The village of New Groningen prospered in this area from 1855 to 1865 as the second colony established by Dutch immigrants led by Jan Rabbers. Their first settlement, Groningen, stood about one mile southwest of here until 1856, when the road between Holland and Zeeland, now Paw Paw Drive, bypassed the community. Unlike the Dutch farming communities of Graafschap, Drenthe, and Overisel, founded in 1847 and 1848, Groningen developed as an industrial town. Around 1847, Rabbers built a log house and a store on land now occupied by the New Groningen Cemetery and erected a nearby sawmill. Other ventures followed, including the Veneklasen brickyard, opened in 1851, the most enduring industry, and many Veneklasen brick buildings still stand. Rabbers, leader of the colony at Groningen and New Groningen, left Drenthe in the Netherlands in 1846 with immigrants from Utrecht, Friesland, and Overijsel, planning to join Albertus Van Raalte in Holland, Michigan. After arriving in New York aboard the Isabella Bath, the group went to Albany to await instructions from Van Raalte. According to tradition, in 1847 Rabbers and fourteen others walked from Buffalo to Detroit. Believing the Black River to be a likely trade route, Rabbers established Groningen about one mile southwest of here where the river appeared navigable. When the bridge washed out in 1856, the settlers moved here for better access to the new road between Holland and Zeeland and named the settlement New Groningen.