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 ...
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 community is located within Onondaga Township in Ingham County. As an unincorporated community, Onondaga has no legally defined boundaries or population statistics of its own but does have its own post office with the 49264 ZIP Code. The Onondaga 49264 ZIP Code serves the majority of the township, as well as smaller areas in Hamlin Township to the west and Tompkins Township to the south.
The community is centered along the Grand River approximately south of Lansing and northwest of Jackson.
History
European-American settlement began in the mid-19th century, with most migrants coming from New England and New York. The township and community were named after the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
nation of Onondaga, historically based in New York. A post office was first established at the place about 1844, with Perez Howland as the first postmaster. In 1847, Perez Howland built a grocery. A post office was operated from the grocery. Cyrus Baldwin subsequently purchased the building and converted it into the "Onondaga Hotel".
The first store of any consequence in the place was established in 1867 by John Sherman. The European-American plat of the village of Onondaga was laid out by John Sherman and others, on July 13, 1870. Several buildings had previously been erected, but the place dates its permanent growth from this time.
It was also about that date that the Grand River Valley division of the
Michigan Central Railroad
The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally chartered in 1832 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in th ...
was built through the town, which brought more settlers and businesses Sherman donated land for the depot.
The first church, called the First
Congregational Church
Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...
of Onondaga, was built in 1877.
Onondaga is the
city of license
In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broadcast ...
for Lansing's NBC affiliate WILX-TV, and has its transmitter just west of the community.