When Robinson’s Mill was in operation rumor has it that there were about 200 employees I the entire Robinson and Eastman lumbering operations.  Of course, some of these employees lived in logging camps in Oscoda County.

The population of the township in 1930 was 225, the 1940 population was 272; the 1950 population was 208 and the 1960 population was 145.

South Branch, the only village, is a quiet, peaceful town during the winter months but it is a thriving, prosperous village during the tourist and hunting seasons.  The business places include Fred Hoxey’s hardware and sporting goods, Harmon’s tavern and restaurant, a post office, a church, and Leppers Garage and Service.  As the town borders on the Ogemaw-Iosco County line, the airport and Brook’s General Store are considered part of the village, even though they are located in Iosco County.

As for the rural area, quiet a number are doing part-time farming and working at other jobs.  Among some of the other jobs are pulpwood, cutting timber, working at a nearby airbase, and construction.  The only fulltime farmer as far as I know is Melvin Peters.  The others have their income supplemented from some other source.

The area has been experiencing a fourth lumbering era, for pulp and lumber, since World War II but on a much smaller scale that the earlier period.  It seems that the timber is becoming about exhausted again as the population trend indicates.

Again this was written by Evelyn Berry in 1961.  This is used with her permission and the permission of the Rose City Area Historical Society.  The photographs are courtesy of Beulah Taber Huebner.