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    Old photograph of a two-story gabled farmhouse with a porch, a bare tree beside it and a barn behind, across a broad farmyard.

    Branch County · Michigan · St. Joseph River Valley

    Bethel Township

    Snow Prairie and the Elizabeth that became Bethel.

    Discover its storyThings to seeDirectionsThe valley map

    The residence of H. H. Smith, Bethel Township, photographed for the 1894 county atlas. Photograph from Illustrated Atlas and Columbian Souvenir of Branch County, Michigan (Fort Wayne, Ind.: Atlas Publishing Co., 1894), via the Internet Archive, Public domain.

    • Townshipin Branch County
    • 1837organized
    • 1,431people, 2020 census
    • 8 mifrom Coldwater, the county seat

    Project Scroll is an independent local-history website. This is not an official page of Bethel Township or Branch County, and it does not speak for them. For official business, contact the township office directly.

    The story

    Welcome to Bethel Township

    Bethel Township, south of the Chicago road between Bronson and Coldwater, was set off from Batavia in 1837 as Elizabeth and renamed Bethel two years later. Its first improvement was a settler named Snow’s corn patch, which gave Snow Prairie its name; Scottish, New York and Erie County families followed in the 1830s.

    Bethel is surveyed Township 7 South, Range 7 West. It was the southern half of the original Batavia until the act of March 11, 1837, set it off as the ‘Township of Elizabeth’; by an act of the legislature of 1838–39 it became Bethel. Johnson thought the name Elizabeth was probably chosen by Moses Olmstead after the town in New Jersey. The first township meeting was held at Olmstead’s house on April 3, 1837, and elected Elijah Thomas supervisor.

    Wales Adams’s account of 1830 describes a man named Snow cultivating a patch of corn and potatoes without a fence about three miles east of Bronson, the first improvement in the township, at the place since called Snow Prairie. Collin says the best farmland lay in the southwest corner along the old Indian road from Adams’ mill, and the strongest settlement was made there: Isaac Freeman, who came by the Erie Canal in 1834, the Marshes, James Bennie from the Bishop Chase settlement in 1836, and the McMillans, McWilliamses and Olds. Daniel Smead, halted at the Taylor Tavern by illness on his way to Illinois, took up land in sections 3, 4 and 9, where Smead’s Lake keeps the family name.

    Read the full story

    The state road authorized in March 1836, running north and south across the county toward Fort Wayne, brought the Lakes, Binghams, Bowers, Judsons and other families from Erie County, New York, who settled around section 25 near the Bethel post office. In 1837 Elizabeth had only 177 people, the fewest of the townships on the Chicago road. Johnson lists the Methodist, Free-Will Baptist and Evangelical congregations that met at Snow Prairie and in the schoolhouses, and a union Sabbath school at Snow Prairie organized in April 1852.

    Bethel has no village. The 2020 census counted 1,431 people in Bethel Township.

    Plan a visit

    Things to see

    • Snow Prairie

      About three miles east of Bronson

      One of the oldest distinct localities in the county, named for the settler whose corn patch was the first improvement in the township.

      Directions

    • Smead’s Lake

      Section 4, Bethel Township

      The largest of three small lakes in the north of the township, in section 4, on the land the Smead family entered.

      Directions

    Quick facts

    At a glance

    Organized
    As Elizabeth, act of March 11, 1837; renamed Bethel 1838–39; first township meeting April 3, 1837
    Survey
    Township 7 South, Range 7 West
    First improvement
    A settler named Snow, at Snow Prairie, by 1830
    Population
    2020 census: 1,431

    Know a story about Bethel Township?

    Old photographs, letters, a school picture, a story your grandparents told: if it belongs to Bethel Township, we would love to see it. A phone photo of the front and back is enough, and we credit you by name if you like.

    Send it to us Contact page

    Keep exploring

    Nearby in the valley

    For researchers: records and sources

    Where the records are

    Coldwater is the county seat, and Branch County’s land, probate and court records are kept by the county offices there. The Branch County Historical Society keeps the Wing House Museum, 27 S. Jefferson St., Coldwater. The township is covered in Johnson, History of Branch County (1879), pp. 278–291, and in Collin, History of Branch County (1906), ch. VIII, pp. 44–46.

    Sources

    • Crisfield Johnson, History of Branch County, Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Philadelphia: Everts & Abbott, 1879), Bethel Township, pp. 285 and 291 (lakes, the name Elizabeth and the first town meeting, p. 285; churches, Snow Prairie Sabbath school, p. 291). link
    • Henry P. Collin, ed., A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Branch County, Michigan (New York and Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), ch. VIII, Bethel Township, pp. 44–46 (roads, p. 44; Snow Prairie, 1837 population, the Freemans, p. 45; settlers and first officers, p. 46). link
    • Henry P. Collin, ed., A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Branch County, Michigan (New York and Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), ch. VII, ‘Formation of Townships,’ pp. 38–40 (the acts creating each township). link
    • Branch County Historical Society, home page (Wing House Museum, 27 S. Jefferson St., Coldwater). link
    • ‘Bethel Township, Michigan,’ Wikipedia (coordinates; 2020 census population 1,431). link

    Dates and names are from the county histories and official sources listed here. Where they disagree, we say so. Know better? Send a correction.