Osceola County MI Archives History .....History Of Rose Lake Township 
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Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 January 9, 2008, 9:04 pm

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:

SUPERVISORS:

Wm. Wood,       1871
B.G. Moulton,   1872-3
Wm. Wood,       1874
B.G. Moulton,   1875-6
James McHugh,   1877
O.L. Millard,   1878
A.J. Archbold,  1879-80
O.L. Millard,   1881-2
B. Monaghan,    1882-4

Additional Comments:
History of Rose Lake Township

1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Osceola Co.

Chapman Brothers, Chicago

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