Pastor Ferdinand Sievers organized St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in June 1852 to serve a colony of German migrants, including some who had fled the turmoil following the European revolutions of 1848. The congregation first met in a log cabin that had also housed recent arrivals to Amelith. A wood-frame Gothic style church was built in 1870, and the present structure was completed in 1912; an addition followed in 1997. Church-run schools began in 1853, with instruction in German lasting until World War I, and some services continued in German until 1979. During World War II, the church ministered to German prisoners held at Freeland Camp. Amelith, originally part of Saginaw County, was named for the birthplace of Caroline Koch, Pastor Sievers's wife and the daughter of German industrialist Friedrich Koch. To settle German migrants, Friedrich Koch bought 2,000 acres of the former Saginaw Bay Chippewa Reserve at $1.25 an acre. The first settlers arrived in 1851 from the Bavarian town of Rosstel. Because residents had easier access to Bay City than to Saginaw, the area was transferred at their request to Frankenlust Township in Bay County. Amelith once included a coal mine, a cheese factory, stores, mills, and saloons, but by 1900 the mine had closed and immigration had ended, and the village became a rural agricultural community.