Settlers came from East Poultney, Vermont, in 1836 to establish at Vermontville the Union Colony. The colony was devoted to the preaching and teaching of Congregationalist ideals. The former Vermonters who settled this area invoked New England methods of land distribution in their new Vermontville. Land was purchased in the name of the colony and distributed under a township proprietor system reminiscent of the seventeenth-century New England land distribution system. After the village was platted, every colonist received a ten-acre rectangular house lot oriented along the major east–west road that linked Charlotte to Hastings. At the intersection of this road with the north–south road that linked Marshall and Ionia and bisected the village, one-acre lots were set aside from the four corners for the establishment of a village commons. Farm lots of 160 acres located outside of the village were distributed to each colonist.
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