Bronson, MI

Bronson is a Branch County city surrounded mostly by Bronson Township, but the two are separate governments. The place began as Bronson’s Prairie, with a post office established in 1830; the name shortened to Bronson when the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad built a station here in 1871. Bronson became a city in 1934. The township around it still carries the older Prairie River name in its early history, while the city keeps the railroad-era name. Bronson is a southwest Michigan place where a prairie settlement, a rail stop, and a township boundary meet.