Michigan's German Settlers

Michigan's German Settlers is a Michigan historical marker in Frankenmuth, Saginaw County, dedicated 1958.

Main Street, Frankenmuth

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Fifteen German immigrants from Franconia, Bavaria, led by the Rev. August Craemer, founded Frankenmuth in 1845. They were advised to settle here by the Rev. Frederick Schmid, Lutheran pastor of Ann Arbor’s German colony, founded in the 1820´s. Other German agricultural villages were founded in the Saginaw Valley in the 1840´s and ´50´s. Here, as in many other areas of Michigan, German settlers have contributed greatly to the state’s cultural heritage.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1822 · Map Of Michigan Territory. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1873 · Michigan. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Map Of Michigan Territory, 1822, covering the location of Michigan's German Settlers, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map Of Michigan Territory, 1822, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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