The initial plat for Nashville was on land originally purchased by John R. Pettibone on February 15, 1836.

By 1865, Robert B. Gregg owned the land and platted 127 lots on the south side of the Thornapple River.

In 1852, Henry Feighner and his brother Solomon arrived from Ohio seeking to buy land.

Solomon managed the sawmill until Henry sold the property to Phillip Holler in about 1865.

In 1867, across the river from Holler's sawmill, a gristmill was built by Eli and M. V. B. Mallett, and G. W. Johnson.

Some time after 1869, probably 1873–1874, Griffith and Grant built a grain elevator alongside the new Grand River Valley Division of the Michigan Central Railroad.

In 1874 Ainsworth and Brooks bought the elevator and 3 years later added a steam powered feedmill.

It was at that time that Holler initiated a new patent process for making flour.

On March 26, 1869, Michigan governor Henry Baldwin signed into law the incorporation of the Village of Nashville.

[6] Commencing in 1920 Nashville was used as the half-way stopping point between the Jackson and Grand Rapids railroad terminals.

These "stop-overs" required a hostler to tend the locomotives while the train crew spent the night in town.