Project Scroll Research Note 2026-29: Paw Paw's village charter of 1859: Act No. 112, repealed in 1863, and the charter of 1867

The village of Paw Paw, seat of Van Buren County, is usually given 1837 (the year it became the county seat) or 1867 as its date. The session laws show a charter older than either. Act No. 112 of 1859, "An act to incorporate the village of Paw Paw," approved 11 February 1859, constituted a tract "situate in the township of Lafayette, in the county of Van Buren" a town corporate "by the name of the village of Paw Paw." Act No. 55 of 1863, approved 6 March 1863, repealed it: "An act to repeal act number one hundred and twelve, of the session laws of eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, being 'an act to incorporate the village of Paw Paw.'" Act No. 519 of 1867, approved 28 March 1867, incorporated the village again, this time in "the township of Paw Paw," renamed from Lafayette that month. The charter of 1867 is the second, not the first.

Project Scroll Research Note 2026-29, version 1. The note sets out the record quoted, where it is held, what it changes, its limits, and what was searched before calling it new. Web version: projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-29/.