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Note: BIOGRAPHY: Sanilac Township and Village. FROM the extreme northern point on the Huron Peninsula to Lexington was a long distance for men to travel who had any township business; so a petition succeeded in apportioning to Lexington all of town 10 through the ranges from 12 to 17 east, and leaving the remainder of the country north as Sanilac Township. This was done in 1849, when it was found that there were a sufficient number of settlers to fill the offices and effect a township organization. There is considerable difference of memory among the pioneers of the present day, as to who were the first actual settlers, as lumbering was carried on by a large number of men who at first did not intend tosettle here, but afterward took up claims. Among the first comers into what is now Sanilac Township,, were William Austin, Michael Joseph and Charles Maskell, and Hill Carney, all coming about 1844. The Maskells settled in the south central part of the township, and Mr. Austin took up a claim on the site of the present village of Port Sanilac, which was then known as "Bark Shanty Point." The name came from a small bark shanty, built several years before (probably 1840) on the beach by some Detroit tanners who came up to make tan-bark. This was the first building erected in the township, and the first along the shore for several miles.
BIOGRAPHY: The first frame dwelling in the village and township was built by William Austin in 1849, and is still standing east of the Exchange Hotel.
BIOGRAPHY: From: Portrait and biographical album of Sanilac county, containing ... biographical sketches of ... citizens ... also ... a complete history of the county, from its earliest settlement to the present time; Chicago; Chapman brothers, 1884. p 484-5
BIOGRAPHY: William Austin was a (Sanilac) township supervisor in 1854 - p 486
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