Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1893Sheet 1 of 1
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Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Deerfield, 1907 to 1939
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The first land purchase in the area was by William Kedzie from Delhi, New York, who bought land here in 1824. He became the area's first resident when he moved here two years later. He became the first postmaster of the new community when a post office opened on March 20, 1828. The community was named Kedzie's Grove. It was renamed to Deerfield on August 19, 1837. The name came from the numerous deer in the area, and Deerfield incorporated as a village in 1873.
Passages that mention Deerfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, Michigan (Volume 1)1879 · page 21Read the page →
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One of the earliest settlements of the county, after those in Tecumseh, Blissfield and Adrian, was made about where the village of Deerfield now stands, by Win. Kedzie, of Delhi, N. Y., in 1826, he having previously bought some government land there in 1824. He and his family of nine, were followed in 1827-8, by Benjamin and D. H. Clark, Anthony McKey, Charles Miller and others. In 1828 a postroffice was established, with Wm. Kedzie as first postmaster — the S>stroffice being named “Kedzie’s Grove,” afterwards changed to
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History and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, Michigan (Volume 1)1879 · page 23Read the page →
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As already noted, the present township of Ridgeway, including a portion afterwards set off as a part of Deerfield, was, until 1841, included in the town of Macon. On the first Monday in April, in that year, Ridgeway was first organized as a separate township — the whole number of votes then cast being eighty, which were all given to Augustus W. Montgomery, as Supervisor. For the first ten years after the organization of the township, he and F. A. Kennedy, another prominent citizen and early settler, seemed to be elected alternately,
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History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan. Containing a history of the organization and early settlement of the county, together with a biographical record of many of the oldest and most prominent settlers and present residents, obtained1879 · page 419Read the page →
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to Lenawee county and settled at “Kedzie’s Grove/’ now the village of Deerfield, where he engaged in the lumber business, and became one of the members of the mill company of Clark <fc Hall, and built and owned the first dam and saw-mill at Deerfield, it being the property now owned by Jason Hemenway. He remained in the lumber business about three years, when he closed out and went to farming on section twelve, on the east side of the river — the old Fowl farm — afterwards purchasing a part of the
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History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan. Containing a history of the organization and early settlement of the county, together with a biographical record of many of the oldest and most prominent settlers and present residents, obtained1879 · page 299Read the page →
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English education. September 15th, 1838, at the age of twenty, he left his father’s house and arrived in Blissfield, Lenawee county, September 23d. During the winter of 1838-9 he taught a district school near the present village of Deerfield, in this county. On the 10th day of June, 1839, he entered the office of Halsey & Greenly, in Adrian, the county seat, as a student at law. He was admitted to the bar April 9th, 1842, Justice Fletcher presiding at the court. October 12th, 1842, he married Miss Theodocia A.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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