How does a county lose a township? Cheboygan County lost one. In the early 1900’s, Maple Grove Township was a thriving township which was called home by many good families. So why did it vanish?

Maple Grove Township was in the extreme southeast corner of Cheboygan County. It was located south of Tower and southwest of Onaway. In 1942, Cheboygan County had 20 townships, but in 1943, it had only 19 townships. Maple Grove Township no longer existed. The area that it had occupied had been annexed to Forest Township, the township that it had been formed from in 1909.

Maple Grove Township included all of Township 33, North, Range one, east. In 1901, 15 men, residents of Maple Grove, had signed a petition to request the formation of a new township. The petition was presented to the county commissioners for approval by Willis Bailey and Louis Wilton. These two men had spearheaded the preparation of the petition. Other signers were S.A.Comstock, Wm. Kellogg. Phillip Sanger, Norman Fischer, L.E Clark, George Ault, Wm. And Milo Mc Naughton, Selvis Jasmin, Thomas Burroughs, Frederick Dubey and George Wilton. The petition was supported and it passed. Maple Grove Township was born!

The township residents quickly oganized. The new officers established three schools. Maple Grove Township School #1 was on South Black River Road. The Wickersham School was on Tucker Road. The third school was on Clute Road. Clute Road School was built to serve the children near the lumbering camp that was located on Clute Road. We know little about this school, but it was open in 1935-36 when Virgil Faircloth was the teacher. Don Heilman taught at Wickersham School when he was 17 years old. He was fully qualified, but legally too young. The minimum age for rural school teachers was 18. He was hired when no other teacher was available.

Next the township officials built a beautiful little field stone town hall. It is still standing today on Clute Road. The stone work on the town hall was done by Louis Wilton. This hall was used for both business and social purposes. Dances and box socials were popular. We do not know the names of all of the early supervisors and teachers in Maple Grove Township. Some records have been destroyed. Louis Wilton was supervisor for 17 years. At that time, the Cheboygan commissioners consisted of the township supervisors. It was necessary for Louis to travel to Cheboygan several times each year, to assist in planning and carrying out necessary Cheboygan County governmental activities. Louis also chaired the Cheboygan County Commissioner’s county board for a number of years. The flag at the Cheboygan County court house was flown at half-mast when Louis died in 1939. Louis was my grandfather. He had only a fifth-grade education, but he was self – educated. I

n 1915-17, Ruth Carter of Cheboygan taught at Maple Grove Township School #1. In 1918-19, her sister, Genevieve Carter Piehl, took this teaching position. She lived with the Louis Wilton family. Among her students were all four of the children of Louis Wilton and his wife, Lulu Davies Wilton: Adolphus Owen, Nellie, Ina and Louis, Jr. Genevieve gave us pictures showing this school, and the students. The first school here was a log building, but it was replaced by a frame building. Students shared a bucket of water and one dipper and many contagious diseases.

Roberta Bannatyne also taught at this school. When weather was ok, she walked many miles to and from the school. When she arrived, she had to build the fire. Then she taught all 8 grades. When winter came, she lived with the Louis Wilton family. It was there that she met her husband to be, Adolphus Wilton. Some years later, four of their children, Robert, Audrey, Douglas and Corinne attended this school. Their teachers were Arthur Sturgis and Esther Dumsch.

But death was arriving for Maple Grove Township. The state of Michigan put pressure on the residents to sell. The stated that they wanted to annex this area to the Pigeon River Preserve. My aunt told me that they were testing the area for oil. She never trusted them. But no oil was ever found, and some of the area was sold to new buyers.

There were a few people left to sustain a township. It was annexed back to Forest Township, leaving only 19 townships in Cheboygan County.