Arkansas, a south central agricultural state, bounded on the east by the Mississippi River. Amish Mennonites settled near Stuttgart in the east central part of the state in the decade of the 1880's but by 1920 the settlement had become extinct. A new wave of Amish Mennonite migration began in 1925 but in approximately a decade this settlement too had ceased to exist.

In 1883 a small group of Mennonites from Henry County, Iowa, located a short distance north of Stuttgart near Fairmount and organized a Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. By 1891 the congregation had approximately 50 members but the church was discontinued in 1899. From 1927 to 1937 there was an old Order Amish community north of Stuttgart.

By 1988, there were 16 Mennonite congregations in the state belonging to the following six conferences (number of congregations and membership in parentheses): Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship (2, 42); Conservative Mennonite Conference (1, 29); South Central Conference (MC, 3, 44 plus one church planting effort); unaffiliated Mennonite congregations (6, 147); Church of God in Christ Mennonite (1 congregation); Mennonite Brethren (3 congregations). Two congregations belonged to more than one conference. There was one Amish settlement (one congregation) in White County Mennonites sponsored a 26-bed hospital and outpatient clinic at Calico Rock, one skilled nursing facility (108 beds) at El Dorado, and one nursing home (67 beds) at Harrison.

Bibliography

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