1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albion (Michigan)

ALBION, a city of Calhoun county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Kalamazoo river, 21 m. W. of Jackson. Pop. (1890) 3763; (1900) 4519, of whom 622 were foreign-born; (1904) 4943; (1910) 5833. Albion is served by the Michigan Central and the Jackson division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railways, and by an inter-urban electric line. The city has a public park and a public library. The W. part of the city has most of the factories; the principal manufactures are flour, agricultural implements, windmills, gasolene engines, harness and proprietary medicines. On a commanding site in the E. part of the city is Albion College (Methodist Episcopal; co-educational), embracing a College of Liberal Arts, a preparatory department, a conservatory of music, a school of art, a school of oratory, a normal course, and a commercial department. The college was incorporated in 1835 as Spring Arbor Seminary, and in 1839 by an amended charter was located at Albion, where it was first opened in 1843 under the name of the Wesleyan Seminary of Albion; in 1849 it became the Wesleyan Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute, with power to grant degrees to women only; but in 1861 the present name was adopted and the college was permitted to grant degrees to men and women. In 1906 it had a library of 16,500 volumes, a faculty of 19, and an enrolment of 483 (211 being women). The municipality owns and operates the water-works, the water-supply being obtained from artesian wells. Albion was settled in 1831, was incorporated as a village in 1866 and was chartered as a city in 1885.