Place:Holland, Ottawa, Michigan, United States

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Holland is a coastal city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black River).

The city spans the Ottawa/Allegan county line, with in Ottawa and the remaining in Allegan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,051, with an Urbanized Area population of 95,394.

The city is the largest municipality of the Holland-Grand Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area and the seventh largest metro area in the state of Michigan, with a population of 264,910 as of the 2010 census. Holland was founded by Dutch Americans, and is in an area that has a large percentage of citizens of Dutch American heritage.

It is home to Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, institutions of the Reformed Church in America.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Holland was settled in 1847 by Dutch Calvinist separatists, under the leadership of Dr. Albertus van Raalte, who were ostensibly escaping from persecution in the Netherlands.

Van Raalte took the land due to its proximity to the Black River where it streamed to Black Lake (now Lake Macatawa) which, in turn, led to Lake Michigan. At the time, the land was inhabited by the Ottawa people who had been on the lake for hundreds of years.

In Holland's early history, Van Raalte was a spiritual leader, as well as overseeing political, educational and financial matters. In 1847 Van Raalte established a congregation of the Reformed Church in America, which would later be called the First Reformed Church of Holland. On March 25, 1867, Holland was incorporated as a city with Isaac Cappon being the city's first mayor. The city suffered a major fire on October 8–9, 1871, the same time as the Great Chicago Fire in Illinois and the very deadly Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin. Because of the Great Michigan Fire (which included the Port Huron Fire of 1871), Manistee and Port Huron, Michigan also burned at the same time.

Holland was known as the "City of Churches." There are 170 churches in Holland, many of which are with the Reformed Church in America and Christian Reformed Church in North America denominations. The city is the home to the church that started the trend of the "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets in 1989. In 1987, a 23-year-old City Council member Phil Tanis was elected mayor of Holland, becoming its youngest mayor while he was still a Hope College student.

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