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Township History
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According
to Cutler’s History of St. Joseph County, “The first
permanent settler in what became Fabius was Garrett Sickles, who came
with his family in 1830, locating on Johnny Cake prairie in Section 13.
Although there were a number of settlers during the succeeding year, no
one arrived to materially assist in the progress of the township until
October 1832, when William F. Arnold, in company with his
father’s family, located on the west half of the southeast corner
of section 26. This was in the southeastern part of the township, and
at the time of the coming of the Arnolds there were only four families
within the present limits of what became Fabius Township.”
(Preceding the Arnolds were the families of Thiam Harwood, Herman
Harvey, and Samuel Newell.) About 1833-34 came Deacon William
Churchill, with his family, who also settled on section 26; also, J.W.
Coffinbury, Andrew Burritt, Benjamin Smith, Charles Rice, Alonzo Hunt,
Michael Beadle, Alfred Poe, Solomon Hartman and Benjamin M.
King.” The Arnolds and the Churchills, who were neighbors in
Section 26, each had a son and daughter. These two pairs of young
people accounted for the first marriages in the township as well as the
first births – Lydia Arnold was born on February 28, 1835, and
her cousin Thomas Churchill, four days later. |
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First Elected Fabius Township Officers |
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The
first election of officers of the newly established and newly named
Fabius Township took place on April 5, 1841 at the home of Alfred Poe.
Frederick Shurtz was the first supervisor and Thomas Ward the first
clerk. Other officers elected included three assessors, three school
inspectors, three road commissioners, two school directors, two
constables, and two justices of the peace. In the census of 1850, there
were 497 persons living in Fabius Township. |
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Although
travel to and from the township was difficult during the early years, a
stagecoach line ran from Three Rivers north to Howardsville and
Flowerfield through Section 2, near the present day Pulver Road. The
township plat map of 1858, reproduced on page 14, shows a very
rudimentary road system; however, the early traces of what later became
U.S. 131, M-60 Broadway Road, Coon Hollow Road, and Corey Lake Road and
a few others can be discerned.
The Michigan constitution of 1850
had given townships the responsibilities for maintaining roads.
Property owners paid a road tax, but it was possible to work out this
tax by putting one or two days work on the roads each year. In 1893,
the legislature passed a law permitting counties, by vote of residents,
to establish road departments to build and maintain arterial roads to
serve areas larger than that served by township roads. By 1905, only 18
of the state’s 83 counties had done so. St. Joseph County voted
to form a Road Commission in 1912. Its first meeting was on May 4, 1912. |
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Railroads
provided for long distance travel from the 1870’s to the
1950’s. There were three rail lines across Lower Michigan in 1860
but none came through Fabius Township until the Michigan Central built
its “Air Line” on a shorter, more direct route between
Niles and Jackson in 1871. J.W. French, a Three Rivers businessman who
had the contract for laying ties, demanded a stop and depot at Fabius,
now near the intersection of Gleason Road, A.L. Jones Road, and M-60.
Mr. French used the railroad to commute to his summer home on the east
side of Corey Lake. (J.W. French should not be confused with Alfred W.
French, or his son Edward A. French, who also had a summer home on
Corey Lake from about 1922. Interestingly, A.W. French was a
manufacturer of road building equipment and was involved in the
construction of highway M-60.) In 1876, four trains a day ran through
Fabius Township. A stop was also established at Corey, just across the
western county line, where summer visitors from Chicago would be met by
horse and wagon and transported to the Grand View Hotel on Corey Lake,
which opened in 1893. Service on this line was discontinued in the
1930’s. During World War II, the rails were torn up and salvaged.
The township plat map of 1893, reproduced on page 15, shows the state
of the township’s road system after the railroad had been put
through. |
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Michigan
created a state highway department in 1905. In 1913, in response to
pressure from the growing number of automobile owners interested in
touring, the state developed a 3,000-mile state trunkline network, a
part of which was M-60 through the southern part of the township. The
location of M-60 to its present alignment, in places following the old
rail roadbed, was changed after 1960. U.S. 131 was constructed through
the township south from Three Rivers in the late 1930’s. The
northern section of U.S. 131, by passing the central part of Three
Rivers, was completed in the early 1960’s. |
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According
to Cutler’s history, “The first school house in the
township was built of logs, in 1833, and stood at the edge of the woods
on the south line of section 35.” As late as the 1950’s
seven one-room schools under county supervision provided elementary
education in the township. They were consolidated into three schools in
1953 – Lake Section, Johnny Cake, and Hopkins. The new Lake
District, building, now Norton School on A.L. Jones Road, was opened in
1956. The last classes of the one-room schools graduated in May of
1956. The three consolidated elementary schools became part of the
Three Rivers Community Schools in 1966. |
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At the
beginning of the 21st Century, Fabius Township was the home of four
summer camps, three campgrounds, and several retreat and meditation
centers. Oldest of the camps is Camp Eberhart on Corey Lake, operated
by the South Bend, Indiana, YMCA since 1909. Adjoining is Camp
Wakeshma, founded in 1925. The Latvian Center Garezers on Long Lake,
formerly a Girl Scout Camp, preserves Latvian language and culture and
operates a summer high school program. Habonim Camp Tavor on Kaiser
Lake since 1956 provides a kibbutz-like experience involving Hebrew
language, gardening, animal care, and community service as well as
swimming and boating.
Something about the Westside Landfill
purchased by Waste Management – provides substantial part of
Township income. Also creation of Meyer Broadway Park.
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click image to view larger version |
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The
first zoning in Fabius Township became effective in May 1945 under the
Township Rural Zoning Act (PA 184) of 1943. What seems to be the first
zoning ordinance, a two-page document entitled “Fabius Township
Building Code Ordinance No. 1,” became effective in August 1960.
It provided for only two districts. District No. 1 was
“Residential and Resort” and included all lands adjacent to
Pleasant, Little Pleasant, Clear, Corey, Kaiser, and Long Lakes.
District No. 2 “Agricultural and Industrial” included
everything else. Apparently, there was no map. In the mid 1970’s,
with the help of Vilican-Leman & Associates, community planning
consultants from Southfield, Michigan, the zoning board prepared a more
extensive ordinance and the first zoning map of the township. Its first
draft was completed in January 1974. The fourth and final draft was
adopted as Ordinance No. 15 in November 1977. Members of the Zoning
Board who developed this ordinance were Rev. Ewald, Henry Gleason, Paul
Jacobs, Virgil Jors, Kline, Sisson, and W.P. Smith. In the early
1990’s the Zoning Board prepared the Township’s first
General Development Master Plan with the assistance of Rand Bowman of
the Southcentral Michigan Planning Council. The Plan was submitted to
the Township Board in July 1991, revised in December 1991, and adopted
by the Township Board in May 1993. Members of the board who prepared
the master plan were Thomas H. Doherty, Chairman; Larry Campbell, Merle
Godber, Richard Maurer, Bruce Monroe, Clare C. Muehlberger, and Barbara
Sweder-Juarez.
To incorporate some of the provisions of the new
1993 master plan, to eliminate some undesirable industrial uses, to
control intensive livestock operations, and to make the zoning
ordinance more user-friendly, the ordinance was extensively revised and
reformatted in two phases in 1996 and 1997. Members of the board who
revised the ordinance included William Hokanson, chairman; Robert L.
Johnson, vice chairman; Richard Maurer, acting secretary; Ricky Starks,
Barbara Sweder-Juarez, Lane Wells, and Thomas O. Wilson. The basic
Zoning Ordinance is currently Ordinance No. 65, effective September 30,
1997, although it has since had 10 amendments.
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Fabius Township History compiled in May-June 2003 by William Hokanson, A.B., M.A. from the following sources:
Cutler,
H.F. ed. The History of St. Joseph County Michigan Volume I. Chicago,
1911 Dunbar, Willis F. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State.
Revised Edition by George S. May, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980.
Silliman, Sue I. St. Joseph in Homespun, Three Rivers, Michigan, 1931
History of St. Joseph County Michigan. L.H. Everts publishers, Philadelphia, 1877
History of Calhoun County Michigan. L.H. Everts publishers, Philadelphia, 1877
History of Kalamazoo County Michigan. Everts and Abbot, publishers, Philadelphia, 1880
Fabius Township General Development Master Plan. 1993
Encyclopedia Britannica, Vols 13, 15, 16. Chicago, 1960. |
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