Our Community

The Dryden area was settled in 1834 by Andrew Mattoon, Levi Washburne, Amasa and Jedediah Messenger, and Hugh McKay. They came from Macomb County, MI, hacking a fourteen mile road known for years as the “Old Messenger Road”. Dryden Village was founded in 1836; the name Dryden was chosen in honor of the British poet, John Dryden (1631-1700). The first town meeting, held in 1837, had as one of its first official acts a bounty of two dollars for each wolf killed in the township. Within a few years, a store, a mill, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, a fruit drying factory/cider mill, a couple wagon shops, a shoe store, a broom and ink factory, and a soap factory were established in the village. The P O & N Railroad came through the village in 1883; the train Depot still stands facing Main Street. The Dryden Township Library had its start as the Ladies Library Association in 1885. It is listed as a Michigan Historic Site, as is the Dryden Depot next door. The first telephone in Dryden was installed in 1906; electricity came to the village in 1915.

 

Click on the photos above to see inscriptions on the historic markers .

Dryden’s most famous resident was Major General George Owen Squier (1863-1934), born to Almon Justice and Emily Gardner Squier in Dryden Township. George graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1887, and received a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins in 1893. His many accomplishments are as follows; wrote many books and articles on radio and electricity, was elected to National Academy of Science in 1919, as an executive officer in the U.S. Signal Corps established what would become the U. S. Air Force, worked with the Wright Brothers to purchase the first airplanes for the U. S. Army in 1909, was promoted to major general and appointed Chief Signal Officer in WWI, and was creator of Wired Radio in 1922. He retired to Dryden in 1923. In 1943, the U.S. Navy named a troopship USS General G. O. Squier, lead ship of the General G. O. Squier class of transport ships. General Squier is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. George Squier also donated an exceptional piece of land to the community of Dryden, which has been designated General Squier County Park.