Named for Ida M. Taylor in 1837, Ida Township became important to western migration. Small farms were scattered along rough corduroy roads built upon ancient Indian trails, and a day's journey by horse-drawn coach was eight miles of road pitted by large sinkholes, where farmers could earn extra money pulling coaches from holes often maintained well into dry weather. In 1837, the state provided land and money for a railroad system to promote immigration, and by 1841 the horse-drawn Lake Erie and River Raisin line had been incorporated into the Michigan Southern with rails from LaPlaisance Bay to Adrian, becoming an east-west arm of the Erie Canal route. A day's ride from the River Raisin stood the Ida Inn, around which settlers built log cabins and along whose old corduroy roads farms appeared. The inn, later to become the train station and post office, was purchased with its surrounding lands by Henry Rauch. By 1860, the area was no longer wilderness frontier but a thriving town with a steady stream of newcomers arriving by rail to work in the quarry or shops and to farm, and by 1868 the village was platted in the northwest corner of the township amid lush green farms.