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History · Bentley Township

Half of Bentley Township’s homes were built after 1983

Most of Bentley Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1969 on.

0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Bentley Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Bentley Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bentley Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bentley Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewGibson Township, MI location: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bentley Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bentley Township.

Read it all →

A post office was opened on Feb 26, 1887, called Bently. A post office was opened on Stevenson Road just east of Standish Road on March 15, 1900, called Glover and operated for exactly five years. On June 30, 1909, the Bently post office was renamed Bentley.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bentley Township, 1889 to 1969

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Rhodes post office opens
  3. 1894Post officeThe Estey post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1915Post officeThe Estey post office closes
  6. 1969On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Bentley Township, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Gibson Township, MI locationDate?Gibson Township, MI location
Today1 recent
Gibson Township, Michigan2021Gibson Township, Michigan
On the map

Bentley Township on the map, 1969 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bentley Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bentley Township on the 1969 USGS mapBentley Township on the 1984 USGS map1969Estey sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bentley Township.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Gibson Township, MI location
Retake this viewGibson Township, MI location

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Bentley Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Estey, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Rhodes
1889–today
Estey
1894–1915
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
EsteyRhodes
Gone or out of use
Bentley Oil FieldoilfieldEstey Post Officepost officeRhodes Stationlocale
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Bentley Township
Hope LutheranNew RhodesRhodes

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Billings TownshipIts storyDMills TownshipIts storyDMount Forest TownshipIts storyCGrim TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bentley Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.