With No Postal Service for 70+ Years, the Town of Crump Hangs On
Here's another old Michigan town for y'all to check out: The village of Crump, in Bay County, 7 1/2 miles from Linwood.
Crump kicked in when its post office opened on August 30, 1898, with grocery owner William Stevens becoming the first postmaster. Created along the Michigan Central Railroad, by 1905, Crump’s population had grown to 50. With more people settling in Crump, the town grew even more, with businesses springing up: a bank, church, general store, hardware store, two hotels, lumber company, post office, saloons, sawmill, and schoolhouse.
Being a sawmill settlement in Garfield Township, Crump's population continued to grow and finally peaked in 1910 with 300 residents.
With Michigan's lumber business slowing down, many railroad lines did, too. By 1918, enough people had moved out of Crump, leaving it with 150 residents, half of what it once had. The Crump post office ceased operation on March 31, 1954.
From then on, Crump was satisfied to remain a small village, with a nice handful of homes and some old buildings still standing. Take a drive-thru for yourself and learn a little more about this little-known Michigan town!
Where did the name “Crump” come from?
The first Crump” that comes to mind is ‘Helen Crump’ from The Andy Griffith Show, but THIS particular Crump was Rousseau O. Crump, a district congressman from 1895-1902.
He musta done SOMEthing right to get a town named after him.
