1618

Etienne Brule discovered Michigan while trying to find a northwest passage.

1668

Father Jacques Marquette organized the first white settlement in Michigan at Sault Ste. Marie.

1679

French explorer LaSalle explored the St. Joseph river to South Bend.

1751

Fort Ponchartrain (later named Detroit) was built to protect the French fur trade with the Indians.

1783

Michigan formally passed into the hands of the Americans at the end of the Revolutionary War.

1787

Michigan became part of the newly organized Northwest Territory. Constant Indian attacks prohibited white settlement.

1805

Michigan was organized as a territory. Less than a dozen small white settlements were in all of Michigan

1813

General Lewis Cass was appointed Governor over the Territory of Michigan

1814

The British gave up the last of their outlying posts in Michigan. Hunter and trapper Zaccheus Wooden began trapping fur on the shores of Diamond Lake and returned to his home in the East after the trapping season.

1818

Michigan public lands were opened to settlers. Governor Cass encouraged settlement by improved relations with the Indians.

1821

The Chicago Treaty with the Indians stipulated that the U.S. had the privilege of making and using a road through Indian country from Detroit to Chicago. The Chicago Road (South Trail) followed the winding path used for centuries by the Indians. The Potawatomies ceded away all of the land in southwestern Michigan east of the St. Joseph River in this treaty.  Three thousand Indians were present at the conference.

1825

The Erie Canal opened and made way for settlers to come to Michigan from the East. Uzziel Putnam became the first permanent white settler in the Cass County area. Putnam founded the settlement of Pokagon Prairie.

1828

Many Potawatomi Indians were still living in the area during the early period of settlement. Some of the Indian leaders during this period are; Topinabee - a true friend of the white man, Weesaw - a large man, over 6 feet tall, who had 3 wives and was often seen in the white settlements, Shavehead - an ill tempered, sullen and insolent man who had a lock of flowing hair down his back, Pokagon - a converted Roman Catholic. Indians who lived around Diamond Lake cut large trees and hollowed them out to make fishing canoes used to catch whitefish and enormous pike. At some time Indians apparently built an underwater stepping-stone trail from Geneva Shores to the north point of the island.

1829

Job Wright, the recluse with two thumbs on one hand, isolated himself on the island in Diamond Lake due to his dislike for humanity. He may have been the most unusual man ever to walk the shores of Diamond Lake. He always wore buckskin breeches and a fringed shirt secured at the waist with a leather belt from which he suspended a sheath for his long hunting knife. He built a log cabin on the island where he lived until his death in 1842. His grave marker can be found in Prospect Hill cemetery. A village post office was set up in Mr. Silvers “Old Red Store”.

1830

Cass County was organized and named after Governor Cass. The town of Geneva was platted on the north shore of Diamond Lake and intended to be the county seat. Oxen drawn carts brought supplies from Detroit for the first general store in the new community.

1831

The Village of Cassapolis was platted. Cassapolis was chosen over Geneva as the county seat after a long and bitter controversy. The first double log cabin was constructed and opened as a hotel. A road commission was formed to build corduroy roads in the county.

1832

The settlers had concern for their safety when news of the Blackhawk Indian war reached them. They made plans to fortify themselves on Diamond Island, but the war ends before it reached Cass County. Work on the Chicago Road was interrupted by the war.

1833

The first jail was built in the Village of Cassapolis (The old lock can be seen in the Log Cabin Museum).

1834

Chicago Road was completed and passed just north of Diamond Lake. (This road is now called M-60).

1835

The first Cass County courthouse was built in the Village of Cassapolis. Stage Coach service began on Chicago Road.

1837

Michigan became a state.

1838

Most of the Potawatomi Indians are removed to Kansas. Only Leopold Pokagon’s tribe were allowed to remain in a village about a mile west of the St. Joseph River and just north of the Indiana state line.

1842

The Underground Railroad was established to provide secret shelter for slaves fleeing the South. These safe havens were called stations and the men living at the stations were called conductors. Covered wagons were hitched and ready to go at a moments notice. There were two stations in Cass County kept by Stephen Bogue.

1843

The Ritter General Store opened in the Village of Cassapolis (The store once stood on Broadway where the Village Floral Shop is now located and was moved across from the Post Office where it still stands.) The first schoolhouse was built out of logs.

1844

Hunters and trappers of this time carved the date and their names on a giant Beech tree on Diamond Island. (This tree is still standing on the island.)

1845

The CASS COUNTY ADVOCATE rolled off the presses as the first newspaper published in Cassapolis. Its politics were Democratic.

1847

Enraged Kentuckians sent raiding parties into Cass County to try to recover runaway slaves who were being hidden at the farms of Quakers while on their way to Canada.

1848

Black bears were numerous around the Village of Cassopolis and more than 20 were shot.

1850

The NATIONAL DEMOCRAT newspaper, successor to the CASS COUNTY ADVOCATE, was published and announced the change in spelling of Cassapolis to Cassopolis.

1863

The Village of Cassopolis was incorporated. The census reports that there were 475 persons residing in the village.