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History · Custer Township

14% of Custer Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1963 on, and the census since 2000.

0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Custer Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Custer 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 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Custer Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewCuster Milling Co: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Custer Township, in brief

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

Custer Township is a civil township of Sanilac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 893 at the 2020 census.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,006 to 893 (-11%).

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

Timeline

Custer Township, 1897 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1897Post officeThe Burden post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1904Post officeThe Burden post office closes
  5. 1915In the archiveCuster Milling Co
  6. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Custer Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s2 items
Custer Milling Co1915Custer Milling CoCuster Hotel and Post Office1915Custer Hotel and Post Office
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
On the map

Custer Township on the map, 1963 to 1984

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

Custer Township on the 1963 USGS mapCuster Township on the 1984 USGS map1963Sandusky 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 Custer 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.

Custer Milling Co
Retake this viewCuster Milling Co, 1915

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Custer Township, census by census

02004006008001,00020002020Peak: 1,036

Between 893 and 1,036 people in every census since 2000.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Custer Township

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

See all →
J
Jon HorstAmerican basketball player · b. 1983
Cyrus K. BettisAmerican air racer · b. 1893
C
Colleen HoweSports agent · b. 1933
G
Gwen FrosticAmerican artist · b. 1906
L
Lawrence MansonAmerican football coach · b. 1892
Quincy P. HoffmanAmerican politician · b. 1913
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

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

Hamlets and corners on the map
Sunset Mobile Home Park
Gone or out of use
Burden Post Officepost office

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.

SanduskyIts storyC+Moore TownshipIts storyB−Bridgehampton TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWheatland TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWatertown TownshipIts storyC+

Questions about Custer 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 the Library of Congress (2), 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.