A LITTLE HISTORY OF EDENVILLE TOWNSHIP
Let us go back and start in 1873 when David Burton and others signed a petition and gave it to the Board of Supervisors for the County of Midland. On June 24, 1873, the Board Of Supervisors granted the request of the petitioners and erected the Township of Edenville and it was given the number 16 North and 1 West. Some of the first families to be in 16 came because of the timber. They were William Gransden, Young and John Swanton, Arron Haven, David Burton, and the Marsh, Erway and Boman families. Later, as the town of Edenville grew, Tom Moore and Charles Axford (the two rival hotel keepers) started their hotels.

The post office was established in 1869 and later was changed to the name of Edenville instead of 16 as the post office department needed a name and would no longer go by a number. They say when Mr. Church was asked to rename the post office; he looked out over the river and up the banks and thought it looked to him like the Garden of Eden (hence Edenville).

From the 1850’s through the early 1900’s, Edenville had its ups and downs but not until 1877 was there ever a human life taken until Dr. Rockwell killed Ben Wilber over a dispute concerning the possession of a horse.
In our township, there were three other settlements to the south of the village. The first was what is now the west end of Baker Road on the east side of the Tittabawassee River and that is were they would forge the river to cross and go to the lumber camps. The second was called Wright Bridge and at one time it had a post office. The settlement set on the west end of Shaffer Road to the Tittabawassee River. There was also a settlement called Curtis east of M18 and south of Curtis Road.

Then came a man called Wixom. In the 1920’s, he built the Edenville dam, the spillway on the Tobacco River above Edenville (which is now called Wixom Lake) and to the south as the Tittabawassee flows, Sanford Lake in Jerome Township.

In the late 1930’s, Frank Wixom started the lumberjack reunions on the bank of the Tittabawassee River above the village. The reunion had more than 50,000 people attend each year. If you have not seen the pictures of old Edenville and the lumberjack reunions, please feel free to come into the township office to see them. Please call the township office (689-3655) and they will arrange a time for someone to meet you there.
And yes, we did have a high school and a bus to pick us up, the only school to have one.

Galen Gransden

For additional information on Edenville, visit the Wikipedia page on Edenville.

The pictures below are just a few of the many pictures on display at the Edenville Township office.

1904 Flood		Tittabawassee River before the Dam
Edenville Street Scene		Edenville Methodist Church

Edenville Township Lumberjack Picnic