Ionia Area Information

Ionia Today…

Ionia is a classic example of a modest mid-western town, with friendly neighbors, a historic downtown business district, and beautiful old homes surrounded by rolling, wooded countryside. As with any 21^st-century community, modern schools, transportation, and technology has accompanied the town’s growth, including an expanding “retail corridor” south of town along M-66 reaching towards I-96.

To living in the Ionia area is to live with traditional values – a great place to raise a family and enjoy the quiet pace, punctuated with hometown celebrations and plenty of opportunity for recreation and entertainment as well. Local theater, movies, music, golf, tennis, horse trails, canoeing, fishing, sledding, cross-country ski trails, great parks and more…so much to do and so little time!

Service clubs, youth organizations and churches all take and active leadership role in the community. Healthcare providers are extremely involved in making life better for everyone. All the business and industrial entities in the area are driven to help develop jobs and economic growth. The Public Safety and governmental sectors are dedicated to service and progress. Many volunteer opportunities are available to help improve your quality of life and that of others. All these different segments work together to make the Ionia community a great place to live, work, and visit.

Ionia lies conveniently between Grand Rapids and Lansing, and like many such communities becomes home to many commuters to and from those cities. For the business community, highways, railroads, and air traffic to suppliers and distributors effectively connect Ionia across the state and beyond. Centered in a countywide population of over 60,000, this is a community with great promise for today and tomorrow.

Historically Speaking…

In May of 1833, Samuel Dexter and his colony of 62 people arrived from Herkimer County, New York to settle along the Grand River. The area Ojibway sold their wigwams and vegetable gardens to these early settlers for a $25.00 coin and resettled down-river. The first few years of pioneer life were difficult. By the time the settlers arrived, it was almost too late to plant crops, and a frost in late June of 1834 destroyed many of the crops that were planted. Several of the original settlers decided to move on to the Grand Rapids, lured by Louis Campau, who owned a successful trading post there.

Oliver Arnold and his family established a blacksmith shop south of the river. This later developed into Arnold’s Machine Company is now the oldest family business in Ionia. Erastus Yeomans was appointed Ionia’s first postmaster under President Jackson, and W. B. Lincoln was Ionia’s first physician and schoolteacher. Samuel Dexter built a sawmill the September following the settlers’ arrival. A gristmill, used to grind wheat, was employed the year after, bringing much relief to residents used to traveling in poor conditions to Pontiac for flour. The mill, powered by West Creek, was located where the Armory/Chamber office is now the corner of West Main and Dexter Streets.

Dexter originally wanted to call the settlement “Washington Center,” but the territorial government in Detroit assigned county names to their surveys and the new town became known as Ionia County Seat, later just “Ionia” despite Dexter’s choice. Names from the “Classical Period” of history were very popular in the early 1800s, and Ionia borrows its name from a region in the Aegean Sea colonized by the Greeks c. 1050-1000 B.C.

Gradually, Ionia, Michigan grew into a thriving business community. Along with the railroad and steam power came lumberyards, brickyards, a roofing company, a furniture shop, a button factory (closed when clamshells from the Grand River could no longer be found), a pottery company, and a number of other establishments. The Ionia Sentinel Standard began recording history with its first issue published on May 1, 1886. By the end of the 19^th century, Ionia had become a major crossroads in travel, trade, and political power as well.

Ionia continued to blossom into the rich gem of culture and architecture it is today in the twentieth century. Today, restored brick avenues and more than 200 historic homes and commercial structures, including the 1885 Ionia County Courthouse, whisper of an era gone but not forgotten. Ionia is proud of its rich and dynamic heritage, and looks forward to a future equally as promising.

The Ionia County Historical Society is headquartered in the John C. Blanchard House & Museum, a Victorian mansion in Ionia’s East Main Street historic district. The Histocial Society works to preserve the heritage of Ionia and its residents within the setting of this beautiful home. Many of Ionia’s institutions have a long history, including the Hall-Fowler Public Library, Post Office and many beautiful churches. Among these historic structures is the Ionia Theatre, built Art Deco style in the 1930’s and newly restored, which has entertained Ionia residents for nearly seven decades.