Vassar Civil History, Tuscola County, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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Vassar Civil History

Taken from The History of Tuscola County, Biographical Sketches and Illustrations, 
H. R. Page Co., Chicago, 1883. Thanks to Bonnie Petee.


The early records of the town clerk cannot be found, and the early civil history is 
therefore meager.

The first town meeting was held at the store of North and Edmunds.  Nine votes were 
polled.

September 10, 1867, the township board delivered to the president of the Saginaw, 
Vassar & Sanilac Plank Road Co., bonds to the amount of $8,000, being bonds donated to 
said company to aid in the construction of a plank road from Vassar to East Saginaw.

The highest number of votes polled at the spring election in 1868 was 139.

In 1870, $1,000 was raised for highway purposes, and $300 for contingent purposes.

At the spring election in 1871, the highest number of votes polled was 148.

In 1872, there was raised for highway purposes $500; interest on bonds, $300; 
contingent fund, $400; library $50.

January 28th, 1873, a special township meeting voted on the question of borrowing three 
thousand dollars, to be secured by the bonds of the town, for the purpose of building 
a new bridge across Cass river in the village of Vassar.  Thirty-six votes were polled, 
all of which were in favor of the proposition.  At the annual meeting it was decided 
by a vote of 107 to 50 to raise an additional amount of three thousand dollars for the
purpose of building a wrought iron bridge.  A combination bridge was finally built.



School District No. 2 was formed out of sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, and 
north half of 25 and 26, at a meeting of the board held April 25, 1875.

School District No. 3 was organized November 13, 1875, out of the following described 
territory:  Sections 3, 4, 9, 10, 15, 16, east half of 8 and 17, north half of 21 and 
22 and northeast quarter of 20.

There are four school districts in the town of Vassar, one of which is fractional.  
The directors are E. H. Taylor, John S. Kilbourn, Chester S. Dymond, and Freeman W. 
Titsworth.  There are four school buildings, one of which is brick, two frame and one 
log.  Whole number of children of school age in the town and village, 599;  number that 
attended school during the year, 484.

THE FIRE OF 1881

The fire of September, 1881, destroyed twenty-one homes, thirteen barns and two-saw 
mills, and left eighteen families without shelter.  The greatest individual loss was 
that of Wm. Bates, whose mill, three miles south of Vassar village, was burned, 
together with a large quantity of logs.  The loss was estimated at about $10,000.





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