Henrietta, Layton's Corners, or Pleasant Lake? Jackson County

This curious corner near Pleasant Lake goes by three names: Henrietta, Layton's Corners, and Pleasant Lake.

The first to settle here was Jean Baptiste Berard in 1816, opening a trading post in 1831 (there is a plaque on that site that commemorates the post) on the east side of Bunker Hill Road, surrounded by a white fence.

Henrietta Township was organized in 1837 and named West Portage in 1838. In 1839, a post office opened and in 1840, another settler, Henry Hurd, renamed the town 'Henrietta' after his hometown in New York.

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In 1859, working along a trail that would become known as M-106, workmen surprisingly dug up some Native American bones. They buried the bones along the roadside and the burial land was named Harrington Cemetery, also known as ‘Southwell Cemetery’, the oldest graveyard in the township.

Henrietta was also called “Layton's Corners”, named after L.J. Layton, a landowner who who owned a good portion of land at downtown's southeast & west corners. Back in the day, that little intersection had a nice few establishments, including a blacksmith, general store, and the “Pleasant Lake House”.

The Henrietta post office closed in December 1903.

As if one wasn’t enough, another post office, named "South Henrietta", opened in 1851, with Henry Hurd as postmaster. William D. Martin took over in 1853. That post office was the first of the two to close, when operations ceased on December 21, 1866.

But we ain’t through yet.....

There was also Henrietta Station, located on Coon Hill Road, It was a stop on the west Jackson branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad.

Another unincorporated community named ”Roots” was located on Root Station Road between Jordon and Wooster roads. Roots was another train station for the same branch as Henrietta Station. It was originally a post office named "Tanner" that began operating on April 14, 1884. The name was changed to "Roots" in September 1885, then again to "Valley Villa" in December 1885. Evidently, locals preferred the name ”Roots” so that name was restored in March 1890.

As with many small postal RR stops, the Roots station was discontinued in November 1904.....but it is memorialized to this day with ”Root Station Road”, with signs you can’t miss on M-106.

The village is now mainly referred to as “Pleasant Lake”.