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    Color photograph of a long, low church building with light siding, a covered entrance and a cross on the roof, with flower beds in front and trees behind.

    Van Buren County · Michigan · St. Joseph River Valley

    Gobles

    Gobleville, a Goble family plat on the Kalamazoo and South Haven railroad.

    Discover its storyThings to seeDirectionsThe valley map

    St. Jude Catholic Church, Gobles, photographed in 2021. Photograph by rossograph, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    • Cityin Van Buren County
    • 1870founded
    • 851people, 2020 census
    • 10 mifrom Paw Paw, the county seat

    Project Scroll is an independent local-history website. This is not an official page of the City of Gobles or Van Buren County, and it does not speak for them. For official business, contact the city office directly.

    The story

    Welcome to Gobles

    Gobles began as Gobleville, named for the Goble family, who owned the village plat on the old Allegan State road. It grew as a station on the Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad, opened in 1870, and became an incorporated village in 1893.

    The first building on the site was a hotel that John Goble put up in 1864 or 1865 facing the Allegan State road. In 1867 Hiram E. Goble built a store near it and Fessenden & Hayes opened a blacksmith shop. A post office first kept at ‘Lake Mills,’ with Arch W. Bishop as postmaster, was moved to the new village in 1867, renamed Gobleville, and put in Hiram Goble’s charge. Dr. A. E. Bulson came in 1869.

    Hiram E. Goble made the original plat on April 16, 1870, on part of section 25 of Bloomingdale Township, and Warren Goble’s addition of March 12, 1872, lay on section 30 of Pine Grove Township, so the village spread across both townships. The Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad, organized in 1869 and backed by the Michigan Central, was opened as far as Pine Grove in January 1870 and to South Haven that December; Hiram Goble gave the depot grounds at Gobleville.

    Read the full story

    A schoolhouse was built in 1871 at a cost of $2,500, and J. L. Clement’s steam sawmill in 1873, later making lath, wood turnings, shingles and staves. The Free-Will Baptist church, organized April 23, 1872, finished its house of worship in 1877 and dedicated it June 2, 1878. In 1880 Gobleville had about 250 people, two general stores, a gristmill, saw-, stave- and shingle mills and a graded school.

    Gobleville was incorporated by act of the legislature in 1893. By 1912 it had 537 people at the 1910 census, a private bank, the Gobleville Exchange, a newspaper, the Gobleville News, founded in 1890, and a creamery making 1,500 to 1,700 pounds of butter a day in summer; it kept up a rivalry with Bloomingdale, five miles away on the same line. The name was later shortened to Gobles, which is now a city. The 2020 census counted 851 people.

    Plan a visit

    Things to see

    • Lake Mill

      Near Gobles, Bloomingdale Township

      The mill on Lake Mill lake near Gobleville, pictured in the 1912 county history; the early post office was called Lake Mills.

      Directions

    • Gobles depot grounds

      Along the former railroad line, Gobles

      Land Hiram E. Goble gave to the Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad when the line reached the village in 1870.

      Directions

    Then and now

    Pictures

    M.E. Church, Goblesville, Mich.
    M.E. Church, Goblesville, Mich., 1909. Tinder Collection, Clements Library, University of Michigan.
    [Depot and train, Gobles, Mich.]
    [Depot and train, Gobles, Mich.], 1908. Tinder Collection, Clements Library, University of Michigan.

    Quick facts

    At a glance

    Earlier name
    Gobleville
    Named for
    The Goble family, early settlers and proprietors of the plat
    Post office
    Moved from Lake Mills and renamed Gobleville, 1867
    Platted
    April 16, 1870, by Hiram E. Goble
    Incorporated
    As a village, 1893; now a city
    Railroad
    Kalamazoo and South Haven (Michigan Central), 1870
    Population
    1910 census: 537; 2020 census: 851

    Know a story about Gobles?

    Old photographs, letters, a school picture, a story your grandparents told: if it belongs to Gobles, we would love to see it. A phone photo of the front and back is enough, and we credit you by name if you like.

    Send it to us Contact page

    Keep exploring

    Nearby in the valley

    For researchers: records and sources

    Where the records are

    Van Buren County’s courthouse is at 212 E. Paw Paw St., Paw Paw, the county seat; county land, court and vital records are kept by the county offices there. The Van Buren County Historical Society’s museum, in the old county poorhouse at 58471 Red Arrow Hwy., Hartford, displays life in the county from 1829 to 1929. Gobles is covered in Ellis (1880), Bloomingdale Township, p. 427 (Gobleville), and in Rowland (1912), vol. 1, Bloomingdale Township and village of Gobleville, pp. 448–463.

    Sources

    • Franklin Ellis, History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan (Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign & Co., 1880), Bloomingdale Township, Gobleville, p. 427. link
    • O. W. Rowland, A History of Van Buren County, Michigan, 2 vols. (Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1912), vol. 1, Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad, pp. 109–110; Gobleville News, p. 366; Gobleville, pp. 459–463. link
    • ‘Gobles, Michigan,’ Wikipedia (coordinates; city; 2020 census population 851). link
    • U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171), table P1, Gobles city, Van Buren County, Michigan. link
    • ‘Van Buren County Courthouse (Michigan),’ Wikipedia (address; built 1901; National Register 1979). link
    • Southwest Michigan Tourist Council, ‘Van Buren County Museum’ (address; poorhouse of 1884; displays 1829–1929). 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.