In 1836 the township of Milan was formed by appropriating a portion of London. Other mutations of boundaries had preceded, having been previously a part of Raisinville until Summerfield was organized and belonged ot the latter until 1833, when it was attached to London. Upon its organization in 1836 it took along a portion of the London territory.The official records of these changes and of its final organization are not to be found, nor of its elections, until 1842, when the election of John Spaulding as supervisor occurred. Other early supervosors are Daniel Kelsey, Noble S. Squires, David A. Woodward, Harmon Allen. The latter was often re-elected and his popularity as a safe man was manifested by his election to the state legislature. The post office at Cone is presided over by Mr. F. B. Raymond. The Wabash Railroad passes through the township in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction and has a station in the village of Milan, which also maintains a very creditable weekly paper.
The early history of Milan begins about the eyar 1833, when a post office called Tolanville was established and Bethuel Hack was appointed postmaster, who was succeeded in 1834 by D. A. Woodward. In this year the name of the post office was changed to Milan, but still perserving its old name of Tolanville by unanimous custom of its patrons until an official order by the postmaster general finally settled the question of nomenclature and Milan was thereby declared to be the legal name.
The first strictly denominational church was established by the laying of the cornerstone of the M. E. Memorial church in 1888 by Rev. M. H. Bartram, minister at the time. Previous to this services by various denominations were held in the schoolhouses or in private dwellings or vacant store buildings.
The post office formerly called West Milan was changed to Cone in 1880 for the reason that the station of the Wabash Railroad was given the latter name in honor of John C. Cone, who was the post master.
The Macon river passes through Milan township from the extreme northwest corner to the southeast corner, through the northeast corner of the township. Touching but three sections is the Saline river; south of the Macon is Bear creek, and between the latter two is the big Central drain, all pouring their waters into the River Raisin at points in Dundee and Raisinville townships.
"History of Monroe County Michigan", by John McCelland Bulkley.
Published by The Lewis Publishing Companyi, Chicago / New York, 1913.