Township History

WOODROW TOWNSHIP
CENTENNIAL RECOGNITION – 1914-2014
T.140N.-R29W.

(Taken from the Hackensack Centennial publication.
Additional information researched by Monica Lundquist.)

Cass County Board voted Dec. 4, 1914, to divide Birch Lake Township into two townships, naming the new eastern township Woodrow.

Woodrow Township citizens convened their organizational meeting Dec. 19, 1914, at North Star Camp, a Woman Lake hunting and fishing resort. They adjourned to Woman Lake School to conduct their business.

C.A. Burggreen was elected moderator. Those assembled voted to pay the new township officers $2 per day.

The first officers were Burggreen, Walter Haberman, and A.A. Tusler, supervisors; Harry Lavalle, clerk; W.A. Rogers, treasurer; Richard Rossberg and A.H. Tusler, justices of the peace: E.L. Tusler and Albert Hanson, constables; and Alfred Lambert, assessor.

The supervisors met Dec. 28, 1914, to swear officers into office and set their bonds.

Woodrow supervisors did not meet again until March 1915 when they began dealing with bills for their new township. They found, after credits and bills from Birch Lake Township were figured, Woodrow was in debt to Birch Lake for $197.04. Woodrow also owed $20 for a new safe, $30 for a grader and $10 for record books.

March 6, 1915, 13 citizens convened a caucus to nominate candidates for a March 9 election. Voters selected Burggreen, Haberman and Frank Lavalle as their first regularly elected supervisors. Also elected were A.H. Tusler, clerk; Richard Rossberg, treasurer; Lambert, assessor; W.M. Schmidt, justice; and Peat Morteson, constable.

The new board levied 15 mills for road and bridge and three for general revenue. They increased the officials' pay to $2.50 per day. They set pay for a man and team to drag a road at $4. A motion for highway home rule passed, meaning the township would maintain and improve all roads inside town boundaries, including state roads.

The board decided to meet at 9 a.m. the last Saturday of every month at Woman Lake School. There also were two schools at Webb Lake.

In the early years, the Woodrow Board "allowed" a number of bills at each meeting, but only paid bills twice a year when the township had income. The board advertised in one county newspaper. Those they owed had to read the notice and file claims to get paid. November 1915, the treasurer called in "all orders as far as the money will reach."

July 1915, W.A. Rogers was appointed road overseer. The first culvert purchases were noted September 1915. Oct. 30, the road overseer was instructed to "commence work on connection of Hackensack and Longville Road at once if county furnishes funds." Subsequent road descriptions indicate that road mostly followed what now is County State Aid Highway 5.

March 1916, the board approved constructing a bridge in Section 15, probably over the channel to Bungy Bay of Woman Lake on what now is CSAH 5. Cash on hand and men using their own small tools were assigned to the project. In April, the board sent two supervisors to meet with the county board concerning the bridge project.

The first general election for national offices was held in Woodrow Nov. 7, 1916, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Adjournment was recorded at 2 a.m. the following morning, indicating vote tallying took quite a while. By December 1916, the board was able to pay all bills allowed for 1914 through 1916.

May 1917, Woodrow Board met with Birch Lake's board, voting to pay Cass County $150 each to build the 3.75 mile town line road, now Woodrow Road 1. Design was a 16-foot top and 12 foot ditches. Payment would be made when the project was done.

Early settlers mainly logged and farmed. Carl Peterson homesteaded on Webb Lake. Fred Flacksbarth settled on Kerr Lake. Interlachen Lodge on Kid Lake and a billiard parlor and tavern where Woman Lake Inn now stands were among the early businesses. The township licensed billiard halls and taverns.

Bridges at Deep Lake, probably the south end of Woodrow 1, and in Section 16, probably where CSAH 5 passes Child Lake today, were planned August 1918.

Tuslers Park on Baby Lake is the first plat in township files. Recorded in 1919, it shows current Woodrow Road 22 as a county road.

The largest early plat was End O'The Trail on Woman Lake, lying on either side of the recently abandoned public landing. That plat, filed in 1920, had 80x350-foot lots, but was rearranged in 1923 to 40x170-foot lots when James and Mildred DeCamp sold it to Grant Clifford and Leo Barthelemy. It shows CSAH 5 as "state road." Second and Third Additions were platted by owners Robert and Sarah Fisk and Earl and Gladys Fairbanks in 1922.

Additional 1920's plats also were recorded on Big Deep, Mann and Baby Lakes.

By 1919, the township began installing telephone lines for fire protection and arranged to extend lines into Birch Lake Township. Phone line workers were paid 40 cents an hour. The township maintained those lines until 1956 when citizens voted to abandon the system to Arvig Telephone Company. Connecting patrons paid 25 cents monthly for telephone service in 1922. In 1924, all telephone batteries were to be tested twice yearly and poor ones replaced.

Prevalent in the 1920's records are maintenance of a dynamite shed, which it seemed moved frequently to accommodate changes in road overseers. At each change, there was a general inventorying of township small tools expected to transfer with the shed.

In 1926, P.J. and Charles Freilinger were authorized payment for picking rocks on the state road.

By 1928, the assessor earned an extra $2 per day when he used his car.

October 1937, the board furnished barbed wire to build a corral to lock up stray stock running at large.

Lack of new road building or platting during the 1930's reflects hard economic times and the drought.

In 1941, the township sold a building to L. Covey for $5.

The township engaged A.J. Button as health officer. He had hospitals at Hackensack and Pleasant Lake in the 1920's and 1930's. His name appears often on the birth and death records Woodrow kept from 1916 to 1949 for persons born or deceased in the township.

New plats and petitions for the township to assume new roads were common in 1940's records.

October 1954, Woodrow agreed to pay Hackensack Village $15 for each fire call where the village provided fire equipment, plus $10 for each hour over two.

April 1958, the township voted to zone, but it is believed zoning did not take effect until the county began zoning in 1970. Woodrow administered township zoning laws from 1978 to 1984. The township ceased assessing properties in 1986, when the county assumed those duties.

Woodrow operated a township dump from 1963 to 1977 when the county landfill opened and Larry LaValle began a home garbage collection business. George Johnson supervised the township dump three days a week.

Officials who served the township longest include William Spain Jr., constable 1931-1981, with the exception of a few years; Roy Johnson, clerk, 1925-1976; and Don Floyd, treasurer 1965-1995.

Estimated population of Woodrow Township in 2001 was 681. There were 511 registered voters in 2002. The township had been subdivided into 336 homesteaded properties by 2002 and 869 seasonal recreational properties with structures on them. There were approximately 35.67 miles of township roads.

Estimated population of Woodrow Township in 2013 was 606. There were 560 registered voters in 2014. The 2014 county assessing records show 326 homesteaded properties and 1,056 seasonal recreational properties with structures on them. Today there are 37.9 miles of township roadways.