[5] On November 7, 2023, 66 percent of village residents voted in favor of incorporating Manchester as an autonomous city.

[7] In 1824 the United States Congress passed the General Survey Act, intended to create and maintain military roads through what was then the west of the country.

One third of the funds allocated went to build a road between the strategic army posts of Detroit and Fort Dearborn, at the little town of Chicago.

Also in 1824, the land around today's Manchester was surveyed by John Mack, who noted it as being "a good mill seat."

[8] Originally from upstate New York, John Gilbert resettled to Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1831.

He commissioned the construction of a grist mill along the River Raisin upon the land he had purchased in 1826.

The original plat of the village of Manchester was prepared by surveyor Hiram Burnham and dated 1833, but was not formally filed until March 25, 1835.

The location was chosen to take advantage of water power from the river and named after Manchester, New York.

[8] In 1833, James Soule purchased a large tract of land about 1-mile (1.6 km) downstream from Manchester.

The Michigan Lutheran Seminary first opened in Manchester 1885 but moved to Lansing two years later.