Custer, Michigan, and the year Custer fell

The Mason County community received the name Custer in 1876, after George Armstrong Custer was killed at Little Bighorn earlier that year. A regional planning document says the community was mapped as a Pere Marquette Railroad stop the following year.

The Michigan connection was real even though Custer was born in Ohio. The National Park Service says he spent much of his childhood and teen years in Monroe and later commanded the Michigan Brigade of cavalry during the Civil War.

Custer Township was created on October 18, 1878, and also took the general’s name. The village was already inside its boundaries. The township remains largely rural and farming-oriented.

The name should not be read as a complete judgment on the man. The National Park Service describes both Custer’s Civil War service and his later violence against Native people, including his attack on a Lakota and Cheyenne village at Little Bighorn. The local name records the fame he carried in 1876; understanding it also requires the fuller history.