History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

THOMASTOWN TOWNSHIP.

This division of the county was first settled in 1830, by Thomas
and Edward McCarty, who soon after erected the first log houses
-in the township. The settlement of this district was very gradual
until 1836, when it received a fair quota of the immigrants then
settling in the county. Its present population is said to exceed
1,150, being 100 over the number credited to it by the census returns of 1880.
The application to organize the district now known as Thomastown was made in 1855, and the Board of Supervisors ordered the
following territory to be laid off in accordance with the prayer of
the petitioners: Township number 12 north, of range number 3
east; township number 12 north, of range number 2,;ast, and
township number 12 north, of range number 1 east. The order
is given under date of Oct. 11, 1855, in the following terms:
"Therefore, be it ordered, That the above described territory be,
and thesame is, hereby duly organized into a township to be known
and designated by the name of 'Thomastown,' which said township
is described as being within the limits and under thejurisdiction of
the county of Saginaw, in the State of Michigan; and be it further
ordered, That the first annual meeting for the election of township
officers in said township be held at the school-house in school district number three in said township of Thomastown on the first
Monday in April next, and that the following named persons, to wit:
Octavius Thompson, Robert Ure and Samuel Shattuck, being three
electors of said township, be, and they are hereby designated and
appointed to preside at such election, and to perform all the duties
required by the statute in such case made and provided."
THE FIRST TOWNSHIP MEETING
was held at the school-house named in the order, April 7, 1856,
with Robert Ure, John Benson and C. C. Batchelor, Inspectors of
Election; John Wiltsie, Clerk, and Morgan Jones, Constable.
The number of votes recorded was 60, of which Octavius Thompson received 31; and Levi W. Haines 27, for the office of Supervisor. The officers elected were Octavius Thompson, Supervisor;
Thomas Owen, Township Clerk; John Wiltsie, Treasurer; James
McCarty and John Wiltsie, Justices of the Peace; Edward McCarty, Jacob Wiltsie and S. J. Barnes, Highway Commissioners;
Thomas McCulloch and John Benson, School Inspectors; Denis
McCarty, Henry Almy, and Edward Zaglemyet, Constables;
Robert Ure, John Benson, Henry Bernhardt and Silas Wiltsie,
Path Masters; W. Haines and Henry Bernhardt, Poor Overseers.
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