Cheboygan County has 19 townships. One of the smaller townships is Benton Township. It is located in northeast Cheboygan County. It has a unique location. Although it is small and sparsely populated, it borders on Lake Huron as far north as Duncan Bay. It touches the Cheboygan River and the river forms the western border of Benton Township up to the City of Cheboygan. The Black River enters the township from the south and it flows northwest to the Cheboygan River. Thus many of its borders are water. Benton Township was established in 1871. The population is totally rural and it has around 3,000 inhabitants.

Early on, Benton was settled largely by French people, with some Polish settlers. Here are some of the settler’s names that you will find: Couture, Trudeau, Enos, Rabior, Gainor, Paquette, Boyea, Sova, Lafrenier, Charboneau, and others.

At one point, Benton Township did have an unincorporated town named Alverno. The original name was Alverna. Where did this name come from? It was named by a Catholic bishop. Bishop Richter changed the name of the Catholic church located there from Black River to Alverno and the name was inspired by a famous retreat place near where St. Francis lived in Italy. The Italian retreat center overlooked a beautiful valley, and so does Alverno overlook the beautiful Black River Valley. In that valley sets the well-maintained cemetery, holding many of the founders of Benton Township.

At one time, Bishop Richter of Grand Rapids Diocese confirmed, on Oct 18,1897, a class of 49 persons at St. Francis Church, in Alverno. On Oct 20th, he appointed Father Albert De Quoy as the first pastor. Father De Quoy served St. Francis, in Alverno, until May 5, 1919, when he drowned at the . Alverno Dam.

For many years, the area was served by the very nice Black River School, which is now closed, so students are now bussed to Cheboygan.

The early Alverno corner had a school, a fire hall, and a store, as well as the St. Francis Church and a post office, which closed in 1917. Since then, the St Francis Church has been sold to Benton Township and it is used for township business. The church hall is used for social purposes and large gatherings. A large family outdoor center has been built for area adult activities and there is a very good playground for children.

Alverno is still the home of one of three united Cheboygan County’s township’s “fire halls:” Aloha, Grant and Benton. These townships, Aloha, Grant and Benton, cooperate in providing very good fire protection to their inhabitants. But Alverno has something closeby that draws people to the area— the Alverno Dam. In the past, it provided electric power to Cheboygan County people for a long time. Today, people go to the dam area to fish.

Although my family lived in the now extinct township of Maple Grove, at one point when we were small children my father drove us to Alverno Dam to fish. When driving home, we drove on the unpaved Black Lake Road. The car began to slip and slide. My father told us that we were driving through a swampy area. There had been recent heavy rains and the area was flooded. The road was covered with countless angleworms that had crawled there to survive. We were driving through a road that was covered with slippery angleworms! Imagine our horror! I will never forget that trip to the Alverno Dam!

Benton Township was also the home of one of the men who was a leader in founding Cheboygan County’s first credit union, Frank Buro.

Over the years, the people of Benton Township have worked together, worshiped together and played together. Through all of these decades there has been woven a golden thread of love, love of one another and love of church and of God. May that thread entwine itself around the hearts of future generations to bind those to the their ancestors who have built Benton Township.