Brown City is a city in Lapeer and Sanilac counties in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The population was 1,302 at the 2020 census. The city is located almost exclusively in Sanilac County, with only a small portion of the city extending into Lapeer County.

History

Brown City was established in 1879 as a station on the

Port Huron and Northwestern Railway The Port Huron and Northwestern Railway (PH&NW) Nicknamed "The Port Huron Road", is a defunct railway which operated in the Thumb area of Michigan during the late 1800s. The company was chartered by a group of Port Huron, Michigan businessmen on Ma ...

, later a part of the

Pere Marquette Railroad The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its p ...

.Galbraith's railway mail service maps, Michigan.
Library of Congress. Publ. 1897, c1898. Accessed April 2020. The area quickly grew to become an efficient shipment point for lumber and grains. Brown City was incorporated as a village in 1887 and as a city in 1907. The ''Marquette Flyer'' provided early rail passenger and mail service between Detroit and Ludington. In the 1920s the Pere Marquette came under the control of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

and was formally merged into it on 6 June 1947. The city fell under the 4th Class City Act for its governance. In 1998, the city residents approved a charter ending its fourth class city status. On 30 April 1998, the

Huron and Eastern Railway Huron and Eastern Railway is a short line railroad operating of track in The Thumb and Flint/Tri-Cities area of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is currently owned by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., who purchased it from RailAmerica in 2012. Its ...

purchased

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

's Port Huron Subdivision from Saginaw to Brown City. The line southeast of Brown City is still in place to the Avoca grain elevator, but has been out of service since the HESR acquisition.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 1,325 people, 524 households, and 350 families living in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 587 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 97.2%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.1%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.2% Native American, 0.1% Asian, 0.5% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 2.3% of the population. There were 524 households, of which 35.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 16.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33.2% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.07. The median age in the city was 37.3 years. 27.8% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.6% were from 25 to 44; 24.5% were from 45 to 64; and 14.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 46.3% male and 53.7% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 1,334 people, 520 households, and 361 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 562 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 97.90%

, 0.07%

, 0.22% Native American, 0.60% from other races, and 1.20% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 3.30% of the population. There were 520 households, out of which 34.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were

living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.4% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.08. In the city, the population was spread out, with 28.6% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males. The median income for a household in the city was $33,906, and the median income for a family was $40,000. Males had a median income of $36,750 versus $20,938 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $15,929. About 9.0% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 11.9% of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

* {{Sanilac County, Michigan Cities in Lapeer County, Michigan Cities in Sanilac County, Michigan Populated places established in 1879 1879 establishments in Michigan