Editing Lapeer, Michigan (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2020|talk=History section}}
By an ordinance of the Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787, the area lying northwest of the Ohio River, though still occupied by the British, was organized as the Northwest Territory. Lapeer County was once part of the Northwest Territory. In January 1820, the county of Oakland was formed, which served the area now known as Lapeer, until the County of Lapeer was formed in 1837, when Michigan became a state. The first elections were for county officers, with 520 persons voting in 1837.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=County|first=Michigan History of Lapeer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uz0XAQAAMAAJ&q=lapeer+mi|title=History of Lapeer County, Michigan: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers|date=1884|publisher=H. R. Page|isbn=978-0-608-34216-0|language=en}}</ref>

Folklore claims Lapeer was derived from the naming of the south branch of the Flint River, which flows northwestward in Lapeer County. French and Indian traders frequently passed over this section of the county and through the river, ultimately naming the city for the stone that lay at the river bottom. In French, stone is called "la pierre";<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n130 181]}}</ref> the English pronunciation of these words gives Lapeer. The river was named Flint, synonymous with stone.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Welcome to Lapeer, MI|url=https://www.ci.lapeer.mi.us/history1.php|access-date=2020-12-24|website=www.ci.lapeer.mi.us}}</ref> (See [[List of Michigan county name etymologies]].)

It is also believed that the first settlers who came from New York State may have brought the name Lapeer from a similarly named city in their home state. A third supposition is that French missionaries named the city Le Pere, meaning The Father.

The first settlers in Lapeer were a group of men named [[Alvin N. Hart]], Oliver B. Hart, and J.B. Morse.<ref name=":0" /> The most prominent of the three, Alvin N. Hart, was born in Cornwall, Connecticut, on February 11, 1804. He came to Lapeer in 1831 and platted the Village of Lapeer, November 8, 1833. The plat was registered in Pontiac on December 14, 1833, in the County of Oakland; four years before Michigan became a state and Lapeer became a county. Alvin N. Hart became a State Senator in 1843, representing Lapeer, Oakland, Genesee, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Saginaw Counties and the entire Upper Peninsula. He was instrumental in having the State Capitol relocated from Detroit to Lansing. Hart died on August 22, 1874, and is buried in Lapeer.<ref name=":1" />

The second group of settlers were Enoch J. White and his family.<ref name=":0" /> He was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1814. He came to Lapeer in 1833. Of pioneer stock, Alvin N. Hart and Enoch J. White both had the initiative to start new communities. Mr. Hart formed Lapeer and Mr. White formed what was then known as Whitesville, which now consists of the western portion of Lapeer. A tamarack swamp once separated these two settlements.<ref name=":1" />

Other distinguished natives include [[John Treadway Rich|John T. Rich]], former governor of the state of Michigan; [[Louis C. Cramton]], special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 1931 and 1932. He led studies of the area around the Colorado River that led to the establishment of the first National Recreation Area, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Charles Potter, whose son became a U.S. Senator; William Reed, Big Ten Football Commissioner; and [[Marguerite de Angeli|Marguerite deAngeli]], internationally known writer of children's books.<ref name=":1" />

At one time, there were two courthouses. The White family erected one at the present site of the Old Lapeer High School at Main and Genesee Streets, while the Hart family erected one at Nepessing and Court Streets. The Board of Supervisors purchased the Hart courthouse for $3,000, which is now the oldest continuously running courthouse in the state of Michigan and one of the oldest 10 courthouses in the United States. White's courthouse later became the first school in Lapeer called Lapeer Academy.<ref name=":1" />

Over time, it became evident that the business district would be near the Courthouse, so the city's founders moved the Opera House piece-by-piece to its present location at the southeast corner of Court and Nepessing Streets in 1879. The building is now known as the White Block.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

Lapeer's first church was the Congregational Church; organized in 1833, the same year Lapeer was platted. The Methodist Episcopal Church opened its doors a year later, followed by the Baptist Church in 1858, the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in 1866, the Universalist Church in 1873, the Methodist Protestant Church in 1877 and the Grace Episcopal Church in 1882.<ref name=":1" />

Lumbering was the sole industry in the early days of Lapeer. The flourishing lumber business attracted the New York Central Railroad and Grand Trunk Railroad. Lapeer later became the intersection to two state trunk lines: M-21 and M-24. Industries today supply the automotive industry with gray iron casting, molded plastics, plastic fabrics, electrical harnesses and stamping.<ref name=":1" />

On October 26, 2010,<ref>{{cite news|last=Thorne|first=Blake|title=Karegnondi Water Authority sets course for cutting ties with Detroit water|url=http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/10/karegnondi_water_authority_set.html|access-date=6 December 2011|newspaper=[[Flint Journal]]|date=October 27, 2010}}</ref> Lapeer became a founding member of the [[Karegnondi Water Authority]].<ref name="Karegnondi Water Authority">{{cite news|last=Fonger|first=Ron|title=Years in the making, Karegnondi Water Authority is ready to set new course for water |url=http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/10/karegnondi_water_authority_is.html |access-date=6 December 2011|newspaper=Flint Journal|date=October 23, 2010}}</ref>

On August 15, 2012, the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot was won from a ticket sold at a [[Sunoco]] station in Lapeer. The jackpot had an [[Annuity (US financial products)|annuity value]] of $337 million.<ref>{{Cite web|title=$337 Million Powerball Winner Told Whole Family to Retire|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/michigan-337-million-powerball-winner-told-family-retire/story?id=17126274|access-date=2020-12-24|website=ABC News|language=en}}</ref>