Free Soil Community Schools

Opening in 1913, Free Soil Community Schools grew into a two-building K-12 school. Unfortunately, due to declining enrollment, the high school closed in 2007 and elementary closed in 2010.

Free Soil was originally the name of the township in 1855 in this northern section of Mason County, then later the village in 1915. During the lumber boom it became a regular stop on the Pere Marquette Railroad. Its name came from the "Free Soil," or anti-slavery party originally organized in New York in 1848. The idea for the name originated with Charles Freeman at the first township meeting in 1855, where members of a newly-formed lumbering community called Free Soil Mills expressed strong feelings about the matter. Today, the big lumber is gone, but the village has survived as a successful farming community. Fertile soil has resulted in a variety of crop production, especially apple and peach orchards.