The story
Welcome to Matteson Township
Matteson Township, in the western tier of Branch County, was set off from Bronson in 1838 and named for Amos Matteson, the oldest and most experienced man then living in it. Its first settlers came along the Indian trail and the state road through the oak openings in 1835.
Matteson is surveyed Township 6 South, Range 8 West. It was part of Bronson until the act of March 6, 1838; the first township meeting was held in April 1838 at the house of Abiathar Culver, on the western side of the township, and Collin says there were hardly enough active citizens to fill the offices. Johnson says the name was given to Matteson, who was about fifty-five, because he was the oldest and most experienced man in the township, though he was not its first settler.
An Indian trail, often called the Kalamazoo trail, entered the township on section 18 and ran southeast through Bronson; the angling road from section 18 toward Colon follows it, and the state road west from Coldwater passed through Matteson post office. The first settlers came to the oak openings along the trail in the fall of 1835, among them Watson, a millwright, cabinet-maker and carpenter, who built a log house beside the trail and saw large bands of Indians pass. Amos Matteson settled on the west shore of the lake that bears his name, Hiram Gardner a mile north on section 11, and John Corson east of the lake.
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A sawmill, store and blacksmith shop worked at different times at Matteson post office, but Collin says it never became a village, and the post office was given up when rural free delivery came. The early population stayed close to the state road through the centre of the township.
The 2020 census counted 1,173 people in Matteson Township.