Agnew, Michigan is a tiny unincorporated

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 located at 42°57′54"N 86°10′36"W at the intersection of US 31

U.S. Route 31

U.S. Route 31 is a long north–south highway connecting northern Michigan to southern Alabama, with its northern terminus at Interstate 75 near Mackinaw City, Michigan, and southern terminus at the combined U.S. Route 90 & U.S. Route 98 at Spanish Fort, Alabama...

 and M-45

M-45 (Michigan highway)

M-45 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that is also called Lake Michigan Drive. The highway runs from Agnew near Lake Michigan to the west side of Grand Rapids in the western Lower Peninsula. Lake Michigan Drive continues in each direction from M-45's termini, extending west...

 in Grand Haven Charter Township

Grand Haven Charter Township, Michigan

Grand Haven Charter Township is a charter township of Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 13,278 at the 2000 census...

 of Ottawa County

Ottawa County, Michigan

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 238,314 people, 81,662 households, and 61,328 families residing in the county. The population density was 421 people per square mile . There were 86,856 housing units at an average density of 154 per square mile...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

.

Agnew was first known as "Johnsville" after John Behm, who was one of the early settlers in the area in the 1860s. A post office named Johnsville operated there from 1870 to 1875. It reopened in 1878 and was renamed "Agnew" on December 23, 1887. It was plat

Plat

A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....

ted with the name "Village of Agnew" on May 16, 1889, by Edward E. Stites.

The settlement was named for JKV Agnew, a superintendent of the Chicago and West Michigan Railway

Chicago and West Michigan Railway

The Chicago and West Michigan Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1881 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway....

, which had a station by that name there. The successor railroad, Pere Marquette Railway

Pere Marquette Railway

The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The railroad had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago.The company was...

, closed the station and in 1952, the Michigan Department of Transportation

Michigan Department of Transportation

The Michigan Department of Transportation is a constitutional government agency in the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate, US and state highways in Michigan with the exception of the Mackinac...

 determined it was easier to move the 12 remaining buildings to allow construction of US Highway 31

U.S. Route 31 in Michigan

US Highway 31 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Alabama, to the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. In Michigan, it is a state trunkline highway that runs from the Indiana–Michigan state line at Bertrand Township to its terminus at Interstate 75 south...

.