Jennings is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Missaukee County in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The population was 229 at the 2020 census, down from 264 in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. The CDP is located mostly in Lake Township with a small portion extending north into Caldwell Township.

History

Jennings was a lumbering center founded by Austin and William Mitchell, who named it for

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

. A post office opened on March 8, 1883, with J. Frank Schryer as the first postmaster. The office was discontinued on July 31, 1956. Jennings was a terminus of the Missaukee spur of the

Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854. Beginnings After grapp ...

, with a junction on the main line named Round Lake. The community of Jennings was listed as a newly-organized

for the 2010 census, meaning it now has officially defined boundaries and population statistics.

Geography

Jennings is in western Missaukee County, bordered to the east by Crooked Lake. It is by road west of Lake City, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and northeast of

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the Jennings CDP has an area of , all land. The census-designated place is defined as being within Caldwell and

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

townships. All 264 residents and of land were within Lake Township, while no residents and of land are within Caldwell Township to the north.

Demographics

References

Unincorporated communities in Missaukee County, Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan Census-designated places in Missaukee County, Michigan Census-designated places in Michigan Populated places established in 1885 1885 establishments in Michigan {{MissaukeeCountyMI-geo-stub