CLARE COUNTY, MI HISTORY AND LOOKUP
County History Books
The History and Topography of the County of Clare, From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the 18th Century by Frost, James, (1893) – 723 Pages
Source: Internet Archive
Book ID: CH.2025.11.06.1300.AR
Clare County, Michigan: A Genealogical Overview
Located in the central part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, often called the “Gateway to the North,” Clare County is a region shaped by the great lumber boom of the 19th century. Its landscape of rolling hills, numerous lakes, and extensive state forests is a testament to its transition from a wilderness of virgin pine to a hub for logging, and later, to an economy based on agriculture and recreation. For genealogists, its history is a story of Civil War veterans, immigrant lumberjacks, and homesteaders who carved communities out of the “stump lands” left in the wake of the timber harvest.
I. County Formation and Evolution
Understanding Clare County’s origins as a paper county, its renaming, and the crucial role of the railroad in its organization is key to tracing its pioneer families.
- 1840: County Laid Out: The county was first delineated by the Michigan Legislature on April 1, 1840, and was named Kaykee County, believed to be a variation of a Chippewa (Ojibwe) term.
- Parent County: It was created from unorganized territory that was nominally part of the vast Mackinac County. Before its formal organization, it was attached to Midland County and later Isabella County for administrative and judicial purposes. Records for the earliest land patents or legal matters before 1871 may be found in these parent jurisdictions.
- 1871: County Organized: Clare County was formally organized and detached from Isabella County on February 25, 1871.
- Name Origin: In 1843, as part of a legislative effort to rename many of Michigan’s counties, Kaykee County was renamed Clare County, after County Clare in Ireland.
- County Seat History: The first designated county seat was Farwell, a town established by the Pere Marquette Railroad. However, a heated rivalry developed with the centrally located and burgeoning lumber town of Harrison. After a contentious political battle, the county seat was officially moved to Harrison in 1879, where it remains today.
II. Settlement and Early History
- Early Inhabitants: The region was the ancestral territory of the Anishinaabe people, particularly bands of the Sauk (Sac) and Ojibwe (Chippewa), who hunted and fished throughout its forests and waterways. Land cession treaties in the early 19th century opened the area to American settlement.
- Pioneer Settlement and Economy: While a few trappers and surveyors passed through, significant settlement did not begin until after the Civil War, driven almost entirely by the lumber industry. The arrival of the Pere Marquette Railroad in 1870 and the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad in 1871 opened the county’s vast white pine forests to exploitation. Logging camps and sawmills dominated the economy, and towns like Clare, Farwell, and Harrison were born as rough-and-tumble lumber centers. After the timber was exhausted by the early 20th century, the economy shifted to farming on the cleared “stump lands” and, increasingly, to tourism centered on the county’s many lakes, such as Budd Lake and the Shingle Lake chain.
III. Genealogical Records and Resources
This section provides practical information for locating ancestral records specific to Clare County.
- Courthouse: The Clare County Clerk’s Office is the primary repository for most vital and court records. It is located at 225 W. Main Street, Harrison, MI 48625. The office of the Register of Deeds, which holds all land records, is in the same building.
- Vital Records:
- Birth and Death Records: Statewide registration in Michigan began in 1867. Records from that date forward are held by the Clare County Clerk. Copies can also be obtained from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Compliance was inconsistent in the early years, so checking for records at both the county and state level is recommended.
- Marriage Records: Marriage records from the county’s organization in 1871 to the present are held by the Clare County Clerk.
- Libraries with Genealogy Collections:
- Clare County Genealogical Society: This is a vital resource for local research, often housing its collections and publications within local libraries. They have extensive collections of local obituaries, cemetery transcriptions, and family histories.
- Pere Marquette District Library (Clare, MI) and Harrison District Library (Harrison, MI): These libraries have dedicated local history and genealogy collections, often in partnership with the genealogical society.
- Clarke Historical Library: Located at Central Michigan University in nearby Mount Pleasant (Isabella County), this is a premier research archive for the central Michigan region and holds extensive newspaper collections, manuscripts, and historical documents relevant to Clare County.
- Bordering Jurisdictions:
- Roscommon County, MI
- Gladwin County, MI
- Midland County, MI
- Isabella County, MI
- Mecosta County, MI
- Osceola County, MI