History · Bertrand

Bertrand’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Bertrand. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

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The story so far

from Wikipedia & the U.S. Census

Bertrand was a village in the southern part of Niles Charter township on the St. Joseph River approximately 4 miles (6 km) south of the city of Niles. Joseph Bertrand, a French Canadian, had a trading post here by 1812. He had married the daughter of a Potawatomi chief and through her had acquired land. After the Potowatomi ceded their lands to the federal government with the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, Daniel G. Garnsey obtained the permission of U.S. President Andrew Jackson and the consent of Mrs. Bertrand to locate a village on her land. Alonzo Bennett platted the village of Bertrand in 1833 and became its first postmaster on June 9, 1834. The town was a stop on the Detroit-Chicago road. In…

Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,657 people in 2010, 2,611 in 2020. Half of its homes were built before 1975.

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bertrand yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.

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Bertrand, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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Then & now

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Bertrand

Michigan · MI · Berrien County
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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01