DeWitt: First Settlement in Clinton County

DeWitt, Michigan is one of the earliest settlements in Clinton County, planted in eighteen thirty-three when Captain David Scott arrived from Ann Arbor and platted the land. The township took shape by legislative act on March twenty-third, eighteen thirty-six. Both the town and the county carry names that trace back to DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York in the eighteen twenties and the political force behind the Erie Canal.

Since DeWitt was the original county seat, it received the governor's first name while the county took his last. The seat moved to Saint Johns in eighteen fifty-seven, and DeWitt remained a quiet township community until being incorporated as a village in nineteen twenty-nine, eventually growing into a busy suburb north of Lansing.