The Plymouth Railroad Station was
built in 1871 by the Pere Marquette
Railroad. The only place in Michigan where railroad tracks go in all
four directions, bringing goods and services from points east and
west, and north and south through the Plymouth Community. Local
residents may become frustrated when a breakdown on the train causes
some of our railroad crossings to be blocked and traffic is at a
standstill in the community.
Before the coming of
the railroad,
Plymouth
was serviced by a toll road known as "
Plymouth Plank Road
" from
1850 to 1872. Planks were on the right side only for heavy-laden
wagons going to market. Wagons coming back to
Plymouth
empty were to use the dirt
side and there was no toll for the homeward trip.
The following stores
and industries, while no longer standing, were at one time located in
Old
Village
:
· We think of the brewery which became a cheese factory. Dr. MVB
Saunders of
Detroit
sold the spring water from here in 1893 for $1.00 per gallon. It was
advertised as "positive specific for kidney and bladder
troubles" and claimed to cure "after all other remedies
failed".
· Two cigars - the Plymouth Mail and Champion - were
manufactured here by George Springer. He gave up cigar making when in
1912 he became Village Marshall - a one man police force.
· The Ashery Plant existed from 1850
to 1867. Here, four men converted hardwood ashes into potash from
which huge bars of hard yellow soap were made. In the spring, farmers
and householders hauled winter ashes to the plant and received bars
of soap in exchange. The bars were a foot in length, but shrunk to
one-half that size when aged.
· A thriving grist mill was built in 1850 by 32 men at a
building bee. In 1921, Henry Ford built on this site a plant which
manufactured taps for the River Rouge Plant in
Detroit
.
· If you visit
Greenfield
Village
today, you will see
the Kensler Home which stood at Farmer and
Mill Streets, and is not located in the
Old
Village
area. There are several antique, art, hobby and specialty shops,
along with several restaurants.
The
Dunning
Memorial
Building
near historic
Kellogg
Park
is the home of the
Plymouth
Historical
Museum
. The museum's purpose,
in the words of benefactor Margaret Dunning, is to provide for all
who enter:
"Knowledge of our Forefathers,
enjoyment of our heritage, encouragement toward preservation, and
inspiration to continued progress, for without a past, there is no
future."
And what a glorious
past
Plymouth
has had!
Company C of the 24th
Michigan Regiment, which fought so bravely and so tragically at
Gettysburg
, was formed from
Plymouth
farm boys, gathered at
Kellogg
Park
. The Alter
Car Company manufactures automobiles here from 1914 to 1916. And,
figuring most prominently in the history of the City, the Daisy Air
Rifle Company began here in 1886 and earned for
Plymouth
the title of "Air
Rifle Capital of the World".
How
Plymouth
Got Its
Name
A meeting of the
settlers was held on February 26, 1827, to select an official name
for the community. The downtown are was known unofficially as
"Podunk", and the north end of town at
Main
and Mill was known as "Joppa". At the meeting, the name
"Peking" was proposed in honor of the Chinese city, since
there was much interest in
China
in this country at
the time. When the dust settled, the first choice was "LeRoy", wrote recording secretary A. B.
Markham, but if that name has already been used, the second choice
was "
Plymouth
", which was
proposed for its historical ties to
Plymouth
,
Massachusetts
,
the area from which some of the local settlers had come.
Territorial Governor
Cass approved the name "
Plymouth
"
in April, 1827, at which time
Plymouth
was established as a super township comprising the areas which are
now
Plymouth
,
Canton
and Northville. The south
part of the area - Township Two South - was referred to as "
South Plymouth
." It became a separate
township named
Canton
in 1834, again
in response to the interest in
China
.
Community centers
developed at both ends of
Plymouth
Township
during
the mid-1800's. The
Village
of
Plymouth
was
incorporated by an act of the State Legislature in March, 1867. That
same year, another Legislative Act established the
Village
of
Northville
.
This resulted in a significant loss of political power to
Plymouth
Township
, which then had two
competing village governments working through the same Township
Board.
How
Plymouth
Township
Was Divided into Two
Parts
On a Saturday morning
in March of 1898, some 100 residents of
Plymouth
Township
met in the Opera
House in the
Village
of
Northville
to decide whether Northville should set up its own township.
Arguments for separation included the inconvenient travel distance
required of Northville residents in dealing with the Township Board
offices in
Plymouth
Village
, and
the preferential maintenance attention which the bridges in the south
part of the township received, compared to the bridges in the north
end of the township. The distance problem was supported by the fact
that only 12 south-end residents attended the north-end meeting.
When the vote was
taken, it was 40 to 30 in favor of splitting
Northville
Township
off from
Plymouth
Township
. This final split
reduced
Plymouth
Township
from
its original size of 72 square miles, down to its present size of
15.9 square miles. The
Township
of
Northville
and
Plymouth
are the only
Michigan
case of half-sized
townships resulting from a split rather than annexation by a City.
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