History

The existence of prehistoric Native Americans in Newaygo County is evidenced by burial mounds inventoried in 1929. The inventory showed the County to have 93 mound sites with six of these being in Dayton Township. In 1896 Dr. J. W. McNabb opened a mound on Second Lake, on the boundary between Dayton Township and the City of Fremont, and found a skeleton well preserved. When the first white men came to the Fremont area in 1855, they saw hundreds of Indian canoes in lakes and creeks. The remnants of one such canoe was found on the east end of Third Lake, in Dayton Township, in the late 1800's. Some of the earliest settlers to Dayton Township were the Dickinson brothers: Phillip, John and Wallace. They bought land in sections 26, 27 and 34 and built a lean-to in the northeast quarter of section 34 by 1857.

Townships first came into existence in Michigan through the Northwest Ordinance passed by Congress in 1787. Dayton Township was formed on January 6, 1857. To the best of our knowledge, township officials met in their homes to conduct township business until November of 1965 when Packard School (click on picture to enlarge) in District No. 7 was annexed to the Fremont Public School District. At that time the former Packard schoolhouse was deeded to Dayton Township for the sum of one dollar, and the building and grounds at the corner of 32nd and Stone Road became the Dayton Township Hall