Welcome to Chelsea. I hope you enjoy your visit and the numerous caches that are available in the City of Chelsea and the surrounding area so you can do more geocaching for your gasoline dollar! Chelsea is a wonderful place to visit, live, and work. In some ways it has changed significantly from its founding in the mid 1800s and in many ways its has changed very little.
The area that was to become Chelsea was populated by the native peoples of the Algonquin-speaking Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa. The first reported non-native settler to this area was Cyrus Beckwith who settled in nearby Sylvan Township on October 18, 1830.
Several communities existed that eventually became Chelsea: Pierceville was founded by Nathan Pierce near the current intersection of Old US-12 and Old Manchester Road, and Kedron was founded by Darius Pierce on land north of downtown Chelsea near North Main Street and Sibley Road.
Elisha and James Congdon are the two men most responsible for sowing the seed for what is now known as Chelsea. The Congdons emigrated from Connecticut to Michigan in 1833 in search of a better life.
Elisha Congdon (pictured at left), the older of the two brothers, purchased 160 acres of land between Pierceville and Kedron on the east side of Main Street. His brother James (pictured at right) purchased 300 acres of land immediately to the west of Elisha's land.
The core of Chelsea exists at a high point surrounded by swamps. Because of these swamps, most early roads funneled through the Congdon's properties. Unlike many communities in the region, Chelsea was not established on a river that would power a mill. Chelsea's destiny was not realized until the arrival of the railroad in the 1840s.
When railroad stations were built in 1848, Congdon's land was bypassed and a depot was constructed two miles to the west at a place that would be called Davidson Station. During that same year, the depot at Davidson Station was destroyed by fire. There is some speculation that Elisha Congdon had a role in this fire. He immediately offered the railroad land in what is now downtown Chelsea for the building of a new station and the railroad accepted.
In 1850, Elisha Congdon changed the name of the village from Kedron to Chelsea after Chelsea Landing, a neighborhood in their hometown of Norwich, Connecticut. Chelsea quickly became a center for commerce in the region. In 1853, Chelsea's population was 63. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimated population for Chelsea was 4,946.
Chelsea was a village until 2004 when voters approved a new charter making Chelsea a city.
