Durand, Michigan: A Junction Named for a Congressman
Durand, Michigan, got its name from a post office, not a railroad: in 1875 it was set up at Vernon Center and named for George H. Durand of Flint. The railroads came to define the place, but the name was already on the mail.
A post office at Vernon Center
The story is in the 1895 Illustrated Atlas of Shiawassee County, a book of township maps with short sketches of local people. One of them is William H. Putman, who came to Vernon township in 1867 and worked in the lumber trade. “In 1875 Mr. Putman succeeded in having established a post-office at Vernon Center, which was named in honor of George H. Durand of Flint,” the atlas says, and Putman was appointed postmaster the following May. In 1877 he built a hardware store in Durand.
The old name didn’t vanish overnight. Another sketch in the same atlas has a man who made staves for eighteen years before he “came to Durand, which was then known as Vernon Center.”
Who was George H. Durand?
A politician from Flint. Henry Gannett’s 1905 Geological Survey bulletin says the Michigan village was “named for George H. Durand, of Flint, Michigan, member of Congress,” and the Survey’s own place-name file repeats those words today. Gannett lists two other Durands, in Illinois and Wisconsin, each named for someone else. So if you’re thinking of another Durand, you may have the wrong man.
Seven points of the compass
What the atlas really wanted you to know about Durand was its railroads. The village sketch, filed under the secretary of the Durand Land Co., reads like a sales pitch:
“The village of Durand is situated sixty-seven miles northwest of Detroit, and is the junction of the D. G. H. & M. R. R., the G. T. R. R., the T. A. A. & N. M. R. R., and the terminus of the C. S. & M. R. R., giving railroad facilities from and to seven different points of the compass.”
The land company was organized in 1889, bought several tracts and platted them, and “a large portion of Durand” had been built up since, it says. The railroad the atlas abbreviates as the T. A. A. & N. M. had just bought about 20 acres (8 ha), put up a roundhouse and made Durand its central division, and the atlas called the result “what might be denominated a boom.” You can find that crossing of lines in the middle of the 1922 survey map, with Durand printed right beside it.
So the trains made Durand busy. The name, though, came from a congressman and a lumberman’s post office, years before the land company’s boom.
Quick answers
Who was the Durand in Durand, Michigan?
George H. Durand of Flint, a member of Congress. Gannett’s 1905 bulletin and the 1895 county atlas both name him.
What was Durand, Michigan, called before?
Vernon Center. The 1895 atlas says the post office at Vernon Center was named for Durand in 1875.
Was Durand named by a railroad?
No. The name came with the post office William H. Putman got established in 1875. The railroad junction is what the 1895 atlas credits with the town’s boom.
Key dates
- 1867William H. Putman moves to Vernon township and goes into the lumber trade.
- 1875Putman gets a post office established at Vernon Center, named for George H. Durand of Flint.
- 1889The Durand Land Co. is organized, buys several tracts of land and plats them.
Getting there
Open Durand in Google Maps
Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Durand in the USGS place-name record.
The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Durand.
Airports
- Bishop International (FNT) Flint 13 mi 20 km
- Capital Region International (LAN) Clinton (Township of) 32 mi 51 km
- Detroit Metro Wayne County (DTW) 58 mi 93 km
Amtrak trains
- Durand station (DRD) under 1 mi 0.3 km
- Flint station (FLN) 18 mi 29 km
Intercity buses
- Indian Trails Owosso 11 mi 18 km
- FlixBus Flint (Miller Rd) 14 mi 22 km
- Amtrak Chartered Vehicle Amtrak Connecting Service · East Lansing Amtrak Station 29 mi 47 km
Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.
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Historical Sources & References
- Illustrated Atlas of Shiawassee County, Michigan (1895). William H. Putman and the post office “at Vernon Center, which was named in honor of George H. Durand of Flint”; Durand “then known as Vernon Center”; the Durand Land Co. of 1889 and the junction “giving railroad facilities from and to seven different points of the compass.”
- Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (1905). Durand, Michigan, “named for George H. Durand, of Flint, Michigan, member of Congress,” and the Durands of Illinois and Wisconsin.
- GNIS feature 625016 (U.S. Geological Survey). The U.S. Geological Survey’s entry for Durand, in Shiawassee County.
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