| History |
| The Grand Rapids area was first settled in the
1820s by missionaries and fur traders, who generally lived in
reasonable peace alongside the Ottawa tribespeople who had their
settlements near the Grand River. |
| The official founder of Grand Rapids itself was
Louis Campau, who arrived in November 1826 to trade with the
Indians. Yankee immigrants and others began immigrating from
New York and New England in the 1830s. |
| The city of Grand Rapids was officially created
on May 1, 1850, when the village of Grand Rapids voted to accept
the proposed city charter. The population at the time was 2,686. |
| During the second half of the 19th century the
city became a major lumbering center and the premier furniture
manufacturing city of the United States. For this reason it
was nicknamed "Furniture City". The city also became
a center of Dutch immigration in the 19th century. |
| In 1881, the country's first hydro-electric plant
was put to use on the city's west side. Grand Rapids was home
to the first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United
States when Stout Air Services began Grand Rapids to Detroit
service on July 31, 1926. In 1945, Grand Rapids became the first
city in the United States to add fluoride to its drinking water. |
| Grand Rapids has several large ethnic communities.
It is home to the headquarters of the Christian Reformed Church
and is a center of the Reformed Church in America, both because
of the presence of a large group of Dutch Americans. Grand Rapids
is also home to a large Polish American and African American
communities and a growing Hispanic community. |
