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Berrien County, Michigan

Berrien Springs history and records

County BerrienFounded 1829

On the valley map

Berrien Springs stands on Wolf's Prairie, a tract of about a thousand acres in a bend of the St. Joseph River. John Pike made the first settlement there in 1829, and the village of Berrien was laid out in 1831. In 1837 the legislature made it the county seat, and the courthouse finished in 1839 still stands on its square, the oldest in Michigan. The seat moved to St. Joseph in 1894, and the old square is now the county's history center.

At a glance

Founded

first settlement by John Pike at Wolf's Prairie, 1829; village of Berrien platted, 1831; post office renamed Berrien Springs, 1836

Name

for the county, which was named for John M. Berrien of Georgia, attorney general under President Jackson, 1829–31; "Springs" was added for the mineral springs found near the village

County seat

from 1837, by an act of February 25 effective May 1, until April 1894, when a county vote moved the seat to St. Joseph; the proprietors gave the county four village lots for its buildings

The courthouse

built by Gilbert B. Avery and opened in April 1839 at a cost of about $2,500; it is called Michigan's oldest courthouse

The first fair

the county agricultural society met at the courthouse in February 1850, and the first county fair was held at Berrien Springs in 1851

Pickles

the village once called itself the Christmas pickle capital of the world, and its pickle festival was revived in 2021

Worth a visit

Through the year

• Berrien County Youth Fair Third week of August
• Apple-picking season in the Fruit Belt Mid-August through October
• Fall colour in Southwest Michigan Peak usually mid to late October, lingering along the lakeshore into early November
• Flags of Valor Daily, Sunday 1 – Saturday 14 November

Where the records are

The History Center at Courthouse Square, 313 N. Cass St., run by the Berrien County Historical Association in the old county buildings, opened a research library in the upper floors of the restored sheriff's residence after 2021. Berrien County's older vital records are kept by the County Records Department at 2100 E. Empire Ave., Benton Township: births and deaths from 1867, marriages from 1831. Ellis's History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880) tells the village's story under Oronoko Township, with the names of the first settlers on Wolf's Prairie.

Sources

• Franklin Ellis and Crisfield Johnson, History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan (Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign, 1880): "Wolf's Prairie, of about one thousand acres"; "John Pike made the first settlement, at Wolf's Prairie (Berrien Springs)" (page 143); county named for Berrien, who "held the office of Attorney-General under President Jackson, 1829-31" (page 144); act of February 25, 1837, moving the seat to the village, and lots 255, 256, 301 and 302 accepted April 18, 1837 (page 148); agricultural society 1850 and first fair 1851 (page 164); Oronoko Township and Wolf's Prairie settlers (pages 356–358) link
• Wikipedia, "Berrien Springs, Michigan" (plat 1831; post office renamed 1836; mineral springs; county seat 1837–1894; Christmas pickle) link
• Wikipedia, "Old Berrien County Courthouse Complex" link
• Southwest Michigan Tourist Council, "The History Center at Courthouse Square" (313 N Cass St; Berrien County Historical Association, est. 1968) link
• Wikipedia, "National Register of Historic Places listings in Berrien County, Michigan" link
• Berrien County, "Genealogy" (County Records Department) link

Dates and names are from the county histories and official sources listed here. Where they disagree, we say so. Know better? Send a correction.

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