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CHELSEA AREA COMMUNITY RESOURCE GUIDE
CHELSEA: A HISTORY Chelsea is a charming small city in Michigan, about an hour south of Lansing and about an hour west of Detroit. Residents and visitors enjoy a healthy downtown full of unique boutiques, first-class restaurants, and a thriving arts and entertainment scene. With a rich agricultural heritage and manufacturing base, Chelsea continues to offer residents a bustling economy matched with a strong sense of community. The Chelsea area is also full of parks, natural areas, recreation opportunities, and many cultural events, making it an attractive place to live, raise a family, and retire. The area now known as Chelsea was originally settled by the Potawatomi tribe of Native Americans. They used the area as spring and summer hunting and fishing grounds and formed trails that are still used as trails and roads today. In the Treaty of Saginaw in 1819, the United States government negotiated with prominent Native American chiefs, resulting in the U.S. government taking possession of most of the land in lower Michigan. In the 1830s and 1840s, early pioneers began to purchase the land from the U.S. government that would eventually become Chelsea and the surrounding areas. Settlers were drawn to the area because of its rich natural resources. According to historical sources, the plat record from that time described Sylvan Township as having “clear plentiful lakes, valleys and hills and having abundant trees, marshy fertile soil, and lush blue grass.” Many of the early pioneers established farms when they settled in the area. Then a prominent wagon trail (now M-52) and the railroad line from Detroit to Jackson made Chelsea a busy place for trade, and the area grew and developed. An early timeline, up to the 2000s, traces some of the major developments of Chelsea that forged the thriving city it has become today.
1830s
In 1830, Cyrus Beckwith established a farm where the current fairgrounds are located. He purchased 500 acres from the U.S. Government in 1829. Originally from New Hampshire, Beckwith relocated to Ann Arbor before moving to the area that would become Sylvan Township and Chelsea. In 1831, Nathan and Darius Pierce, brothers from Ontario, New York, traveled to the Michigan territory and purchased several hundred acres in Sylvan and Lima townships. Both brothers would become important members of early local and state governments. In 1834, another set of brothers, Elisha and James Congdon, moved to the area from Connecticut and bought the land between the Pierce brothers’ settlements. They established their own village in the area and named it Kedron. This would eventually be renamed Chelsea.
1840s
In the 1840s, a wagon trail from Chelsea to Stockbridge in the north and Manchester in the south was an important hauling route. Because of this, Chelsea became a favorable location for blacksmith shops, coopers, and carriage and wagon makers. In 1841, the Michigan Central Railroad constructed a line through the area that would become Chelsea. In 1849, the first store was built in Chelsea by Elisha Congdon.
1850s
In 1850, Elisha Congdon changed the name of the village of Kedron to Chelsea, named after his place of origin in Connecticut. In 1850, Michigan Central Railroad built a new depot in Chelsea. Its previous depot, which burned down, was located about 2 miles
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