Simeon Pike from Monroe County, N.Y., became the first white settler here in 1839. The township was organized in 1851 and this sawmill village (it had four of them) was named after it. Jonathan Howard became its first postmaster on March 8, 1856. The office was renamed Lake on April 10, 1858, then back to Cheshire on February 18, 1863.
Informational excerpts from Michigan Place Names, by Walter Romig, L.H.D.