Today, a single eatery/bar is the principal business left in this once bustling factory and farming town located ten miles north of the city of Monroe. Over a hundred years ago however, Scofield was vastly different community of businesses and residences.
The arrival of the Chicago & Canada Southern Railroad railroad in 1872, triggered the development of a village near country quarries where sand, gravel & limestone were mined and the local hardwood forests were cut to provide charcoal for nearby factory kilns. The young village, (named for businessman and lumberman Silas A. Scofield of the firm Scofield & Rice), had a store, a post office (Robert Van Vleek became the first postmaster on Jan. 29, 1874), a train depot and a telegraph office. The depot was significant to the growth of the village as at that time, as nearly all of the surrounding area of Exeter township (est. 1836) was farmland and a variety of crops were shipped from the depot.
Within a year, three groups of Methodists worshipers had founded and built a community church, and by 1876 the village had a one-room school. The village grew quickly and more businesses were opened including two saloons, a brickyard, two stores, a mill, a cannery, and a hotel -- The Gerrick House. By the 1880s, the village had grown to more than 300 residents and was larger than the nearby town of Maybee. Scofield's prosperity continued into the early 1920s, and its mines and brickyard were among the largest in the county. Unfortunately, a big fire at the broomstick factory in 1922 destroyed many of the nearby businesses. That event, along with the depletion of the hardwood supply in the area, sealed the fate of the once teeming town. The post office closed on Sept. 15, 1935 (postmaster Ernest Kabel), and by World War II, the railroad decided that they didn't need two stations within 1 mile of each other, so they eliminated the Scofield station in favor of the Maybee station. The depot and next-door hotel were torn down, and last village store, Drinkhahn's, closed around 1960.
Today, Scofield is a proud community of around 40 well maintained homes.
Town Name: Scofield
Founding: 1872
Beginning of Decline: 1922
Reason for town's decline: A large fire destroyed many of the businesses in the community, combined with the depletion of natural resources and change in manufacturing processes
Cache Description: Cache is a regular sized clear lock and lock container, hidden at the township's original township hall. Please observe the no parking signs when looking for the cache.
This cache is placed in corporation with the Exeter Historical Society. Please visit them on-line or on Facebook for more information.
This cache is part of the Michigan's Lost Towns cache series. Visit their website at www.losttownscacheseries.com to see the complete list and to submit your own.
