BATTLE

See also:

• CREEK
• CREEK (Mid. Eng. crike or creke, common to many N. European languages)

CREEK  , a city of Calhoun county, Michigan, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Kalamazoo river with Battle Creek, about 48 m . S. of Grand Rapids . Pop . (1890) 13,197; (1900) 18,563, ' This is the same word as " scrimmge," and is derived from the Anglo-French eskrimir, modern escri er, properly to fight behind cover, now to fence . The origin of his is the Old High German scirman, to fight behind a shield, scirn, Modern German Schirm.of whom 1844 were foreign-born;(191o, census) 25,267 . It is served by the Michigan Central and the Grand Trunk railways, and by interurban electric lines . Here are the hospital and laboratories of the American Medical Missionary College (of Chicago) and the Battle Creek Sanitarium, established in 1866, which was a pioneer in dietetic reform, and did much to make Battle Creek important in the manufacture of health foods, and in the publication of diet-reform literature . Among the principal buildings, besides the hospital and the sanitarium, are several fine churches, the central high school, the Post tavern and the Post theatre . The city is a trading centre for the rich agricultural and fruit-growing district by which it is surrounded, has good water-power, and is an important manufacturing centre, its chief manufactured products being cereal health foods, for which it has a wide reputation, and the manufacture of which grew out of the dietetic experiments made in the laboratories of the sanitarium; and threshing machines and other agricultural implements, paper cartons and boxes, flour, boilers, engines and pumps . Extensive locomotive and car shops of the Grand Trunk railway are here . In 1904 the total factory product of Battle Creek was valued at $12,298,244, an increase of 95% over that for 19oo; and of the total in 1904 $5,191,655 was the value of food preparations, which was 8.5% of the value of food preparations manufactured in the United States, Battle Creek thus ranking first among American cities in this industry . The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality, the water being obtained from Lake Goguac, a summer pleasure resort about 2 M. from the city .

Battle Creek, said to have been named from hostilities here between some surveyors and

Indians, was settled in 1831, incorporated as a village in 185o, and chartered as a city in 1859, the charter of that year being revised in 1900 .