History

• Cohoctah Township was originally known as Tuscola Township
  • 1833 Settlers and speculators began purchasing land in Tuscola Township
  • 1857 the name was changed to Bristol Township
  • 1867 the name was changed to its present name
• It is believed that Cohoctah was the name of a former Native American chief, and means "many trees in water," although no one knows for sure
• The territory was bought by two types of purchasers; those intending to develop and settle the land and those looking to be investors.
  • 1833 - First settler was a trader named Gilbert W. Prentiss, who made two claims in the NE 1/4 of section 22, totaling 120 acres.
  • 1834 - Second settler and the first permanent resident, was John Sanford from New York. He began what was known as the Sanford Settlement in section 27 (Byron and Chase Lake Road), which was for some time the center of the township's population.
  • 1836 - Three-quarters of the township's acreage was purchased in one year, beginning in May, average size of 146 acres per sale.
  • 1836 - The first surveyor's record of the first regular highway in Cohoctah, from Howell to John Sanford's residence.
  • 1846 - The first grist mill and dam were built on a 40 acre tract of land in the North part of section 36 on Bo-bish-e-nung creek, which at this point had a fall of over 13 feet. About the same time a small store was built, and soon a village began to develop. It was called Chemungville after a county in New York. The post office was called Oak Grove.
• In the late 1850's or 1860's, the area known as Sprungtown grew up around a steam sawmill near the current Cohoctah Center.
  • Named after a prominent citizen, Isaac Sprung, at its peak Sprungtown contained two stores, two blacksmith shops, about a dozen homes, and a population of 50.
  • It was hoped that the railroad would come to Sprungtown, but was instead built through Tuscola, which was started shortly after Sprungtown.
  • 1874 - The Sprungtown post office was moved to Cohoctah. The other post office in the township remained in Oak Grove.

Sources: Mrs Chester Randles in History & Folklor of Livingston County (1969, Livingston County Extension Council) and History of Livingston County, Michigan, 1880.