One of Cheboygan County’s smaller villages is Afton, located in Ellis Township and on M68, between Tower and Indian River. If you blink you may miss Afton. Yet it has one of the richest and best preserved histories of any place in our beautiful county. I hope that you do not blink, for Afton sets on a rise on Highway M68 and it possesses a memorable history. It resembles an old time village, with the post office in a store and one of Michigan’s smallest Catholic churches. St. Monica’s Catholic Mission Church was built in 1937. Mass is still held there every Sunday except in the winter months. The Onaway Catholic priest serves these Masses. Behind the church lies an ancient cemetery.

Later Afton would have both a Free Methodist and a Latter Day church.

Like much area in Cheboygan County, the lumbering business brought settlers to the area where Afton would grow into a booming village. Most of the settlers arrived from Canada. The majority of them were French or Irish. Names of some of the earliest arrivals were Vizina, Brasseur, O’Conner, Passineau, Helmer, McPherson, Lapeer, Haines, Miller, Walker, Charles Thomas, Hungerford and Beebe.

Many of the buildings that stand today are old and weathered by history. Yet at one time Afton was a booming village. It had a post office, a store, a saloon, several mills, and a railroad to Wolverine by which logs were carried to be floated downriver. It also had a restaurant, a barber shop, a Pool room, a huge raspberry farm and a raspberry canning factory. It had a roller skating rink, called ‘The Silver Top’, a stone company, and several small businesses.

Afton was located in the center of a lush forest. Nearby were trout streams, filled with trout, and unpolluted, sparkling lakes, teeming with fish.

Thomas Hungerford was one of the first settlers. He brought with him his relatives, Ed Beck, Mr. Wakeford, Mr.Schoolcraft, and Billie Cory. This group brought their own livestock and furnishings on the boat. They came to stay! This group purchased an entire section of Cheboygan County for $1.00 an acre. They developed this land among themselves and helped one another build log homes on it. They fastened strips of wood between the logs. This was called furring. Next they harvested the pine trees on their own property and they sent them to Cheboygan. They had a water-powered mill called a “Mully Mill” that used a vertical saw. Next, each family harvested the hardwood trees on their own property. They began their work at daybreak. At breakfast time, their wives carried cornmeal muffins and coffee to the hungry workers. Later on they carried lemonade to the tired and thirsty workers.

A Scottish man named McPherson wanted to change the name of the Pigeon River to the Afton River. It reminded him of a river back in Scotland. Many people opposed this because Pigeon River was already on many maps. So they compromised by naming the village Afton, after the Afton River in Scotland.

The early settlers were isolated, and they welcomed the opportunities to visit and to share with others. They held building bees, weddings, dances, funerals, box socials and other enjoyable activities. They shared what they had with one another.

Most people had their own vegetable gardens. Potatoes were a favorite crop. Afton later became known as the potato town.

Mail did not arrive in Afton very often. It was carried to Afton by horseback riders, from Indian River, to the post office, which was located in a store.

The first train, which had to pass under a wooden trestle, entered Afton Stone Quarry on May 29, 1903. It was later taken out in 1937.

When the wooden trestle burned, a steel bridge was purchased at Peotone, Illinois. It was shipped by rail to Afton and it arrived on August 1, 1917. Afton’s stone quarry would now survive! Afton stone is still popular today.

Early religious and school classes were held in homes. The first school was a log cabin. It was built in the Beebe School District. It had eight grades. Other Afton schools were the Koehler School, numbers one and two, Afton School, on Quarry Road, Montgomery School, on Montgomery Road, Walker School and Carter School. The Garbutt School was located on M33. In 1898, the Beebe School had 19 students. School attendance was a hit or miss. Students often had a very long walk to their school. Schools clased as winter arrived and opened again when snow was gone in the spring. Teachers changed frequently and had only one year of training at Cheboygan County Normal College. If a student wished to continue their education after eighth grade, they had to leave their home and stay at a boarding school.

So Cheboygan County’s village of Afton was settled by good, caring and hard working people. It first boomed, then diminished, but it stands today with a proud history. One can guess that most of them know how to sing the song “FLOW GENTLY, SWEET AFTON!”