Rives Township established in 1837, received its name from John C. Rives an influential man in politics living in Bladensburg, Maryland when Andrew Jackson was President.  Some of the earliest settlers came to the area in 1834 and 1835 before Rives was a Township.  Many left their imprint on the Township that can be seen today.  Road signs and cemeteries bear some of their names, along with a few old one-room schoolhouses scattered throughout the Township that still stand as monuments to some of the early settlers forging Rives Township.

Samuel Prescott, one of the early settlers of Rives Township, became the first Postmaster on June 15, 1839.  The office established in his home, was called West Rives Post Office.

Geographically, Rives Township is unique because of its location in Michigan.  It is the Cornerstone for all surveying in Michigan.  It is where in 1815 surveyors embarked on sectioning all the six-mile square townships with their 36 one-mile square sections across the entire state.  Surveying started with the principle meridian line that runs north and south from the Ohio/Michigan State line up across the State to Sault Ste. Marie and the baseline running East/West from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan intersect.  From these exact points of intersection, located in the northeast corner of Rives Township, the Public Land Survey System of Michigan was established.

Today, Rives Township is a community of farms and businesses bound together with generations of family ties and of neighbors working and living together.  It is a place of good friends; where your name is known … it’s a place we call home.

Dates and names of Rives Township History: Taken in part from, The Cornerstone Township, originally published in 1979, revised in 2012.