Editing Nashville, Michigan (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2024}}
The initial [[plat]] for Nashville was on land originally purchased by John R. Pettibone on February 15, 1836. The land was part of [[Barry Township, Michigan|Barry Township]] and then [[Hastings Township, Michigan|Hastings Township]] until February 16, 1842, when the land became Section 36 of the newly formed [[Castleton Township, Michigan|Castleton Township]]. By 1865, Robert B. Gregg owned the land and platted 127 lots on the south side of the Thornapple River. The survey was done by Joshua Martin and certified on October 2, 1865. Gregg's first lot sale was to Enos Kuhlman. By 1875, seven additions had been made to the original plat.

In 1852, Henry Feighner and his brother Solomon arrived from Ohio seeking to buy land. In addition to {{convert|80|acre|m2}} purchased from Horace Butler, Henry bought the property of Hiram Hanchett, including Hanchett’s sawmill located on the west side of the Thornapple. Solomon managed the sawmill until Henry sold the property to Phillip Holler in about 1865.

In 1867, across the river from Holler's sawmill, a gristmill was built by Eli and M. V. B. Mallett, and G. W. Johnson. Holler bought the new gristmill from the Mallett's and Johnson in 1868. Holler continued to use the original sawmill as a feedmill.

Some time after 1869, probably 1873–1874, Griffith and Grant built a grain elevator alongside the new Grand River Valley Division of the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1874 Ainsworth and Brooks bought the elevator and 3 years later added a steam powered feedmill.  It was at that time that Holler initiated a new patent process for making flour. Holler's mill became known as the Nashville Roller Mills.<ref name="Footnote">[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;view=toc;idno=ARH7558.0001.001] See E. O. Wagner's 1880 article "Castleton" in "History of Allegan and Barry counties, Michigan".</ref> And by 1916, when Louis Lass and son Otto bought the mill, flour was sold as Red-eye Flour.

Until 1869 the community had remained nameless. In 1866 the chief engineer for the Grand River Valley Railroad began a survey for a route from Jackson to Grand Rapids. Garaudus Nash suggested that his name be used. Without objection, the community was named Nashville. On March 26, 1869, Michigan governor [[Henry P. Baldwin|Henry Baldwin]] signed into law the incorporation of the Village of Nashville.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=http://nashvillemi.us/id157.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823002120/http://nashvillemi.us/id157.html |archive-date=August 23, 2011 |access-date=February 17, 2009 |website=Village of Nashville}}</ref>

Commencing in 1920 Nashville was used as the half-way stopping point between the Jackson and Grand Rapids railroad terminals. It took the trains one day (the trains did not travel at night) to reach Nashville from either the Jackson or Grand Rapids terminals.  Prior to 1920 trains had stopped in Hastings overnight. These "stop-overs" required a [[hostler]] to tend the locomotives while the train crew spent the night in town. In 1920 Nashville became the stop-over point and the hostler's job was moved to Nashville.