In 1855, the Woodbridge Township board voted $250 for the building of a town hall. They appropriated $10 to buy a site in Section 16 of Woodbridge Township. Three men, John BEARD, A. FULLER, and Cyrus PATTERSON, acted on the building committee and selected the site at the corner of Woodbridge and Montgomery roads. From a sawmill near by, they contracted lumber to be sawed from tulip wood, more commonly known as popular. In 1856, the building was completed. The board appropriated $10 for lamps for the hall.
Twenty years later, an addition and repairs were added at a cost of $150. In 1890 polling booths and a dividing fence were installed. A wood and coal stove has heated the building in the past and is still adequate for the voting needs. The EASTERDAY family has furnished the wood for the stove for many years. In 1903 a rail was installed in front of the building. With the advent of cars, this was no longer needed and was removed.
The exterior is kept painted but the interior remains very much the same as it was in the beginning. The natural wood has become well-preserved and much darkened with age.
In 1975 the Michigan Township Association paper was questing the oldest town hall still in existence in Michigan. Our township clerk sent it our data and found it to be the oldest as of November 1, 1975.
Frontier Post Office Building
The Frontier Post Office building may be the oldest business place in Frontier. It was built in 1869 by Elijah FIELDS. The first occupancy was a post office and general store. The building has turned full circle, as the building, in 1969, became a post office again.
In 1892, a grocery store, alone, was housed here. It was operated by Warren ATWOOD. Two doctors, Dr. and Mrs. FURGESON were the next to occupy it with offices in the building. Mike WOLFF bought it after the FURGESONS left for Missouri and made it into a home. Behind it Dave GIBBS had a sawmill. He also ran a threshing machine and clover huller. The building became a mercantile business again when Charley SAUL opened a cream station in it. three others ran a store there: Jean CROSS, Lee ELLIOTT and Norman COLE. Norman also put gas pumps in front of the grocery.
A. L. SHEPARD bought it of the COLES in the early 1950's. He and his wife, Peggy, sold mobile homes and travel trailers.
The post office returned to the building soon after 1968, with Marcine VALLIEU as postmistress. The building was then sold to Lynn GREEN. The post office is rented to the government by Lynn. The postmaster is Clyde DRYER.
Woodbridge Township Fire Department
The township was serviced by Pioneer, Ohio and Camden, Michigan fire departments. Feeling that the community needed a little better and closer fire protection, the idea was brought to a vote. The township approved the proposition, and in 1956, the township board appropriated $10,000 to buy a new truck, equipt it, buy a lot in Frontier and construct a fire house. The land was purchased from Grover CLARK next to the United Brethren Church on Montgomery Road.
When the new building was up, the new pumper, bought from the Barton Company, Battle Creek, was delivered in December, 1956. It was a Chevrolet truck with 1000 gallon capacity tank, which could pump 500 gallons of water per minute. The truck carried two, one-inch reel hoses, 150 feet long and a suction pump for filling. Two fire extinguishers were mounted on it also. Floyd (Pat) MALONE, the first fire chief, held the office from 1956 to 1958. Marlow PETERS accepted the white hat next and served from 1958-1959. Ralph LANGHANN was chief from 1959-1967. Karl OLMSTEAD was elected in 1967 and is still serving as chief. The first phone set up was a fire phone in MALONE's Barber Shop, Pete's Garage, and Ryan's store. When Pat quit barbering and moved from town, his phone was moved to the DURBIN store. For a number of years the phone system worked this way with one person at home at all times. In 1965 the new dial system telephones went into operation and a ten-phone answering system was set up. The Frontier department serves Ransom, Amboy, and Cambria townships under contract with each township.
In 1957 they raised money for additional equipment by having a chicken dinner at the school. The first year they cleared $564; the second, $400. They put on chicken dinners several years to by boots, coats, hats, hose and other equipment.
In 1957 Orrin WEBB installed the fire alarm system.
Ola STUMP gave the department at 1947 Dodge chassis for which the men secured a 750-gallon oil tank which they cleaned, installed and painted the whole thing red to equip their tanker. The truck and tank have since been replaced.
In 1957 a Fire Department's Woman's Auxiliary was formed. The women furnished coffee and sandwiches for the men at fires. The first president was Mary Lou OLMSTEAD. The women earned money to buy a proximity suit and an asbestos blanket for the truck.
In 1964 the Michigan Inspection Bureau gave the town a better fire rating because of its fine department.
In 1971 a third vehicle was added, a war surplus jeep. It was outfitted with hose and small tanks for fighting grass fires. Even though the department is not so old in years, it is a valuable asset to the township.
Lodge Hall
Lodge Number 510, I.O.O.F. was begun in 1908. A building of cement block, two stories high, was built in 1912 on main Street in Frontier. Clem SNYDER and Frank CARPENTER were head masons and directed the erection of the building. Merritt SHAW was head carpenter. The blocks were made by Fred MOHR and John GREEN. They also drew the first load of stone. When the building was dedicated, it was an all day and night celebration. Their charter was given to them March 22, 1905.
The main floor was rented for mercantile business. Herman HIGLEY had a store there and John GREEN worked for him for ten years.
Others who had businesses there were Claude SPADE, Will SAVAGE, and Frank CURTH. Mr. SCHAFFER and the LOUDENS ran a store there. Orrin WEBB operated an electrical shop there.
The last few years the Camden Branch Library has been in this building. The librarian is Florence SHELDON.
M99 - Montgomery Road
The building of M9, later M99, through the township was a very important part of its existence. The road was built through Amboy, Woodbridge, and Cambria Townships, and each township built in a different and individual way. The road was laid out and begun in 1918. Each township worked independently of the other. The road base they started with was a one-lane buggy trail.
The cook shack from Ransom Township was brought to Woodbridge Township and set up at Fern WILLIAM's home. The Woodbridge portion of M9 went from Grass Lake Road to Squawfield, the long way around. The first M9 turned west at Brittons' Corners, came down Burt Road to Clark Road and north to Montgomery Road on the east edge of Frontier. It went through Frontier to Hillsdale Road and then north to Squawfield. The contractor for this portion of the road was to have been Grant KIMBLE, but grant was called into World War I. Charley FLINT then took over the job. The boss on the job was Charley CRAWFORD. Some of the workers remembered on this portion of the road where Pat, Lloyd and John PATTERSON, Howdy PRESTON, Coe SMITH, Charley REUBEL, Guy DODGERS, Homer SERGANT, Glenn CRAMTON, Hank VAN AKEN, Burr HOWARD, Harve OVERLY, Bert MILLS, Elmer BLOUNT, charley EDAUGH and Camilius CRAMTON. Hank VAN AKEN had a team that was blind and he talked to them to indicate where he wanted them to go. He was responsible for cutting some of the sleeper grades. Howdy PRESTON was about the only one that could handle his team of mules. At the time the road was begun, the county road commissioner was Jack BAGER.
The river bridge below Fern WILLIAMS's on Burt Road was the next to the largest fill. Frank, Harry and Lynn Smith hauled two loads of stone each day from the HOOVER gravel pit when workers started to pour the foundation. The bridge was a masterpiece of bridge building in that day. It was one of the widest made. The foundation needed to be sturdy because there was a mill race below it. A plaque on the bridge tells the story.
Later, there was need to change the location of that section of the road. The new route went north of Britton's corners to Montgomery Road, straight west, through Frontier to Hillsdale Road and north to Squawfield Road. It ran through a sink hole east of Frontier. A legend remains: a huckster wagon passing through the sink hold on the road began sinking. The driver managed to unhook the horses from the wagon and whipped them to pull him through the quick sand with the lines. The wagon went down. The road was built to the south of the sink hole and this road held up.
In the spring of 1920 the road lying between Pat Patterson's and Albert FRENCH's sank out of sight. The quicksand and muck came up in mounds on both sides where the road had been. The road was closed.
Charley REUBEL lived on top of the log cabin hill where VAN SICKLES now live. His farm was one of the stoniest around. They decided, since it was so near that hole, they would pick his farm and put the stones in the hold. They had flat bed wagons with small racks, as stones weighed heavily. They hauled 7500 wagonloads of stone and 1500 wagonloads of dirt, one and one-half yard loads, to dump in the hole. They picked the farm, plowed the fields and picked it again. All the stone used came from the REUBEL farm. In order to work in the hold they built another road to the west and took the wagons around the hole and emptied from the south. They stretched a cable across the hole. They used horses to draw the wagons to the hole and dump them. Eventually the hole was filled and a new road built over the top. They still, at times, have to work on this spot of road.
