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History · Richland Township

12% of Richland Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1968 on, and the census since 1880.

0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Richland Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Richland 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.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1970 and 1990, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Richland Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Richland 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 viewKedzie House Richland MI: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Richland Township, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020728 in 1970Low: 465

Lost a third of its people between 1970 and 1990, then more than doubled.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Richland Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Richland Township.

Read it all →

Richland is located in the middle of what was once the Gull Prairie, an upland area relatively free of trees and maintained by natural and man-made fires. The area had a few Pottawatamie villages, one was located on the west side of nearby Gull Lake. Fish and game were plentiful, and the land was very fertile. Since there were few trees to clear, the prairie was among the first areas of Kalamazoo County to be settled. By the 1830s, the Native Americans had been forced west, and Richland was a thriving frontier village. The village even contended with Prairie Ronde for the county seat, but the centrally located village of Bronson (now Kalamazoo) was ultimately chosen.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Richland Township, 1882 to 2020

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Prescott post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1907In the archiveKedzie House Richland MI
  5. 1968On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 21st century
  7. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 946
By decade

Richland Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
Kedzie House Richland MI1907Kedzie House Richland MI
1910s–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
Today5 recent
Richland (1)2019Richland (1)M-343, Richland, Michigan2019M-343, Richland, MichiganFirst Presbyterian Church Historical Marker (1)2019First Presbyterian Church Historical Marker (1)Community Library Historical Marker2019Community Library Historical MarkerRichland Community Library2017Richland Community Library
On the map

Richland Township on the map, 1968 to 1984

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

Richland Township on the 1968 USGS mapRichland Township on the 1984 USGS map1968Prescott 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 Richland 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.

Kedzie House Richland MI
Retake this viewKedzie House Richland MI, 1907

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

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Richland Township

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

See all →
Janae KrocAmerican powerlifter and bodybuilder · b. 1972
H
Harry MatuzakAmerican baseball player · b. 1910
Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Prescott
Gone or out of use
Prescott Stationlocale
1cemetery inside Richland Township
Richland

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.

Mills TownshipIts storyDSkidway LakeIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLogan TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMason TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBurleigh TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Richland 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 (6), Wikipedia, 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.