The Town with Six Names: Rare Photos of Addison, Lenawee County

It was sometime between 1834-1836 (different sites vary as to exact year) when John Talbot came here to settle by claiming a homestead and building a grist mill. Once a post office was given to this new settlement, the villagers had a hard time deciding what to name their new community.

FAST FACTS:
May, 1838: The post office was given the name 'Manetau'
December, 1838: The name of the post office was changed to 'Peru'
July, 1840: Another name change occurred – this time it was re-dubbed 'Brownell's Mills'
May, 1844: A brand new mill was constructed by Darius Jackson and added to the community; therefore, the post office and town were now called 'Jackson's Mills'
1847: Part of Jackson's Mills was platted and called 'Harrison'
1851: Finally, along came Addison Comstock, a wealthy banker from Adrian who decided to come here and buy many, many acres of land
July, 1852: The village and post office were now known as 'Addison'
1883: The railroad came through
1893: Incorporated as a village

During the pre-1880s and before all that hubbub, the land was occupied by the Potawatomi tribe. The original name of the settlement, 'Manetue', was taken from the Native American word for 'wild spirit'. Even though now we spell the word as “manitou”, whose to say which is the correct spelling?

With the railroad coming through in the 1890s, the village grew and soon there was a hotel to accommodate the flux of people coming to visit and eventually live. More stores and shops came and went over the next 90 years until Addison's last historic building, the old 1800s grist mill was torn down in 1980.

Take a look at how Addison once looked from 1900-1920...