Montcalm 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 ...
of
Montcalm County 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 ...
of
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 3,394 at the
2020 census,
up from 3,350 in
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
.
Geography
The township is in southwestern Montcalm County and is partially bordered to the south by
Greenville, the largest city in the county. The township is bordered to the west by
Kent County. State highway
M-91 crosses the center of the township, leading south into Greenville and north to
Lakeview.
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 ...
, Montcalm Township has a total area of , of which are land and , or 2.70%, are water.
The
Flat River, a tributary of the
Grand River, flows southward across the western part of the township, while Dickerson Creek, a tributary of the Flat River, drains the eastern part of the township.
Communities
* Gowen is an
unincorporated community
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 ...
in the township on the
Flat River at . Gowen began circa 1847 as a lumbering center and was first known as "Gregor's Mills", and later as "Kaywood". Colonel James Gowen, from
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County (; ), sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States ...
, founded the present community and
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 it in 1871. A post office was established on March 4, 1872, with Samuel N. Peck as the first postmaster. It was a station on the
Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad
The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad (DL&N) is a defunct railroad which was formed on December 27, 1876 as a reorganization of the foreclosed Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Rail Road. The segment of its main line from Detroit to Lansing ...
.
The Gowen post office, with ZIP code 49326, serves the western part of Montcalm Township, as well as portions of townships to the west, southwest, and north.
ZCTA Reference Map for 49326
, U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 census
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 ...
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 ...
, 0.13% 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 ...
, 0.60% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.03% 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 ...
, 0.28% from other races, and 0.63% 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 1.26% of the population.
There were 1,154 households, out of which 36.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.6% 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, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1% were non-families. 17.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.08.
In the township the population was spread out, with 28.0% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $43,485, and the median income for a family was $50,558. Males had a median income of $35,389 versus $25,068 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 $17,591. About 3.4% of families and 7.4% 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 8.2% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Townships in Montcalm County, Michigan
Townships in Michigan