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Township History
Under Indian, French, and British Rule |
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In
recorded history, the territory that is now Fabius Township has been
part of three nations, three territories, five different counties, and
three earlier townships. This does not count its pre-history under the
Pottawatomies, who had been living in the area for more than 200 years
when the first Europeans visited the area, and their earlier
mound-building predecessors. French explorers, missionaries, and
trappers first entered the valley of the St. Joseph River in the
1660’s. All of what is now Michigan, as well as most of Canada
and the entire Great Lakes region, was claimed by France and was
considered part of New France from 1622 to 1760. Following the defeat
of the French by the British at the Battle of Quebec in 1760, these
lands became possessions of the British Empire. In 1774, the British
Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which extended the boundaries of that
Canadian province west to the Mississippi and south to the Ohio River,
thus making Michigan part of Quebec. |
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Part of the Northwest Territory |
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After
the American Revolution, all the lands lying west of Pennsylvania and
northwest of the Ohio River as far as the Mississippi became known
officially as “The Territory of the United States Northwest of
the Ohio River.” Prior to the passage of the Northwest Ordinance
in 1787, however, Connecticut claimed a strip of land that included the
southern tier of present Michigan counties, as well as parts of
northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. And Massachusetts claimed a broad
swath of the southern peninsula north of Detroit to the southern tip of
Saginaw Bay. The Northwest Territory, although still largely occupied
by native tribes, was regarded as public land of the United States that
when acquired from the Indians would eventually be surveyed, sold,
settled, and organized into from three to five new states. |
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Part of Wayne and other Counties |
In
1796, the acting governor of the Northwest Territory, Winthrop Sargent,
following provisions of the Northwest Ordinance to make property
divisions of the territory to facilitate governance, to include laying
out counties and townships, deemed it expedient to create a new county
to include the settlement of Detroit. Named the County of Wayne, it
included large portions of what is now northwest Ohio, northwest
Indiana, and all of Lower Michigan.
When
the state of Ohio came into existence in 1803, the entire remaining
portion of the Northwest Territory became part of Indiana Territory.
Two years later, however, Michigan Territory, including all of the
Lower Peninsula and a strip at the east end of the Upper Peninsula was
separated and created in 1805. After Indiana and Illinois became states
in 1816 and 1818 respectively, Michigan Territory included the
remainder of the Old Northwest as shown in the map above.
The
1818 map on the previous page shows that what is now St. Joseph County
fell under the jurisdiction of Monroe County in 1817 and under Macomb
County in 1818.
The first survey of public lands in Michigan was
made in 1816, on the Detroit River and vicinity. In the Land Ordinance
of 1785, the U.S. Congress had decreed that all western lands would be
surveyed using a rectangular system based on meridians of longitude and
parallels of latitude. The land was to be divided into survey townships
six miles on each side, and further subdivided into mile-square
sections. A numbering system was established counting east or west from
the prime meridian and north or south from the base line parallel, so
that each 36-square mile “township” could be identified.
(The prime meridian and base line for Michigan were surveyed in 1815.)
Thus, when the land now known as Fabius Township was first surveyed in
June 1828, it was identified as “Township No. VI South, Range No.
XII West/MicTer/ (A copy of this first survey appears on page 13).
Survey townships should not be confused with governmental townships,
which were initially far larger. It was not practical to establish
governmental entities such as counties or townships until there were a
sufficient number of citizens residing in an area to require them.
Thus, the earliest counties and townships were far larger than they
eventually became. But first, the difficult question of the native
population had to be dealt with. |
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The Township of St. Joseph |
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In
1821, the Treaty of Chicago with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and
Pottwatomies, opened the lands of southwest Michigan to settlement. By
this treaty, the native tribes ceded all the country west of what is
now the western boundary of Lenawee County, south of the Grand River to
the Indiana state line, and west to Lake Michigan, with the exception
of a few reservations that were not “cleared” until 1833.
In November 1826, the legislative council of the Territory of Michigan
attached all of this former Indian territory to the County of Lenawee
and in April of 1827 designated all of this land as the “Township
of St. Joseph.” (See map on next page of Treaty of Chicago,
initial “Township of St. Joseph “) |
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County of St. Joseph Established |
In
September 1828, that part of what had been the “Township of St.
Joseph” east of the current western boundary of the county became
the “County of St. Joseph.” On November 4, 1829, the
territorial council issued an order for the holding of a circuit court
at the house of Asahel Savery on White Pigeon Prairie, and for the
establishment of a county court with the usual jurisdiction.
This
date is used as the founding date of St. Joseph County. On the same
day, the legislative council defined the boundaries of, and named, a
number of other counties, including Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Eaton, and
Kalamazoo; however, the population in their territories was too small
to warrant “organizing” them as governmental entities. The
following day, the territories of these five other counties, plus an
additional strip of land to the north, were attached as two large
townships to St. Joseph County. (See map of St. Joseph County as of
October 30, 1829, on next page.) When Kalamazoo County was
“organized” later in 1830, and Branch County in 1831, St.
Joseph County reverted to its present boundaries. (In 1831, an
adjustment was made to add the land east of the St. Joseph River to
White Pigeon, later Mottville, Township.) |
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The First Five Townships of St. Joseph Co. |
The
original St. Joseph County as of October 30, 1829, was organized into
five large townships as listed below and shown in the map above:
a. White Pigeon Township included the present townships of Lockport, Florence, Fabius, Constantine, Mottville, and White Pigeon.
b. Sherman Township included the present townships of Sherman, Colon, Nottawa, Burr Oak, Fawn River, and Sturgis.
c. Flowerfield Township included the present townships of Flowerfield, Leonidas, Mendon, and Park.
d. Brady Township included the present counties of Kalamazoo and Barry.
e. Greene Township included the present counties of Branch, Calhoun, and Eaton
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Additional Townships Established |
Beginning
with Nottawa in 1830, additional townships were established by taking
territory from the original three. Constantine Township was established
in 1831
 and
Colon in 1833. That same year the land of present day Fabius and
Lockport townships was broken off and called Buck’s Township,
after an early settler named George Buck. Buck, a veteran of the War of
1812, operated Buck’s Tavern in what is now Three Rivers, was a
platter of the village of St. Joseph (now part of Three Rivers), a
principal in the Lockport Canal Construction Company, and an early
banker. The first election in Bucks Township was held in the spring of
1833 at the home of Hiram Harwood on Johnny Cake prairie.
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Fabius Township Appears, Buck's Township Disappears |
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In
1840, the eastern half of Buck’s Township was detached as
Lockport Township. The remaining western half, although it had no
connection to its namesake, retained the name Buck’s until 1841,
when the state legislature gave it “the more dignified name of
Fabius” and Buck’s Township disappeared. Some historical
accounts say the township was named for the Roman general Fabius
Maximus, but there were at least two famous Roman generals by that
name. It is more likely that the township was named for the Fabius
family, one of the oldest and most distinguished patrician families of
classical Rome. |
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