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History · Butterfield Township

Butterfield Township’s post office opened in 1895

Most of Butterfield Township was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Below: maps from 1956 on and the census since 1900.

1895first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Butterfield Township began

When was Butterfield Township founded?

1895

The Butterfield Township post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Edson Corners (1878) and Butterfield (1895), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 221 in 19002020 census: 473131 years
Founding year: the first Butterfield Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Butterfield 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 writtenNo old photos of Butterfield Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Butterfield Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Butterfield Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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Places that used to be

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

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Edson Corners
1878–1900
Butterfield
1895–1922
Merritt
1910–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
ButterfieldMerritt
Gone or out of use
Butterfield Post Officepost officeEdson Corners Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Butterfield Township
Butterfield

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

The story so far

Butterfield Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Butterfield Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Butterfield Township is a civil township of Missaukee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 473.

Its first post office opened in 1895. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 489 to 473 (-3%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Butterfield Township, 1878 to 1956

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Edson Corners post office opens
  3. 1895Post officeThe Butterfield post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1900Post officeThe Edson Corners post office closes
  6. 1910Post officeThe Merritt post office opens
  7. 1922Post officeThe Butterfield post office closes
  8. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Butterfield Township on the map, 1956 to 1983

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

Butterfield Township on the 1956 USGS mapButterfield Township on the 1983 USGS map1956Houghton Lake sheet · 1:62,500

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

People over time

Butterfield Township, census by census

01002003004005006001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 548

Between 221 and 548 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Butterfield Township’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Butterfield Township

Nobody well known was born in Butterfield Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
A
Albert J. Engel Jr.American judge · b. 1924
D
Dan BazuinPlayer of American football · b. 1983
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Holland TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRoscommon TownshipIts storyDEnterprise TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAetna TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Butterfield Township’s history

What year was Butterfield Township founded?

The Butterfield Township post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.