Kalamazoo, Michigan

Kalamazoo is a city located in Kalamazoo County in southwest Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 77,145. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County6.

History

At the time white explorers first began arriving, the area was home to the Potawatomi Indians. The 1821 Treaty of Chicago ceded all the territory south of the Grand River to the United States federal government. However, the area around present-day Kalamazoo was reserved as the village of Chief Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish. In the September 19, 1827, Treaty with the Potawatomi, the tract that became the city was also ceded. The village had been a fur trading center.

Related Topics:
Potawatomi - Treaty of Chicago - Grand River - Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish - September 19 - 1827 - Treaty with the Potawatomi - Fur trading

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White settlers began to arrive in 1829, led by Titus Bronson, originally from Connecticut. He platted the town in 1831 and named it the village of Bronson (not to be confused with the much-smaller Bronson, Michigan about fifty miles to the south-southeast).

Related Topics:
Titus Bronson - Connecticut - 1831 - Bronson, Michigan

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Bronson was frequently described as "eccentric" and argumentative and was later run out of town. The village of Bronson was renamed Kalamazoo in 1836. Today, a hospital and a park, among other things, are named after Titus Bronson.

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Kalamazoo legally incorporated as a village in 1838 and as a city in 1883.

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In 1959 Kalamazoo designed the first pedestrian mall in the U.S. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikalama/kalamazoomall.htm

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