History of Hersey Township 1884 Portrait & Bio Album
This township was granted an organization by the Board of Supervisors
of Mecosta County April 6, 1868, and was attached to this county. Its
organization was perfected a year before the county in which it is
situated was formally organized.
P.S. Holdridge, A.J. Johnson and Nathan Pettibone were appointed
Inspectors of election.John A. Gamage was chosen as Clerk of the
Board. They met at the residence of D.A. Blodgett, where they
organized the meeting, and then adjourned to the house of S.P. Gamage.
The polls were opened and the citizens of Hersey exercised their
rights of suffrage here for the first time. It did not take as long
then to count the vote as it does now, yet they might have had as much
weight in shaping the destinies of this township as the more
numerous vote of later days. When the ballot-box was opened, there
were found to be 35 votes, which determined the election of the
following officers: Edwin F. French, Supervisor; John A. Gamage,
Clerk; George L. Laughlin, Treasurer; Nathan Pettibone, A.J. Johnson
and Frank Evart, Highway Commissioners; Nathan Pettibone and J.B.
Smith, School Inspectors; P.S. Holdridge, JOhn Smith, S.P. Gamage and
L.O. Schofield, Justices of the Peace, and Anthony Sample, John
Hoover, C.J. Graham and Wm. Rose, Constables.
Hersey lies in the southern rown of townships, and is numbered 17
north, of range 9 west. Its boundary lines are Cedar on the north,
Evart on the east, Mecosta County on the south and Richmond Township
on the west. It has four school districts, with the school-houses
located respectively on sections 32, 23, 18, 4. Nos. 1,2 and 3 have
frame buildings, and No. 4 is a log house. Values of these
school-houses are as follows: In district No. 1, $500; No. 2, $700;
No. 3, $450, and No. 4, $190. The pupils on the rolls in No. 1, 26;
No. 2, 62; No. 3, 72 and No. 4, 20. The pupils living in and about
Hersey village, the site of which is taken from Richmond and Hersey
townships, attend the graded school at Hersey, which is in District
No. 5, section 24 of Richmond Township.
The first settler in this township was D.A. Blodgett, who located on
section 17 in the spring of 1851. Though Mr. Blodgett was the first
settler in the county and was in the first organization of Richmond
Township, which at the time embraced the entire county, the first
settlement was given to Mr. Gooch, as he located in the territory now
embraced by Richmond; and Mr. Blodgett is given the first settlement
in Hersey, as his location was made in the territory now embraced by
it.
Following D.A. Blodgett as pioneers, came Edwin F. French, John A.
Gamage, L.O. Schofield, Nathan Pettibone, George L. Laughlin, Frank
Evart, J.B. Smith, P.S. Holdridge, JOhn Hoover, C.J. Graham and Wm.
Rose.
The land in general is undulating. Along the north side of Muskegon
River there is a great deal of level land. It was originally heavily
timbered with pine and the hard-woods, with some grand elm and maple
forests. The principal business for many years after the first
settlement was lumbering. The soil is very well adapted for
agriculture, the bottom lands being rich and fertile.
Hersey is exceedingly well watered, having the Muskegon, which runs
diagonally, with circuitous courses, through it. Big Stone, Cat, Two
Mile and several other creeks, which head in this and adjoining
townships, empty into the Muskegon. This river was, and is still, of
great advantage to the lumbermen of this township.
Special attention has been given by the people of this township to
public roads. Nearly all sections of the township can now be reached
by good graded roads. It is also crossed by the Flint & Pere
Marquette Railroad, which enters from the east between sections 1 and
12 and goes out westward on section 19. Hersey Township ranks the
second in improved lands and in production.
The best stock and agricultural farm in the township and the best in
the county is D.A Blodgett's, which lies along the banks of the
Muskegon in the suburbs of the village of Hersey. But there are many
other fine farms in the township, under good cultivation and with good
buildings. It is estimated that there are nearly 4,500 acres
underimprovement, with about 145 farms. The production of wheat in
1882 was 11,590 bushels from 860 acres. In 1883 the stock statistics
of the township showed 194 horses, 214 milch cows, 157 hogs and 141
sheep.
The population, according to the census of 1884, was 920. It had no
increased as rapidly as some of the townships, owing somewhat to a
change in lumber camps.
The trading town for most of the people in the township is Hersey
village, which is also their postoffice.
Hersey Township was named after Nathan Hersey, a trapper, who before
1843 came along up the Muskegon into this territory looking after his
trapping interests. Something more of this township will be found in
the history of Hersey village.
Hersey Township has honored the following named citizens with the
office of Supervisor:
SUPERVISORS.
Edwin F. French 1868
L.D. Reynols 1869
P.S. Holdridge 1870-1
C.T. Derevage 1872-3
P.S. Holdridge 1874
Jacob Fenning 1875-7
Serah Whitney 1878
H.D. Francisco 1879
Jacob Fenning 1880
A.O. Temple 1881
Fred Temple 1882
A.O. Temple 1883
J.F. Proctor 1884
