CHANARAMBIE TOWNSHIP

        Back in August 1879, a petition, signed by E. W. Powell and twenty-two other voters, was presented to the county commissioners asking that township 106-43 be established and that it be named Lime Stone. The petition was granted, and the first meeting for the election of officers was held on August 25, 1879, at the Wm. Luce home (now the Flannery place).

        Several years after, the name of the township was changed to Chanarambie, named from the creek and the "Lost Timber."

        This township was about the last to be organized in the county with the exception of Fenton which was the last township to be organized.

        The first census of the county was taken in 1875 but, as the township was not organized and no places of residences were given in the unorganized townships, it is hard to determine who lived in the township at that time.

        The next census was taken in 1880 but, as the census taker at that time grouped the three townships, Cameron, Lowville, and Chanarambie, together, it is impossible to separate the settlers as to which townships they lived in. In 1879 Chanarambie had a population of 131, Lowville 71, and Cameron 124.

        The first census of record of Chanarambie township was taken in 1885 by S. Barrows, including the village of Lake Wilson which was started in 1883. The village and the township had a population of 185.

        In the township and village there were only thirty-three families listed. Here are the names of the families as taken by the census taker.

J. Bissett, E. Bragdon, C. Annis, O. Thompson, M. Webster, Dan McHahon, A. Dahl, Ole Olson, Mary Olson, O. Barrows, J. P. Ryan, J. Shields, A. N. Snider, Chas. Sargeant, E. Morgan, M. Gunderson, H. Stanley, Casper Lang, J. W. Bragdon, J. G. Rumet, R. F. Morley, Eric Peterson, John Conway, James Gilfillan, M. Nelson, Wm. Luce, S. Barrows, J. K. Howe, C. Dudley, S. N. Phelps, W. T. Warren, Ben Warren, Henry Uebersetzig, Hans Johnson and L. Anthonson.


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"The Very Latest" back in the days of 1905


        One of the outstanding figures in Chanarambie township was R. T. Morley who had a claim west of town. He craved to be Justice of the Peace, a position which carried some dignity and a lot of cash for those days. There were twenty cases in Justice of Peace courts in the 1880's to where there is one today. A dignified old cuss was R. T. He lived in a shack about 12x14 and when you went to get out papers against a neighbor, Mr. Morley gravely asked you to step into his office. He had drawn a white chalk line across the floor near a table and when you stepped over the chalk line you were in his office. Law suits were a sort of escape valve in the summer as were revivals in the winter. The writer served as Justice of Peace in the township and during the eight years there were plenty of law suits,

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