Norvell History

The Beginnings

The first settlers came to Norvell in the 1830's and had to contend with swamps, wolves and Indians. Land was taken up in large parcels and later divided among families. Austin Road was settled first because it was the stagecoach line between Saline and Jackson. The first Norvell Post Office as well as the first school and church were located on Austin Road.

There was a trading post on the north side and the south side of the River Raisin. Almon Fitzgerald built a saw mill, one of the first enterprises on the new frontier. Fitzgerald apparently built a dam and used the power to run a mill. An 1850 hand-drawn map shows only four houses, a store, the saw mill and dam. The road commissioner's journal mentions the dam in 1846 and Mill Road was built to the cemetery in 1848. The settlement was known as North city, later designated Nebraska.

Where the Name Came From

The Village of Norvell actually took its name from the settlement on Austin Road which had been named Norvell Plains. This had been so designated to perpetuate the name of John Norvell, a United States Senator from Michigan from 1835 to 1841 and an important political figure at that time. John Norvell was born in Garrard County, near Danville, Kentucky, December 21, 1789. He was the son of Lipscomb Norvell, a Virginian, who served as an officer in the Revolutionary War.

In May 1832, he came to Detroit, Michigan having been appointed postmaster of that city by Andrew Jackson. He was a leading member of the Constitutional Convention in 1835. His work in that convention was a great value to the welfare of the State of Michigan. He went to Washington before the admission of Michigan to the Union. He died in 1850 at his home in Hamtramck, Michigan.

Norvell City and Its Growth

The coming of the railroad brought great changes to the whole country. When far-sighted men like John Kief saw what it could mean to farming communities like this one, he drew up plans for a "Norvell City" with streets parallel to the railroad tracks and small lots platted out. There were trains running through Norvell but there were not enough houses to warrant stopping. The Civil War slowed down the development of the whole state, but after the war, business began to boom

W. B. Reynolds bought the flour and saw mills and an adjacent copper shop in 1858 and probably the Beehive. The Beehive was a two-storied building used for storing wool, and dressing pork. When the Beehive was empty, it served as a dance hall. The depot was busy with passengers embarking from Manchester or Napoleon. Blacksmith shops, general merchandise store, a buggy and wagon ship, lumber yard, carpenter shop and a boot and shoe store all were built to serve the thirty-four residences as well as the rural community. A group of citizens incorporated and built the Norvell Hotel, which provided a "tavern" for train passengers as well as a general meeting place for town folk.

The Mill pond which had served as fishing and swimming Mecca for the local residents now provided industry. An ice harvesting plant was in operation, with ice houses that held 100,000 tons of ice which was shipped by rail to Cleveland. Sometimes as many as 60 men were employed in this business. Novell had become a thriving town.

The Decline

The power from the Norvell Dam and the railroad running through the village had been the main causes for its growth. Conversely, the reliance on electrical power and the popularity of the automobile were the reasons for its decline. Refrigerated railroad cars made the ice shipping industry obsolete, livestock was trucked to market, and the raising of the vegetables for seed was done elsewhere on a larger scale. With autos available, shoppers went to Jackson or Ann Arbor for most goods and one by one the local stores closed. The flour mill converted to grinding feed but even that was on the wane and the building stood vacant.

The school was one of the last to go but after building a new schoolhouse, the district was forced to annex with Napoleon. The only group really gaining was the church and a large educational unit was added to the ninety-year-old structure. The Jackson County Highway Department located a garage at the corner of Reynolds and Mill and hired several of the local residents. Norvell Township purchased the property from the road commission in the 1980's and a new police office and garage was built there in 1998. Many new houses were built on the perimeter of the town and the Norvell Beach area was developed.

The business district however, had dwindled down to the country store and an auto repair garage which still stands side-by-side at the corner of Commercial Street and Mill Street. The local Norvell post office, the original church, and the township hall are still in existence. Despite the loss and changes over the years, the Village still has a certain charm that suits the people who live here.