This page contains some historical information about the communities of St. Clair County.  If you have material to share, whether it is a photograph, information from an old letter or postcard, memories your elderly relatives shared with you about people and places, notes from your own historical research or an out-of-copyright publication, please email the county coordinator.  This is the kind of material that brings history and genealogy to life, and that we all delight in finding.

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Map of St. Clair (and Sanilac) County Townships - contains links to some of the community web sites.

Lynn
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Brockway
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Greenwood
The Greenwood Township web site offers some very valuable historical information about the township, as well as some about Brockway Township, such as lists of residents' names for certain years, etc. There are also photographs of some, if not all, of the headstones in Lett Cemetery. 

Grant
The Grant Township web site offers only very general information about the township. 

Burtchville
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Mussey
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Emmett
Currently there is almost no information at the township web site, but it does state that it's under construction, and to check back.

Kenockee
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Clyde
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Fort Gratiot
This link is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have), but does contain some interesting historical information, as well as a map of the township, which one can click to see the location of the various cemeteries in it.

Berlin
The Berlin Township web site offers only very general information about the township. 

Riley
This WikipediA link contains general information about the township, but is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have)..

Wales
This WikipediA link contains general information about the township, but is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have)..

Kimball
This WikipediA link contains general information about the township, but is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have)..

Port Huron
This WikipediA link contains general information about the township, but is not for an official township site (I have not located one - please let me know if you have)..

Columbus
The original Columbus, the location of the Arlington Road Cemetery, was once a bustling town on Gratiot Road  where it crosses Belle River. According to Michigan Place Names by Walter Romig, page 128, its settlement followed the cutting of Gratiot Turnpike in 1832 and first settlers included Peter Kilroy, James Mallory, George Bathey and Benjamin Weeks. Andreas' History of St. Clair County, 1883, gives the village brief notice on page 733, "...it has its churches, schools, and a manufacturing industry in the shape of a good grist mill."

It was the grist mill, now long gone, which first led my cousin and me to search out what is now in reality a ghost town. The mill had been owned and operated by relative Davis Donihue for 20 years; in fact, sometimes the village was known locally as "Donihue's Mills." We believe the mill was located just to the south of the present bridge.

What is left of "old Columbus?" The Congregational Church is still standing, now the Columbus Bible Church (although the congregation recently built a new church) and the school is now a private residence. These are both on Arlington Road south of Gratiot. The cemetery is right behind the Belle River Bar on Gratiot, which itself sits on the northeast corner of Gratiot and Arlington.  The last time I was there it was abandoned and overgrown.  It sits amid tall trees on a small plot which runs down to a steep ravine.

The present day Columbus, a few houses and grain elevators on Rattle Run Road, was at that time the village of Hickey.  Hickey's post office changed to Columbus in 1909, as its former namesake melted away into history.

contributed by Suzanne Frantz

St. Clair
The Clay Township web site offers only very general information about the township. 

Casco
The Casco Township web site offers some historical information about the township. 

China
The China Township web site offers a good sketch of the township history and its people. 

East China
The township web site offers a bit of historical information about one of its schools, as well as the Rose Hill Cemetery, located in the township. 

Ira
The township web site offers only very general information about the township. 

Cottrellville
The township web site offers some tidbits of historical information about the township. 

Clay
The Clay Township web site offers only very general information about the township.