The City of Ionia is the largest city in Ionia County, Michigan, and the county seat. It was organized into a city in 1873.
This is an excerpt from the "Souvenir of Ionia", published by Chas. J. Seely in 1907. The Souvenir offers an in-depth look at Ionia's rich history, written and photographed from the then-current perspective of 1907, now more than a hundred years ago:
"People of this generation, reared among the conveniences of the twentieth century, know absolutely nothing of the hardships and pleasures attendant upon pioneer life. The attractiveness of our beautiful farms and picturesque landscapes, dotted here and there with neat and substantial residences and modern farm buildings, presents a very pleasing contrast to the humble log cabin of the 'thirties' (1830s), whose walls sheltered a few articles of rude furniture, while stumps in the dooryards were the repositories of the cross-cut saw, the beetle and the ax.
Many of the men who were very largely instrumental in the development of this immediate locality were born beneath these humble roofs, their infantile cries being hushed by a mother's soft lullaby as she rockedĀ them to sleep in a cradle improvised from a basswood sugar trough."
The Grand River, (the largest river in Michigan), and its tributaries, the Maple, Flat, and Looking Glass, are rivers that have seen the development of the land here from the days of the Chippewa, Pottawatomie and Ottawa Indians who lived along their banks to the coming of the first white settler in the 1830s, Samuel Dexter, who started the town of Ionia.
Download a File:
Souvenir of Ionia, 1907
Visit Online:
Ionia County Historical Society
Samuel Dexter Thread, Ancestry.com
114 North Kidd Street Map
Post Office Box 496
Ionia, Michigan 48846
Phone 616-527-4170
Fax 616-527-0810
Business Hours:
Monday - Friday, 8:00a - 4:00p
(Holiday exception)
EMERGENCIES: PHONE 911
For local news and information,
tune to WION AM 1430/FM 92.7
or read the Ionia Sentinel-Standard