Leoni in Jackson County Was a “Garden of Eden” in 1836

Many people in Jackson County know about Leoni Township and a handful of others know there was – basically, still is – a town with the same name.

Some may call Leoni a ghost town, but it’s more of a ‘shadow town’, meaning a town that is a shadow of its former self. It lies about halfway between Jackson & Grass Lake at the intersection of East Michigan Avenue and Portage Road.

According to geneologytrails.com, "in 1836 William Jackson came through Leoni looking for wild land.....Leoni appeared to him a second garden of Eden.....in October, 1838, he chose it for his home, and engaged in the sale of dry-goods, groceries, Sapington's ague-pills, and Peleg White's salve, and subsequently sold Pratt's pills and Lond's ointment."

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All well and good, but what happened before 1836?

In 1830, Joseph Otis came here from Vermont with his two stepsons and decided to settle. With more settlers arriving, the town was platted by J.H. Goodale in 1834. More came to settle over the next few years and in the summer of 1837 a post office was set up in the home of Moses Crowell a mile east of town.

Eventually, Leoni had a cider mill, apple jelly factory and pump factory; the first schoolteacher was Allen Knight, who lived a half mile east of downtown Leoni village in a log house.....Leoni also had its own college!

The college began in 1845 as the Leoni Theological Institute, changing to Michigan Union College in 1855.....but already the college’s days in Leoni were numbered. According to mlive, in 1859, a minister from Adrian, Reverend Asa Mahan, acquired the college and moved it to his town and re-named Adrian College. Mahan was a strong anti-slavery supporter and became elected as the president of the institute once it moved to Adrian.

The post office closed in 1908 and with that, any future growth of the town was halted.

The village of Leoni still retains a few of the old buildings from 100 years ago.....stores, the hotel, saloon, mills, factories, railroad depot.....all reduced to dust and memories.