Hinton Township is a

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a County (United States), county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England town, Ne ...

Mecosta County Mecosta County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the population was 39,714. The county seat is Big Rapids, Michigan, Big Rapids. The county is named ...

in the

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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, ...

. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 1,054.

History

John Hinton was the first white settler here in 1855. The township was named for him when it was organized in 1860. A post office named Hinton operated from July 1862 until October 1863.

Communities

There are no incorporated municipalities in the township. There are some

unincorporated communities An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

or named locales in the northern portion of the township along 5 Mile Road: * Altona is in the northwest part of the township, located where 5 Mile Road crosses the

Little Muskegon River The Little Muskegon River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed November 21, 2011 tributary of the Muskegon River in western Michigan in the United States. Flowing primari ...

at In 1868, William Seaton and Bartley Davis built a sawmill and Harrison J. Brown a flour mill on the Little Muskegon where the village of Altona was later

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted, but never incorporated. A post office operated from February 1872 until November 1937. * Halls Corner is in the northeast part of the township, located by the junction of 70th Avenue and 5 Mile Road approximately east of Altona and south of Mecosta at . * Sylvester is in the north central part of the township by the junction of 85th Avenue and 5 Mile Road, approximately east of Altona and west of Halls Corner at David Fowler opened the first store in Hinton Township here in 1868. A post office operated from September 1872 until July 1904 and was named for Sylvester Dresser, a pioneer lumberman in the area. A series of grocers set up shop over the first century of the town's existence, until the last one, William Yurisko, saw his establishment burn to the ground on New Year's Eve, 1957. The '' Grand Rapids Herald'' ran a photo of the burning store next to an article titled, "Last Store Burns: Mecosta County Town of Sylvester Becomes History". As it turns out, William Yurisko was not the last grocer in Sylvester. The town's few businesses include a popular general store known as King's Trading Post, which was featured in the September 8, 1996, edition of ''

The Grand Rapids Press ''The Grand Rapids Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 20 ...

'' for its thriving ice cream cone trade. * The Canadian Lakes area is immediately north of the northwest part of the township.

Geography

Hinton Township is in southern Mecosta County, bordered to the south by Montcalm County. According to the

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

, the township has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.20%, are water.

Demographics

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 2000, there were 1,035 people, 372 households, and 287 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 424 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 96.71%

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 ...

, 0.10%

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 ...

, 0.58% Native American, 0.10% Asian, 0.77% from other races, and 1.74% 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 1.74% of the population. There were 372 households, out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.5% 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, 6.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.6% were non-families. 16.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.15. In the township the population was spread out, with 27.6% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.1 males. The median income for a household in the township was $37,976, and the median income for a family was $45,893. Males had a median income of $31,912 versus $19,911 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 township was $16,964. About 5.2% of families and 9.9% 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 11.5% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over.

References

{{authority control Townships in Mecosta County, Michigan Populated places established in 1860 1860 establishments in Michigan Townships in Michigan