History of Rose Lake Township 1884 Portrait & Bio Album
ROSE LAKE was organized under authority of the Board of Supervisors given Oct.
12, 1870. The first election was held on
the first Monday in April, 1871, at the house of Wm. McKinzie. Inspectors of
said election were Wm. Wood, Wm. McKinzie
and J. N. Miner. Officers elected - Wm. Wood, Supervisor; L. Price, Clerk;
and G. W. Oliver, Treasurer; Highway
Commissioners - G. L. Hinkley, D. Lanigan and S. A. Wells; School Inspectors -
G. L. Hinkley and S. A. Wells; Constables
- W. G. Shepherd and J. N. Miner.
It is numbered 19 north, of range 9 west, and is bounded on the north by
sherman, on the east by Hartwick, on the south
by Cedar, and the west by Le Roy Township.
It has five school districts, with
three school-houses, located as follows:
District No. 1 school-house is located on section 29. Building is frame and
cost $800. Number of pupils in attendance,
79. No. 2 has a log school-house, which is built on section 3, and cost $150,
with 49 pupils in attendance. No. 3 has
a frame building located on section 15, costing $300. In this district there
are 34 pupils. Nos. 4 and 5 have no
buildings, and no report of school population.
About one-half of the lands in this township are what is called stump lands.
The pine lands are sandy, and rather flat;
the hard-wood lands are clay loam with a rolling surface. It is watered by
one of the branches of Pine River, which
forms the outlet to Rose Lake. This lake is about two miles long, and from
one-half to one mile wide, and is located in
the northern part of the township, which is dotted over by numerous other
little lakes. The principal business of this
township is lumbering, which is carried on extensively. Comparitively
speaking, but little farming has been done here
yet, and the farming interests are secondary.
W. M. McKinsie, Wm. Wood, L. Price, G. L. Hinkley, S.A. Wells, J. N. Miner and
A. E. Sawyer are credited with having
made the first actual settlements. Its railroad station and principal trading
place is Le Roy, on the Grand Rapids &
INdiana Railroad, which runs along near the western line of the township. The
population, as shown by the census of
1884, is 673, an increase of about 200 in four years.
Business interests are centered principally in Sawyerville, which is situated
by one of the little lakes on section 32.
Here A. E. Sawyer has the largest lumber manufactory in the county.
Operations were begun for this establishment in
1873, by cutting roads, etc. During the winter of 1873-4 the machinery was
hauled in and a tramway was constructed from
the mill to Le Roy, a distance of three miles. In the spring everything was
completed and the saws were started.
Average amount of lumber cut annually up to 1880, was 5,000,000 feet. In
1880, another saw and a steam feeder were put
in, increasing capacity to about 12,000,000 feet annually. The lumber is
transported over the tramway to Le Roy, and
from that place sent to the various lumbermarts. Mr. Sawyer employs at times
over a hundred men. He has a blacksmith
shop here, mostly for his own use, and a general store.
Metcalf & Knowles have a saw and shingle mill on section 23, with a daily
capacity in shingles of 40,000. This mill was
moved from Sunrise Lake.
On section 13, Joseph H. Spiers manufactures shingles and clapboards.
Capacity of shingle-mill, 40,000, and the
clapboard-mill, 5,000 feet, daily, which is handled by C. L. Gray & Co., of
Evart.
A Methodist Society has been organized at this place, and is served every two
weeks from the Le Roy charge. Services
are held in the school-house.
The following named citizens have served the township as:
