Welcome to the official website for the Swartz Creek Area Historical Society!  We encourage you to check out our links and to learn about us.

Click here for a chronological listing of the history of Swartz Creek!

A Brief History of Swartz Creek, Michigan

Written to benefit Elementary and Middle School students.

The year is 1836, when pioneers started coming to a place now known as Swartz Creek, Michigan ... a small town located 60 miles north of Detroit and 10 miles west of Flint.  The first to come were Adam and Margaret Miller.  German immigrants who left New York.  They came through Flint bringing their few belongings.  Later, seven sons and four daughters joined them.  In 1836, a tiny log cabin was built behind where the original Methodist Church was located on Morrish Rd.  A year later, a larger log cabin was built, one quarter mile west, today known as Mary-Dan Miller Farms.

Mr. Miller and his sons cut the trees and underbrush to make a road from Flint to what was then known as the Miller settlement.  Today, the road is Miller Rd.

Mr. Adam Miller died in 1842 and his sons built a large house.  Which replaced the second log cabin.  There were no stores, no doctors and no electricity.  Some settlers did not have a horse or adequate material to build a good shelter.  This house served as the first Swartz Creek Post Office.  Peter Miller was one of the first postmasters.

The children were educated in a tiny log school, which was built near the first log cabin of the Miller Family.  Church services were held in homes.

Later the First Methodist Church was built of wood and was struck by lightening in 1911 and burned.

One of the first teachers was Mr. A. G. Cowles.  He lived with various families and taught all age students.  As more settlers came, more settlements were established in what is now Gaines and Clayton Townships.  Each settlement had a small school.  The children had to walk to school through the thick woods, sometimes being watched by hungry wild animals.

The village of Swartz Creek was first plotted in 1877, one year after the railroad came through.  The name Swartz was derived from the German word "swartz" meaning black or dark, as was the creek, which ran from here into the Flint River near downtown Flint.

An early school was built in 1874 at Miller and what is now Holland.  The first high school was built in 1891 and later became the Friendship Club in the early 1920's.  This was located on South Morrish Rd., one quarter mile south of the railroad tracks.  Mary Crapo school was dedicated in 1928.  The high school was built in 1957.

Roads were paved in downtown in 1927.  Gravel was used from the Crapo Gravel Company located at what is now Winchester Lake.  That same year, Consumers Power brought electricity to the Swartz Creek area.

The Crapo Farm was sold in 1955 and the development of Winchester Village began shortly thereafter.  Syring Elementary School was built in 1958.

Swartz Creek became a city in 1959.  William Young was the first Mayor.  The first City Hall was the former Nazarene Church on First Street.

For more information about Swartz Creek ... call any member of the Historical Society or click on our "Book Order" link, to obtain a copy of the comprehensive local history book, "Going Up The Swartz".

Email: Bill Morgan - President

Please Visit the Swartz Creek Area Schools website

Website created and maintained by Kelly Joseph McKenzie.  Copyright 2009 - Swartz Creek Historical Society