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Ada Township is a civil township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 13,142 at the 2010 census. The majority of the township is included in the Forest Hills census-designated place, which is used only for statistical purposes. Ada Township is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is about east of the city of Grand Rapids. The township is the corporate home of Alticor and its subsidiary companies Amway North America and Amway. [edit] History
At the turn of the 19th century, the land that would become Ada was a village of the Grand River Band of Ottawa, led by Nebawnaygezhick. During the early colonial settlement of Michigan, Rix Robinson, the first permanent colonial settler of Kent County, married Sebequay ("River Woman"), the sister of Nebawnaygezhick, at Ada.[1] In 1821, Robinson purchased a former French-Canadian trading post at the junction of the Grand and Thornapple rivers from Madeline La Framboise, on behalf of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. Land north of the Grand River was not available for purchase by European-American settlers until after the United States signed the 1836 Treaty of Washington with regional tribes. Following the treaty, Robinson purchased hundreds of acres around the mouth of the Thornapple for the Ottawa to continue living on. There are conflicting reports concerning when the township was organized. Information provided by the township website indicates that Robinson was elected as the township's first Supervisor. However, other sources indicate it was organized on April 2, 1838, and that Sydney Smith was elected the first Supervisor and that Robinson was the second, elected in 1841 and again in 1844. A village was platted in 1858 at the mouth of the Thornapple River, but it developed slowly and never incorporated. The Ada Covered Bridge was constructed across the Thornapple in 1867. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is one of nine covered bridges that remain standing in the state. In the traditional township numbering for the State of Michigan, Ada Township is T 7 N, R 10 W. [edit] Research Tips
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