Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Colfax Township

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Colfax Township

Half of Colfax Township’s homes were built after 1983

Most of Colfax Township was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1956 on.

0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Colfax Township’s past

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

Lost villages5 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Colfax Township, and 2 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Colfax Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

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

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

Melville
1862–1871
Kasson
1871–1894
Print
1879–1889
Nessen City
1889–1930
Wallin
1893–1930
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Nessen CityWallin
Gone or out of use
Betsie River AirstripairportKasson Post Officepost officeNessen City Post Officepost officeNessen City StationlocaleWallin Post Officepost officeWallin Stationlocale
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Colfax Township
Colfax TownshipHoly Family

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

Help out

Start Colfax Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Colfax Township, in brief

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

Colfax Township is a civil township of Benzie County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 504 at the 2020 census. Colfax Township contains half of the village of Thompsonville, and the entire community of Nessen City

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 657 to 677 (+3%).

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

Timeline

Colfax Township, 1862 to 1956

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1862Post officeThe Melville post office opens
  3. 1871Post officeThe Melville post office closes
  4. 1871Post officeThe Kasson post office opens
  5. 1879Post officeThe Print post office opens
  6. 1889Post officeThe Print post office closes
  7. 1894Post officeThe Kasson post office closes
  8. 20th century
  9. 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.
Add from your album
On the map

Colfax Township on the map, 1956 to 1983

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

Colfax Township on the 1956 USGS mapColfax Township on the 1983 USGS map1956Thompsonville 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 Colfax Township.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Grant TownshipIts storyCInland TownshipIts storyC−Weldon TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCleon TownshipIts storyCNessen CityIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGreen Lake TownshipIts storyC−

Questions about Colfax 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 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.