Lapeer County ( ') is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located 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, ...

. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 88,619. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Lapeer. The county was created on September 18, 1822, and was fully organized on February 2, 1835. The name is a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

of the French ''la pierre'', which means "the stone". Lapeer County is located north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and east of Flint.

History

Lapeer County was part of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

from 1534. As New France gained in population, this area was considered part of the Pays d'en Haut (upper countries) dependency of the Colony of Canada, from its formation as a department of New France in 1712. In 1763 England took possession of all French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River after winning the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

. It renamed the colony and its dependencies as the

Province of Quebec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

. France and England had controlled trading with First Nations in this area by establishing forts as a place for gathering and trading, and to settle disputes and enforce laws. They used the ancient overland and waterborne trade routes of the First Nations, while providing superior tools and weapons in exchange for valuable furs. Following the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

ceded portions of the Province of Quebec to the newly independent United States of America. By an ordinance of the Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787, under the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

, the whole of the territory of the United States lying northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, though still occupied by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, was organized as the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

. The area that is now Lapeer County used to be a part of the County of Wayne, named in the honor of General

Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his military expl ...

. This original Wayne County was created on August 11, 1796; very large, it included all of the lower peninsula of Michigan, parts of Northern

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, and also portions of Wisconsin and Illinois. As population increased in the area, new counties were organized in this territory. What is now Lapeer County, on May 7, 1800, was considered part of the Territory of Indiana, which included all of the lower peninsula of Michigan. After Ohio and Indiana became states, the Territory of Michigan was formed. In 1807 local Indian tribes: the

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

(Chippewa), Wyandot and

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

, ceded the land of Southeast Michigan to the United States in the

Treaty of Detroit The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Mi ...

. They had been under pressure for some time, especially as they had been allied with the British in the Revolutionary War. They were encouraged to move west out of the area, but some remained in Michigan. In January 1820, the County of Oakland was formed. On September 18, 1822, Governor

Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was a United States Army officer and politician. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He was also the 1 ...

set Lapeer County's boundaries, although it remained a part of Oakland County until it was organized. Lapeer County officially became a county on February 2, 1835. The first recorded elections for county officers, with 520 people voting, occurred in 1837. The first European-American settler in Lapeer was Alvin N. Hart, who was born in Cornwall, Connecticut on February 11, 1804. He came to Lapeer in 1831 and platted the Village of Lapeer on November 8, 1833. The plat was registered in Pontiac, December 14, 1833, in Oakland County's Associate Judge Bagley's court. Alvin Hart became a state senator in 1843, representing Lapeer, Oakland, Genesee, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Saginaw counties and the entire Upper Peninsula. He was instrumental in having the state capital moved from

to Lansing. On March 9, 1843, a column of townships was removed from westernmost Lapeer County and annexed to Genesee County. From north to south, the townships were

Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

, Richfield, Davison and

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

. Lumber was the principal industry of the Lapeer County area from the 1830s until 1870. Lumber was in demand with development throughout the Midwest. In addition there was the expectation that clearing much of the county's forests would attract farmers as settlers. Lapeer's economy shifted to become primarily agriculturally based. On October 26, 2010, Lapeer became a founding member of the Karegnondi Water Authority.

Historical markers

Fifteen historical markers have been installed throughout Lapeer County commemorating sites and structures of interest: * Columbiaville Depot * Currier House (Almont) * Dryden Depot * General Squier Memorial Park (Dryden Township) *

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad ha ...

Depot / Imlay City * Grettenberger Field (Imlay City) * Henry Stephens Memorial Library (Almont) * Ladies Library Hall (Dryden) * Lapeer County (at Lapeer County Courthouse) * Lapeer Public Library * Pioneer Bank (North Branch) * St. Patrick's Church ( Clifford) * Tuttle House (Lapeer) *

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

(Columbiaville) * William Peter Mansion (Columbiaville) * The White Horse Inn (Metamora)

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.0%) is water. Lapeer County's geography is very similar to Oakland County, except Lapeer County is more rural. Lapeer is one of the five counties that form the peninsula projecting into

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

known as

The Thumb The Thumb is a region and a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, so named because the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Thumb area is generally considered to be in the Central Michigan region, east of t ...

, which in turn is a sub-region of Mid Michigan. The headwaters of the Flint River are in Columbiaville. It flows through the county toward Genesee. The City of Lapeer straddles it course.

Major highways

* runs east and west through the county * runs north and south through the western part of the county, including the city of Lapeer * runs north and south through the eastern part of the county, including Imlay City * runs east and west through the county, including the city of North Branch

Adjacent counties

* Sanilac County (northeast) * Tuscola County (northwest) * St. Clair County (east) * Genesee County (west) * Macomb County (southeast) * Oakland County (southwest)

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 88,319 people living in the county. 95.5% were

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 ...

, 1.0% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 1.2% of some other race and 1.4% of two or more races. 4.1% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). 23.9% were of German, 10.9% English, 10.4% Irish, 8.6% Polish, 7.3% American and 5.2% French,

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

ancestry. 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 87,904 people, 30,729 households, and 23,876 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 32,732 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 96.17%

, 0.82%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

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 ...

, 0.38% Native American, 0.39% Asian, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.07% from other races, and 1.16% from two or more races. 3.11% of the population were

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. 24.2% were of German, 11.8% English, 9.7% American, 9.6% Irish and 9.4% Polish ancestry, 95.9% spoke English and 2.6% Spanish as their first language. In 2000, there were 30,729 households, of which 38.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.70% 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, 8.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.30% were non-families. 18.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.80 and the average family size was 3.19. The county's population was spread out in terms of age, with 28.00% under the age of 18, 7.70% from 18 to 24, 31.00% from 25 to 44, 23.80% from 45 to 64, and 9.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $51,717, and the median income for a family was $57,817. Males had a median income of $47,506 versus $26,385 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 county was $21,462. About 3.80% of families and 5.40% of the population lived 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 5.70% of those under age 18 and 7.50% of those age 65 or over.

Government

The county government operates the

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

regulations, runs county parks, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services. The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has only limited authority to make laws or ordinances. In Michigan, most local government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc. — are the responsibility of individual cities, villages, and townships.

Elected officials (2022)

Prosecuting Attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

: John Miller *

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

: Scott McKenna *

County Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keepin ...

: Theresa M. Spencer * County Treasurer: Dana M. Miller * Register of Deeds: Amy R. Stearns * Drain Commissioner: Joseph E. Suma * County Surveyor: Richard A. Duthler, P.S.

Board of Commissioners

7 members, elected from districts (1 Democrat, 6 Republicans)

Communities

Cities

* Brown City (mostly in Sanilac County) * Imlay City * Lapeer (county seat)

Villages

* Almont * Clifford * Columbiaville * Dryden * Metamora * North Branch * Otter Lake (partly in Genesee County)

Civil townships

* Almont Township * Arcadia Township * Attica Township * Burlington Township * Burnside Township * Deerfield Township * Dryden Township * Elba Township * Goodland Township * Hadley Township * Imlay Township * Lapeer Township * Marathon Township * Mayfield Township * Metamora Township * North Branch Township * Oregon Township * Rich Township

Census-designated places

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

* Barnes Lake * Barnes Lake–Millers Lake ''(former)'' * Millers Lake

Other unincorporated communities

* Burnside *

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

* Farmers Creek * Five Lakes * Goodland * Hadley * Hunters Creek * Kerr Hill * Kings Mill * Lum * Silverwood * Thornville

References

External links

Official Lapeer County Website
* {{authority control Metro Detroit Michigan counties 1835 establishments in Michigan Territory Populated places established in 1835