The 'Lost' Town of Bennington: Shiawassee County, Michigan

Thanks to whoever the person was who inquired about the Shiawassee County town of Bennington. Here's some information I found.

According to Michigan Place Names, Bennington was founded in 1835 when three guys from New York – Ben Powers, Israel Parsons, and Sam Nichols – arrived and made the first government land purchase. Even so, Nichols was the one of the three who became the first true area settler. Although Ben, Izzy, and Sam were from New York, the new township was given the name ‘Bennington’ after a town in Vermont, where some of the other settlers were from.

The village of Bennington received its train station and post office in 1848 – the post office closed 110 years later, in 1958. If you plan to take a roadtrip there, you’ll find what’s left of the downtown at Bennington and Reuss roads.

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By the 1870s there were other little hamlets in the Bennington area, most of which have turned into ghost or shadow towns. Alton, Hartwellville, Pittsburg (still there), and Sagerville.
1) Alton didn’t last much past 1878. It was abandoned and now no businesses are there – just some homes and the cemetery.
2) Hartwellville sits on the border of Shiawassee and Bennington Townships at the intersection of W. Grand River and Cook roads. Once there was a nice little store, but now there are no businesses, just a dirt road and a couple of farms, with no trace that there was once a town there. Named after the postmaster, Jonathan Hartwell, until the P.O. closed in 1901. When it closed, Hartwellville basically went with it
3) Named after Moses Pitts who came here in 1836, Pittsburg has a nice little small-town-type Methodist church, a couple of businesses, but no downtown section.
4) The community formerly known as Sagerville was originally called ‘Sageville’ in 1891. The same day the village was named, the “r” was added and became “Sagerville”. Now it just has a few residences and is no longer recognized with a name. Post office closed in 1901.

Out of all those, I would say Bennington is still the most interesting for a drive-thru. There are still a couple of old downtown buildings left to remind us what the town once was.