History of Allegan County, Michigan

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1907 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. ALLEGAN VILLAGE AND VICINITY. The beginnings at Allegan are later in time than the other localities of settlement previously described, but owing to the enterprise of the projectors of the village and the advantages of its site, coupled with its selection as the county seat, Allegan soon took precedence among the centers of the county. Allegan, perhaps more than any other village; was the product of invested capital, whose active representatives, however, were on the ground personally directing and participating in the building of a village. Nature designed the site of Allegan for village purposes. The long horseshoe bend in the river, by which the swift current after flowing more than a mile from the entrance of the horseshoe is bent back to within a few hundred yards of its beginning, is an ideal situation for the development of water power and was so recognized by the founders of the village. This peculiar adaptability of topography to the enterprise of man must be set down as the originating cause of Allegan's existence. That the judgment of the founders was not at fault is proved by the fact that the peninsula within the bend is well covered with manufacturing enterprises of all kinds, the majority of them depending on water power. George Ketchum, Stephen Vickery and Anthony Cooley were the original purchasers of most of the land on which Allegan village was built. Their purchases were made in the late summer and fall of 1833. In November of that year there came on from Rochester, N. Y., Elisha Ely, evidently a man of means, who possessed the confidence of other investors and was a capable executive. He bought an undivided third of the land owned by Ketchum, Vickery and Cooley, and also agreed to develop the water power and build a saw...