What is the history of Stockbridge, Michigan?
The area that is now Stockbridge was originally settled in 1835 by Elijah Smith and Herman Lowe. The town was originally named Perkins by Elijah Smith, after his hometown in the state of New York. In 1838, the town was renamed Stockbridge after the township, and formally incorporated as a village in 1889. Stockbridge was part of a vegetable growing region once known as “the salad bowl,” which attracted large numbers of farm workers from Kentucky in the 1930’s. Many of these families remain in Stockbridge today and it is common for Stockbridge natives to quip that ‘everyone in this town is related.’ Today, visitors can still see the deep black soil of the onion farms that attracted workers in the early 20th century and still produce the tear-inducing crops today. Source: http://en.wikipedia.
