Editing Osceola County, Michigan (section)

==History==
[[Image:1842 Manistee Kawtawwabet Missaukee Mickenauk Ogemaw Kanotin Notipeskago Aishcum Unwattin Kaykakee Gladwin Arenac counties Michigan.jpg|thumb|A detail from ''[[:File:1842 A new map of Michigan with its canals roads distances by H.S. Tanner.jpg|A New Map of Michigan with its Canals, Roads & Distances]]'' (1842) by [[Henry Schenck Tanner]], showing Osceola County as Unwattin, the county's name from 1840 to 1843.<ref name=Newberry/>|left]]

When established by the Michigan Legislature on April 1, 1840, it was named '''Unwattin County''',<ref name=Newberry>{{cite web|url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/MI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107012849/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/MI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 7, 2012|title=Michigan: Individual County Chronologies|author=Newberry Library|author-link=Newberry Library|website=Atlas of County Historical Boundaries|access-date= November 4, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=George Dawson |date=1840 |title=Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan Passed at the Annual Session of 1840 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDg4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA196 |location=Detroit |pages=196–200}}</ref> after Chief Unwattin of the local [[Ottawa (tribe)|Ottawa]] people.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_idCAQAAMAAJ&dq=unwattin+indian&pg=PA468|title=Michigan Historical Collections|date=October 6, 2018|publisher=The Commission|via=Google Books}}</ref> As a representative of the Ottawa nation, he participated in negotiations for the [[Treaty of Washington (1836)]] that granted a vast expanse of Michigan to the US Federal Government.<ref name=Newberry/> The name was changed March 8, 1843, to [[Osceola]], after the [[Seminole]] chief who achieved renown in Florida.<ref name="Clarke"/>

The county was initially attached for administrative purposes to [[Ottawa County, Michigan|Ottawa County]]. In 1855, it was attached to [[Mason County, Michigan|Mason County]]; in 1857, to [[Newaygo County, Michigan|Newaygo County]]; and in 1859, to [[Mecosta County, Michigan|Mecosta County]].<ref name=Newberry/>

As the population increased, separate county government was organized in 1869, with [[Hersey, Michigan|Hersey]] designated as the county seat. Reed City became the official county seat in 1927.<ref name="Clarke"/> The county was developed initially for harvesting and processing lumber, and many European Americans came to work in lumbering and the mills.