Local History

On August 26, 1836, Reverend Anton Kopp and a large number of farmers from Westphalia, Germany, sailed from Breman and landed in New York five weeks later.  They pressed on to Detroit and then to Ionia where, in the recently opened land office, they could buy the most for their slender means.  They had come as a unit and they bought as a unit the land on which their descendants live today.  Shoemaker Anton Dunnebacker built the first house in 1849.  Reverend George Godez became the first postmaster on September 5, 1851.  Joseph Platte built the first store in 1852, and in 1854, John A. Fedewa put in a stock of goods.  Incorporated as a village in 1883.

Informational excerpts from Michigan Place Names, by Walter Romig, L.H.D.

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