is home to several Amish settlements, including one of Michigan’s largest. The main settlement, found near the town of Clare, numbers over 1,000 Amish (founded 1980). A second, smaller settlement lies near Harrison (2014, 170 Amish). A third, larger community lies partially in Clare County and in neighboring Gladwin County.

Clare has been the site of previous editions of Horse Progress Days, a horse-drawn equipment showcase which draws Amish people from around the nation.

Mio, site of present and past Amish settlement

One of the older Michigan Amish settlements is found at Mio in Oscoda County. This community of three church districts was founded in 1970. However, Amish had previously lived at Mio for over half a century. The original Amish community at Mio was founded in 1900 by Amish from Geauga County, Ohio.

These pioneer farmers to the region settled on land formerly covered by thick forests. Amish historian David Luthy notes that local land agents attracted both Old Order Amish and more progressive Amish-Mennonites to the region through advertisements in the widely-read Sugarcreek Budget newspaper. Luthy states that their efforts met with great success: “Few, if any settlements grew as rapidly as did the one in Oscoda County” (Settlements that Failed, Luthy, p184).

Mio did in fact grow quickly, with over fifty Old Order Amish families arriving in the first five years, attracted by the inexpensive, unimproved land. To begin farming in this region, farmers had to clear their acres of the many stumps that remained from logging.  But those that did were rewarded, and the inexpensive land prices ($2-5/acre) tempted many to migrate to this heretofore little-settled area of north-central Michigan.

As Mio is located in the upper latitudes of Michigan, the settlement’s farmers dealt with a shorter growing season.  However, Amish settlers saw positives in the extreme winters, Luthy reports. The Mio Amish “preferred this to the constant thawing as was the case in more southern parts of the state. They felt their winter was healthier and nicer, and they enjoyed using a sleigh instead of a buggy” (Settlements that Failed, Luthy, p185). Mio Amish farmers prospered, enjoying bumper crops on the formerly wooded Oscoda County land. Amish raised clover, hay, peas, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, and other crops.

Eventually, the Old Order community began to go into decline. Part of the reason was that Old Order church members began joining the more progressive Amish-Mennonite congregation which had originally accompanied them to the region.

As the competing Mennonite church grew, Old Order Amish moved away or adopted more technological innovations, such as tractors. The Mio community went extinct as an Old Order Amish settlement with the death of the last remaining bishop in 1954.

Sixteen years later, a new group of Amish would settle here, founding what is today Michigan’s fourth-oldest Amish community. These settlers, coincidentally, also came from Geauga County, Ohio, and later included Amish from northern Indiana. The present-day Mio community has not seen the same rapid growth of the original one, but has steadily climbed to a population of 585 individuals after 54 years of existence.

The “Michigan Circle” Amish Churches

The Mio area is notable for another reason. This Amish settlement served as the source of an “Amish reformist” movement, beginning in the 1980s, which has grown to include nearly three dozen communities, both within Michigan an in other states.

The Michigan Circle, also known as the Michigan Amish Fellowship, was led by an Amishman named Omar Miller who wished to “establish the Anabaptist vision of a scriptural church promoting true spirituality.” In practice this meant a group of like-minded churches focused on evangelizing and starting up new communities (rather than simply growing a community larger and larger).

The group emphasizes a special understanding of the “new birth”, and believes in “clean” church practices, including clean courtship, and a ban on alcohol and tobacco use. And unlike most Amish churches, the Michigan Circle communities hope to attract “seekers” – outsiders interested in joining the Amish.

Today the circle includes approximately 18 Amish communities in Michigan, and over a dozen more in other states, including Maine, Kentucky, and Montana. Read more about the Michigan Circle Amish, including location maps.

Amish in the Upper Peninsula

Since 2008, an Amish settlement has existed in Mackinac County in the Upper Peninsula. Later, Amish settled in Chippewa County in the Sault Ste. Marie area (2015), followed by a community at Cornell in Delta County (2019).  Today these three are the only Amish communities in the U.P. These settlements are all still a relatively small size.

Interestingly, another Amish settlement existed briefly in the Upper Peninsula, at Newberry in Luce County. This was a very short-lived settlement, lasting only three years (1897-1900).

David Luthy, in The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed 1840-1960 gives the history of this settlement. Amish settlers from Ohio founded this settlement in the waning years of the 19th century. One challenge Amish settlers encountered was the particularly harsh northern Michigan climate.

Luthy cites a letter from an early Amish settler who “mentioned that they hadn’t seen any ground since November 22nd and that presently in April there were eighteen inches of snow yet covering the ground” (Settlements that Failed, Luthy, p182).

Since a common reason for Amish migration is a need for suitable farmland, harsher climates can challenge unestablished, fledgling Amish settlements. The letter-writer also noted that the growing season was significantly shorter than that in Ohio.

A total of six Amish families settled this rugged area, with the last settler eventually moving to the new settlement at Mio in southern Michigan’s Oscoda County in 1900.

The modern-day Amish settlers to the Upper Peninsula no doubt face similar climate challenges as did the Luce County group over a century ago. But those Amish who have ventured to settle in the peninsula over the past decade-plus have been able to make a viable living – and the Amish presence in Michigan’s U.P. region has steadily grown since 2008.

Other Michigan Amish settlements

Besides those mentioned above, these are the remaining larger Amish communities in Michigan:

• The Stanwood/Morley area of Mecosta County (1982, 1,035 Amish)
• Two in Gladwin County (Beaverton/Gladwin area – 1979, 1,015 Amish and North Gladwin – 1980, 565 Amish)
• Charlotte/Vermontville in Eaton County (1977, 475 Amish)
• Marlette/Brown City in Sanilac County (1987, 650 Amish)
• Six Lakes/Greenville in Montcalm County (1973, 535 Amish)
• Hastings in Barry County (2006, 415 Amish)
• Cass City area in three counties – Huron, Sanilac & Tuscola (1993, 905 Amish)
• Blanchard in Isabella County (1983, 850 Amish)

In addition to these, across Michigan you’ll also find numerous settlements founded in recent years, numbering anywhere from a handful of families to several hundred individuals. Find a full list of Michigan Amish communities here.

A state of numerous failed Amish settlements

For various reasons, Michigan has been a state that has attracted Amish settlement.  At the same time, numerous Amish settlements in Michigan have failed.  Despite its significant Amish population today, Michigan ranks as the state with the highest number of extinct Amish settlements, with at least 14 in its history.

In addition to the extinct settlements at Mio and Luce County in the Upper Peninsula, Amish settlements have arisen only to later disappear at Spruce in Alpena County (1905-1922); White Cloud in Newaygo County (1895-1935); West Branch in Ogemaw County (1908-1942); and Hope in Midland County (1909-1930).

Michigan Amish settlements have failed in recent years as well, with several going extinct since 2000, including at Hale in Iosco County (1978-2007; a separate Amish settlement was founded here in 2006); Elsie and Ovid in Shiawassee and Clinton Counties (1987-2004); Coral in Montcalm County (1991-2008); and Vestaburg in Montcalm County (1993-2006).

Michigan Amish Continue To Thrive

Despite its history of failed settlements, Michigan remains a state with a significant Amish population. While not nearly as large as that of neighboring Indiana or Ohio, Michigan’s Amish population still ranks as one of the country’s largest, at over 18,000 Amish people.

Michigan has also attracted new Amish settlement, with a dozen new communities being added in the past decade (see Young Center Amish Studies’ Growth of Amish Settlements and Districts, 2014-2023).

For more information, see:

• Amish in Michigan, Gertrude Enders Huntington
• The New American Almanac, Raber’s Bookstore (Baltic, Ohio), Ben J. Raber
• “Amish Population, 2023” Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College 
• “Amish Population in the United States by State, County, and Settlement, 2023” – compiled by Edsel Burdge, Joseph F. Donnermeyer, and Adam Hershberger
• The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed, 1840-1960, David Luthy
• Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, Karen Johnson-Weiner
• Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities, Steven M. Nolt and Thomas J. Meyers

Michigan Amish on the Amish America blog

The Amish in Michigan have been covered on numerous occasions on the Amish America blog.  In 2008 a reader shared a dozen photos of a Montcalm County, MI Amish settlement.  Each year a horse and carriage auction takes place, and is highly attended by the area’s Amish, at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  A man raised Amish in Michigan discussed Amish life in one news piece.

Michigan Amish Tourism and Business-Looking for a Michigan Amish business? A listing of Amish businesses and tourist information for visitors to the Michigan Amish communities mentioned above.

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