The Gratiot County Courthouse was designed in the classical revival style by Claire Allen, a prominent southern Michigan architect.

The original founders of Ithaca and of Alma were settlers from New England, "Yankees", descended from the English Puritans who settled the northeastern coast of the new continent in the 1600s.

The Gratiot County settlers were farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s.

Most of them arrived as a result of the completion of the Erie Canal as well as the close of the Black Hawk War.

They arrived to virgin forest and wild prairie, but laid out farms, constructed roads, erected government buildings and established post routes.

They maintained their customs, such as passion for education, and abhorrence of the existing slave trade.

As of the 2000 United States Census,[19] there were 42,285 people, 14,501 households, and 10,397 families residing in the county.

The county government operates the jail, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, records deeds, mortgages, and vital records, administers public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of other social services.

The county board of commissioners controls the budget, and has limited authority to make laws or ordinances.

In Michigan, most local government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc.