Editing Owosso, Michigan (section)

==History==
===19th century===
Alfred L. and Benjamin O. Williams were early European-American settlers in the area. They were joined by Elias Comstock, who built the first permanent home in the settlement. Dr. John B. Barnes, a physician and a judge, and Sophronia King Barnes moved to Owosso in 1842. They lived on Oliver and Water streets where they operated an [[Underground Railroad]] waystation, where they provided aid and shelter for enslaved African Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snodgrass |first=Mary Ellen |url=http://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr0000snod |title=The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations |date=2008 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-8093-8 |location=Armonk, New York |pages=40}}</ref>

Owosso was incorporated as a city in 1859, at which time it had 1,000 people. The city's first mayor was Amos Gould, a judge originally from New York. Many other settlers also migrated across the Northern Tier from New York and New England. In 1876, the city organized its fire department.<ref name="1880history">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HmTM_I4BK70C&q=owosso+history&pg=PA144 |title=History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, Michigan; 1880 |year=1880 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

===20th century===
The pattern of settlement and migration resulted in a majority-white city. In the 1950s, Owosso was reported by a major [[Montgomery, Alabama]], newspaper to be a [[sundown town]], where African Americans were not allowed to live or stay overnight.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ward |first=Clifford B. |title=The South Is Fair Game Up North |work=[[The News-Sentinel]] |location=Fort Wayne, Indiana |type=editorial}} Reprinted in {{cite news|title=The South Is Fair Game Up North|work=[[Montgomery Advertiser]]|location=[[Montgomery, Alabama]]|date=July 20, 1956|page=4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29073922/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|quote=''The Advertiser'' has delighted in finding Northern Cities where Negroes are not allowed to live or even to stay overnight, among them Owosso, Mich., birthplace of [[Thomas Dewey]].}}</ref>