Unadilla Township
126 Webb St. ● P.O. Box 120 ● Gregory, MI  48137-0120
Ph: (734)498-2502 or (734)498-7332 ● Fax: (734)498-2372

    When the first settlers came to the area that would become Unadilla Township they found a few small bands of Pottawatomie Indians camped along the lakes and streams.  The Indians marked their trails by bending a branch of a tree and staking it to the ground; the tree then grew with a branch angled upward, and their marked trails crisscrossed the area into what would become Washtenaw County to make contact with other tribes there.  Some of these markings can still be found in the area, and old historical accounts tell where the trails ran and where they diverged.

    The Native American culture was already on the wane and according to contemporary accounts, the Indians 'occasionally stole potatoes or entered homes to demand food' but on the whole caused little trouble.

    Many Indian artifacts were found.  For many years plowing fields brought up arrowheads and nearly every farmer had a collection.  A perfect stone axe was found in a marsh near Unadilla and a hidden canoe was found alongside a lake.  In the early 1930's a dancing circle was still visible from the air near lakes in the southwestern part of the township.

    The War of 1812 brought the British Army back into America and it was not until 1828, barely five years before the first settler came to Unadilla Township, that the British garrison left Drummond Island.  They were the last British troops to leave the U.S.

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    The earliest settlements in Livingston County were made in its southern and southeastern parts, they being comparatively easy to access for immigrants who came to the interior portions of the State from Detroit by way of Ann Arbor.  Putnam, Green Oak and Hamburg townships received settlers in that order; Unadilla was the last of the lower tier to be settled.

    In June of 1833 Amos Williams and his brother-in-law, Eli Ruggles, came to Michigan to visit relatives in Pontiac, and they also called on Nathaniel Nobel, an old acquaintance who had 'gone west' and settled in Dexter.  Mr. Nobel took the two men to see a 'privilege' (Webster Unabridged Dictionary:  'The advantage of water fall in streams sufficient to raise water for driving water wheels or a place affording such advantage') he had discovered some miles to the northwest of that place.  Mr. Ruggles liked what he saw, located 40 (some records say 80) acres there and built a log house.  His health failed and he returned east, but Mr. Williams, a millwright, came back in the fall of that year accompanied by his son, Samuel, his daughter and her husband, Garry Briggs.  During that winter the men built a saw-mill on Portage Creek, and put it in to operation in the spring of 1834.  The settlement around the mill they called 'Unadilla.' At that time, their nearest neighbor was 10 miles to the southeast in Washtenaw County.

    In 1835, John Drake built a dam across Portage Creek close to the Washtenaw County line and erected a sawmill using lumber sawed at Williams' mill.  He named this settlement 'Milan.'  When a post office was established there in 1836, that office was designated 'Unadilla' (there was already a Milan post office in Monroe County), but the village was called 'East Unadilla' to distinguish it from the Unadilla at Williams' mill.  Eventually, the first settlement became Williamsville and the villages became as we know them today.

    The land in the northwestern part of the township, where Plainfield is today, lay on a beautiful plain and the lack of underbrush made it possible to see for long distances through the trees. Openings among the strands of tall oaks furnished a place to break ground and plant a crop to see a family through until larger fields could be cleared.  Even the marshes were a plus; they grew rank with tall grass that could be cut and fed to cattle over the winter.

    The first need of the settlers was for shelter, and the serious work of farming could not begin until a cabin was built.  If someone were already established in the area it was possible to find shelter with them, if not an open-faced camp was built.  This consisted of a log placed on the lower branches of adjoining trees with a slanting back wall made of small trees cut and placed leaving the front and sides open.  When logs were cut and a cabin raised it was usually quite small, with perhaps a loft above and, most often a dirt or puncheon (logs dressed and hewn flat on one side) floor.  A chimney of sticks and mud served the fireplace. 

    The living space may have been the first test of a woman's resolve.  The new settlers were not without resources; most came from settled lives in the east, and a log cabin was a far cry from the houses the women were used to.  They were able to buy land in the new 'west,' supplies and perhaps a yoke of oxen to clear and work the land, and some were able to bring a cow and a few cherished pieces of furniture.  The change from that life to one of frontier hardship must have been difficult.  All the cooking had to be done over an open fire, and if the fire went out and there were no near neighbors where they could 'borrow fire,' it had to be restarted with flint and steel; matches as we know them were not introduced until about 1840.  Clothing for the family was the responsibility of the women; every thing had to be knitted or hand sewn.  The Indians traded skins for salt and whiskey and some of the settlers wore buckskin.

    The lives of the men were also made up of long days of hard labor but they were able to get away when supplies had to be brought from Dexter.  The journey might last three or four days and included contact with the outside world, a contact that women did not have.  Local legend has it that the final stop-over on the way home was a saloon where the carousing grew so wild that they soon nicknamed the place 'Hell;' its name to this day.

    The land that comprised the township was made up of all of present Unadilla Township, all of what is now Iosco and a small part of what is now Lyndon Township, Washtenaw County.  The first town meeting was held at the home of Baxter Collins, on what older residents still refer to as 'Collin's Plains,' in April 1835, and the following were elected:  Supervisor, John Drake; Town Clerk, Peter N. Hard; Justice of the Peace, Elnathan Noble; Treasurer, James McIntyre; Commissioners, Seah B. Collins, Elnathan Noble and Francis Lincoln.

    Michigan was admitted to the union as the 26'th State in 1837, and in that same year 'Dyersburg' was changed to 'Plainfield' when a United States post office was opened there.  And in 1838, the northern part of Unadilla Township was set off to become Iosco Township, the extreme southern part was given to Washtenaw County and the township became as it is today.

    By 1852, the whole township had been taken up, and life began to acquire a semblance of the life left behind in the east.  Both villages, Unadilla and Plainfield, prospered but there was no direct route to market for goods and produce.  Unadilla's closest market was Chelsea or Dexter, and Plainfield shipped goods from the nearest rail connection at Fowlerville, both long distances by stage or wagon.  Each village had a hotel among other commercial buildings.  All of this would change when a branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad came through the township; but first came a great disappointment for one of the villages

    In 1869, a railroad was proposed that would make a direct line to Chicago and join with the Grand Trunk Railroad there.  Bonds were issued in the amount of $20,000 for Unadilla and Hamburg and some residents invested.  Grading was started and property values began to rise, but the line failed to materialize and the investors lost out.  Instead a branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad came through the Halstead Gregory farm in 1884, the railroad built a depot on the west side of the road and Halstead Gregory, whose family came to the area in 1834 (his father, Philander Gregory, built the stone house west of town) was probably the first railroad agent.  Some reports say that Halstead Gregory later built a store near the depot.  Because the depot was on the railroad right of way, and a store required a lease from the railroad, he may have relocated in order to build the store on his own property, and that property ended on the section line:  The route M-36 and its connector, M-106, follows today.  However it came about, older residents remember the depot as being on the west side of the road.

    The original village, the west side of Main Street and all of Stockbridge Street, originally named Halstead Street (but now officially called Holmes Road), was platted by the Gregorys and build on the easternmost part of the Gregory farm.  The fact that the original town was built on high ground fronting a swampy area unfit for farming probably figured into that plan, a fact that would become all too obvious when a sewer was proposed.  All of Gregory east of the section line is made up of additions put in place as the village grew and prospered.

    A real estate office and the fire station occupy the place where the Maccabees Hall once stood.  Erected in 1900, it became the Town Hall after the Gregory Maccabees disbanded, and it soon became a hive of activity.  It was the site of many early entertainments:  A full-scale production of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Pinafore' using local talent; Charlie McRorie, a beloved teacher at the school on the hill, organized a school band and newspaper and coached basketball there.  And, for a time, outside cultural events were staged there:  Chautauqua and the Lyceum, both presented educational and recreational concerts and lectures in the early days before radio and television came to entertain residents, church dinners were held there and the Town Board met in the basement.

    In 1989, while undergoing renovation to better accommodate the Board offices, the building caught fire and burned beyond repair.  The site was cleared.  Feeling that the hall could not be rebuilt because of a lack of room for a septic system, the Town Board bought a house on Dexter Tail, a short distance northwest of the village.  A few years later a new board commissioned and built the present fire station, and when the Howlett School was no longer used by the school district, the Township was given the use of rooms for offices and moved back into town.

    Bad feelings persisted between Unadilla and Gregory for many years after Gregory's acquisition of the railroad and the Town Hall, but Plainfield suffered also.  By 1885 that village had lost 200 of its 500 inhabitants along with two general stores, a hotel and various mills; all moved to Gregory to be near the railhead; over time Plainfield lost at least thirteen buildings, most moved to Gregory.  The Maccabees building, easily identified by the letters LOTOM KOTOM (Ladies of the Maccabees Knights of the Maccabees) above the door, built 1888, stands in Plainfield where the hotel once stood; the hotel building, since converted to a dwelling, still stands today, the first building south of the Beauty Shop in Gregory Village.

    Unadilla faces many challenges in the new millennium but the township has had challenges in the past and its people were able to overcome and move forward.  There is no reason to fear the future as long as the problems are faced and dealt with.

    (Many interesting accounts of the beginnings of Unadilla Township can be found in the 1880 History of Livingston County). 

    We are grateful for the hard work and efforts of Jane Bollinger in preparing this information.

    For historic plat maps, click here:  Unadilla, Plainfield, Williamsville, Gregory

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