John McKelvey came from Oakland county Michigan in May 1834 and located on Libhart creek in section 24 where he had a tract of three hundred acres in which was the mill site now occupied by a grist mill Lib hart was then carrying on a saw mill on the same creek but westward to Ionia village there was no settler A Mr Soules who came in with McKelvey as a farm hand bought a place a mile west of McKelvey's in 1835 and that year began to clear it He cleared two farms in Ionia in the course of time and removed subsequently to Oregon where he died John McKelvey died on his farm in section 24 in 1847 The mill site he himself did not improve but sold it to Aaron Pratt who erected a grist mill there in 1844
