TOWNS
Kent County Courthouse is located at 180 Ottawa Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503; phone: 616-632-5480.
Beginnings [1]
The county of Kent was organized in 1836. It was at that time very thinly populated, 15 years only having elapsed since the first white settler placed his foot upon the soil. Rix Robinson came in 1821 and remained several years almost entirely alone, trading with the Indians. In 1826 Uncle Louis Campau settled here, and from that time forward the county has been steadily settling up.
Grand River enters the county on its east line, and meandering northwesterly and southwesterly, touches in its course eight townships and passes out a little south of a point directly opposite of the place of entrance. At the rapids, in the City of Grand Rapids, it furnishes an immense water power, which has been put to considerable use.
Thornapple River forms a junction with the Grand at the village of Ada, the Flat River at the village of Lowell, and the Rouge River at Austerlitz (formerly Plainfield).
HISTORIC SITES