PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Van Buren Township, Michigan
including Belleville, Denton, Rawsonville
Township Supervisors, Mayors, Village Presidents, Postmasters


Supervisors of Van Buren Township, 1827-2009 (may be incomplete!)
Prosper Lawrence 1827-29 Amos Howe 1829-30 Archy McMath 1830-31 John Crowfoot 1831-32 Elias Bradshaw 1832-35 Ebenezer C. Eaton 1835-39 Job Smith 1839-40 James C. Vaughn 1840-43 Elias Bradshaw 1843-44 William H. Cannon 1844-45 George Jewitt 1845-47 Jehial Burt 1847-48 James C. Vaughn 1848-49 Ebenezer C. Eaton 1849-50 Robert P. Clark 1850-51 Lewis S. Anderson 1851-55 William E. Warner 1855-65 James C. Vaughn 1865-66 Lester R. Brown 1866-68 Caleb J. Barlow 1868-73 William E. Warner 1873-77 Gilbert Brown 1877-78 William E. Warner 1878-80 James A. Stevens 1880-81 Henry Davis 1881-86 Franklin L. Robbe 1886-88 Perry Vorce 1888-90 Jasper Moore 1890-96 Charles F. Voorheis 1896-99 William Davis 1899-1900 Albert A. Day 1900-03 Walter Alban 1903-04 Albert A. Day 1904-15 Charles F. Voorheis 1915-23 Fred J. Vorce 1923-36 Bertha S. Vorce 1936-47 Robert Robson 1947-57 Martin W. Birk 1957-61 Darwin Kureth 1961-63 Louis A. Toth 1963-68 Edward C. Stoelton 1969-70 G. Elton Gollwitzer 1971-76 Patricia Cullin 1977-78 Cindy King as of 2007 Paul White as of 2009

Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1880 Apr 5: James A. Stevens (Dem), elected.
  • 1923 Apr 2: Fred J. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1924 Apr 7: Fred J. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1926 Apr 5: Fred J. Vorce (Rep), elected; J. J. Amerman (Dem), defeated.
  • 1933 Apr 3: Fred J. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1936: Fred J. Vorce, died in office.
  • 1936 Apr 6: Fred J. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1936 May 12: Bertha S. Vorce, appointed.
  • 1938 Mar 7: Harlow J. McAtee (Dem), nominated unopposed.
  • 1938 Mar 7: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), nominated unopposed.
  • 1938 Apr 4: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), elected; Harlow J. McAtee (Dem), defeated.
  • 1939 Apr 3: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1940 Feb 19: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), nominated unopposed.
  • 1940 Apr 1: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), elected; Norman Cannis (Dem), defeated.
  • 1941 Apr 7: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), elected; George L. Busha (Dem), defeated.
  • 1942 Apr 6: Bertha S. Vorce (Rep), elected.
  • 1970 Aug 4: Rodney A. Bly (Dem), nominated; Edward C. Stoelton (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 1970 Aug 4: G. Elton Gollwitzer (Rep), nominated; Lawrence H. Krantz (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 1970 Nov 3: G. Elton Gollwitzer (Rep), elected; Rodney A. Bly (Dem), defeated.


    Belleville
    (subset of Van Buren Township until 1946)

    Mayors of Belleville, 1946-2023 (may be incomplete!)
    Orlo G. Roberts 1946-50 Todd Fry 1950-52 C. Heineinger 1952-54 Orlo G. Roberts 1954-58 A. F. Fielder 1958-62 Jay J. Herkimer 1962-64 Royce E. Smith 1964-75 Justin Emerson 1976-79 Howard R. Stinehour 1983-84 Glenn Silvenis as of 1988 Kerreen Conley 2017-

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1970 Apr 6: Royce E. Smith, elected unopposed.
  • 1979 Nov 6: Justin Emerson, elected.
  • 1983 Nov 8: Howard R. Stinehour, elected unopposed.
  • 1984 Oct 1: Howard R. Stinehour, died in office.
  • 1985 Nov 5: Beverly Stinehour, elected; Burma Wertz, defeated.


    Village Presidents of Belleville, 1905-46 (may be incomplete!)
    William A. Atyeo 1905-08 Jewett Ammerman 1908-10 Martin S. Stringer 1910-11 William A. Atyeo 1911-14 John A. Rice 1914-16 James A. Cady 1916-17 Carl G. Zeidler 1917-20 William Van Schoick 1920-22 Paul J. Clark 1922-23 Henry W. Potter 1923-24 James C. Pullen 1924-30 John W. Clark 1930-32 Fred C. Fischer 1932-36 John A. Rice 1936-41 Andrew J. Krebs 1941-45 Orlo G. Roberts 1945-46

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1938 Mar 14: John A. Rice (Citizens), elected unopposed.
  • 1939 Mar 13: John A. Rice (Citizens), elected unopposed.
  • 1940 Mar 11: John A. Rice (Citizens), elected; Ray S. Jacox, defeated.


    Postmasters at Belleville, 1853-1981 (may be incomplete!)
    Daniel L. Quirk 1853-54 John H. Campbell 1871-75 S. W. Campbell 1875 R. A. Campbell as of 1881-83 G. S. Earing as of 1887 E. M. Dean as of 1891 Helen C. Call as of 1901-03 James H. Codey as of 1907-11 Frank A. Prais 1946-49 Frank A. Prais 1949-57 Raymond J. O'Neil 1957-59 Raymond J. O'Neil 1959-81


    Denton
    (located in Van Buren Township)

    Postmasters at Denton, 1871-1903 (may be incomplete!)
    Hiram T. Eberlie as of 1871 Samuel H. Joslin as of 1901-03


    Rawsonville
    (located mostly in Van Buren Township)

    Postmasters at Rawsonville, 1871-1901 (may be incomplete!)
    Lewis C. Warner as of 1871 John F. Fosdick as of 1901


  • "Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
    Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872
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