Michigan
Norwich Township
Newaygo County
This is a provisional page, here as a starting point for this family community.
We welcome more details, photographs, history, or even a complete re-write.
And of course
web links to your communities web sites.
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Norwich Township, Newaygo County, Michigan
Administration: Supervisor, Township Clerk, and 2 trustees
Population: 560
Area: 35 square miles
Newaygo County was named after Chippewa Indian Chief Naw-wa-goo, one of the signers of the Treaty of Saginaw in 1812. Settlement of the area began in 1836 when Michel Charleau took a group of businessmen from Chicago up the Muskegon River and observed the great expanse of white pine there. The first sawmill was built by the Pennoyer Brothers a few years later at the junction of the Muskegon River, and a creek bears their name a few miles northeast of what is now the city of Newaygo. The lumber boom in the last half of the 1800's was very good to this area, and put the county on the map. The Muskegon River, Michigan's largest, became the lifeblood of the area, first for transporting lumber, and later for hydroelectric power. Three huge dams were built after the turn of the century: Croton, Hardy and Newaygo. Croton and Hardy Dams remain today, with Hardy the largest earthen dam east of the Mississippi.
Newaygo County today relies on tourism as its main economic support, with agriculture and small manufacturing secondary. The Muskegon River continues to be the main attraction for summer cottage residents and fishermen, who find it nearly the best source for fish - steelhead in the spring and salmon in the fall - anywhere in Michigan. Hunting, camping and RV'ing are also excellent, as over half the county is contained in the Manistee National Forest.
About Norwich Township
Generously supplied by Deb Parrish, Local History Librarian,
White Cloud Community Library.
Based on the lumber industry and first instituted in 1872, Norwich Township's population of 637 in 1880 had doubled by 1884 - such was the growth of the industry.
Today the township population has withdrawn to its earlier figure. There were 5 schools but they have now disappeared.
There appears to be no information as to why the name Norwich, but it is suspected that this comes from members of another Norwich community that moved here at that time.
The township has 5 lakes, of which the largest is one of the sources of the Pere Marquette River. There was a logging railroad and a post office. By 1926 the railroad has disappeared, yet the post office remains.
While today there appears to be one church at Woodville, the rest of the township is greatly divided into small lots, and what remains of the forest is on the Western Boundary.
 We hope for more news of Norwich Township and its tourist attractions as the internet communication develops.
Right: Woodville Station about 1900.
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