On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sheridan Township is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #482 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sheridan Township’s overall grade.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Sheridan Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.0 points).
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Sheridan Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1851, Louis Lovell recorded an entry for land here and John W. Winsor built the first business, a sawmill. A shingle-mill owner, Erastus P. Brown, became the first postmaster here on October 14, 1864. It was a station on the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railway. Sheridan incorporated as a village in 1877 and was named for Union Civil War General Philip Sheridan.
Passages that mention Sheridan Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Portrait and biographical album of Newaygo County, Michigan1884 · page 191Read the page →
Read the text
duty, and, although mustered into the U. S. service, was not called into the field. He again came to Newaygo County in the spring of 1867, and purchasetl 40 acres of wild land in Sheridan Township. He built a board house and cleared only a portion of the land, when he sold his property to the Railroad Com¬ pany and moved into the village of Fremont, engag¬ ing in business with his brother, J. R. Odell, dealer
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Sheridan Township, 1868 to 1958
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 Sheridan Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1958Fremont 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 Sheridan Township.
People over time
Sheridan Township, census by census
Between 436 and 730 people in every census since 1880.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sheridan Township’s Wikipedia page.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Sheridan Township is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #482 of 701 in Michigan. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Sheridan Township?
15% of Sheridan Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1967.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2005
