Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo, a city and the county-seat of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Kalamazoo River, about 49 m. S. of Grand Rapids and 144 m. W. of Detroit. Pop. (1900) 24,404, of whom 4710 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 39,437. It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Grand Rapids & Indiana, the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago, and the Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw railways, and by interurban electric lines. The city has a public library, and is the seat of Kalamazoo college (Baptist), which grew out of the Kalamazoo literary institute (1833) and was chartered under its present name in 1855; the Michigan female seminary (Presbyterian), established in 1866; the Western State normal school (1904); Nazareth Academy (1897), for girls; Barbour Hall (1899), a school for boys; two private schools for the feeble-minded; and the Michigan asylum for the insane, opened in 1859. The surrounding country is famous for its celery, and the city is an important manufacturing centre, ranking third among the cities of the state in the value of its factory products in 1904. The value of the factory product in 1904 was $13,141,767, an increase of 82.9% since 1900. The waterworks and electric-lighting plant are owned and operated by the municipality. Kalamazoo was settled in 1829, was known as Bronson (in honour of Titus Bronson, an early settler) until 1836, was incorporated as the village of Kalamazoo in 1838, and in 1884 became a city under a charter granted in the preceding year.