Moran Township was born April 1, 1844.
In the Laws for the State of Michigan, 1844, Section 5 (pages 21 and 22), Act No. 22 was, among other things, an act to organize certain townships. It stated that all the portion of the County of Michilimackinac included between the western boundary of the county and a line running coincident with the “French grants” in the county, extending to the northern boundary of the county, be set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Moran, and that the first township meeting be held at the house of Abraham Slocum, in Section 11 of the township. Approval date was February 29, 1844, but the act took effect on the first day of April 1844.
It should be noted that, through the years, many township records were lost owing to early records being kept in the homes of elected township officials. Even with the building of the township hall in Gros Cap, the records were not stored in the hall. It wasn’t until 1976, when the present township hall on West US-2 was erected, that most of the remaining records were moved to the hall, and earlier permanent records books were recovered and stored in the book vault there.
In preparation for the celebration of Moran Township’s 150th Sesquincentennial birthday in July of 1994, a quest began throughout the area for the oldest documents, pictures, maps, and record books of the township. Many were forthcoming, for which the township will be eternally grateful.
Seven years after Michigan became a state, the Township of Moran received its charter. The President of the United States in 1844 was John Tyler, A Whig from Virginia. John S. Barry was Governor of the State of Michigan (1842-1846); Origen D. Richardson was Lieutenant Governor; Robert P. Eldredge, Secretary of State; Elon Farnsworth, Attorney General; John J. Adam, State Treasurer; Charles G. Hammond, Auditor General; and Oliver C. Comstock was Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Since Moran Township’s advent in 1844, several changes have taken place to its physical shape.
From the State of Michigan, Local Acts, 1881, Act 327 is “an act to detach certain territory from the Township of Moran, Mackinac County, and to organize the same into a separate township to be known as the Township of Brevort.
This “redistricting” has caused much confusion since then for those who try to geographically place the villages of Moran and Brevort, for the Village of Moran is in Brevort Township and the Village of Brevort is in Moran Township!
