Shortly after passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, four German immigrant farmers became the first settlers in the northern Michigan wilderness area that later became Metz Township. In the 1870s, the first Polish immigrants arrived. During northeastern Michigan’s lumber era, many farmers worked in lumber camps or sawmills in winter to support their farms. Metz Township was organized by an act of the legislature in 1879. Early settlers carved farms from the wilderness and built roads, schools, and churches. By 1908, most lived in respectable homes with well-kept barns and carefully tended fields and pastures. In 1895, one of the original four German immigrants built a store along the tracks of the Detroit & Mackinac Railway in what would eventually become the village of Metz. A hotel soon followed, then a Post Office, and four trains stopped at the railway company’s depot. By 1908, about 600 people lived in the township, which was served by St. Peter Lutheran Church and St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, and alongside a one-room public school, the Catholic congregation also operated a school.