Fairplain Township


Rural Property Inventory

The Works Progress Administration worked in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Treasury to survey most of the land parcels in the state of Michigan. This survey provided the state with a basis for assessing property taxes. It also provided jobs for engineers, land surveyors and appraisers who were unemployed during the Great Depression. For the Fairplain Township survey, cards are marked as being surveyed in the year 1939.

Location descriptions are specific and include the local school and often a general address of the property owner if they do not reside on the property.

The cards provide a unique insight into the way of life of the property owners of that time period. The descriptions often provide sketches of buildings and land, including bodies of water and adjacent railways. Crops grown on the premises, outbuildings and forests are outlined. Included in the home description might be heat sources, wells, electricity, telephone, floor materials, type of foundation, as well as roof and siding materials. Some cards provide more information than others, but give the reader a picture of the property at the time of survey.
The original supervisor's ledger providing this information is owned by the Montcalm Heritage Village on the campus of Montcalm Community College, located in Sidney, Michigan. It can be viewed in the Heritage Village township hall during special events when the buildings are open. They allowed me to borrow the book to be scanned and put online. The book is in suprisingly good condition. The pages have yellowed and are somewhat mildewy with that old book smell. As far as I can tell, only one page is missing and it looks as if someone took a ruler and neatly ripped out the page, leaving an edge still in the book. The book has almost 600 pages and is 4 inches thick.
If you have questions about the abbreviations, codes and descriptions, be sure to look at the Legends page.
The book is indexed two ways and that has been adopted that for the online version as well. If the location of the property is known it can be found in the sections index. Property owners are listed in the name index. Occasionally names were crossed out and replaced. Those crossed out are listed in the name index under the current owners. Names were spelled more than one way at times. Be sure to look through the index thoroghly if your ancestor's name might easily be misspelled or the spelling changed over the years.
This is the only township book for Montcalm County I am aware of. If you know of any others, I'd be happy to add them to the website as well. Please contact me using the email paula7johnson@gmail.com
Legend
Name Index
Section Index
Amsden
Fenwick
Sheridan
If you have additions or corrections please contact Paula Johnson
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