Topic · Page 9

History & Culture

Porch Notes

History & Culture notes

1,143 notes

Winn, briefly Dushville, and the man his own sawmill killedThe Isabella County village of Winn was renamed Dushville in 1876 after a lumberman who ran three sawmills — all of which blew up, the last one killing him — and reverted to Winn after his death.
Wixom used to be called Sibley's CornersWixom started as a farm crossroads called Sibley's Corners; it took its current name from Willard Wixom, who gave land for the railroad that turned the corners into a town.
Wyandotte: the salt under the city that built a chemical giantA glass tycoon found a deep bed of pure salt under Wyandotte in 1890 and built the Michigan Alkali Company on it — the chemical works that grew into the city's BASF plant a century later.
You can see the Mason courthouse dome from the farm fieldsIngham County's 1902-05 courthouse in Mason is a Beaux-Arts landmark with a clock tower visible from the surrounding farmland.
Ypsilanti has two downtowns, and Depot Town is the old oneYpsilanti grew two commercial cores: Depot Town, the railroad-era district by the old station, and the Michigan Avenue strip across the river.
A cigar maker's café that outlived everythingSchuler's in Marshall began as a cigar maker's café, grew into a statewide restaurant chain under Win Schuler, and the original flagship still serves on Eagle Street.
A dozen free turkeys became TurkeyvilleCornwell's Turkeyville near Marshall grew from a neighbor's gift of 12 turkeys in the 1940s into a turkey-dinner empire with a dinner theatre and ice cream parlor.
A son's gift glowing in the middle of MarshallMarshall's Brooks Memorial Fountain, modeled on Versailles and lit by General Electric, was a mayor's 1930 gift to his town in memory of his father.
Adrian College and its abolitionist beginningsAdrian College, chartered in 1859, grew out of an antislavery Methodist school and was led from the start by famed abolitionist Asa Mahan.
Albion was a foundry town at the forksAlbion grew at the forks of the Kalamazoo River and ran on the Albion Malleable Iron Company from 1888 to 1967; the town still throws a Festival of the Forks every fall.
Bowens Mills: a buckwheat mill that ran for generationsEdwin Bowen built a three-story grist mill near Gun Lake in 1864; it ground buckwheat flour into the 20th century, and the little hamlet around it is now a Michigan historic park with a covered bridge.
Capac's depot, bought for a dollar and dragged awayWhen the Grand Trunk Western depot at Capac was about to be lost, a historical society bought it for one dollar, hauled it down the road in two pieces, and made it a museum.
Clinton's woolen mill ran for 90 years on the old Chicago RoadThe Clinton Woolen Mills, organized by 100 local stockholders in 1866, turned area wool into cloth until 1957, on a town that grew up on the Detroit-to-Chicago military road.
Constantine, the Seed Corn Capital of the WorldConstantine, platted in 1831 as Meeks Mills, grew into a seed-corn powerhouse the Michigan Legislature formally named 'Seed Corn Capital of the World.'
Edwardsburg started as a cabin where two trails crossedEdwardsburg grew from Ezra Beardsley's 1826 cabin at the junction of two Indian trails, on the Detroit-to-Chicago road, and lost the 'h' off its name by a postmaster's order in 1845.
Freeport once had an opera house and a handle factoryPlatted by the Roush family in 1874 along an old Battle Creek trail, this small Barry County village grew to 500 people, an opera house, and a handle factory before the railroad even arrived in 1889.
Hastings put a concert stage on the river that built the townThornapple Plaza, an outdoor music venue on the Thornapple River in downtown Hastings, opened in 2016 and anchors a summer of free concerts and the Thornapple Arts Council Jazz Festival.
Homer grew up around a sawmill on the KalamazooHomer was settled in 1832 by families who walked from Pennsylvania, grew around Milton Barney's sawmill and store, and incorporated as a village in 1871.
Hudson, where a high school won 72 games in a rowFrom 1968 to 1975 the Hudson Tigers won 72 straight football games — a national high school record that stood for 22 years and is still the Michigan mark.
Laingsburg briefly went by 'Nebraska'The community founded around Dr. Peter Laing's roadside stop was officially called Nebraska from 1854 until it changed back to Laingsburg in 1862.
Marcellus: the village named for a Roman, made by a railroadMarcellus in northeast Cass County was named after a Roman emperor in 1843 — its second choice — and only became a real town when the Peninsular Railroad arrived in 1870-71.
Memphis, the little city split between two countiesMemphis sits squarely on the Macomb–St. Clair county line above the Belle River, named by settlers who saw their bluff over the water as a Michigan echo of Memphis on the Nile.
Middleville: river power, flour, and featherboneMiddleville grew beside the Thornapple River after earlier Potawatomi and trading-post history, then built an industrial story around flour, dairy, rail, and featherbone.
Morenci: the last city before you cross into OhioMorenci, in the far corner of Lenawee County, is the southernmost city in Michigan, sitting right on the Ohio state line.
Muir and Lyons, twin villages and an old grudgeAcross the Grand River from each other, Muir and Lyons are twin Ionia County villages — and Muir exists because Lyons let the railroad slip away.
Nashville owes its name to a railroad engineerThe Barry County village became Nashville as the Grand River Valley Railroad arrived, taking the name of chief civil engineer Garadus Nash.
Onsted: the Irish Hills village a railroad put on the mapOnsted, the gateway village to Lenawee County's Irish Hills, took shape when a railroad reached it in 1884 and was incorporated in 1907.
Owosso chose brick again for Michigan AvenueMichigan Avenue's bricks are newer than they look: the street was repaved with new brick in 2004 to preserve the look of the older street.
Owosso means 'one bright spot'The city's name traces to Chief Wasso, an Ojibwe leader whose own name — by the legend on a marker downtown — meant the one remaining joy in a grieving father's life.
Pewamo, named for a man someone went hunting withThe Ionia County village of Pewamo carries the name of a Potawatomi man whom early settler John C. Blanchard hunted with along the Grand River.
Saranac grew where Lake Creek meets the Grand RiverWater power and river access drew settlement to Saranac in 1836; the railroad turned it into a shipping center in 1857.
The Anglican monks of St. Gregory's AbbeySt. Gregory's Abbey near Three Rivers is a rare Benedictine monastery in the Episcopal Church, where monks have kept the seven-times-a-day office since 1946.
The auditorium three women left to SturgisSturgis got a grand 1955 civic auditorium because three women — the Sturges sisters and Emma Young — willed their fortunes to building it.
The biggest building ever made of Ionia sandstoneIonia's 1886 courthouse is the largest structure ever built from local Ionia sandstone, capped by a domed cupola and a statue of Justice.
The Burr Oak farmer who put the railroad on three wheelsGeorge Sheffield of Burr Oak patented a three-wheeled railroad velocipede in 1879 after his hand-built track car helped stop a train wreck.
The chief buried under the village's nameTekonsha carries the name of a Potawatomi leader whose remains are buried in the village, on land settled in the early 1830s where the St. Joseph River bends.
The college Cass County voted itself into existenceSouthwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac opened in 1966 after Cass County voters approved a $1.5 million tax levy in 1964 to build a community college of their own.
The day kitty litter was invented in CassopolisCat litter was invented in Cassopolis in 1947 when Edward Lowe handed a neighbor a bag of absorbent clay instead of sand — the start of a billion-dollar industry.
The Huron, the last lightship on the Great LakesMoored at Port Huron's Pine Grove Park, Lightship No. 103 — the Huron — was the last floating lighthouse on the Great Lakes and is a National Historic Landmark.
The Marantette House, where a trading post met a treatyPatrick Marantette built his 1835 Greek Revival house beside a Potawatomi trading post on the St. Joseph at Mendon; a descendant later ran General Motors.
The old San is now a federal fortressBattle Creek's Italian Renaissance health spa — Dr. Kellogg's famous Sanitarium — became an Army hospital, then a federal center named for three wounded senators.
The Quaker store that ran the Underground RailroadErastus and Sarah Hussey helped more than 1,000 freedom seekers through Battle Creek; a bronze monument downtown now honors them alongside Harriet Tubman.
The race track near Ovid that spent the war as a POW campOwosso Speedway opened in 1939, went dark in 1944 to hold German prisoners of war, and came back roaring after V-E Day — and it's still racing today.
The St. Clair Inn, a 1926 Tudor on the riverBuilt in 1926 to give the powerboat capital of Michigan a hotel worthy of it, the half-timbered St. Clair Inn sat empty for years before a $40-million revival reopened it in 2019.
The track through Blissfield is one of the oldest in AmericaThe short line running through Blissfield follows the route of the Erie and Kalamazoo, the first railroad to reach into Michigan Territory, laid in the 1830s.
Vernon's map still follows road, river, and railM-71, the Shiawassee River, and two railroad rights-of-way still shape this small Shiawassee County village.
Where Michigan's land was sold: the White Pigeon Land OfficeWhite Pigeon's 1831 federal land office handled nearly 260,000 acres at $1.25 an acre before the district office moved to Kalamazoo in 1834.
Who Cass County is named for, and what he was known forCass County and Cassopolis are named for Lewis Cass, Michigan's territorial governor from 1813 to 1831, who negotiated vast land-cession treaties with the region's tribes.
Woodland was Woodland Center before 1892The present village site began with an 1847 settlement, added a blacksmith and store, and kept the name Woodland Center until incorporation in 1892.
Abraham Lincoln's only known Michigan speech was in KalamazooOn August 27, 1856, Abraham Lincoln addressed thousands at a Republican rally in Kalamazoo's Bronson Park — his only known public speech in Michigan.
Almont began as Newburg, then took a Mexican diplomat's nameAlmont's early dates mark different milestones: settlement in 1833, Newburg's establishment in 1834, platting in 1836, the Almont name in 1846, and incorporation in 1865. The village calls itself Michigan's sixth-oldest.
Amway grew from two Ada basements and stayed in townJay Van Andel and Rich DeVos founded Amway from the basements of their Ada homes in 1959, and the company's world headquarters is still in the township.
Atwood Stadium: Flint's 1920s arena, saved by an engineering schoolAtwood Stadium, an 11,000-seat venue in Flint's Carriage Town, opened in the 1920s and is now owned by Kettering University, hosting soccer, high school sports, and concerts.
Bangor's depot and the daily train to ChicagoBangor's restored 1926 brick depot is a working Amtrak stop on the Pere Marquette line — one train a day each way between Grand Rapids and Chicago.
Before it was Brighton, it was 'Ore Creek'Brighton was first settled in the 1830s as a mill village called Ore Creek; the name changed to Brighton when the township was set off in 1838.
Blissfield's Hathaway House, the white mansion on US-223The Hathaway House in Blissfield is an 1850s Greek Revival mansion, also called the David Carpenter House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Brighton's 1879 Old Town Hall, now the CoBACH CenterBrighton's Old Town Hall, built in 1879, once held the village offices, jail, firehouse, and library; today it serves as the CoBACH Center for community events and exhibits.
Brighton's Mill Pond: the downtown's water heart and its three-way bridgeBrighton's downtown wraps around the Mill Pond, a dammed pond on Ore Creek with a paved promenade, a nature boardwalk, and a distinctive three-way pedestrian bridge.
Byron Township's first farm belonged to a man who never worked itByron Township, home to Byron Center, traces its first settlement to Nathan Boynton, who picked out a farm in 1835 but fell ill before he could improve it — so his brothers Jeremiah and William did the work.
Caledonia moved itself a few miles to meet a railroadThe first settler in this part of Kent County ran an inn on the old wagon road, but the village of Caledonia grew up miles away around an 1870 railroad stop called Caledonia Station, and incorporated in 1888.

Page feedback

See something wrong or unclear?

Send a note about this page. The page address will be included automatically.

Send a note