Pioneers from New England began settling and farming in the Plymouth area around 1825. Abram B. Markham, an early leader, built the first gristmill in the area, and settlers held “raising bees” to help new arrivals build their log homes. In April 1827, soon after the common council voted to name the community “Plymouth,” the township officially incorporated under a law signed by Territorial Governor Lewis Cass, and the first township meeting was held at the homestead of John Tibbits, who and many other early settlers are buried in Shearer Cemetery. Canton Township split off from Plymouth Township in 1834. In 1862 numerous Plymouth residents enlisted in the 24th Michigan Infantry, which fought at Gettysburg as part of the Iron Brigade and later served as honor guard for President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral in 1865. The current boundaries of Plymouth Township were set after the village of Plymouth incorporated in 1867 and Northville became a township in 1898. Transportation improvements aided growth, including a plank road in the 1850s, the Detroit, Howell and Lansing Railroad in the 1870s, an interurban trolley known as “The Dinky” in 1898, and paved roads in the early twentieth century. New factories brought jobs to the area, including Henry Ford’s Phoenix Mill, which opened in 1922 with a largely female workforce, and the Burroughs Plant, designed by Albert Kahn’s firm and opened in 1938. Both businesses produced war materiel during World War II, contributing to the “Arsenal of Democracy,” and after the war suburban development grew rapidly. Plymouth became a charter township in 1979.