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History
In the early years of the 19th Century, the primary inhabitants of the Spring Lake area were Native Americans. Perhaps a missionary or trader might have ventured in from the lakeshore, but for the most part, this was a quiet wilderness. By 1835 that all began to change. Through a series of treaties, the Native Americans slowly gave up their land, and, in 1835, they sold the land north of the Grand River in Kent and Ottawa Counties. Settlers began to arrive.
Some of the first settlers in Spring Lake were Benjamin Hopkins, Jabez Barber, and Richard Mason, who fled Canada during MacKenzie’s rebellion of 1837. John H. Newcomb, who had helped to build and operate a saw mill in Muskegon, arrived in June 1841. He built the first frame house in Mill Point and Barber’s Mill for Jabez Barber and Richard Mason. Benjamin Hopkins also built a sawmill on Spring Lake in 1845.
Village of Spring Lake platted March 4, 1869. Courtesy Grand Haven Area Historical Society.
Bilz stores along south side of 300 W. State (Savidge) Street block built after 1871
fire. Courtesy Grand Haven Area Historical Society .
Bathers at Spring Lake Beach dock and pavilion c.1900.
Courtesy Grand Haven Area Historical Society.
Savidge Street looking west from Spring Lake Village Hall c.1940: south side l to r, Mulder’s Store and Olger Grocery, Braak’s Bakery, Ringold Furniture/Hardware, Nixon’s Meat Market, A&P (SE corner), Campbell’s Drug Store (SW corner), Spencer’s Grocery, Home Café, Spring Lake State Bank, Buckley Hardware, Sheehy Shoe Repair, Borck/McFadden Insurance/Real Estate (three-story, today reduced to two-story), Bottema & Bolthouse Texaco. Courtesy Grand Haven Area Historical Society.
Spring Lake State Street after Big Snow Storm of February 1936, person standing under Buckley Hardware Store sign.
Courtesy Grand Haven Area Historical Society
Buckley Hardware Store, 214 W. State (Savidge) 1915, Elmer Thayer (employee) in front. Photo from Spring Lake Community Centennial.
