Falmouth held the county seat before Lake City

Falmouth was first known as Pinhook. When Missaukee County was formally established in 1871, it was divided into five townships, including Clam Union and Reeder, and Falmouth became the original county seat. That lasted only two years. An 1873 vote moved the seat to Reeder, the settlement beside Muskrat Lake that later became Lake City.

You may hear a dramatic story about how close that vote was. The records do not agree on the margin, so it is better not to pretend they do. They agree on the part that changed the map: Falmouth lost the courthouse, and Reeder gained it.

Falmouth remained part of the county’s southeastern farm country, where Dutch immigrant families established dairy farms. The community still hosts the Missaukee Agricultural Youth Show each summer. Its county-seat chapter was brief, but it explains why this small place appears so early in Missaukee County’s story.

That sequence also keeps two nearby names from becoming tangled. Falmouth is the old seat in Clam Union Township. Reeder was the winning settlement and later became Lake City. Reeder Township is the name that remained after the community changed its own.