Thursday, March 11, 2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Hastings. Several Sesquicentennial events are being planned in the coming months with the main community celebration anticipated in August and September.
According to the city’s website, it all started in 1836 when three gentlemen named Dibble, Kingsbury, and Kendall purchased the 480-acre town-site from Detroit banker Eurotas P. Hastings for $3,000. They platted the land into streets and lots and offered inducements to attract settlers. Water powered gristmills and sawmills were constructed along Fall Creek.
Hastings Township was organized on March 6, 1837. The Michigan legislature designated Hastings as the County Seat of Barry County in 1843. By 1848, there was enough of a population to warrant stagecoach service connecting the new town of Hastings with Grand Rapids and Battle Creek
Hastings, with an approximate population of 300, was incorporated as a village in February, 1855. The new village boasted a two-story schoolhouse serving eighty families, a county building, and a jail.
Following the Civil War, Hastings officially became a city, exactly 150 years ago this week.
The Master Plan for the city proclaims “We treasure the old, progress with the new.”
WBCH Radio will kick off the 2021 Sesquicentennial celebration on Saturday, March 13th with a special re-broadcast of the Hastings Centennial Parade from June 5, 1971. The audio recording of the parade was discovered in the stations’ archives from 50 years ago and was hosted by WBCH’s Terry Edger, Cindy Sage Winters, and Dave McIntyre.
