Fennville grew from an early settlement at the crossing of two log roads on the town line between Manlius and Clyde Townships, with a church and sawmill west of the swamp and a post office and hotel to the east. Its downtown did not develop until the railroad arrived in 1871, after nearby farms had drained the swamp and much of the surrounding land. Elam Fenn came to the area in 1852 from New York City and, with Levi Loomis, built a sawmill in 1863 just west of what is now South Street. When a post office was established in February 1868, the settlement was named Fenn’s Mills, then became Fennsville after the railroad altered the name for its schedules, and later in 1871 it became Fennville when the town was officially platted. In October 1871, a major fire swept through the town on the same day as the great Chicago fire, leaving only the Methodist church on the east and a partially constructed hotel on the west. Local sawmills then operated around the clock to supply lumber for rebuilding Chicago, Fennville, and nearby Holland, and the town was quickly rebuilt; excess sawdust was said to have been used as fill in the low-lying downtown area. Fennville became a village in 1889 and a city in 1960 under a law lowering the population required for city status when the proposed boundaries included land in both Manlius and Clyde Townships. In its early years, it was a major shipping point for fruit, milled wheat, and mint oil from nearby farms, and in 1906 a fruit-canning factory was built beside the railroad tracks and remained in operation in 2000. In 2000, Fennville had a population of 1,459 and an area of 1.1 square miles. Historic sites in the downtown and nearby residential areas include the Dickinson Opera House built in 1902, the Stevens Hotel built in 1910, the twin silos of the old Fennville Milling Co., the Old State Bank founded in 1899, the Kingsley House built in 1886, and the J. Edward Hutchinson home at 58th Street and West Main; Hutchinson held state and national office from 1946 to 1976 and was the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee when impeachment hearings against President Nixon began in 1974.