Macomb County MI


HISTORY
of
ARMADA TOWNSHIP

Contributed by Patti Wulff
From Leeson's History of Macomb County, Michigan, pp.679

The township of Armadia, or Armada, was organized under a legislative enactment, approved April 22, 1833, laying off from the surveyed townships, Town 5 north, Ranges 13 and 14 east of the meridian, and ordering the first township meeting to be held at the house of Edmund Stewart the first Monday in April, 1834. The formal meeting of the people to consider the question of organization was held in the year 1832, at Armada Corners (Selleck's), and the organization was strenuously opposed, as uncalled for an unnecessary, but was carried later in the day. When the subject of a name came up, but little time remained. Several names were proposed which did not meet with approval, until Hosea Northrup jumped up and shouted the name Armada. The name was carried at once, and probably without a knowledge of its meaning or its fitness.

The first town meeting was held April 7, 1834, in accordance with the statute. Henry B. Ten Eyck presided, with Roswell W. Green, Clerk; Darius Sessions and Minot T. Lane were Inspectors of Election. The officers chosen were: Alfred Goodell, Supervisor; Leonard Lee, Clerk; Erastus Day, Eden Armstrong and Iddo Warner, Assessors; Edmund Stewart and Norman Burk, Overseers of the Poor; John Proctor, Chauncey Bailey and Hosea Northrup, Commissioners of Highways; Asa Palmer, Constable; Martin Buzzell, Alfred Goodell, Minot T. Lane, School Commissioners; Aden Armstrong, E. Steward, M. Buzzell, Asa Holman, Charles Farrar, School Inspectors; Henry B. Ten Eyck, A. Goodell and Darius Sessions, Pound Masters; Joel Cartwright, Job Howell, Peter Woodbeitz, Joseph C. Donaldson, A. Goodell, Benoni Knapp and Nathaniel Carter, Overseers of Highways. Justices were appointed by the Governor of the Territory.

Armada is a thriving incorporated village of 800 inhabitants, settled in 1830, and pleasantly situated in Armada Township, Macomb County, about midway between Romeo and Ridgeway. It is on the Michigan Air-Line Railway, and is the center of a prosperous farming region. It has no water-power, and its manufacturing enterprises are limited, embracing a stave and handle factory, sash and blind factory, cheese factory, and a flouring-mill. Armada has four churches --Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and Adventist. The Telegraph is published by C.J. Seely. A good hall in connection with the National Hotel has recently been built. Grain, flour, apples, cheese, staves and handles constitute the principal shipments.