Lakefield Township

This section of the county may be said to be still in its primitive state. South of Beaver creek it is occupied with but a few settlers; while the road leading into the settled sections is so strangely rude that one who ventured to travel over it once, and succeeded in reaching a dwelling-house, is surprised at the courage and perseverance which enabled him to battle with and conquer the difficulties of travel in that western township.

The head-waters of the north branch of Bad river pertain properly to this township. This tributary of the river waters its southern sections; while the more important stream known as Beaver creek courses through sections 4, 9, 16, 15, 22, 23 and 24. The only manufacturing industry in Lakefield is the saw-mill on section 3.

In the summer of 1875 the settlers of Northern Lakefield met to consider the advisability of seeking local government. The result of that meeting was an application to the Supervisors' Board, signed by 21 freeholders of the township of Fremont, asking the board to order the organization of fractional township 11 north, of range 3 east, into the township of Lakefield. The board ordered, under date Oct. 16, 1875, "that all that part of the township of Fremont, as now heretofore last organized, to-wit: fractional township 11 north, of range 1 east, be, and the same is, hereby set off from the township of Fremont, and organized into a separate township by the name of Lakefield, and the first township meeting in the said township of Lakefield shall be held at the dwelling house of H. C. Fessenden; that the first township meeting of the said township of Lakefield shall be held on the first Monday of April next, and that H. C. Fessenden, Thomas M. Gould and William C. Dickinson be, and they are, hereby appointed Inspectors of said township meeting, whose duty it shall be to preside at such meeting, appoint a clerk, open and keep the polls, and exercise the same power as the inspectors of elections at any township meeting; that Thomas Gould be and is hereby appointed to post up notices, according to law, of the time and place of holding the first township meeting in the said new township of Lakefield." This resolution to organize was opposed by one member of the board against forty supporters. The principal officers of the town, since its organization, are named as follows:

SUPERVISORS.

CLERKS.

TREASURERS.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

Up to the present time very little has been done toward the development of this section of the country. That it is capable of high cultivation cannot be doubted. It only awaits the labor of the husbandman to yield up its store of wealth. Within a few years this primeval land will be dotted with the homesteads of a prosperous people, and all the obstacles which the wild state of the township now offers removed.

BACK TO LIST OF TOWNSHIP HISTORY 1881

Source: History of Saginaw County Michigan, By Michael A. Leeson, Damon Clarke, Published 1881 Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Chicago pages 863-864.

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