Editing Fennville, Michigan (section)

== History ==
[[File:Fennville, Michigan Post Office.jpg|thumb|left|United States Post Office in Fennville]]
The "official" and widely accepted account of how the city came to be known as Fennville, is that an early white settler by the name of Elam Atwater Fenn<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n124 125]}}</ref> built a saw mill in the immediate vicinity of the current community. This led to people referring to the settlement as "Fenn's Mill" which became the name associated with the post office there. Some early documents pluralized "Mill" to render "Fenn's Mills." The first road through what was to be Fennville was built by Harrison Hutchins and James McCormick in 1837.<ref>{{cite web |title=Western County 1837 Plat Map |url=http://fennville.memorieshop.com/Pilgrims/index.html#Map |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006055830/http://www.fennville.memorieshop.com/Pilgrims/index.html#Map |url-status=usurped |archive-date=October 6, 2008 |website=fennville.memorieshop.com |access-date=15 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hutchins |first1=Henry Hudson |title=Recollections of the Pioneers of Western Allegan County |date=1977 |publisher=COMMERCIAL RECORD-RESORTER |page=40 |url=http://fennville.memorieshop.com/History/Recollections/page-2.html |access-date=15 April 2020}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

A fire (possibly related to the [[Great Chicago Fire]] or [[Great Michigan Fire]]) destroyed the village in October 1871. About that time, the paperwork (timetables and such) for the recently completed [[Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad]] arrived which identified the community's station as "Fennville." This was thought by some at the time (including Hutchins) to have been the result of clerical error. However, Fenn himself recorded that the change in name had been suggested by and mutually agreed upon among certain leaders of the community in conjunction with the establishment of the new railroad station. The post office name was then changed to "Fennville" to match the station's name. The community was officially incorporated as the village of Fennville on February 20, 1889.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lane |first1=Kit |title=Fennville The Early Years |date=1982 |publisher=The Fennville Herald |location=Fennville, MI |url=http://fennville.memorieshop.com/History/The-Early-Years/Fire1871.html |access-date=15 April 2020}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

A United States atlas from 1895 indicates the town name was in some cases broken into two words, as in "Fenn Ville." Yet another documented variation was "Fennsville," as found in a plat book from 1873.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lake |first1=D. J. |title=Atlas of Allegan County Michigan / from actual surveys by and under the direction of D. J. Lake ; assisted by B. N. Griffing... [et al.] |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/2897686.0001.001/81 |website=Michigan County Histories |publisher=C. O. Titus |access-date=15 September 2023}}</ref>