A short history of Allegan
The men after whom Allegan's downtown streets were named – Elisha Ely, Samuel Hubbard, Charles Christopher Trowbridge, Pliny Cutler, and Edmund Monroe – patented land in the area in 1833. They considered the site a prime location for industry, due to its potential for water power (since it straddled the Kalamazoo River) and water bound transportation. By 1835, a dam and sawmill had been established.
Allegan was named in a neologism by Michigan historian Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in 1837 to sound like a Native American word. Land was purchased from government to form the downtown business district; village organization came in 1838 with city incorporation authorized in 1907.
In 1886, a one-lane bridge was built over the Kalamazoo River to connect limited highway M-89 to the downtown area. The bridge fell into disrepair and was going to be removed until a group of activists raised the money to restore the bridge in 1983. Now a highlight of Allegan, the one-lane bridge is used in the city logo and is considered an important part of the city.
In 1914, Allegan entered the automobile race car industry as the manufacturing site of Howard E. Blood and Louis Chevrolet's chain-drive Cornelian automobile. The venture was short-lived, and less than 100 Cornelians were produced.
Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Allegan, Michigan, revision 1377057305 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.