Sterling Township
(excerpted from Leeson's History of Macomb County, Michigan, pp.846ff.)

This division of the county is similar in many respects to the township of Shelby and Clinton. The Clinton River enters the town at the head-waters of the hydraulic canal in the village of Utica, flows through a tortuous channel southeast and leaves the township in Section 24. Plum Brook flows parallel with the Clinton. This creek forms a confluence with Red Run Creek, at the northeast corner of Section 25, and the united streams enter the Clinton just east of the town line. Beaver Creek waters the southwestern sections and flows southeast to the waters of Red Run. The soil is very productive, generally level and carefully cultivated.

The first settlers include the names of Henry R. Schetterly, Chauncey G. Cady, Eleazer Scott, Peter Moe, Asa Huntley, John B. St. John, Jesse Soper, John Gibson, Oliver Crocker, Henry J. Stead, David Stickney, Washington Adams, Charles Hutchins, Richard Hotham, John B. Chapman, the Skinner family, John Wright and others referred to in the biographical history.

Jefferson Township was organized under the authority of an act approved March 17, 1835, and the first town meeting ordered to be held at the house of Jonathan T. Allen. The district known in the United States survey as Township 2 north, Range 12 east, formed the new division of the county. Under the act approved March 6, 1838, the name of the township of Jefferson was changed to that of Sterling.

The officers elected April 6, 1835, were: William A. Davis, Supervisor; John M. Chipman, Clerk; John St. John, Elias Scott, Orton Gibbs, Assessors; Abraham Freedland, Collector; John T. Allen and Russell Andrus, Directors of the Poor; Samuel Merrill, Lewis Drake, Joseph Stickney, Commissioners of Highways; Abraham Freedland, Constable; Nathan B. Miller, Elias B. Jackson and Cordello Curtiss, School Commissioners; Curtiss, Gibbs, Ober, Tooley, Miller, Scott, Kennedy, Merrill, Pathmasters and Fence Viewers; Alex Warner and William A. Davis, Poundmasters.

Click here for Sterling Heights historic photos, courtesy of Sterling Heights Public Library.

[BACK]