Canton Township
Wayne County
Michigan

As with much of the southern Great Lakes region, Native American tribes flourished here from at least 1,000 B.C. According to artifacts and historians, the tribes of this area were called, mound builders, and probably from the Adena-Hopewell Tribe. The historians have concluded that the most important product for these Native Americans, was agriculture.
Each tribe had its own chief, warriors, medicine men, and squaws. They used paint to color their faces, and practiced war dances in colorful costumes. Their homes, or wigwams, were made of poles tied together on top, that spread out at the bottom and were covered with bark from large trees. They used animal hides to cover the ground inside.
As the first white men arrived, the Native American's were forced north as far as Canada, and westward. They came as pioneers, explorers and missionaries. These early settlers were also trappers, lumbermen, fur merchants, and fishermen. Early life here was difficult and only about 10 percent survived passed the age of fifty years.

The 1800 Harrison Act, passed by Congress, which allowed anyone to buy up to 320 acres of land for only $2 an acre on a payment plan, led to and influx of settlers to the area.
With the creation of the Board of Supervisors, on April 12, 1827, boundary lines were established for the townships of Detroit, Hamtramck, Springwells, Huron, Brownstown, Ecorse, Mongauagon, Bucklin, and Plymouth. On October 29, 1829, Nankin and Pekin were created out of current, Bucklin, which would cease to exist. And later, Pekin became Dearborn, Plymouth and Redford Townships.
By the Act of Congress, March 7, 1834, Town 2 South, Range 8 East, was proclaimed a separate township, known as Canton.
Canton Township, a 36 square mile town, is bounded by Hannan Road on the east, Joy Road on the north, Napier Road on the west, and Van Born on the south. There are also four creeks which flow through Canton that drain into the Rouge River, they are; Fowler, Fellows, Tonquish, and Willow Creeks.
The Sauk Trail, was the original road running through the township, with improvements made in 1825, the Federal Government, remodeled the trail, and renamed it the Chicago Turnpike, for it wound its way from Detroit to Chicago, Illinois. It is now known as Michigan Ave or US 12.

Where current day, Michigan Ave, meets, Sheldon Ave and Geddes Road, was the historic area, Sheldon's Corner, founded by Timothy Sheldon. The earliest businesses were a general store, the post office, a shoe maker, and a black-smith shop. The post office also served as a railroad station for the Michigan Central RailRoad.

The original log cabin home measured about 18 feet by 24 feet with a stone fireplace along the outside North wall. The walls were made of logs, the roof of oak shades, and were held in place by poles, so rain and snow did find their way inside. The fireplace itself, was usually made of stone, with a chimney made of sticks and mud. The door was wooden, and swung open on hinges.
Most settlers built their cabin door facing the south. There were no windows, and the wood to use in the fireplace, was usually piled along the outside wall for protection.
The ground floor served as their dining area, their kitchen, the livingroom, and bedroom. Sometimes a trap door led to a cellar, which served as storage space for food. An upper story was at times built for a loft bedroom, or extra storage space. Light was made by homemade candles, and clothes were spun from spinning wheels.
There were no matches, so home fires were left burning 24 hours a day, or a person was left to walk to a distant neighbor for burning embers that they could carry back home in a kettle.

Daniel Cady was an early settler here in 1825. His family still owned 120 acres of land here in 1876. William Smith and Childs Downer were also early settlers of the area. In 1835 D. Boldman arrived from Steuben County, NY, and started a farm in the Sheldon District. He later became the proprietor of a cheese factory.
Jared Fairman and his family arrived by steamboat in Detroit after traveling from Buffalo, NY.
Jared bought a pair of oxen and a wagon, and set out on a muddy trail and after three days, found themselves without food, or shelter. They took refuge with a generous family, and stayed there for two weeks, after which they had built their own cabin.
The Fairman's built their own furniture, made their own candles, and hunted for their food. Mrs. Fairman made maple syrup in the spring from the maple tree sap, which she made last the entire year.

The nearest Church was St Mary's of Wayne founded in 1864 by parish of 40 families. Earlier services were held in the homes of neighbors and preached by circut riders, such as Rev. Marcus Swift. He circuited 10 churches and covered an area of about 125 miles each month on horseback.

Other early settlers were Francis Fairman, the son of Jared Fairman. Hugh Gyde who owned 77.44 acres of US Government deeded land in 1827. Gyde sold a tract of land to Robert Huston in 1832, who in turn sold the land to Harrison Colby, except for a piece of land he deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church, as a meeting place. This is the current location of Cherry Hill and Ridge Roads.
Ridge Road was at one time, known as the Potawatoma Trail. It was a ridge of land, from which you could see the tops of the buildings in Detroit. The ridge slopes southeasterly toward Detroit, and is at it's highest point 980 feet above sea level. There was at one time located here, the earliest area tavern, The Ridge Inn.
It was also at this point that Abner Hitchcock built himself a hotel complex that stabled at least 100 horses. This later bacame known as The Hitchcock Follies, because Hitchcock had estimated its location to be along the Chicago Turnpike, however, he had estimated incorrectly, and it became built on Ridge Road.

The first town election for officers in Canton Township was held in the home of John Chaffee. James Safford acted as moderator and Lyman Witter acted as clerk. Elected as officials were James Safford, supervisor; Thoms Hooker, clerk ; and Amos Stevens, as Justice of the Peace.

In March 1802, the County of Wayne, purposed and passed an Act stating that each township set aside Section #16 for the purpose of education on public lands. When public education started in Michigan, in 1817, it was centrally controlled. In 1827, the Territorial Council abandoned the centralized policy by enacting a measure to enable the townships to maintain their own schools. According to Territorial Law, every township containing 50 inhabitants or more would employ a schoolmaster of good moral standing to teach children to read and write and instruct them in the English and French languages, as well as arithmetic, orthography, and "decent behavior".
An early teacher of the area, Lorena Fairman, instructed at the first school in Plymouth, located on Shattuck Hill called, Ruttner School. The earliest Canton Township school was located on Ridge Road across from the cemetery. It was built in 1834, and was a log structure of one room, measuring 21 feet by 24 feet. School was taught three months during the winter by James Hanford, and was taught two months during the summer by Mabel Patterson.
The oldest schools in Canton were Canton Friction No 2 (Cherry Hill School) located at Cherry Hill and Ridge Road; Kenyon, located at Joy and Ridge Roads; Hanford , located at the corners of Ridge Road and Hanford; Hough, located at Haggerty and Warren Ave; Truesdell , located at Haggerty and Palmer Roads; Sheldon, located on Michigan Ave west of Sheldon Road; Bartlett, located near Warren Ave and Canton Center; and Canton Center, located at the corner of Proctor and Canton Center.

The first township hall was built in 1874, and was located on the southwest portion of Section 15. Later the hall was rebuilt and a fire station was added, and the location was moved to Canton Center Road and Cherry Hill.

Township roads named after Canton Township's early settlers are:
Geddes, Gyde, Haggerty, Hanford, Hannon, Koppernick, Lilley, Lotz, Maben, Morton, Mott, Palmer, Proctor, Saltz, Sheldon, Taylor, West (now Beck Road), and Yost.

Contributed by Linda Ball