Plainwell, Michigan, owes its nickname to a construction project. In 1856, workers dug a 1½-mile mill race across a bend in the Kalamazoo River. The channel created the Island City and powered the mills that followed.
That fact gives the History of Plainwell Michigan an unusual starting point. Local investors and laborers made the island. Water, railroads, and roads then turned a rural junction into an industrial town.
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Watch: Plainwell Michigan History – Trains, Paper and the Island City Story
A Town Forms at the Junction
A post office opened in 1833. By 1839, Bridge Street crossed the Kalamazoo River, but only three log cabins stood on the future city site. Growth quickened when plank toll roads met at today’s Main and Allegan streets between 1852 and 1854. Stage lines changed horses at the Junction, and the Plainwell House offered meals and lodging.
The village incorporated in 1869. Another Michigan community already used Plainfield, so Plainwell became the official name. Voters chose banker and businessman Joseph W. Hicks as the first village president.
History of Plainwell Michigan Begins With a Man-Made Island
The river fell 16 feet over 1½ miles near the settlement. The Plainwell Water Power Company directed workers to cut a channel nine to 11 feet deep across the bend. The race became infrastructure for a sawmill, rake factory, grist mill, paper mill, public water system, fire protection and later electric generation.
Plainwell’s island identity came from industrial engineering. A channel built for machinery also shaped the street plan and civic center.
Two Railroads Open Four Directions
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern arrived in 1868. The Grand Rapids and Indiana followed in 1870. Their tracks crossed east of the village, opening four directions of travel. Farmers shipped produce, mills moved supplies, and salesmen stayed at the three-story Lawrence House, built in 1874 and demolished in 1930.
The Eesley Mill Moved, and Plainwell Gained a Park
John F. Eesley came to Plainwell from Birmingham, Michigan, in 1881 and settled there in 1887. He bought a building erected about 1869, reportedly as a roller mill, and converted it into the Sunshine flour mill. He later bought the older steam-powered Merrill and McCourtie mill on North Main Street. The two Eesley mills were separate operations.
The Sunshine mill first stood at 119 West Bridge Street. In 1903, Eesley divided the building into two sections, moved it to 717 East Bridge Street, and connected it to an elevator erected there between 1870 and 1873. The National Register study dates the move to 1903; a City of Plainwell marker dates it to 1904…