Martin Township, located in Michigan, was settled by Mumford Eldred and his family in 1836, a year before Michigan became a state. The community was named Martin after President Martin Van Buren. Scottish settlers moved to Martin between 1837 and 1850. The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches were established in the early 1840s, dominating church life until the Dutch settled in the 1920s. The completion of the Plank Road in the 1850s connected Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, but the road began to warp and rot after a few years. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad was completed in 1870, leading to the construction of the Martin Train Depot. The Michigan Railway, an electrified line, was built in 1911, and the Interurban cars that travelled 75 miles per hour were used until 1929 when the automobile was invented. Martin’s first high school was built in 1888, and James Redpath, a journalist, settled in the community as a tin smith. Andrew Bee, who captured Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, also lived in Martin.