Fenton Township

Fenton Local History

The first land entered in the township of Fenton was taken in March, 1834, by Clark Dibble, on section 34. In April of that year Dustin Cheney and family came from Grand Blanc township and settled where now is the village of Fenton. The years immediately following witnessed the growth of a considerable settlement in the southern part of the township, settlers coming in from neighboring counties and from New York. A settlement was made at the site of Linden in 1836. Very little land of the township remained in the hands of the government by the end of that year and by the following year settlement was reached up into the northern sections.

In 1834 came R. A. Carman and A. S. Donaldson; in 1835, Jonathan Shepard, Joseph Thorp, William Remington and Elisha Larned. Mr. Larned was from Yates County, New York, and settled on section 32, but in 1837 moved to Fenton. William Remington, a native of Rhode Island, and later a resident of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and of Dutchess and Ulster counties, New York, came with Mr. Larned in 1835, settling near him. Joseph Thorp came from Genesee County, New York, and settled finally on section 36, at the site of Fenton.

The Chapin brothers, Alonzo and Murzah, were two of the first settlers in Fenton township. Originally they were from Irondequoit, Monroe County, New York, but had come to Wayne County, Michigan, in 1833, where they located in the township of Dearborn. Murzah Chapin and his family moved into Fenton township in 1836, and Alonzo and wife, the year after. They settled first near Mud lake and later near Linden. During the years of his early residence in the township, Alonzo engaged in teaming in various parts of the state, transporting goods for settlers and making trips as far west as Lake Michigan, becoming widely acquainted with pioneer families and the conditions of settlement over a wide area. He became one of the most prosperous farmers in the county and was for many years a strong influence in the growth of the Fenton neighborhood.

Prominent among others who came to the township before 1840 were Oliver Warren, Theophilus Stone, Walter Sluyter, A. Kirby, H. M. Thompson, H. Lee, M. Walton, J. Van Winkle and S. P. Thompson.

Very early in the settlement of the township, population began to concentrate about a site of great natural beauty on the Shiawassee River, in the extreme southeast, which was destined to develop into the present flourishing village of Fenton.

Dustin Cheney, the first settler in the township as well as in the village of Fenton, was a veteran of the War of 1812. Mr. Cheney’s son, Harrison Cheney, was the first white child born in the township (1835). Immediately following the arrival of Dustin Cheney at the site of Fenton, came Clark Dibble, George Dibble, Lauren P. Riggs, John Galloway and Robert Winchell. With them at the early “raisings” were John Alexander Galloway, William Gage and Hannibal Vickery. One of the early “characters” in Fenton was “Johnny” Wilber, also a veteran of the War of 1812, noted for his joviality, quaintness and honesty. “Uncle Dick” Donaldson was another favorite among the pioneers of Fenton. Robert LeRoy, the partner of William M. Fenton in laying out and building up the village, came with his father, Daniel LeRoy, from New York to Detroit in 1818 and, after a residence in Pontiac from 1830, came with Mr. Fenton, in the winter of 1836-1837, to the site of the latter village. They opened the first store in the place. Others came in rapidly and in a short time the settlement began to take on the aspects of a promising village.