Parchment

History

The Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company was founded in 1909. The founder, Jacob "Uncle Jake" Kindleberger, set up shop along the Kalamazoo River. The company then started selling pieces of land located around the mill to the mill workers. In 1932, Kindleberger left a tract of located in the center of the city; this later became Kindleberger Park in his honor. In 1939, Parchment became a city by a majority vote. It has been known as The Paper City since then. Over the years, the KVP Company was bought by or merged with other companies, including Sutherland Paper Company, Brown Company, James River, and finally Crown-Vantage. In 2000 paper making in Parchment ended, and thereafter the city has struggled to sustain itself. Its population has debated what to do with the old paper mill property. As of 2011, the first mill building was demolished with plans to demolish the other building at a later date. Jacob “Uncle Jake” Kindleberger was born in Alsace-Lorraine in 1875 and entered paper-mill work as a child. After becoming a successful parchment-paper salesman, he founded the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company along the Kalamazoo River in 1909. KVP grew into the economic engine of the settlement that became Parchment, but Kindleberger built more than a factory. He constructed a tightly integrated company town whose workers depended upon the mill for employment, housing, financing, public services, and community life. KVP purchased and platted much of the surrounding farmland, rented more than fifty company houses, financed workers’ homes, and required company approval of houses built on employee lots. Municipal business was conducted from the KVP office, most village officials worked for the company, the school board was dominated by KVP employees, and the mill…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  20,913
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19,102
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  18,172
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  16,955
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  15,762
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  15,488
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  15,163
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  14,843

Most recent

• M 3.3 — 2015-06-30
  5 km NNE of Burlington, Michigan
• M 4.2 — 2015-05-02
  5 km S of Galesburg, Michigan
• M 3 — 2012-01-26
  5 km NE of Topeka, Indiana