Erin Township
(excerpted from Leeson's History of Macomb County, Michigan, pp.893ff.)

Erin Township was organized under the name of Orange, by authority given in the act of March 11, 1837. It comprised all of Township 1 north, of Range 13 east, together with Sections 12, 13, 24, 25 and 36, of Township 1 north, of Range 12 east. Section 36 of Warren was added to this township in February, 1842, and a year later, march 9, 1843, the name of the district, as organized, was changed to Erin. This change of name is said to be due to the fact, that in the year 1843, a large influx of Irish citizens had come to Orange, and, the name not corresponding to their Hibernian ideas of propriety, they had it changed to Erin, after their native isle.

The village of Frazer [sic], in Erin Township, is a country post office and station on the Grand Trunk Railway, six miles southwest of Mt. Clemens Court House and nineteen out from Detroit. The depot is one-quarter mile distant from the post office. In the vicinity, there is an Evangelical Lutheran Church, a district school and steam stave and heading factory, the products of the latter forming the only exports. The business and professional circles of the hamlet comprise about a dozen persons. The post office is conducted by F. C. Kollmorgen. The principal business is conducted by the stave and heading factory. There are some other manufactories. The Canadian Express Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company do business here.

The village was founded in 1857 by Alex Frazer. The first store was established by Fred Eberlein, a Bavarian, who settled there in 1856. A stave-mill was built by Eberlein & Co. in 1865, who operated it two years, when the company sold to F. Eberlein and William Beauclerc. The concern was sold to John Gapt, who sold his interest, in 1872, to Charles Knorr and John Gutow, and the latter selling to Charles Steffins resulted in the formation of the present firm. The company manufacture at present staves, headings, hardwood lumber, ax-handles, whiffletrees, neck-yokes, and also operate a feed-mill.

The first blacksmith shop was that of F. Eberlein, established in 1856. Frazer is a German village. A Lutheran Church, which sustains a large graded schoool, is in a prosperous state. The schoolhouse now being built is estimated to cost $2,000.

There is a small and steadily growing settlement called the Junction. It is located at a point where the Utica plank road intersects the Gratiot road.

Roseville is a village of 400 inhabitants, in Erin Township, Macomb County, four and a half miles south of Frazer, on the Grand Trunk Railway, three miles from Lake St. Clair, nineteen miles above Detroit and ten south of Mt. Clemens. The place contains six churches --one Catholic, three Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian-- and several schools. Fruit, grain, hay and potatoes are the exports. Gustave Schuchard is Postmaster.

Rev. Messrs. J.S. Schmidt, J. List and ----Arndt, of the Lutheran Churches; Rev. Andreas meyer, of the Methodist, and Rev. J. Van Straken, of the Catholic Church, are the only resident pastors. The physicians are James Yates and Henry Feldman. There are three potash manufacturers, one stave factory, eleven stores, two saloons, one hotel, with a number of wagon-makers and blacksmiths.

Click here to read the history of Fraser from the City of Fraser home page.

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