The Ghost Town of Glover, The Shadow Town of Bentley

The village of Glover, once found in Bay County, exists no more...more about that town coming up...

Three miles south of ‘Glover’ is the village of Bentley, located at the intersection of Standish Road and Bentley Road. The community was named after sawmill owner Oscar Bentley. In 1890, a post office was opened, spelled 'Bently'.

Another post office was opened 5 miles north at Glover and operated for exactly five years.

The former community of Glover can be found out in the countryside of Gibson Township at the intersection of M-61 and Carter Road. In 1900, Glover had a grocer, post office, and school.

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Glover was short-lived, as the post office shut down in 1905, with the population reduced to twelve by 1910. A year before the Glover P.O. shut down, the Bently post office was renamed ‘Bentley’.

All businesses have vanished in Glover, but the Glover School stuck it out for awhile, finally closing for good in 1953.

Meanwhile, the post office and the Michigan Central Railroad contributed to the brief success Bentley experienced through the next few decades. Bentley had a bakery, bank, boarding house, cheese factory, church, doctor, garage, drug store, elevator, general store, grist mill, hardware store, hoop factory, several hotels, restaurant, saloon, sawmill, shingle mills, "Traveler's Home", and other shops and stores.

The top population for Bentley was 500, which peaked in the 1920's.....and once the railroad closed down, most of the town did as well. Nowadays, all the stores, shops & businesses have disappeared, all except the Bentley Bar, some homes, and a couple of churches. Another sad tale of a promising Michigan town that suffered from the lack of travelers, thanks to the railroad closing down.

Take a drive-thru someday and learn a little more about Glover and Bentley, two of our seldom-talked-about Michigan villages.