Homer, MI

Homer is a Calhoun County village that began along the south bank of the Kalamazoo River, where Milton Barney arrived in 1832 and built a log house, store, and water-powered sawmill. The settlement was first called Barneyville, then became Homer when its post office was registered in 1834, a nod to another Homer in New York. The village incorporated in 1871, and its old center still carries that river-and-mill beginning. Homer is the sort of Michigan place where a name change is part of the origin story.