PALMYRA TOWNSHIP
This township derives its name from Palmyra, New York, from which pint many of the first settlers came. It is a good farming district: has a rich, productive soil. Wheat, grain, and potatoes are the leading products. The shipments consist of grain, potatoes, brooms, handles, shingles, etc. The census of 1870 shows that this Township had 10,086 acres of improved land, and raised 19,826 bushes of wheat. The value of the livestock is rated at $123,000. Palmyra was set off from Blissfield in the spring of 1834, and included also the present limits of Ogden Township. Ezra Goff and Henry J. Paddlock are supposed to have been the first actual settlers in 1826, followed son after by T. B. Gibbs, Daniel, Lester P., and Walter P. Clark, Jno. Comstock, Wait Chapin, and Wm. Beldin; and prior to 1834, Benjamin Clark, N.D. Warner, Alonzo Mitchell, Horace Whitmarsh, Robert Craig, Orrin and Nathaniel Gleason, and Brazilla Harvey, Gersham Noyes, Alex. R. Tiffany, Asabel Brown, George Colvin, Edwin Holloway, and Edward Underwood. George Crane was the first supervisor. The first saw mill was built in 1834, at the present village of Palmyra, and the first grist-mill at the same place, by a Toledo company, in 1836-7; it had four run of stone and cost $60,000. It was burned in 1870 , and has not been rebuilt. The first marriage was that of Elisha Franklin to Miss Lucy Noyes, the notice of which was published in the first paper issued in the County. Lyman L. Goff, son of Judge T. B. Goff, is supposed to have been the first child born in Palmyra Township, it being as early as September 3, 1829. Mrs. Sarah Welch (widow) and Mr. Stewart, both residents of Palmyra, are upwards of on hundred years of age.
The first purchase of land in the Township was made by N. W. Wadsworth, from Connecticut, October 7, 1823. In 1837 Palmyra had a mild experience of a wild-cat bank, but it only did business for a few months.
Palmyra Village is on the Raisin, six miles southeast of Adrian. Its population is about 200. In contains a saw- and grist-mill, manufactories of brooms, handles, shingles, and barrels, and some stores and mechanics’ shops. A factory, under the Alden patent, was established last year (1873) by a stock company, for drying fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc. Palmyra has a daily mail.
Wellsville is a small hamlet and station on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, near the eastern Township line, and about seven miles east of Adrian. Population 40. Post office of the same name.
Copyright Ed Van Horn, 2006, Port St Lucie, Florida