sentences:  who called it the Tomba-Signe (or "river with the forked stream")
  
  During the early settlement of Michigan, Rix Robinson, the first permanent settler of Kent County, established a fur trading post in conjunction with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, at the mouth of the Thornapple in 1821 to trade with the Potawottomi and conduct other business.By 1837, with the fur trade in decline, Robinson facilitated a treaty between local tribes and the Federal government that opened much of the area, including the Thornapple basin, to white settlement.As with many rivers in 19th and early 20th century America, the Thornapple had significant logging, milling, and manufacturing activity along it.