The state legislature organized Isabella County on February 11, 1859, and a commission appointed by the governor established the county seat as Isabella Centre. To encourage settlement on land he owned in Isabella County, lumberman David Ward deeded five acres in present-day Mount Pleasant to the county on the condition that the county courthouse be erected there. In 1860 voters approved transferring the county seat to Mount Pleasant, where a simple frame building became the first courthouse. The county built a brick courthouse on the site in 1877, and that building was demolished in 1972. During the 1850s, Ward had purchased land in section 15 of Union Township, and in 1860 he platted the village of Mount Pleasant with land set aside for a courthouse square. Harvey and George Morton, developers from New York State, bought Ward's property in 1863, and Isaac A. Francher surveyed and recorded the plat of Mount Pleasant for them in 1864. Roughly bounded by Lincoln Street, Wisconsin Street, Lansing Street, Oak Street, and the Chippewa River, the village grew after the Civil War through water-powered milling, lumber processing, and county government. On April 16, 1875, the state legislature incorporated the village of Mount Pleasant.