Northfield Township Historical Society

05/20/2026

04/10/2026

Peter Jerome "Jerry" Kelley was a longtime board member with the Northfield Township Historical Society. He was also beneficial in getting our Township history "Northfield Harvest" published. Condolences to his family and friends.

Celebrate the life of Peter Kelley, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Muehlig Funeral Chapel.

01/30/2026

Northfield Township in the news!

In 2025, eight individual properties and five historic districts comprised of more than 300 contributing historic resources in Michigan were listed on the Historic Register.

01/27/2026

THERE WAS A TIME when a team of oxen like this one on the Lee Frazier farm on N. Territorial Rd., east of US-23, was a common sight on a Michigan farm doing the work that is done now by horses or tractor. A number of the teams are still active in the northern part of the state, but they are used infrequently in this area. This team was used on a Green Oak township farm in Livingston county before the animals were purchased by Mr. Frazier recently. Oxen - driven by someone who knows how to handle them - are real workers, and they needed to be in the days when they pulled covered wagons over the western plains. (Ann Arbor News, April 20, 1938) https://aadl.org/node/117202

03/25/2025

Today is National Medal of Honor Day 🏅🇺🇲🇺🇲
Today we will honor Northfield Townships own Medal of Honor Recipient, James W. Tobin. Tobin was born in Northfield Township November 23, 1845. His father Patrick Tobin, a native of Cullen, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland owned land on what is now Seven Mile Road on the Western edge of what would later be named Tobin Lake. Sergeant Tobin was 17 when he enlisted with Company C, 9th Michigan Cavalry, on January 22, 1863. From the very beginning he displayed marked courage. On December 7, 1864, a severe engagement took place at Cyprus Swamp Bridge, after which Captain Ladd and Lieutenant Bateman of Company C were reported missing. Sgt. Tobin asked and obtained permission to undertake a hazardous scout to determine the fate of the two officers. Accompanied by two comrades, he penetrated enemy lines, finding two newly dug graves. He and his companions dug up the graves and there they found the two officers they sought.

On March 9, 1865, while escorting wagon trains, the Colonel of the 9th Regiment asked for scouts who would ascertain the exact location of the enemy. Tobin and others volunteered and succeeded in obtaining information that saved the train.

At Aiken, South Carolina, On February 11, 1865, Sergeant Tobin distinguished himself most conspicuously. In desperate engagement, Major William C. Stevens, also a native of Northfield Township was unhorsed. Seeing that he would either be captured or killed, Tobin returned in the face of the advancing enemy, lifted his senior officer behind him on his horse and succeeded in reaching safety. This daring act won him the medal. Sergeant James W. Tobin was awarded the medal July 9, 1896. Not much is known of his later years, but he passed away in Lansing in 1903. He is buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Northfield Township. He has two markers in the cemetery, one next to that of his father and brother and another placed near the flagpole honoring him and the other Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery.

03/15/2025

☘☘In honor of St. Patrick's Day we have this photo of St. Patrick's Church of Northfield shortly after being constructed in 1878.

Originally St. Bridget, the cornerstone of the present church was laid May 31, 1877 and the building was dedicated October 20, 1878 and named St. Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland.

Around the time Fr. Patrick O'Kelly arrived to build the first log church in 1831 it was quoted in a letter by Gabriel Richard that in the Northfield area " There are a great many more Irish men there than at Detroit". The area was once referred to as "New Ireland " because of the areas large Irish population.☘☘

03/06/2025

Owen Steffe Uses Big-Scale Haying Methods, July 1935; Pictured the hay rake and stacker, said by local farm authorities to be the only combination of its kind operating in Michigan, which Owen Steffe of Whitmore Lake is using to gather in a crop of 125 acres of alfalfa hay on the Huron Valley farms on Whitmore Lake Rd. During the season he uses it on a number of farms for which he harvests all the hay grown. This strange combination consists of a huge rake drawn by two horses hitched individually at the two ends and a huge mechanical arm which scoops up a young haystack at one swoop and hoists it up on the growing stack. The crop shown in the picture above is running about two tons to the acre of exceptionally fine hay.