Greenville

In 1844 John and Deborah Green and their children moved to Montcalm County from their native New York. He purchased land, which now comprises more than half the town, and erected a dam and sawmill on this site. As the town grew it became the commercial center of the county, serving the expanding white pine lumber industry along the Flat River. Green financed many of the early businesses, and so when the city was chartered in 1871, Green’s Village was officially named Greenville in honor of its founder.