Best Web Design in Cohoctah, MI (2026)

Web Design for Cohoctah, Michigan

Cohoctah Township is a farming township in the northwest quadrant of Livingston County, Michigan, with 3,246 residents at the 2020 census across roughly 38.4 square miles. It has no incorporated village at all, only the three small settlements of Cohoctah, Cohoctah Center and Oak Grove, and its township offices carry a Fowlerville mailing address. The land is level to rolling with many swamps and marshes, drained north by the south branch of the Shiawassee River.

AppWT serves Cohoctah and the surrounding Michigan area from Livonia, Michigan.

About Cohoctah

History. Organized from Howell Township on March 6, 1838 under the name Tuscola Township, then renamed Bristol Township on January 29, 1857. SOURCES DISAGREE on the final change: the township's own history page dates the change to the present name to 1867, while Livingston County MIGenWeb dates it to February 5, 1857. Name origin, as the township itself puts it: "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." 1833: the 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: John Sanford, from New York, became the second settler and first permanent resident, founding the Sanford Settlement in section 27 at Byron and Chase Lake Road, for some time the center of the township's population. 1836: three-quarters of the township's acreage was purchased in a single year beginning in May, at an average of 146 acres per sale. The first surveyor's record of a regular highway in Cohoctah, running from Howell to John Sanford's residence, also dates to 1836. 1846: the first grist mill and dam were built on a 40-acre tract in the north part of section 36 on Bo-bish-e-nung creek, where the fall was over 13 feet. A store followed and a village grew up called Chemungville, after a county in New York, though its post office was named Oak Grove.

Local economy. Farming is the primary use of land. Livingston County MIGenWeb calls Cohoctah "still today one of the primary farming communities in the county." The community of Cohoctah started around a grain elevator built in 1886, which is no longer in operation. The township maintains a dedicated Headland Solar Project section on its official website, complete with dated project updates, indicating a utility-scale solar development is an active local land-use matter.

Culture and community. Two churches serve the township: Calvary Bible Church at 1389 Elm St, Cohoctah, and Oakgrove United Methodist Church at 6686 Oak Grove Road, Howell. The township publishes its own local history page, and archives a 1915 Cohoctah newspaper article and a roster of past elected officials alongside it. No annual township festival is published on the official site; the township calendar is board and planning commission meetings, elections and a Large Item Day.

What makes Cohoctah distinct. The township changed its name twice before settling on Cohoctah: Tuscola, then Bristol, then Cohoctah. Sprungtown, a lost village: in the late 1850s or 1860s a settlement grew around a steam sawmill near the current Cohoctah Center, named for a prominent citizen, Isaac Sprung. At its peak it had two stores, two blacksmith shops, about a dozen homes and a population of 50. Residents hoped the railroad would come to Sprungtown, but it was built through Tuscola instead, and in 1874 the Sprungtown post office was moved to Cohoctah. The township is unusually candid about its own name. Its official history page states the meaning outright and then immediately adds that "no one knows for sure." The village that grew around the 1846 grist mill was called Chemungville while its post office was called Oak Grove, so the settlement carried two different names at once.

Cohoctah Landmarks and Local Life

• Cohoctah Township Hall and offices - 10518 Antcliff Rd., Fowlerville, MI 48836
• Boutell Cemetery - 1351 E Jones Road, Howell, MI 48855 -- the first burying ground in the township, in section 24; Mrs. William Northup was buried there in 1837
• Sanford Cemetery - 2115 Chase Lake Road, Howell, MI 48855, in section 27 -- John Sanford donated the original half-acre, then about 1845 donated another half-acre and organized an association to care for it
• The south branch of the Shiawassee River - the township's principal stream
• The three settlements: Cohoctah - at the junction of Oak Grove Road and Cohoctah Road; Cohoctah Center; and Oak Grove

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