Leslie carries the name of a New York family
When Leslie Township was organized, legislator J. A. Cornell proposed the name in honor of a respected family he had known in eastern New York.
Leslie Township did not take its name from a local founder. It carries the surname of a family from eastern New York.
When the township was being organized, Dr. J. A. Cornell, a state legislator from Spring Arbor, proposed “Leslie” in honor of a respected family he had known there. The name appeared in the township’s formal organization act in March 1838.
The people who actually built the place have their own names on the record, just not on the town. The township had first been part of neighboring Aurelius before splitting off as its own unit in late 1837. The first township meeting was held in April 1838 at the log home of Henry Fiske, who ran the gathering, and Benjamin Davis was elected the first supervisor. Before any of them arrived, surveyors like Joseph Wampler and John Mullett had walked the lines back in the 1820s, marking out the grid the settlers would follow.
The story shows how a new Michigan township could receive a name drawn from a legislator’s own memory, even when that name was not attached to one of the settlers building the community.
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Last reviewed against the listed sources: July 12, 2026.