The Posen Township post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Sobieski (1910), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 263 in 19102020 census: 808151 years
Founding year: the first Posen Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Posen Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Another post office, Sobieski, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Posen
1875–today
Sobieski
1910–1912
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
OrchardPolaskiPosen
Gone or out of use
Orchard StationlocalePolaski StationlocalePosen StationlocaleSobieski Post Officepost office
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Posen Township
Saint Casimir'sSaint Paul's Lutheran Church
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Posen Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Posen Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Posen is a village in Presque Isle County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 270 at the 2020 census. The village is in Posen Township. Posen has historically had a strong Polish background. At one point, 78.8% of its inhabitants reported to have Polish ancestry. It is home to the Posen Potato Festival, held every year on during the first weekend after Labor Day. The festival includes activities with potato pancakes and polka dancing. Posen has a branch of the Presque Isle District Library. Posen is also the German name for the Polish city of Poznań.
Its first post office opened in 1875. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 850 to 808 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Posen Township, 1875 to 1954
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Posen Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Alpena sheet · 1:250,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Posen Township.
People over time
Posen Township, census by census
Between 190 and 341 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Posen Township’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
Famous people close to Posen Township
Nobody well known was born in Posen Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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.
