This is the Site of the Holly Milling Co.

This is the Site of the Holly Milling Co.. , Beginnings of a Settlement , Settlers were attracted to the southern end of Holly because of the Shiawassee River. In the early 1820's, Ira C. Alger arrived to establish the first settlement. In 1843, Alger dammed the river at the border of modern day Rose and Holly townships. He constructed a sawmill and later erected a grinding mill on the west side of the Millpond. This was a significant step for the little settlement. Mills were important because they provided essential services and grinding grain and processing lumber were most important during the frontier phase. , , The Holly Milling Company , By 1875, the mill had grown to employ ten men. They turned out 150 barrels of flour a day, shipped out on the railroad spur that connected to the Grand Trunk Railroad. "Holly Velvet" flour became a nationally distributed product as the Village of Holly grew along with the development of the railroads. By the time the building burned down, the factory was running two shifts and shipping 300-400 barrels of flour daily. This all ended when the mill burned for days as the building caught fire on December 17, 1910. After the $50,000 loss, the mill was not rebuilt.