Category: East Lansing Names
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Robert Burcham and the Burcham family
Robert B. and Hannah (Booty) Burcham emigrated from Norfolk, England with all but the eldest of their nine children and in 1837 settled on a forty-acre plot in Jackson County. They fared well over the next few decades, acquiring more than 400 acres of land in Jackson and Lenawee counties and raising another three children.…
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The Harrison Family
Almond Harrison Jr (1802–1892) and Eliza Newton Harrison (1805–1892) moved from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, to the Territory of Michigan around 1826, more than a decade before statehood. They settled in Lenawee County, on an irregular lot of about 120 acres on the east bank of the River Raisin, east of Blissfield. Over the next nine…
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The East Lansing State Bank
More than six decades after the Michigan Agricultural College was founded, and more than nine years after the city of East Lansing was chartered, the community still lacked any local banking institutions. The nearest banks were in Lansing, and while the capital city had several savings banks to choose from, not one had a branch office…
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Krentel Brothers
The Krentel Brothers were local businessmen and developers, connected with the College for decades and an important factor in East Lansing’s growth. Theirs is a classic tale of the American Dream. George P. Krentel (1844–1925) was born Jürgen Peter Kreutel in Flensburg, a port town on the Danish–German border. He married Mathilde Møller (aka Matilda…