316 GENERAL HISTORY. 



KENT COUNTY. 



This county was set off and named by act of the Legislative Council of the 

 Territory, approved March 2d, 1831. Tliis act only included sixteen town- 

 ships. The county was organized by an act of the State Legislature, approved 

 March 2-lth, 1836, to take eflect from and after the first Monday in April 

 next ensuing. 



In 1840, by act of the State Legislature, eight townships were added to 

 the county at the north, increasing its area to twenty-four townships. 



The county was named in honor of Chancellor Kent, a celebrated jurist of 

 the State of New York. 



The county seat is located at Grand Eapids. 



A missionary station was established, at what is now Grand Rapids, in 

 1825, which was removed soon after the Indian title to the lands north of 

 Grand river was extinguished and the Indians removed. 



During the year 1833, Mr. Barrigau, a Catholic missionary, built a school- 

 house and chapel at Grand llapids, on the west side of the river, but this 

 mission also was ultimately abandoned. 



liix Robinson located a trading post at the present Grand Rapids, in 1821, 

 also one at Ada, where he resided. Ilis brother also was located on Grand 

 river, a mile below Ada. 



Louis Campeau also established a trading post at what is now Grand 

 Rapids, in 1826, he being the second person, aside from missionaries and 

 their assistants, to locate in the lower Grand River valley, although Louis 

 Genereau may have preceded him, in Ionia county, during the same year. 



Previous to 18 J2 there were no white settlers in the county except those 

 connected with trading posts or missions. During this year Luther Lincoln 

 (probably the builder of the first grist mill in Plymouth, Wayne county, a 

 few years before) came to Grand Rapids, he being the first immigrant proper. 



In 1833 Louis Campeau and Lucius Lyon, each separately, located and 

 platted lands for village purposes, upon portions of the present site of the 

 city of Grand Rapid?. The portion platted by Campeau was named Grand 

 Rapids, that platted by Lyon was farther up the stream and was named Kent. 

 The latter name has fallen into disuse, and the whole has long since come to 

 be known as Grand Rapids. 



Grandville, in the township of Wyoming, was, in fact, the location of the 

 first actual settlement. The first lands were located here, the first clearings 

 made, the first soil broken by the plow, and the first farm crops grown. 

 This settlement dated from 1832, when lands were entered upon by Luther 

 Lincoln, Robeit Ilowlett, Amos Gordon and Stephen Tucker, They came 

 in the fall of 1832 and raised crops of their own planting in 1833. Liuo-ln 

 took up what was the paper city of Grandville, platted, probably, in the 

 latter year, and upon this ground raised the first corn grown as a farm crop. 



The first house of any description built in Wyoming by white people, was 

 a log shanty built for Lincoln in the fall of 1832. 



Dr. Willson, a young medical graduate, came to Grand Rapids in 1833, 

 when almost the only inhabitants were Campeau and his dependents. He 

 was helped by Campeau to the needful means for the practice of his profes- 

 sion, and became a very successful and popular physician of the growing 

 town. 



