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is a civil township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 9,882. Ada is the corporate home of Alticor and its subsidiary companies Quixtar and Amway.
The township traces its history to 1821, when Rix Robinson obtained a French-Canadian trading post at the junction of the Grand and Thornapple Rivers from Madeline La Framboise on behalf of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. Land north of the Grand River was not open for white settlers to purchase land in until the 1836 Treaty of Washington. There are conflicting reports concerning when the township was organized. Information provided by the township web site indicate that Robinson was elected as the Township's first Supervisor. However, other sources indicate it was organized on April 2, 1838, and that Sydney Smith was elected the first Supervisor and that Robinson was the second, elected in 1841 and again in 1844.
A village was platted in 1858 at the mouth of the Thornapple, but it developed slowly and never incorporated.
The Ada Covered Bridge, was constructed across the Thornapple in 1867. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is one of 9 covered bridges that remain standing in the state.