Once Called ‘Ingham Center’, Dansville Remains a True Survivor
Ingham County was named after Samuel D. Ingham, who spent his life in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. If he ever made it to Michigan, I would be surprised...but for some reason, Michiganders in the 1800s thought enough of him to name a whole county after him.
He was a member of the House of Representatives and Congress, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Secretary of the Treasury. He quit politics in 1830 and stuck to being a businessman until he died in 1860 at the age of 81.
Ingham Township was named after the county, with the first settler, Marcus Beers, arriving in 1836. In 1844, Sam Crossman arrived from New York and set up his home in Ingham Center, opening the first store in 1847.
In 1857, Sam sold the store to his son Daniel who platted the town in 1857. He re-named Ingham Center after himself as “Dansville” It was his intention of making Dansville the nerve-center of the township, and possibly the whole county. The village was finally incorporated in 1867.
Dansville's central location made the town a very popular stagecoach stop, en route between Dexter and Mason. Dansville was LOADED with establishments: blacksmith, carpenter, carriage shops, churches, cooper shop, doctors' offices, general store, grist mill, hotel, lumber yard, mill yard, post office, saw mill, schools, several other shops & stores, and taverns.
Travelers reveled in the Dansville shopping experience when they made the stopover by stagecoach! But in 1870, the Michigan Railroad (the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw R.R.) bypassed Dansville and went straight south - from Lansing through Mason to Jackson. The railroad did away with stagecoaches, which took business and trade away from Dansville. But the townsfolk worked the farmland, maintained, and saved the village.
Today, Dansville retains a small-town atmosphere and still keeps going, despite fires, tragedies, and tribulations over the 100+ years. The population number is reported to be mostly unchanged, basically staying the same for over a century.
The village deserves your visit and respect.
