Montcalm County is landlocked around the center of Michigan 's Lower Peninsula .   The county was named in honor of the defeat and Death of a French General by the name of Marquis de Montcalm in 1759 which marked the end of the French and Indian War in North America .   The first settler in the area was Charles Deaner in 1860. In 1874, a man by the name of George W. O'Donnell founded a village he named Vestaburg after his wife Vesta Burgess O'Donnell. Originally the county seat was established in Greenville located in the southwest corner of the county.   Greenville is home to Hendrick Meijer who in 1934 at the age of 50 purchased $338.76 worth of merchandise to start Meijer Grocery.   Today Meijer is the 9 th largest privately held company in the world. In 1860 the residents of Montcalm County voted to move the county seat to a more central location and purchased 40 acres from a gentleman by the name of Fred Hall from nearby Ionia , they named the city "Fred" in his honor.   In 1863 it was renamed " Stanton ," for then Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton.   Moncalm county boasts over 200 lakes, numerous rivers and streams and acres upon acres of fertile farmland.